When Hurricane Helene rampaged through southern Appalachia last month, Alex Wilson had just passed the 100-day mark of his thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail.
Months after he started the long hike south from Maine, Wilson waited out the hurricane in southern Virginia and then attempted to continue down toward Tennessee and North Carolina. Armed with a 12-inch pruning saw, he spent four days hacking through fallen trees blocking the trail, until he realized it was unlikely he could finish the hike on such difficult terrain before he needed to return back to his regular life.
“It was pretty miserable,” said Wilson, 41, who left the trail Oct. 1 after nearly four months of hiking.
While Wilson and fellow hikers were fighting their way around tree blowdowns, officials were issuing closure orders for a wide swath of the Appalachian Trail.
