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Jul 28, 2023

journey

Each year, a wave of hikers attempt the Eastern Continental Trail, a 5,000 mile

Each year, a wave of hikers attempt the Eastern Continental Trail, a 5,000 mile route starting at the southernmost tip of Key West, Florida, and ending at the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, Canada. The journey involves traversing 16 states and two Canadian Provinces, but only one or two people complete the entire trail due to extreme weather, unpredictable conditions and physical demands.

In 2021, Stafford County native Christopher Bass set his sights on the ECT, aspiring to join the exclusive group of those who have completed the demanding trek.

Just five years earlier, Bass discovered the world of extreme outdoor recreation as an amateur peak-bagger. He became a part of a community of outdoors enthusiasts who attempt to scale all the summits recorded on public lists.

Peak-bagging presented Bass with a variety of challenges, from hiking a gentle hill one day to climbing a rocky face the next.

In 2020, Bass first delved into backpacking, venturing on long-distance hikes with all his gear on his back in order to prepare himself for the summits he aimed to conquer.

"Some of the more intense hikes, like the ones out west, actually do require multiple days of backpacking in order to safely do them. So that's when I realized I need to get into this backpacking thing to increase my levels of experience and prepare for these other high points," said Bass. "From there, I really just sort of just discovered everything outdoor recreation."

Unlike the one-off peak-bagging trips that previously held his interest, Bass’ head was turned by long-distance trails requiring multiple weeks, or even months, of commitment.

"I realized that was something I kind of wanted to do. My ego just got the better of me when I found out about the Eastern Continental Trail," said Bass. "I know a lot of people do the Appalachian Trail, but then when I realized you can kind of extend it on both ends, and kind of make a much bigger meal of it, that was what really spoke to me."

A technical writer for the Army at the time, Bass left work in Alabama and moved back home to Stafford, which would serve as his home base for the hike.

As with any hikes of great distance, facing the ECT is no small feat. The route is a mishmash of many famous and lesser-known trails. Notably, the ECT includes the entirety of the Appalachian Trail and Florida Trail. Many roads and shorter trails connect the two through the deep south, and the International Appalachian Trail begins where the AT ends in Maine, stretching across the border into Quebec, Canada.

"When it comes to long-distance trails, the general consensus is that you do your research," said Bass. "Planning is just essential for some of the sections that are logistically difficult."

Bass mapped out an uncommon approach, opting to hike the ECT "out of order" in sections to avoid unfavorable weather conditions, cover greater distances in less time and avoid trail factors that were likely to negatively impact his hike.

"I did what's called a flip-flop, which is essentially doing the trail out of order. People do the AT flip-flop a lot, but I think I’m the first person I know that has done an ECT flip-flop," said Bass. "The flip-flop would work in favor of getting me to certain places at certain times where the weather would be more ideal."

In addition to monitoring rapidly changing weather conditions, Bass also engineered his hike with thought to the constraints placed on his time on the trail. "For something this long, usually referred to as a thru-hike, you have to complete it in a single calendar year. So there is a time limit you are working against," he said.

Hikers are responsible for educating themselves on the different trails they intend to take and the rules and regulations of the organizations that oversee them.

"Trail organizations set rules for what counts as a thru-hike," said Bass. "The general consensus is that you have to complete your hike in one calendar year because, otherwise, it could be considered a section hike."

ECT hikers may book lodging off trail or even return home to take breaks and recover, as long as they finish the entire hike in exactly one year.

Bass also had to consider additional factors. For instance, he adjusted his itineraries to be mindful of trail closures during hunting seasons to ensure his safety.

"You would normally have at least until mid-November before the trails close," he said. "In parts of the United States and Canada, trails are shared with hunters. In the South, Florida and Alabama especially, you have to be mindful and wear orange during hunting season. Whereas, in Canada when it's hunting season, they just close the trails. Hikers aren't allowed to go through, it's just for hunters."

In January 2022, Bass began leg one of his trek in Key West, Florida, heading north 200 miles to the start of the Florida Trail in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

"Up until you reach the FT, you’re just on roads," he said. "Most of the time you look like some bum walking around with a backpack. Nobody knows who you are or what you’re doing. There's parts where there really wasn't too much of a trail community, as compared to being on the AT."

Despite the increasing popularity of the Florida Trail, there were stretches of days where Bass didn't see a single person, so he reflects fondly on the few friends he made along the way.

