Shay Blackley

Immediately after graduating high school I decided tackle an adventure before heading into the daunting challenges of attending university. After making my way over to the British Isles, I started my walk about. I set out to complete four of their long distance walking ways. The Great Glen Way, The West Highland Way, The Rob Roy Way, and The Speyside Way. This was my first long distance trip, and my first trip of a good length of time. I started out as every beginner starts out, I had everything that you are suppose to take. My pack was big, bulky and full of unnecessary items. It was one of my greatest learning experience when it came to my outdoor lifestyle. At the end of the trip I have clocked more than 500 miles of backpacking over a 9 week period. After a trip up Ben Nevis, I met the queen, and discovered that nutrition was a vital part of all backpacking trips. One week supply of can food can be a good idea if you are camping or a poor college student, but for a backpacker, it was a lesson hard learned. After finishing my hiking in Scotland I was hooked.

After I received training from Outward Bound, I traveled to Australia to work with Outward Bound Australia. I became a group instructor and led courses in around the country down under. The time spent as an instructor was simply put, amazing. Not only was I able to help out Australia’s youth, I was able to learn more about myself and continue to refine my outdoor talents. When I wasn’t instructing a course, I was traveling and thinking of new ways of lightweight backpacking. I evolve from carrying a tent, to carrying a hammock, then to tarp and some trips with a bivvy bag as my sole shelter.

So people spend their whole lives dreaming of doing a thru-hike of the Appalachian trail. Most people that attempt a thru-hike spend the better part of a year planning out their hike. I am not most people, and that is why when I decided to attempt a thru-hike I just got up and left. I was on the trail hiking less than a week after making the decision to hike. Since I did not plan to hike, when I did set out it was to late to go with the crowd and hike northbound. As a result I started a 2200 mile journey backwards, starting with the hardest sections first, with no preparation or knowledge of the trail at all. Sounds like I had set myself up for failure, as most in the same position might feel. As I had stated, I am not like most people. I hiked on and progressively lighten my base weight till I was hiking with a camelback as my backpack and a single sleeping bag liner as my sleeping bag. With my experience in Outward Bound, my meals were more filling, more nutritious, lighter, and cheaper than the majority of thru-hikers. But all things must come to an end, and so must each trail. After 2200 miles and three and a half months of walking, I came to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. I became the first person to complete a southbound thru-hike in 2009. Long distance hiking is an addiction, life after a hike is like being in withdraw from a high.