After traveling nearly 2,200 miles, the end was nearly in sight for hiker Jordan Thorn.
The Gillette, Wyoming, native had made it to the 100-MIle Wilderness in Maine, the next-to-last section of the 2,198.4-mile Appalachian Trail, after more than four months of hiking across 14 states.
It was there things started to go downhill.
Generally considered the wildest section of the trail, the 100-Mile Wilderness is one of the most challenging to navigate and traverse.
On his first night in the wilderness, Thorn said hi sleeping pad had a leak that he couldn’t find to fix, severely limiting his sleep. The next morning, he didn’t feel good and developed a sore throat. His condition worsened over the next day and a half, eventually becoming an upper respiratory infection.
As his body tried to fight off the illness, his mileage decreased from about 20 miles per day to 8, and 11 over the next two days, leading to a potentially dangerous situation in the middle of nowhere.
“You're in a section where you can't resupply (in a town) and I was only carrying roughly seven days’ worth of food,” he said. “You don't have enough food to take your time and really recover.”
His options were to hike until he had a cellphone signal so he could leave, have a resupply brought to the trail — which would be extremely expensive — or try to pick up the pace.
Thorn decided to tough it out a while longer to see if his condition improved. And while he had a fever and cough for the rest of the final week of his epic hiking trek, he didn’t get any worse.
So on he went, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other over the final 100-plus miles and 4,000 feet of elevation up to the top of Mount Katahdin in Maine, the end of the journey.
“In the first four months I wasn't sick, I didn't twist my ankle and had no major injuries, but I ended up pushing myself to the finish,” he said. “It was like running a marathon, and on your very last corner, you crash into the drinks table and you end up having to crawl across the finish line.”
Adventure Of A Lifetime
The Appalachian Trail is 2,198.4 miles across 14 states, from its southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia, to the northern terminus at Katahdin, Maine.
It sees more than 3 million visitors each year, with 3,000 who attempt a thru-hike. Only one in four accomplish the entire hike, which takes between five to seven months to complete.
Planning for the trip began early this year, but the Gillette man’s love of long-distance hiking began almost 15 years ago when he was a student at the University of Wyoming. One of his roommates was a cross-country runner, and each spring break instead of going to the beaches in Florida, they would take road trips to national parks.
“We ended up hitting almost everything west of the Mississippi other than Olympic National Park,” he said. “So that was the start of it.”
After he graduated, Thorn began looking at hikes to do near Gillette. His first hike was the 80-mile Solitude Loop Trail in the Bighorn Mountains. He later did the Centennial Trail in the Black Hills and other routes in the Bighorns.
Wanting to challenge himself, Thorn originally looked at hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in California, Oregon and Washington but then COVID hit. His sense of wanderlust remained though and a few years later when he had to move from his apartment after his lease ended, his dad asked, “When are you going to do the big hike you’ve been talking about?”
Working in health care in Grand Junction, Colorado, Thorn floated the idea of a multi-month hike to his boss, who told him to go on the once-in-a-lifetime trip. So, he put his possessions in storage and began to plan.
He again looked at the Pacific Crest Trail, but hikers are chosen through a lottery system and he’d missed the selection window. The Continental Divide Trail from the U.S. border by Mexico up to Canada is the longest and most challenging logistically, so he shifted his focus to the Appalachian Trail.
“It is the easiest logistically because you have towns roughly every couple days,” he said. “And then I have an aunt that lives in Minnesota that has always wanted to do the Appalachian Trail. So I messaged her that I was going in May.”
Hitting The Trail
To prepare physically and make sure his gear was in top shape, the 36-year-old did three day-hikes of about 10 miles each before leaving. He arrived in Atlanta at 3 a.m. on May 5 and traveled right to the trail. The lack of sleep didn’t damper his enthusiasm.
The official start of the Appalachian Trail is Springer Mountain, which took about eight miles to reach from the Amicalola Falls approach trail, about one hour north of Atlanta. As he started the hike with his aunt, who joined him for the first week, his spirits were high.
“It was like Christmas Day as a little kid,” he said. “I popped up ready to get out there and get going.”
And while some people are concerned about wild animals or dangerous people along the trail, Thorn said his biggest worry was much different.
“My biggest concern the entire time had been that the Atlanta airport was going to eat my bag because everything I brought along is a special order,” he said. “Once it came out through the checked luggage, I was totally fine.”
Thorn’s start date was late in the season for a thru-hike and he was in a race to finish before winter set in. The majority of thru-hikers start in what is called the “Northbound Bubble” from the beginning of March to mid-April.
