Sridhar Saraf
The first time I came to know about Appalachian Trail, it was 2012 when I read “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. The book was an accidental find. My daughter was working on a book report and I happened to see it on the coffee table.
By this time I had already lived 15 years near the AT (only an hour drive away) and never knew there is something like this exists in the world and people hike for days, weeks & months.
The book was entertaining but I assumed hiking the AT was extremely hard and only fittest of fit people can do it, not for normal people like me (remember Bill hiked only 800 miles)
Fast forward 6 years, Feb 2018, I stumbled upon podcast “Mighty Blue on Appalachian Trail”. After listening to many of Steve’s interviews with thru-hikers and section hikers, I realized the people who hike are normal everyday people like me and I can take up hiking one day.
By the fall of 2018, I had acquired the big three (backpack, tent & sleeping bag) and hiked the Maryland section of AT (41 miles) in two section hikes. The AT bug had bit me too. The current situation is, not a single day goes by without thinking about AT or listening to the trail podcasts.
During these past 4 years, I have done 16 section hikes and covered nearly 700 miles between Bear Mountain, New York & McAfee Knob, Virginia
Currently I am waiting for the warm weather & accrue some vacations so that I can hike few more sections of AT and touch those white blazes once again - yep, it's the thing I do :)
I have an interesting story on how I got my trail name “Lucky Dog”
On my very first day of my very first section hike, I was going NOBO, I realized I had lost my cellphone. I had no idea when it fell from my pocket and how far back. Few hours later, I met an SOBO thru-hiker and told my story of lost cellphone and requested him mail it to my house address. I had given up all hope of finding my cellphone. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Later during the day, to my surprise, a NOBO hiker handed my cellphone phone which he said was given to him by the same SOBO hiker I requested to mail me the cellphone. I just can’t believe my luck.
The hiker who handed me the cellphone, asked me if I have a trail name, if not I will be called “Lucky Dog” going forward.