"I met three people in Florida. Goofy, DVD and Rosa. They were doing the FT and I had just made my way up from Key West. We all were injured at the same time pretty early on in our hikes, around Lake Okeechobee in Southern Florida," said Bass. "We all decided to split a hotel for two days to recover from our respective hikes. Those are the best friends that I met on the entire trail."

Bass refers to his friends by their "trail names," or aliases that hikers adopt while on long-distance treks.

"Traditionally, you introduce yourself by your trail name when you meet fellow hikers. On the trail people know me as ‘Unwound,’" he said. "I was a pretty anxious person prior to the hike, and so I was kind of unwinding the whole time in a way. A lot of people still call me Unwound."

Trail names are a common tradition in hiking culture and serve as a means of personal expression, identity, and camaraderie among hikers. The names become part of a hiker's identity on the trail and are used to address and recognize one another, fostering a sense of community and connection among hikers from diverse backgrounds.

Bass stays in touch with the hikers he met in Florida, even attending one of their weddings in October.

"The Florida section was by far my favorite. Just the scenery and the trail culture and what is there along the hike. The trail isn't nearly as developed as the AT is but, at the end of Florida, I was definitely like, damn, I want to turn around and do that one again," he said.

Leaving Florida, but making a mental promise to return, Bass faced down the Alabama Roadwalk. The longest connector link along the entire ECT, the Alabama Roadwalk runs for some 200 miles through southern Alabama, involving a trek along mostly rural roads abutting the occasional highway.

"I definitely looked forward to the sections where it was, like, road walks," Bass said. "I don't mind it nearly as much as other people, they were a nice break from trail because you’re back in civilization and passing gas stations. The fact that there was so much variety where you could kind of go back and forth between wilderness and then more urban environments just made the trip more possible in my mind because I like a lot of variety, it was sort of refreshing to me."

While a nice change from woodland isolation, the scenic roadwalk isn't without hazards.

"Mostly I’d listen to podcasts and music to keep myself occupied, which is relatively safe as long as you are alert and mindful of other people on the trail," Bass said. "It can become an issue, though, when you are hiking on roads with a constant flow of cars and can't hear them coming."

While hiking on open roads, Bass often found himself toeing private property lines and racking up stressful animal encounters.

"The thing about road walks in the south, there's really no fences on property lines and a dangerous thing to note is that people's dogs tend to roam around," he said. "I carried dog spray with me at one point because I knew dog encounters would happen. I did get surrounded at one point, like five of them that came from this notorious house that just has really aggressive dogs. That was rough."

When he eventually reached Montgomery, Alabama, and the southern terminus of the Pinhoti Trail, Bass had logged 1,550 miles. Suffering from overuse and strain in his shins, Bass opted to travel home for a one-month recovery period.

"When I got to the southern terminus of the Pinhoti trail, I stayed with a well-known but somewhat new hostel called the Pinhoti Outdoor Center. They run shuttles up and down the trail helping hikers as needed and they also do trips to the airport in Birmingham," he said. "I stayed with them and paid for a shuttle to the airport."

While back at home in Stafford, Bass rested but continued to work through the trail in his head. He said it was difficult to establish a productive routine knowing he would have to reintroduce himself into the trail headspace in just a few weeks.

"For my next section, West Virginia through Quebec, I didn't really have much of a choice but to plan," said Bass. "Canada was so complicated logistically that I needed to have everything squared away before I left to ensure that I’d be able to do it safely, legally, and with as little stress as possible."

Bass resumed his hike in West Virginia heading northbound toward Cape Gaspe, Quebec. Of the 14 Appalachian Trail states, West Virginia is the shortest by far, with only four miles of trail through the entire state.

Hiking into the new section, Bass had to shift gears in order to successfully tackle the AT terrain, adopting what is known as "scrambling."

"Scrambling is not really climbing per-se, because you don't need ropes or protection or anything. The trails get really steep and that's when you’ll have to scramble, which is incorporating hand over feet kind of climbing," said Bass. "In places like New Hampshire and Maine, parts of the northern AT, that's when it's really rocky and really intense and really beautiful."

One of Bass’ most memorable moments of the northern AT section was his time spent at a work-for-stay hostel at the foot of Mount Washington, the highest peak in New Hampshire.

"I broke ice out of the basement because the hostel had just opened for the season and everything was totally frozen down there. I was able to stay there for free instead of paying like 100-something dollars that it costs to stay there," he said. "The next morning it was what hikers call a ‘bluebird day’ with entirely clear skies and it was just incredibly beautiful. When I made it to the top of Mount Washington, I was the only one up there and I saw the entire northern half of the range. That was really like, kind of a life affirming moment for me."

