Steve Jobs of the Hiking Industry

It’s important to learn from your mistakes, but it is BETTER to learn from other people’s mistakes, and it is BEST to learn from other people’s successes. It accelerates your own success.

-Jim Rohn

Hi Trekkers and Hikers,

Welcome back to yet another chapter of motivation, courage, and inspiration. Don’t get discouraged to read further, because I assure you of zero oration or harangue sessions ahead. Going by the words of Jim Rohn, I will guilelessly acquaint with the individuals who because of their illustrious acts can easily be tagged as the Steve Jobs of the hiking industry. And I am sure that their debut in your life as a trekker or a hiker will give the much-needed acceleration to your upcoming trek.

So, MEET THE 8 STEVE JOBS OF THE HIKING INDUSTRY

1. George “Billy Goat” Woodard

Well known by the name Billy Goat, this eminent hiker has traversed more trails in three decades than the number of veins in his years-old but well-poised body. This 1939 born hiker has all the credentials starred on his shoulders to make any youth hiker feel abashed. He has trailed more than three rounds of the world. A legend amongst the long-distance backpackers skips the tedious task of signing the trail register by means of a simple red stamp of a goat. When on a trail, breaks for him are simple fuel stations for his tummy to keep him going. A railroad conductor by profession retired from his post after 30 years of service and all he has done since then is hiking. PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) and AT (Trail) are his abode to ecstasy.

In his words,

I ‘m not on vacation. I’m not out for a weekend. This is where I live. When you do that, all the other trappings of life fade away.”

“The reason people fail is they start dreaming of home. They think about how nice a bed is. How nice a bathtub is. Wouldn’t it be great to have hot water? Home is wind-free, dust-free, and ant-free. You meet people on the trail who say, ‘I haven’t had a shower in days.’ If that’s so important, why are you out here”

2. Emma “Grandma” Gatewood

Call her Emma Rowena Gatewood or Grandma Gatewood, her fame does not get deterred by who calls her by which name. Born in 1887, this charismatic old lady had embossed her name as a true pioneer hiker in the hiking industry. This iron-jawed lady had earned the title of the first lady to hike the Appalachian Trail and also the first lady to hike this AT trail thrice. Because of her hard-earned credentials in hiking, she had been a lifetime member of the National Campers and Hikers Association and Buckeye Trail Association and also the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club. She has also been the Director Emeritus of Buckeye Trail Association. A six-mile trail section that connects Old Man’s Cave to Cedar Falls to Ash Cave has been named as Grandma Gatewood Trail. There had been movies and documentaries and biographies in her honour. She had her last breath in the year 1973. She was 85 then.

3. Ray Jardine

1944 born American, Ray Jardine has more than one title glued to his adventurous life. He has not only been a long-distance hiker but is also known for mountaineering, sea kayaking, sailing, hang gliding, sailplane piloting, small aircraft piloting, skydiving, bicycling, motorcycling, and gear designing. He has made very beneficial and treasured contribution to the hiking industry by introducing the hikers to lightweight backpacking, by means of his publication titled PCT Hikers Handbook (retitled as Beyond Backpacking and again retitled as Trail Life).

4. Bill Irwin

He might look like any other hiker with his dog on the trail, but he is not. Bill Irwin was typhlotic. He was titled as the first blind hiker of the Appalachian Trail. His AT story traversed eight long months with a record of thousands of fall, broken ribs and even hypothermia. Then 50-year-old medical technologist and corporate manager from Burlington, N.C. had his dog Orient as his only guide. The duo was titled as” the Orient Express”.

In his words,

The first clear-eyed thing I had ever done was as a blind man when I asked God to take charge of my life. I had never spent much time in his vast outdoors, but after I quit drinking I couldn’t get enough of it. I learned wilderness skills and became the first blind person to ‘thru-hike’ the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. I made a point of telling fellow hikers about the God who guides me.

 

5. Nan “Drag’n Fly” Reisinger

Age is just a number for such iron-jawed women. Titled as the oldest woman to hike the Appalachian Trail, at the age of 74, Nan Reisinger was famous as “Drag’n Fly” Her name is never to be missed when people talk about fearless woman hiker or the historic Appalachian Trail hikers. She on her trail journey was accompanied by Carolyn Banjak and together they were famous as “Fire and Ice”

6. Warren Doyle

A well-known age-old hiker Waren Doyle holds the unofficial record of hiking the Appalachian trail eighteen number of times. The Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association and the Appalachian Trail Institute are the two organizations founded by him for the growth of the hiking industry. Currently, he is the Director of the Appalachian Trail Institute. He has been an inspiration to several strong-minded hikers like Jennifer Pharr Davis, the record holder for the fastest AT hike and Bill Irwin, discussed above.

7. Earl Shaffer

This 1918 born American was known as The Original Crazy One for completing the entire AT hiking trip in a single season. His book Walking with Spring is a book full of experiences narrated by other AT hikers and he himself. The other book in his name is The Appalachian Trail: Calling Me Back To The Hills. He passed away in 2002 because of liver cancer. Today he is enlisted as one of the charter members in the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame.

8. Kevin Gallagher

A hiker and a photographer, did all the wonders, to sum up, the Appalachian Trail journey of months in a frame of just five minutes. In 2005, when Kevin hiked for six continuous months from Georgia to Maine, he would stop every 24 hours capture the moments of his journey in a photograph. As a result, by the end of the trek, he had a collection of 4,000 photos, which he later developed into a stop-motion film titled “Green Tunnel”. This film has all that is needed to create the adrenaline rush of a hike and inspire you to experience it on your own.

I believe all the above divulged super personalities believed in the fact that;

“Accept the challenges, so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.”

-George S.Patton

And that is why obstacles never seemed to stop them, they never gave up rather they worked out a solution to every challenge.