The first few days of hiking were tough for Trail Marshall, and he didn’t do more than a few miles each day. On his first day on trail, he posted a video where he tiredly said, “Man, this thing is really kicking my ass.” He said it took him six hours to hike 1.7 miles. So, on the 28th of January, 2020, Trail Marshall decided to make Grayson Highlands his starting point for his northbound thru-hike, as it wasn’t too far from his home in Charlotte, NC. “I knew I was going to be slow, but I did it anyway.” Sunsets, Zeros, and a Slow Pace People told him not to do it, but he still felt compelled to start his thru-hike. Though he was the least likely candidate to hike the Appalachian Trail, his yearning to get away from it all overcame any doubts he may have had. He said, “it was a complete accident that I even thought about it” but from that point on, he suddenly became inspired to thru-hike the AT, and made up his mind that that was what he was going to do.Īt this time, he was working in a bar, out of shape, and hadn’t worked out or did any exercise in many years. Though he didn’t know anything about hiking, he found himself intrigued while watching a YouTube video from Dixie, a world-famous long-distance thru-hiker who started a popular hiking video series called Homemade Wanderlust. Trail Marshall said the turning point came one day while he was living in Charlotte, NC. With a tinge of regret in his voice, he said, “It wasn’t a cool job, because it often involved firing people.” His love of hiking began on the Appalachian Trail.īetween all the bad news on the TV, the cruel people he’s met in his life, and all the ugly work situations he’s been in, Trail Marshall grew a bitter attitude about society, which left him with a strong yearning to return to his roots and, as he said, “get into the woods and get away from it all.” Solemnly he said, “It’s a tough place there are people there who make a living off hurting others.”Įventually, he got a job going around the country turning around failing bars. For many years he said he managed bars and night clubs on Bourbon Street where he often saw the worst in people. Though he grew up in Pittsburg, New Orleans is where he eventually migrated to and made his home. Wild places like this made an indelible mark upon him that would follow him the rest of his life. He told me that amidst all the amazing cultural and architectural wonders there were in that huge city, the thing that stood out most among all his childhood memories was this mile-long wooded area near his, home where he spent many days playing and exploring its natural beauty. OriginsĤ7-year-old Trail Marshall-the only name he would give me-said he grew up in Pittsburg, PA. So, in a recent telephone conversation, I took a little time to learn about this amazing hiker that I first learned about from his huge following on Facebook and Instagram. Who is Trail Marshall?īefore I can tell the story of Trail Marshall’s MST hike, I think a little backstory is helpful to show the transformational changes that happened in his life and how his life-changing experience on the Appalachian Trail prepared him to take on the MST in the middle of winter. On the 6 th of May 2022, along the shores of the mighty Atlantic Ocean, a weary hiker trudged his last steps up the tallest sand dune on the East Coast in Jockeys Ridge State Park, North Carolina, to complete something he’d started some five months earlier this year at Clingmans Dome: the 1,175-mile Mountains to Sea Trail (MST).
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