Vicariously Hiking the Appalachian Trail

I did some backpacking in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, including short sections of the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington and Oregon, but I have not done a through hike of any trail. I have hiked a very short section of the Appalachian Trail on Mt. Greylock in Western Massachusetts. And I have read several books by people who have hiked the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail.

This year (2026) I am following the logs of three people who are hiking the Appalachian Trail, which extends 2,190 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. There are several more people posting videos on YouTube, and many people haven’t started their through hike yet, but my time is limited and I can’t watch all the YouTube videos or listen to all the podcasts.

Mighty Mouse

Mighty Mouse has a YouTube channel called Lori Goes Hiking. Mighty Mouse was given her trail name because she’s small but strong.

Before she started her through hike, Mighty Mouse posted several videos about her training, preparation, and equipment. Now that she’s on the trail, Mighty Mouse posts a video each day about her experiences, including information about shelters, water sources, privies, viewpoints, trail magic, towns, shuttles, hostels, towns, restaurants, etc.

Mighty Mouse is unfailingly cheerful and grateful to be on the trail. As of the day of this post, Mighty Mouse has posted reports for sixteen days.

Checklist

Checklist, the second hiker I’m following, has a YouTube channel at Outdoors with John. Checklist retired in 2025. A proper New Englander, he took Amtrak to Georgia. Checklist has dedicated his hike to his sister Theresa, who died in 2023 of stage four metastatic breast cancer.

Checklist is low key and friendly with a great sense of humor. On the day of this post, Checklist posted about his twenty-sixth day.

Moron

Moron is Kenneth Pararo, whose Book of Moron podcast I discovered in the late fall of 2025 when I was looking for bicycle touring and bikepacking podcasts. At the time, Moron was posting a series named “Long Errand” about a bicycle tour across the southern United States.

This year Moron is hiking the Appalachian Trail, and he has started a new series of episodes named “Walden 11.” Moron started his hike about March 6, a pretty early start date, after backpacking four days from his parents’ house to the AT Approach Trail, which starts at Amicalola Falls in Georgia.

Moron goes off trail frequently, walking the roads instead of the trail. He is hiking long distances each day (twenty to more than thirty miles per day), so he will finish much earlier than Mighty Mouse and John. Moron is an advocate of using AI, and he is experimenting with using AI for logging his hike.