I dont know, he finally says. . Emma "Grandma" Gatewood This 60-plus hiker has walked the Appalachian Trail 17 times since 1972. Their secret? Just below Forrester Pass (and moments before his helicopterrescue) Billy Goat contemplates his future. I'm mighty, mighty glad it's over. Hes a slight fellow, only 57, and jaunty, so that walking behind him you can see the muscles in his wrinkled, gamey calves coiling and springing. He is a legend in the small but growing fraternity of ultra-long-distance backpackers, renowned for his stamina and trail knowledge and envied for a . We shoulder our packs. The trail, marked by blue blazes, features fun rock scrambles and spectacular views between the C&O Canal and the Potomac River. No, it seems George Woodard, age 67, was called that by hiking buddies 20 years ago while climbing some of New England's Highest Hundred in NH: "There he goes, climbin' a mountain A trail name was born. Hed never been there, Billy Goat says, and as he was driving down there, he died. Heres How it Went. News of her journey spread and she was featured by the Associated Press and Sports Illustrated. This unionled to the creation of the Appalachian Trail Conference, now known as the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The Billy Goat Trail Section A of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in Maryland offers kids and families a challenging hike that will keep everyone on their toes. Daily life is rendered primeval -- food, water, shelter and miles are all that matter. On another occasion he observed: "Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. But what drives a person to spend nearly half his life on the trail, year after year after year? Billy Goat, a retired railroad conductor from Maine, has hiked the entire length of the PCT eight times and most of the route two additional times. Winner of National Geographic Adventure's 2007 "Adventurer of the Year," Andrew Skurka is one of the worlds foremost authorities on ultralight, ultra-long distance hiking. The hike should take around 1.5 hrs to complete. The more I learn the more I realize I don't know. The man himself is in high spirits, particularly after a bus pulls up and a young woman steps out, tall and lean and blonde. I pay attention to what they have to say. Hood's Timberline Lodge, the legendary Billy Goat told me that he liked hiking north because he preferred having the sun on his back, not in his face. Then, shyly, faltering, she asked, Are youare you Billy Goat? Another hiker we met, trail name Miss Washington, reminisced aloud about a chance Billy Goat sighting shed made a few summers earlier. It's a grueling odyssey through the stratum of the American West. Trail culture - Some people prefer to be lone wolves, which offers a more quiet experience and an increased chance of seeing wildlife. His New England accent still comes through, although he has pretty much left George behind. He said his goal is 50 by 80, or 50,000 miles by age 80. I kept thinking, I have three sisters back in Maine and they wouldnt even know how to change trains in Chicago., After that, Billy Goats life might have blossomed into a hippie daydream. A few chase the Triple Crown. Cheese, bread, pickles, pears, nuts. I hope you enjoy! After collecting resupply boxes, hell set off carrying 12 days of food along a remote section of trail. The PCT, he said in 2015, would have to wait at least another year. Billy Goat has hiked more than 32,000 miles -- which would have taken him around the world and a third of the way again. That is where George, the 69-year-old retired railroad worker, would live if Billy Goat cared to be George. Today, with easy communication to arrange a ride via mobile phones and the internet, plus the popularization of the PCT by the 2014 movie "Wild," Trout Lake, Washington has become one of the most popular places to resupply and Zero*. In 2017, Skurka followed this epic adventure with the 6,875-mile Great Western Loop that traverses five long-distance hiking trails through 12 National Parks and more than 75 wilderness areas. He found a way to live more simply. Thats awesome! I slow down when hiking. Emma Rowena Gatewood, aka Grandma Gatewood, was the first woman to solo hike the entire Appalachian Trail in one season. You were eating a pickle, she said. Required fields are marked * I'm not on vacation. We turn around without pausing and hike for another mile and then Billy Goat stops and slips off his pack. Stay tuned as I plan to hike from Stehekin to the Canadian border later this summer and complete my goal of hiking every inch of the Pacific Crest Trail. Jennifer Pharr Davis is a long-distance hiker who has set a string of fastest known times for multiple trails in the past decade. Ryan Krause. until Lee Barry beat him for the title in 2004. Road to Billy Goat is good gravel most of the way with the final mile rough and steep. