The Journey Of A Lifetime

They say you can learn something by walking in another man’s boots. On the Appalachian Trail last summer, hikers learned what happens when you carry them.

- Eric J. Wallace

THRU-HIKERS ARE a varied bunch, but there’s one thing they all agree on: Don’t carry an ounce more than you need. So it was more than a little unusual when thru-hiker Thomas “Jabba” Gathman stopped in Staunton, Virginia, in March 2016 and picked up a pair of size-13 boots that weighed more than 4 pounds—and which he had no intention of wearing.

Gathman was in the midst of a winter thru-hike, which made the extra weight even more arduous. Then it got harder. Gathman slipped and sprained his ankle while trying to make up the day he’d spent waiting for the boots to arrive in Staunton. “That weight began to really grate on me,” he recalls with a laugh. “I started fantasizing about tossing my own boots—size 10s—and slipping into shoes three sizes too big.”

Gathman persevered, carrying the boots for more than 300 miles to Damascus, Virginia. There, he handed them off to another hiker, who strapped them to his pack, too. And who later also passed them to another hiker. In all, 40 hikers carried one man's boots during the 2016 season, ensuring they traveled the entire length of the Appalachian Trail.

THE BOOTS THAT everyone carried were known simply as Paul’s Boots. They belonged to Paul Evans, an Australian who’d never set foot on the AT. None of the hikers who carried Paul’s boots had ever met him, and they never would. Paul died of a heart attack in July 2015, at the age of 53.

But even without meeting Paul, they knew he was one of them. Paul had grown up hiking in Australia, where his dad served in the Royal Australian Air Force. The military life meant moving around from base to base, so the Evans family did three things to provide a sense of stability wherever they landed: got involved with the local scout troop, went camping on weekends, and spent vacations visiting Australia’s national parks.