The Appalachian Trail, again… but why?!

In 2023 I made a very last minute decision to hike the Appalachian Trail again, here’s why…

I hiked the Appalachian Trail northbound from Georgia to Maine in 2018. I enjoyed it, but I did say I would never do it again. There is a lot of “suffering” and not as much reward as some of the other trails, but that doesn’t mean completing the trail isn’t rewarding… far from it. I just needed a bit of time to forget the suffering; the rain and the humidity and the heat and the mud!

Suffering

And while we are talking about suffering, that was a big part of why I wanted to do the Appalachian Trail again. 2022 was a rough year mentally and I felt like I needed to push myself physically – to override that mental stuff, if that make sense.

That sounds really cryptic doesn’t it? It wasn’t meant to.

Basically my mum had a stroke in January 2022 and it was a really shit time for my mum, my dad and me. She was paralysed down her right side and lost her speech and the last 18 months have been focussed on her recovery. She is doing incredibly well and has made an amazing recovery. We’ve made it there with a lot of patience, practice and positivity. She inspires me everyday with her determination and drive to get better.

Alex Mason with her mum — My mum, 18 months post stroke.

Time

Also, time. Between my cousin’s wedding, mum’s 60th birthday in July and commitments back home in December I had a limited time frame for a hike and the Appalachian Trail southbound fitted nicely into that time frame – 4 months.

4 months is on the quicker end of a thru-hike, but having gone northbound in 115 days, with no time pressure, I hoped I would be able to do it again.

The thing

Oh and there’s this thing, that wasn’t a thing until it was a thing!

After I unintentionally hiked the PCT in both directions I thought it would be a good idea to hike all of the big 3 – the PCT, AT and CDT – in both directions and so now that’s become “The Thing”. After this hike I will be two thirds of the way there, which is something I never imagined when I was planning my first hike of the PCT back in 2014.

There will be people out there who say “what’s the point of hiking the same trail again?”, and I see their point – there is so much out there to do and see, but the trail is so different – not just by going the other direction – but year on year. You could hike the Appalachian trail every year in the same direction and have a totally different experience every time.

My foot

Another thing which was a deciding factor for hiking this year was an injury to my foot. When I was in Antigua I woke up one morning in March and I couldn’t lift my foot and I had no feeling in the skin all along the front of my shin and on top of my foot.

It was pretty scary at the time, and with nerve stuff my first thought goes to a neurological issue – especially as it is commonly associated with a stroke – but I went to urgent care and had an x-ray (to make sure it wasn’t a fracture) and they assured me that because the problem was from the knee down only it wasn’t anything to do with the brain and was more likely damage to the peroneal nerve.

This nerve starts in the lower back and goes down the leg to control the foot. It is very shallow around the outer knee and the only explanation is there could have been trauma to the area – but I don’t remember knocking it – or I slept in one position too long and compressed the nerve.

I have walked and cycled across countries, rowed across an ocean, climbed mountains and cycled across continents, and I finally injure myself while I was ASLEEP!

There was a part of me that was worried I would never get the use of my foot back properly, and I had already started thinking of adventures I could have that didn’t involve walking, but I was assured that because I still had a tingling sensation to my leg when I tapped the nerve that it would recover, it would just take time.

The say 1mm a day for nerves, and the doctor said I should be looking at between 3 months to a year for recovery. I was given an ankle brace to make walking easier and then I just tried to walk as much as I could before it hurt too much.

They were right and after about 4 weeks I began to notice a small improvement as I started to lift my toes off the floor. I was also using a tens machine every day and, although I can’t prove it, I think it really helped. By June, 3 months after the injury, I was able to walk without the ankle brace. I would put it around 80% recovered and that was backed up by my consultant.

So, with the realisation that you can just go to sleep one day and then wake up and not be able to walk properly, I thought it best to do these things now, while I can!

At the end of June I made the decision to hike the AT and booked a flight to Boston for the 24th July, and the plan to start hiking on the 27th July.

Oh and another thing

I came up with a loose plan to hike the trail in 100 days…