As if planning a thru hike was not enough, our mom was rescheduling a 2020 family vacation. At the time, this sounded like a good idea. We would be getting off trail for a few days anyway for the graduation why not add some more days a give ourselves a nice respite from trail life? We couldn’t have been more wrong.

Two weeks into the AT and we had met dozens of hikers, some still solo and others that had formed trail families aka tramilies. Since we started the trail as duo, joining a tramily was something we had never even considered.

How many miles does it take before you can call yourself a thru hiker? So when does that switch flip? When are no longer a backpacker but instead a thru hiker? It is hard to pinpoint a time when suddenly that label fits while you are in it, but looking back it the memory is stark to when I could look myself in the mirror and know I am a thru hiker.

The famous brick arch. Not technically Springer Mountain, but this arch is the unofficial start of the Appalachian Trail. As we stood there, filled with a palpable anxiety, I could only think about all the things that I didn’t know.