“Fifty to 60 to 70 people start a day for about a month and a half,” he said. “If you're in the bubble, you're around 30-40 people pretty consistently, especially in the beginning. I was more than two weeks behind them so I felt like I ended up getting a southbound experience (traveling from Maine to Georgia) while going northbound. Going southbound you get more solitude. It's just a little lonelier experience.”
Despite being the shortest of the three big trails at almost 2,200 miles, the Appalachian Trail is the hardest physically, because of the multiple elevation changes. Walking the entire trail is the equivalent of climbing from sea level to Mount Everest 16 times.
“It was a little bit of a surprise, just because living in the West my whole life, you always hear the East Coast doesn't have mountains,” he said. “Well, they don't have the same elevation, but they still have the mountainous profile.”
Another difference is the lack of switchbacks. Because property on the East Coast often runs right up to the base of a mountain, there was often only room for the trail to go straight up.
“So, a lot of times you are climbing quite vertically,” he said. “It's probably closer to bouldering or mountaineering than what you'd think of as traditional hiking, especially towards New Hampshire and Maine. A lot of that was scrambling and bouldering.”
Thorn said the first week was one of the most difficult, just because his body was acclimating to the long days on the trail. The terrain in Georgia was fairly rough, especially going over Sharp Mountain on the border of Georgia and North Carolina.
“Even all these months later, that is still a day that I remember just because you're doing these big shack steps up,” he said. It’s a staircase kind of thing, but you feel more like you're scrambling straight up a mountain.”
Packs for the trail are recommended to be no more than 25-30 pounds by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and should include food and water or a hydration filter system, as well as shelter, various clothing layers, a first aid and emergency kit and items for the elements such as a hat and sunscreen. For most of the trail, hikers carry about three to six days worth of food because there are several towns to stop in along the way for more supplies.
Thorn started with about 15 pounds of gear until he got past the Great Smoky Mountains between North Carolina and Tennessee. The mountains are the highest elevation point of the trip at 6,643 feet. After that he shipped about three pounds of clothes home to be sent back towards the end of his journey.
“It’s the highest point and the coldest, but I happened to hit it when it was ridiculously warm so I hadn't touched any of my cold weather clothes for like three weeks,” he said.
He used the FarOut app for navigation. It gives a description of each of the features and waypoints along the trail and allows users to leave comments such as whether or not a water source is still flowing or if a hostel will receive mailed packages for you. Thorn had four packages sent during his trip and said he went through four pairs of shoes as well.
Beginning The Day
Thorn woke up and began each day at about 7:30 a.m., taking a 30-minute break for lunch and some additional 20-minute stops throughout the day before stopping at nightfall.
“For the most part I averaged pretty close to 18 to 22 miles,” he said. “But I’d occasionally bump up to 30 and then in some places drop to around 11 miles a day.”
Most of the time breakfast consisted of an oatmeal bomb – oatmeal, Carnation Breakfast and a coffee packet all mixed together. A while later he ate a breakfast or protein bar or Pop Tart.
Lunch varied. At the beginning it was a tortilla with peanut butter, or with sliced cheese and salami. About halfway through he tired of those and switched to a meal replacement bar.
Because he doesn’t like to cook, Thorn decided against bringing a small cookstove, instead opting to cold-soak his dinners, usually Zatarain’s Red Beans and Rice or Knorr rice sides.
“You set those up a couple hours before you're going to be in camp,” he said. “So if I was getting water at 5 p.m. at a stream, I pull another half liter or so and start soaking my rice for the night. And then by the time I made it into camp, it was soft so I could eat it immediately.”
He also ate a lot of snacks along the way to keep his energy up including candy bars and Skittles or Lifesavers gummies. For protein he ate Spam or packets of chicken or pork.
“You're just constantly munching on something as you're going down the trail,” he said. “One of the absolute best things is the barbecue pork packets that Walmart carries. So anytime I would be in a town with a Walmart, I would grab five to 10 and just spread that over weeks.”
At night he usually slept in one of the many lean-to shelters – three-sided buildings with a roof that sleeps around six to eight people – along the trail. Occasionally there were double-decker shelters that sleep 20-24 people. Thorn spent about 65% of his nights in the shelters, with about 25% spent in his tent. The other nights were in hostels during his trips to town.
While there are enough towns on the trail to resupply every couple of days, Thorn usually made it in about once a week. He used the promise of town food, as well as a warm shower to propel him down the trail.
