By Stephen Appezzato
“It was a lot to process, I’ve never had a feeling like that before,” said Shant Sahakian, a 23-year-old Red Bank native, as he recalled his experience summiting Springer Mountain, the southernmost peak of the Appalachian Trail.
Just two weeks after his graduation from Villanova University in May, Sahakian set out on his 2,194-mile solo trek from Baxter State Park, Maine, to Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, accomplishing his goal of hiking the entire Appalachian trail alone.
Sahakian had always enjoyed hiking but it wasn’t until he was 18 that he first had the idea to complete the demanding journey.
“When I first heard about the trail, I looked it up and saw that thousands of people try every year and hardly any finish – and I was like ‘Oh my God, that seems like something awesome to do,’ ” he said he remembered thinking. While he had completed shorter hikes in the past, he had never undertaken such a strenuous and time-consuming challenge as the famous Appalachian Trail.
Unlike most hikers who begin the journey in early spring from the trail’s southernmost point and head north, Sahakian set off on his five-month and four-day excursion from its northern terminus, Mount Katahdin in Maine, concerned he would arrive at the trail’s northern regions too late in the season due to his June start.
“The reason people don’t like to start up north is because the states Maine and New Hampshire are the two hardest states by far,” he said. “They say when you hit New Hampshire, you’ve done 80% of the trail but 20% of the work for people going north.”
In preparation for the trek, Sahakian put a lot of consideration into the gear he packed, cutting unnecessary items to save valuable weight. Pack weight management is one of the most important factors hikers must carefully manage when completing endurance trips.
Sahakian shared some of the creative ways in which hikers prepare ultra-light weight packs, determined to shed even just ounces off their loads, including a hiker who ripped the plastic casing off his cellphone charger as only the exposed wire was necessary to charge the device.
Among his most memorable moments, Sahakian said, was summiting Mount Washington, the highest peak in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest.
“When I finished the White Mountains and was walking to this hostel with a bunch of other people, I was thinking, ‘The hardest part is done, the hardest section everyone talks about is over.’ I was super happy about that.” Reaching that milestone reassured Sahakian that the rest of the journey was doable.
But not all of his excursion consisted of morale-boosting moments. Particularly, poor weather coincided with the majority of the low points throughout his trip.
“Whenever it was raining really badly, it was always just miserable – walking in soaking wet clothes and when everything you have is wet, especially when you have to set up your tent and sleep,” he said.
Among the lowest of moments for Sahakian was hiking to a campsite at 4,000-foot elevation in the trail’s northern region, facing rain, rapidly falling temperatures and dwindling daylight. “I remember thinking if there was a button to press and I could go home right now, I would press it. That storm was actually pretty bad. In nearby mountains, 15 people were rescued because they were caught stranded; one person died of hypothermia.”
Yet Sahakian trekked on, determined to reach the finish line in Georgia.
In the end, after hiking 2,194 miles through mountains, towns, heat and cold, he completed his goal. Looking back, he recalled a few meaningful takeaways from the journey.
“I would say that having some sort of activity or hobby – something to escape to (is important). When I was going on the hike, I never allowed myself to think about things that are stressful, such as the future, where I am going to live in a year, what job I’m going to do. Try to find something that allows you to be yourself, where you don’t have to worry about things that are going to stress you out in the future. I would say that’s a really great thing to have,” he said.
“Even if it’s just hiking, or you enjoy painting or you enjoy running, or any other thing that’s just different from your life… it’s definitely worth pursuing.”
The article originally appeared in the December 8 – 14, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
