Hi! I'm Rocket and I successfully thruhiked all 2,198.4 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 2023. This had been a decadelong dream for me and surpassed all of my expectations!

I'll be posting videos to share what my thruhike experience was like for other aspiring thruhikers or people who are just curious to learn more. I was a first time thruhiker and I had only been on 1 prior solo overnight backpacking trip before I set out on March 5, 2023. I hiked NOBO and summited Katahdin on August 30, 2023, bawling like crazy when I finally touched that sign.

Video #3 shows my dad and I taking on Georgia with a shared trail name: "The A Team." We got this name because both our names start with the letter A—Art and Alexis—and people always remembered that when we introduced ourselves. My dad and I hiked the first 30 miles (AND the 8.8 mile Approach Trail) together before I set out on my own for the remainder of my thruhike.

Hiking the Georgia section of trail was a mixture of so many emotions!

I quickly bonded with the hikers around me and I still consider many of them some of my closest friends and family to this day! Wrong Way, Groundhog, and 21 became my trail family, which is often nicknamed a tramily by the hiker community.

During the Georgia section I learned many of the skills needed to become a responsible and safe thruhiker. Things like filtering water, setting up camp, cooking with my stove, planning mileage, and checking for widow makers (dead trees that might fall over) before setting up camp became second nature to me.

After lots of trail magic, including trail magic from my own dad, my tramily and I took our first 0 day in Hiawassee, Georgia to avoid freezing cold temps and rain. A 0 is a day where you essentially "take off." You hike 0 miles, hence the name! Typically AT hikers aren't driven into town by rain, but the low temps and freezing rain combo in early March posed a serious threat to us as new thruhikers.

With a few more days of hiking we finally hit our first state border crossing, walking from Georgia into North Carolina. So far, I had hiked over 75 miles (plus the 8.8 miles of the Approach Trail.)

What questions do you have about this section of trail? What would you like to know about starting a thruhike of the Appalachian Trail? Is anyone thruhiking this year? Let me know below! :)