“You're going 26 miles down this mountain to get into town so you can drink your fill of Dr. Pepper until you feel like you're going to explode,” he said. “You try to get as many calories as you can while you're in town.”
Amenities varied from state to state. Thorn said in New York you could walk a mile down the road and be in a town, while in part of Maine it was several days before coming across civilization.
Town trips are known as zero, nero or hero days. A zero means hikers traveled no miles, staying in town the entire day. A nero is hiking a short distance, usually under 10 miles, before heading to town.
“A hero is when you still do your full mileage and then hop into town, do all your town chores and then still make it back to the trail,” he said. “Those were always, like phenomenally busy days, but I always felt pretty good about them.”
Most of the time when he resupplied though, he ended up doing a nero day and staying in hostels.
The total cost for thru-hikers can range from $3,500 to $10,000 or more.
Disciplined, frugal hikers willing to forego motels, restaurants and other amenities come out on the lower end; while those who like to stay in motels and eat at restaurants when they have the opportunity can easily spend much more. Thorn was in the middle, spending $6,500.
Jordan Thorn sits on the edge of McAfee Knob in Virginia. (Courtesy Jordan Thorn) 
Left, the official starting point for the Northbound route of the Appalachian Trail is Springer Mountain in Georgia. Right, a view of the ladder Jordan Thorn climbed while crossing into New Hampshire. (Courtesy Jordan Thorn) 
A view from the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. (Courtesy Jordan Thorn) 
A view from the top of Mount Lafayette on the Franconia Ridge in New Hampshire. (Courtesy Jordan Thorn)
Into The Wild
Wildlife was abundant during the trip with squirrels, chipmunks and lots of mice, especially in the shelters. There were also toads, newts and various snakes including rat snakes that can grow to seven feet long.
“Thankfully, they're not venomous,” he said. “But when you're not really paying that close of attention and you have a seven foot something moving in front of you, it sure startles.”
Black bears are also abundant along the trail. Thorn said he saw four during his trip. Often he startled a cub and would wait until the mother arrived before going on his way. In North Carolina a bear named Omar, aka Handsy, was harassing his campsite.
“He is a known nuisance bear that will get food hangs and we (six others were at the site) had him on the outskirts of our camp for like four and a half hours,” he said.
At one point he was likely being trailed by a lynx in New Hampshire. He had stopped to use the bathroom and a man he’d been hiking with who left about a minute after Thorn told him about the cat.
“He said there was a big old lynx just sitting in the middle of a trail and he had evidently treed something because he was not moving off the trail,” Thorn said. He said ‘he might have been tracking you and then found something a little more its size.’”
He also spotted a couple moose and several deer, and even though they are considered extinct in Pennsylvania, Thorn is sure he saw a mountain lion.
“All the locals told me mountain lions don't exist up there, but it was a big old cat with a big, long tail,” he said. “It didn’t look like a bobcat because they don't have much of a tail so I don't know what else it would be, unless you're thinking like a Florida Jaguar made its way up to Pennsylvania.”
A Little Trail Magic
Thorn didn't get his cold weather gear back until he was into New Hampshire, which he said was about two weeks after temperatures began to dip.
“The last couple weeks in Vermont began to get a little cooler,” he said. “I had picked up a little tiny blanket somewhere in New York and it was doing fine for me until it was dipping under the 50s.”
He said the hardest part of his journey was The Whites – White Mountains in New Hampshire – because the condition of the trail in that area was terrible. The bog boards were often missing or broken, meaning having to walk through mud bogs consistently.
“It's not well marked,” he added. “So you were relying on the navigation app more than anywhere else. I was very disappointed with how badly maintained the trail was. It was the only section that I saw somebody get hurt every single day. It is also one of the roughest elevation wise.”
Traveling through Maine was a challenge as well, but more mentally because he couldn’t get into a groove.
“There's so many rocks and roots that you have to be very careful with your foot placement,” he said. “You can't just relax into the back of your mind and listen to your audiobook or enjoy nature. You're always looking to where your next step is going to be. That was more tedious than hard.”
When things got difficult, “Trail Magic” often kept him going. These acts of generosity in the wild setting of the Appalachian Trail — where basic amenities of civilization are intentionally absent — are often received with a heightened sense of wonder and gratitude by hikers. “Trail Angel” is a term of endearment given to people who have provided the magic including food or beverages left along the trail.
