The Appalachian Trail, as a Trail of Transition, with David Nixon

Summary:
Many people put adventures on their bucket lists, but few ever get to experience them. David
Nixon is one of those adventurous souls who do exactly what they set out to do. In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, learn about his adventures hiking the Appalachian Trail. Listen to
David’s stories of meeting people, seeing sights, and conquering mountains.

“You know, the trail is a trail of transition. Like, that’s one thing that comes true that there’s kids in school taking a gap year or between graduate school. Or people that have had a loss, had a partner die or divorce. Or a lot of people like me retired, you recently retired a bucket list kind of thing, want to do this. So I would call it a trail of transitions. A lot of people out there trying to find themselves, trying to find the next thing.”

DAVID NIXON

The above video contains images from the trail, including a closing sequence of images to close out the episode.

Quotes:
“That’s one thing I talk about a lot is you know, it was a physical and mental challenge. That there is beauty on the trail. It’s so diverse, but if you go out there thinking it’s just going to be a
nice walk, it’s going to be pretty. You’re not going to last very long. A lot of it, most of it’s uncomfortable. It is, it’s a challenge. It’s but it’s just so rich. You meet so many neat people.
You’re rained on one day, you know, beautiful weather the next day. It’s just, I say that you
know, I just kind of get tired of the bedpan contemporary lifestyles.”

“Yeah, so there’s I mean the best thing about the Appalachian Trail, it’s the people. The people around the trail, the people that support the hikers. Families that have had a hiker do it or themselves. Like they come out to the road crossings and they’ll do Trail magic. They’ll bring a
cooler. They’ll bring a grill, or they’ll just leave some drinks out. But there’s just so many people that want to be a part of the trail and share, you know, they just want to hear your stories. They
you know, they want to give you a ride and they don’t expect any money and they just want to hear you know, where you’re from. There’s people from all over the world.”

“It’s the freedom of just walking. Of, you know, only carrying minimal things. And so I talked to you a little bit before the show like right, you know life is complicated. There’s all kinds of
decisions and I think the trail is for a lot more introverted people are like trying to escape like
they go there to try to calm their mind.”