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. To streamline the tedious process of signing his name in trail registers, Billy Goat inks a rubber stamp and leaves his red goat insignia in trail registers. Hike Trails Map. He has until 2019 to finish the last 5,000 miles. Full coverage of Australia. Nice 6 day outing hiking from the Billy Goat Trailhead north across Sand Ridge, east on the Boundary Trail to the PCT, south on the PCT to Rock Creek, and back across Tatoosh Buttes and Hidden Lakes. Nothing could vanquish me. 39.00224, -77.24664. The single-item snack is an exact repeat of his breakfast, and during our first two days together I never see Billy Goat eat anything but that cheese. Later, he will write down this departure time, along with the distance we hike, in a notebook. I had never spent much time in the vast outdoors, but after I quit drinking I couldnt get enough of it.. The Ice Age Trail lays before him now, gentle and rolling and lined with maples and cedars. And in 2013, a kidney stone lodged itself in his innards, painfully, forcing him to abandon the PCT and rush to the VA hospital in Seattle, stopping every so often to vomit. Park at the Great Falls parking area. Some knew me as Piper, others as just Diane. I wouldnt want to mess that up. The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker Survey is distributed to PCT hikers at the end of the hiking season every year with the goal of capturing a snapshot of the year's class and providing a useful resource to future PCT hikers and recreators. The book is available on Amazon andin the PCTA online store. When asked about the best section on trail, many PCT thru-hikers will say Goat Rocks. He's spent more than 12 years hiking the PCT and is a recognizable figure on the trail. The oldest AT hiker isn't the only record Sanders holds. Following this record, Pharr Davis was nominated as one of National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year in 2012 and wrote a memoir entitled Called Again about her record-breaking hike. The two men now talk on the phone several times a week. (Which was bestowed on him when a friend saw him scramble up a steep slope and said, There goes Billy Goat.) As he puts it himself, Thirty years ago I was George Woodard. We didnt have much of anything, he says of his family. Hell record how long each of our rest stops are. The Billy Goat trail is one of the most popular and well-known hikes in the DMV area. Mark Larabee is the PCTA's Advocacy Director. You can only fill your plate once, the server says, eyeing me warily. Locale: Pacific Northwest. Theres an animal quality to the way Billy Goat fits into the landscape. From his youth, Muir was prone to wandering and exploration. Check back often for news about the trail. He has no interest in running my show, but he seems attuned to how I am feeling. He is 77 years old and, ever since retiring at age 49, he has hiked roughly 150 days a year. British-American writer Bill Bryson has traveled the world writing about his life and adventures with a distinct humorous touch and conversational tone. He completed the 2,190-mile trek on October 26, 2017, at the age of 82. . BillyGoat automatically plots routes turn by turn to your destinations, including routing via 4WD tracks. Get Directions. Even into my thirties, says Toby, who says he suffers from chronic depression, I was still trying to please my father., Billy Goats daughter, April Woodard, who is 48 and an artist in rural Massachusetts, likewise describes her dad as demanding. Sign up for Outside+ today. Hes barely able to make it 10 feet, let alone to the restroom, without someone coming up to greet him, shake his hand, or take a photo. Ive been eating for two or three hours straight, he rejoices. Billy Goat at the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off, 2015. If anything happens, I ask, what do you want me to do?, Billy Goat peers up for a moment, thinking. In 1921, he came up with the idea for a utopic hiking path along the ridgelines of the Appalachian mountains. 4 days ago. Photograph by John Baggaley. Billy Goat enjoying the PCT from Glen Pass, 2005. Its so ingrained in me, he said. The book is in the process of being adapted for the screen. Begin the trip from the Billy Goat Trailhead. Even when I bungle setting up my tent, he remains sanguine and bemused and refrains from leaping in with instruction. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home. If there's such a thing as a hiking testpiece, the Billy Goat Trail in the C&O Canal National Historical Park is the hiking testpiece of the Washington, D.C. area. John Muir is arguably one of the best-known naturalists and conservationists of the 20th century. But he wasnt always Billy Goat. Get directions to any destination. In January 2014, things changed. Doyle founded the Appalachian Trail Institute to provide AT crash courses to prospective thru-hikers. George Woodard grew up in northern Maine, within sight of Katahdin. When pressed, the real guru comes out. At Rainy Pass, a hiker named Hatchet, taking shelter in her tent, beckoned us over to share some grapes shed bought in town. Photo by Julia Trebilcox. At 58, I'm looking to plan for a PCT hike in a couple years to mark the big 60. :banana Anxious to see how it compares to the AT. The trail includes some intense rock-hopping and a steep climb along a . The mother of ultralight backpacking was also a mother of 11 and grandmother of 23. I have become Billy Goat by happenstance. Thru-hiker