“So that was one of those things that is weird to talk about, but a Coke could completely change your day,” he said. “It could be a dull dreary, nothing of a day, and then midway through you came across a cooler that was full of Cokes, and that just totally changed your day.”
Thorn also credits the Libby App with helping him finish. It allows users to borrow books, including audiobooks, from the library.
“It’s probably the main reason I finished the trail, as I could focus on the audiobook when things got exhausting or boring,” he said.
A Special Crew
Thorn began to catch up to some of the other northbound thru-hikers in Pennsylvania. He said some who had started earlier had been called away for a family emergency or had suffered a minor injury, but returned to finish the hike weeks later. And while he hiked solo for about 90% of the trail, he said he came across the same people over and over during the journey.
“You all kind of travel at the same pace,” he said. “That’s called a tramily, a traveling family.”
He said seeing the other people on the trail was his favorite thing about the trip, and likened the experience of thru-hikers to the camaraderie of the armed service.
“Normal society doesn't quite understand why you willingly took this big leap, this pause in your life, to go do something incredibly long, tedious and physically demanding,” he said. “But you're all doing it together, so there's this huge sense of camaraderie and fellowship as you're going on the trail. If anybody's feeling bad you'll have a dozen people offering up snacks or ibuprofen. We're all just trying to drag each other along as best we can.”
Hikers on the trail also often have nicknames to help distinguish them. Thorn’s is Sidequest. It’s a name he took on while hiking Mount Massive and Mount Elbert in Colorado. They are two of the highest peaks in the state and Thorn said there are many day hikers with little experience trying to reach the summit.
“There’s lots of people who have no business trying to climb a fourteener (14,000 feet) let alone Colorado's highest peaks and so I was just handing out ibuprofen and leukotape and water as I'm bouncing up and down the mountains. And I was telling the story back to a friend back home, and he's like, ‘Oh yeah, you're just hitting up all the side quests before you finish the main mission.’”
Although it was a struggle mentally in the state, Thorn said he enjoyed the scenery most in Maine, as it was the only one on his hike with colorful fall foliage.
He also appreciated his time in Massachusetts because the trail was well maintained, the people were incredibly nice and there was lots of trail magic. He said the time in the state was short and “didn't stick around long enough to become annoying.” Pennsylvania was also nice, but the trail is incredibly rocky.
“The people were incredible,” he said. “I had multiple meals paid for in Pennsylvania, but I think they kind of knew that the trail is known to be ‘Rocksylvania.’ It's like, incredibly tedious and it just will destroy your feet or shoes.”
Jordan Thorn stands at the Tinker Cliffs in Virginia. (Courtesy Jordan Thorn) 
Jordan Thorn reached Katahdin, the end of the Appalachian Trail, on Oct. 6. Located in Main it was the end of the five-month journey that began in Georgia. (Courtesy Jordan Thorn) 
Jordan Thorn hit 75% complete on top of Bromley Mountain in Vermont. (Courtesy Jordan Thorn)
Reaching The Top
As he neared the end, Thorn wasn’t sure he’d be able to make the final summit at Mount Katahdin, as he was coughing so hard while heading up White Cap Mountain he began to see spots.
“I did send out a message to my family because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to summit just because I was coughing so hard,” he said. “At that point, I'm out there by myself. If something happens it might be a couple hours or so until someone passes by.”
But he persevered and was able to reach the top on Oct. 6. Thorn just beat the winter weather, as snow fell just a handful of days later.
After traveling so many miles and battling illness over the final few weeks, Thorn said he didn’t feel much of anything when he reached the end.
“When I made my way up to Katahdin and saw the sign it was kind of strange,” he said. “It was a total non event. It was like, ‘There's the sign, let's go get my pictures and get off the mountain.’ I think I was just so ready to be done.”
Thorn said he was emotional when he hit the 1,000 mile marker in Virginia. When he reached the 2,000 mile maker in Maine, his emotions were more mixed. He was happy he was almost done, but also a little depressed knowing he still had almost 200 miles to go.
“The 2,000 miles felt perfectly fine, but you just add on that extra 200 miles, and it's like going from your fourth plate at Thanksgiving to like your ninth plate and overindulging,” he said. “I just felt like I just wanted it to be over.”
Weeks later while still recovering from his illness and visiting family and friends in Gillette, he still hasn’t been able to fully celebrate what he accomplished. However, he knows he couldn’t have done it without the outpouring of encouragement from those along the trail.
“I have just immense appreciation for everyone along the way, and how much kindness and encouragement I received from 99.9% of the people I came across,” he said.