Hanging onto the high he felt in New Hampshire, Bass continued north where the AT reaches Canada, becoming the International Appalachian Trail.

"I hadn't been out of the country until I walked into Canada on this hike," he said. "I didn't run into anybody until I reached Quebec, which is 200 miles from the end of the AT. The people I did see there were primarily French speaking, so I had to deal with that culture shock. At the time, I only had like 30 days of Duolingo under my belt and I didn't have much vocabulary to go off of."

Bass said that section of his hike was by far the most demanding, both mentally and physically.

"At least last year, you had to book all your campsites in advance because they are very protective of their natural resources and monitor trail usage," he said. "So I knew I needed to be at the border by a certain day so that I could check into my first campsite. It was very strenuous, and as a result I had to push some pretty long days to make it."

The days of flat, dry terrain were long behind him, and the majority of the trail in Canada was overgrown and unmaintained. Continuous rainfall turned the ground to mud, forcing Bass to rely on ropes to hoist himself through.

"Sometimes it was like hiking up an incline slab of dirt. So when it gets rained on, it becomes incredibly muddy and you have no purchase," he said. "I had to use my hiking poles to push up all this dirt just to get purchase because it was just so steep. It just made everything really challenging."

If that weren't enough, it seemed the wildlife wasn't going to make things any easier for Bass.

"I had a run-in with a bird called the northern goshawk, which are very territorial, and the trail goes by one of their nests. There's one notorious hawk in particular that was basically going after everybody who came through," he said. "I heard a sound behind me, getting louder and louder and I realized that this hawk is coming from behind. I turn around just in time to see it and duck, which sends me into this mud because I didn't have a firm grip on the muddy ground."

Bass tells the story with a mix of frustration and humor, acknowledging that even the most unexpected encounters with nature can lead to humbling experiences on the trail.

"It's really beautiful, the AT through Quebec, but I was having such a rough time," he said. "This was the section I was happiest to finish."

Georgia to West Virginia

After hiking 1,850 miles into Canada, Bass returned home to Stafford for two months before resuming at the southernmost point of the Georgia AT.

Traveling back down to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia and heading northbound back up to his previous starting point in West Virginia, Bass said water scarcity was his biggest concern.

"Every day you have to consider where your water is coming from. When you’re on the Appalachian Trail, you’re really high up and there's not really a ton of water up there," he said.

In places where trailheads leading to town were few and far between, Bass had to rely on guide apps which directed him to springs or water sources known to exist in the area.

"You’re just constantly stopping to see where you’re going to get your water from. There are some sections that were really dry," said Bass. "I definitely dealt with that in southern Virginia and especially near the end of Virginia. We just didn't get a lot of rain during the time I was there, so I was relying on puddles as a water source."

Closing in on the end of the trail, with only 420 more miles until completion, Bass ended his third leg near Harpers Ferry, taking one more trip home before heading back to the southern terminus of the AT.

"In my previous backpacking, I had already done the Pinhoti Trail once before. That's the only part of the trail I’d done prior to doing this, so I had to redo it in order to count it as a thru-hike," said Bass.

A northbound hike, often referred to as NoBo, is the most popular choice for most thru-hikers, and the direction Bass originally hiked the Pinhoti Trail. To keep things interesting, Bass chose to hike the PT southbound.

"The first, like, four days where I was going from the Appalachian Trail onto the Pinhoti, taking the connecting Benton MacKaye Trail, it rained really heavily all day and just like a bunch of stuff got wet that shouldn't have, and then I just couldn't dry it out for days on end," said Bass. "This is like 300 miles from the finish. So by that time I was already really done hiking, I really wanted to finish up and now having to deal with all this. So that was definitely a rough way to finish."

Despite a damp finish and seven months total on trail, Bass looks back on his ECT experience fondly.

"I’m like six months removed at this point. It's sad that some of these things are difficult to remember," he said. "But I took a good number of videos during my hike. You know, sometimes in a video I’ll crack a joke that I’ll laugh at now. So it's funny looking back on those things. I was living in the moment and the pictures and videos I captured just serve to evoke those emotions later when you’re looking at them."

Though he has since moved to Pennsylvania to resume work, Bass’ next adventure is not far off.

"I would hike the Florida trail again in the future. The kind of magic that I sort of felt on that trail, it just really spoke to me because it's like, you’re hiking in a place that looks nothing like anywhere else you expect to really be associated with hiking," said Bass. "I would do it over again."

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