Three Years on the AT

Most people step onto the Appalachian Trail with a plan.

Larry Riddle stepped onto it with nowhere else to go.

Backpacker just ran a story on Riddle who spent three years moving along the AT while avoiding the consequences of his past. He wasn’t chasing a thru-hike. He was drifting. Shelters. Storms. Long stretches alone.

What makes the piece worth your time isn’t the legal trouble. It’s what the trail did to him.

The same community that hands out Snickers and dry socks to thru-hikers handed him something else: patience. Belonging. A reason to stop running from more than just the law.

He eventually turned himself in. Served his time. Came back and built something in Damascus—a place that now supports the hikers he once blended in with.

We spend a lot of time talking about what trails demand from us physically. This story is about what they can return.

Check it out on backpacker.com.