At 75, Soren West fulfilled a childhood dream of thru-hiking the Appalachian Path with assist from his canine
It was 2016 when Soren West palmed his 9-year-old grandson’s shoulder and gazed out from the 5,250-foot peak of New Hampshire’s Mount Lafayette right into a momentarily spotlit expanse within the 800,000-acre White Nationwide Forest. His lengthy white beard and hair, cultivated over 1,850 northbound miles of Appalachian Path thru-hiking, whipped within the howling, misty wind as clouds tumbled by way of the now blue, now offended sky like strips of gnarled cotton. West’s sometimes mild-mannered 8-year-old golden retriever, Theo, started to bark.
“And one thing got here uncorked in me,” laughs West. “I let loose this wild … howl. Instantly each molecule of my being cried again at Mom Nature. It was joyous. A second of excellent being.”
Wanting again, the 83-year-old calls the incident a full-circle epiphany: The conviction to thru-hike the A.T, got here to him at age 12 on a summer season camp trek to that very spot.
“In fact, life intervened and it took me a few years to return to that dream,” says West. “However, for no matter purpose, I by no means let it go. It caught behind my thoughts.”
He earned a regulation diploma from Yale College; settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; based an eponymous agency; pursued a profitable profession as a trial legal professional. West married and had 5 “great, proficient kids” who went on to pursue their very own successes and begin households. Life was good. Ideas of a 2,200-mile quest on America’s most iconic path had all however vanished.
“Then, in 1996, I used to be standing in the lounge, and it struck me like a large whale crashing by way of the ocean’s floor,” says West. “‘You have to hike the A.T. Wouldn’t or not it’s great to complete at Katahdin in your sixty fifth birthday?’”
2006 got here and it didn’t occur.
“I used to be busy with work and being a granddad, so I saved discovering causes to place it off,” says West. He’d should refer so many consumers. Why not wait till he closed the agency, then use the hike to transition into retirement?
West’s grownup kids chimed in round 2010.
“They began joking, like, ‘Dad retains speaking about this factor, but when he doesn’t begin quickly, he’ll be the primary to hike the A.T. in a wheelchair,’” says West. “And I took their warning to coronary heart.”
He purchased a duplicate of David Miller’s guidebook, AWOL on the Appalachian Path, researched gear and sought recommendation from trekkers who’d accomplished the route later in life. West additionally began coaching with golden retriever Theo, who was then about 2. They eased in with four-mile walks on hilly native roadways. Out-and-backs to close by summits progressed to overnights and lengthy weekenders in all types of climate situations, together with snow and freezing rain. Then the 2 took on Vermont’s 272-mile Lengthy Path.
“My spouse would tease me and say Theo and I had been from the identical litter,” says West. “We had been inseparable from the get-go. So, it wasn’t a matter of whether or not he was coming with me, however make it attainable.”
The Lengthy Path introduced priceless classes.
“We set out south from the Canadian border and the terrain was rougher than I’d anticipated,” says West. The 2 hiked from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and, unable to search out a great place to pitch the tent, slept within the open on a rocky hillside. The following day was so brutal, “I assumed, ‘I don’t know if I can do that.’ We spent two nights on the first motel we got here to.”
The pause restored West’s conviction. Adapting a much less formidable, shelter-to-shelter technique would let him ditch his tent, tarp, and different gear to chop about 15 kilos of weight. In the meantime, Theo tackled the miles admirably. A telephone session with their vet introduced particular saddlebags that West may pack with 10-15 kilos of pet food and water.
“At that time, probably the most critical mountaineering I’d carried out was 5 nights within the White Mountains as a young person,” he says. Analysis was one factor, being on path fairly one other. Nonetheless, West thought-about the journey successful as, “it helped me perceive what we had been up in opposition to and overcome a fairly large studying curve.”
West shuttered his regulation agency in late 2015 and set out with Theo from Georgia’s Amicalola Falls State Park for the A.T.’s southern terminus at Springer Mountain on February 21. The primary 500 miles went easily other than a pesky deep heel bruise that refused to heal. West hiked six days every week and spent the off-day at a lodge, inn, or hostel. He felt nice and averaged about 15 miles a day. A previous knee harm and associated main surgical procedure, mixed along with his age, enabled him to have Theo licensed as a service canine. That meant that, with the correct vaccinations, Theo may journey in in any other case restricted areas like Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park. He not solely crushed the path miles, he was an ideal ambassador of doggy etiquette.
“I wasn’t apprehensive about different hikers, however how he’d react to animals like deer or bear,” says West. However even encounters with the latter introduced little greater than perked ears and nervous glances towards his grasp. “I used to be a really proud dad, to say the least.”
The issues started when West switched to summer season boots in Marion, Virginia. The heel situation promptly worsened—and was identified as plantar fasciitis—and he developed interdigital blisters that plagued him for the following 1,000 miles. A sequence of falls led to a torn rotator cuff, dislocated tooth and a sudden, horrifying physician’s go to in Maine.
His shoulder was swollen and wanted aspiration. The alarmed physician eliminated 45ccs of fluid and instantly hospitalized West as a result of excessive danger of blood an infection. West spent 4 days on an antibiotic drip, watching the climate and questioning if he would heal in time to complete earlier than impending snowstorms closed the northern terminus at Baxter State Park. A flurry of surreptitious telephone consultations with physician buddies introduced a cautioned launch.
West caught a experience to Katahdin and summited on October 13, simply days earlier than snows closed Baxter for the winter. He then returned to the 100 Mile Wilderness and, with Theo by his facet, accomplished the A.T. eight days later.
Wanting again, West says the search most likely would’ve failed however for 2 issues. In the beginning was the now-deceased Theo.
“I can say with absolute certainty that I’d not have made it with out him,” says West. “Theo was the most effective mountaineering buddy a man may ask for. He pulled me by way of so many powerful moments. He lifted my spirits each time I used to be feeling down.”
Second was a way of goal.
“Had I gone in with the perspective that I’d ‘strive’ to complete, I most likely would have given up very early on,” says West. “However for me, this wasn’t non-obligatory — it was a calling that had haunted me for many of my life; it was one thing I had to do to really feel fulfilled. That sense of goal and urgency is what bought me by way of. And it was completely price all of the ache, hardship, and struggling to get there.”
Fascinated about studying extra about Soren and Theo’s journey? Try the previous’s just lately launched e-book, Northbound With Theo: A Man and His Canine Via-Hike the Appalachian Path at Ages 75 and eight, which options greater than 200 images from their journey.
Cowl picture: Mountaineering companions on Mount Washington.