George "Billy Goat" Woodard has hiked roughly 150 days a year for nearly three decadesand he doesn't plan on stopping. Join Outside+ to get access to exclusive content, 1,000s of training plans, and more. He hiked the PCT across Oregon for a 2005 series for the paper and has been with PCTA since 2010. Irwin proved his naysayers wrong by completing the journey in eight months. But most thru-hikers embrace the vibrant trail culture that organically springs to life on the PCT. At a Glance General Information January 14, 2017 by Billy Goat Leave a comment. The man could reasonably be cast as God in a movie. She completed the feat in 1955 at age of 67. You can follow Andrew Skurka on Twitter @andrewskurka. On the second day of our hike, I awake at dawn. Posted on March 31, 2017 October 11, 2021 26 Comments. Hes told me, It doesnt matter what you do. Isnt that something? Billy Goat responded warmly. (Rudyard Kipling). A Harvard trained forester, MacKaye spent his life studying the outdoors and advocating for its conservation. Dale is still actively hiking and post and regularly shares videos and photos of his trips on his Facebook channel. When I leave, the woman is sitting at Billy Goats table, marveling that he drinks straight from mountain streams. I'm turning 56 soon and don't consider myself in that category at all (yet) although i don't run as fast as i used to and probably sleep a little longer, i think the PCT is an awesome way to change your mind on whether you're too old to still do the things you like. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I tell people two things: give yourself three weeks to get your body in shape and get your mind in shape, he said with a happy chuckle. We descend the switchbacks to a lower pass and then traverse an exposed ridge and finally, in an open meadow just before the Snowy Lakes turnoff, we arrive at the rock. Nine of these have been thru-hikes. But Billy Goat is who he is because he makes decisions were trained to regard as audaciously wronglike hitchhiking after the age of 70. Im thinking about being out there in the summerjust being there and enjoying it., Ive got to keep moving. I have some discomfort with other situations in life, loud music and this rat race we all live in, he said. Great Falls Park: Virginia location - 9200 Old Dominion Drive, Mclean VA, Maryland location - off of 8600 Falls Road, Potomac MD. For six months of the year, Billy Goat's home is the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile uber-trail of the West that stretches from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington. One of his motivations for hiking was to walk the Army out of my system. Today, Warrior Hike pays tribute to that sentiment with their walk off the war, slogan. But, the successful businessman is also an ultralight thru-hiker. This is where I live. Begins: Apr 24, 2013 Jennifer Pharr Davis Billy Goat Pass/Eightmile Pass Loop Trail. She hiked the AT a total of three times and also covered the 2,000 mile Oregon Trail before she passed at age 85, in 1973. male billy goats have long beards, right? Why This 5-Time Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker Will Never Attempt the PCT, Atmospheric Rivers Pound California, Closing Multiple Parks and Recreation Sites, Missing Appalachian Trail Hikers Body Found in Shenandoah, Park Officials Say. Join us in thanking these generous businesses for their support of the Pacific Crest Trail. Enjoy views of many peaks as you walk through the forest in the Billy Goat drainage. Australian 4X4, Camping, Touring, Hiking maps. They head north each spring from a sun-baked wood marker in eastern San Diego County a few feet from a corrugated-metal wall along the Mexican border. He is 77 years old and, ever since retiring at age . @rmkrause. Ive walked every day since then. But he still didnt feel hed satisfied his dad. I dont want to die anywhere.. Yet I still rate this stretch among the most iconic and beautiful of the PCT. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie 100 to 150 miles (160 to 240 km) east of the U.S. Pacific coast. The Billy Goat Trail is one of the most well known hikes in the Metro D.C. area, and for good reason. Dragn Fly holds the record for the oldest woman ever to thru hike the AT. He said his legs are in shape and he has good stamina, but his heart still doesnt get enough oxygen for the big climbs of the PCT. I Tried to Sew My Own Ultralight Tent. He has crossed the Rocky Mountains on four occasions, twice in each direction. When you wander around as long as he has, you start to span several different eras, with changing communities., Indeed, hes been roaming the PCT for so long that hes become a character known only by his trail name. Casual trailside conversations have left many with the impression that hes simply the PCTs gentle and beloved grandfather. Something really bad happened with his mother. Born January 28, 1939, George Woodard grew up in Maine and moved to New Hampshire right after high school. He completed this loop in 208 days at a record-breaking pace of 33 miles per day. 8 Results Mar 1, 2023 - May 29, 2023 Download CSV. 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