Was thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail more difficult than Marine Corps bootcamp?
Was graduating Marine Corps recruit training (bootcamp) more or less difficult than thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine? What was harder? Marine Corps drill instructors or mountains? How about not knowing whether or not to use a comma, semicolon, or colon? I am big fan of the semicolon question; aren’t you? My English instructors screamed and yelled at me about grammar, but I am a jarhead, so…
The drill instructors screamed and yelled, but the mountains were real mountain climbers. Instead of doing mountain climbers in a sand box in South Carolina, I was climbing six thousand foot mountains in snow storms. Instead of Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Campo, I had Drill Instructor Mount Washington. We were a team at Marine Corps bootcamp, and even though there are teams along the way on the Appalachian Trail, you’re the only one going all the way. You’re the one hiking your own hike. Teams come and go, so I stopped at midnight during a break in the three day storm to set up camp and try to get some sleep.
My hands and feet were frozen, or at least, my gloves were frozen and my socks were frozen. As I dropped my pack, I felt relief hoping I could close my eyes and fall asleep, but I needed to rope off my hammock and set up the fly, and then unpack and get ready for bed with frozen hands, frozen gloves, and frozen feet. Have you ever tried tying off a hammock and fly with frozen hands in the dark with a headlamp in 40 mile per hour winds on a ridge four thousand feet above Damascus, Virginia?
I somehow managed to set up camp and crawled into my hammock with frozen feet and frozen hands. I curled into a ball and fell asleep until the wind cutting below me froze my ass, and I woke up with core body temperature somewhere near hypothermic. It was only two in the morning, so I fell asleep for maybe an hour, and I knew the only way to stay alive was to hike. I don’t know what was worse, setting up camp with frozen hands and feet hoping to get some sleep or tearing down camp with frozen hands and feet after not getting much sleep. There were no corpsman or medics at six thousand feet in snowstorms. There were no dropout vans. You have only one option: HIKE.
So I hiked with my frozen hands and frozen feet. I hiked and cursed my mother for abandoning me. I cursed my father for abandoning me. I cursed God for abandoning me. I cried out to the mountains. I screamed in agony, howling, “Why me God? Why me?” I cried like I did as a child, “Why me God? Why me?” Night hiking with frozen feet and frozen hands and a broken soul, I cried out to God in unnamable manageable pain, because I could not stop or I would die. And then God spoke to me and said:
Why you? Because you were strong enough to be a Sergeant of Marines. Why you? Because you are smart enough to be a Buckeye. Why you? You have the endurance to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Why you? You have the wisdom, strength, and discipline to be standing on a mountain hiking through The Eye of The Storm all alone.
When I was at Marine Corps bootcamp, we had instructors, fellow recruits, corpsman, and entire support system. When I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, we had trail angels occasionally feed us and house us, but you’re all alone and sometimes for days. Marine Corps bootcamp graduates tens of thousands of Marines on each coast, but only a couple thousands thru-hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Was thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail more difficult than Marine Corps bootcamp? I think you should thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, finish the crucible, and let me know, but the crucible will be nothing after thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail.