Meet\u2026<\/p>\n
Adam Newhouser, a 26-year-old hiker who has covered a lot of ground.<\/p>\n
Why he’s interesting\u2026<\/p>\n
Thirty-mile-days don\u2019t daunt Newhouser anymore.<\/p>\n
At 26, Newhouser has already hiked the Appalachian Trail, south to north, in its entirety. As an experienced \u201cthru-hiker,\u201d he\u2019s grown used to the outdoors.<\/p>\n
\u201cA thru-hiker is someone who attempts to hike the entire trail in one go,\u201d Newhouser said. \u201cThousands start out every year. Only about one in four make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Appalachian Trail spans from Springer Mountain, Georgia up to Mount Katahdin in Maine, bringing the total distance to around 2,200 miles. It can take thru-hikers anywhere from five to eight months to complete the hike.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure it sounds daunting to those who aren\u2019t used to the idea,\u201d Newhouser said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re out there you never think \u2018okay, only 2,000 more miles to go.\u2019 You set daily goals for yourself, like covering 20 miles in one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newhouser is in his second year studying alternative energy solutions at Sinclair Community College. He said the time off he took to complete his thru-hikes has helped him realize what he wanted to do for a living.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to college right after high school like you\u2019re supposed to,\u201d he said. \u201cBut back then I had no idea what I wanted to do. The idea of racking up debt didn\u2019t really appeal to me and I couldn\u2019t afford to do any major traveling. It was around then I started reading about the Appalachian Trail.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2007, after a winter of working and saving, Newhouser withdrew from school and embarked on the first long distance hike of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first time out, I got a pretty hard slap in the face,\u201d he said. \u201cI realized pretty quickly that there was a lot I didn\u2019t know. I was pretty miserable for the first few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within a week of being on the trail, Newhouser had dealt with torrential rainstorms, a busted shoelace, mice, a black bear and a broken water filter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like some unseen force was trying to get me to quit before I had even hiked 100 miles,\u201d he said. \u201cI just kept reminding myself that I had to do this. I had quit school and quit my job \u2014 if I just gave up and went home, there wouldn\u2019t be anything waiting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
After making it nearly 75 miles through Georgia, Newhouser recalls when his outlook turned around.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was when I got my trail name,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Many thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail join in the tradition of picking a \u201ctrail name\u201d for themselves. Basically a nickname, trail names are used among hikers to sign trail logs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy trail name was Bear Pack, which was given to me by fellow thru-hikers after they witnessed a small black bear come to our camp, snatch my bag and scurry off with it,\u201d Newhouser said. \u201cI remember thinking \u2018that\u2019s my whole life in there.\u2019 So I ran after it screaming and waving my hiking poles. I did everything you\u2019re not supposed to do. But it worked, the bear dropped my bag and I got it back. I figured nothing could scare me after that. Not on the trail, not even in life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet\u2026 Adam Newhouser, a 26-year-old hiker who has covered a lot of ground. Why he’s interesting\u2026 Thirty-mile-days don\u2019t daunt Newhouser anymore. At 26, Newhouser has already hiked the Appalachian Trail, south to north, in its entirety. As an experienced \u201cthru-hiker,\u201d he\u2019s grown used to the outdoors. \u201cA thru-hiker is someone who attempts to hike the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2uH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9592,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9591\/revisions\/9592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}