Trail Journal — Horizonline Pictures

Images from my favorite season in the Blue Ridge: spring. These scenes were captured in April during my thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Chris GallawayMay 2, 2013

Virginia is for Limpers

When my family left Damascus I was raring to go on my solo hike again. As sweet as our time together had been I was itching to hike more than eight miles a day, and I was tempted to try to catch friends who had pulled ahead of me on the trail.

Chris GallawayApril 30, 2013

Mile 413.6: Spring comes in the Grayson Highlands

Part 5 in the series documenting my 2013 thru-hike. We make it through the last of winter and I have a sweet reward in Southern Virginia where my mother, my brother, and Sunshine come to join me hiking through one of the best sections of the AT: Damascus, VA to the Grayson Highlands. We have beautiful spring weather (and rain), encounters with the ponies, and dark nights with brilliant starry skies. This section was a highlight of my hike, and I hope you enjoy it.

Chris GallawayApril 20, 2013

Family

Experiences on the Trail are made richer by sharing them with people you love. That fact made this past weekend a highlight of my hike that I will carry with me forever.

Chris GallawayApril 17, 2013

Spring!

. . . we’ve had our share of winter weather on the AT this year. Even after I took a two-week layover in my hometown of Asheville this March, I returned to my hike and was greeted immediately by a heavy snowstorm.

Chris GallawayApril 17, 2013

Monuments

Many people come to the Appalachian Trail looking to leave a mark. They distinguish themselves by hiking faster or longer than others, by carrying the least amount of weight or the most, or more commonly by scrawling their name and message on the shelter walls . . .

Chris GallawayMarch 29, 2013

Mile 198.9: the Smokies

Episode 4 in the web film series documenting my 2013 thru-hike, this section of my hike was one of the most challenging passages due to winter weather and zero degree nights. Friends were dropping off the trail with frostbite, and I was pushed to my limits of comfort and safety. In the midst of it all, I encountered some of the greatest beauty and gifts that came on my hike. Hope you enjoy the journey!

Chris GallawayMarch 27, 2013

Mile 137.3: Last Chance

Episode 3 in the web film series documenting my 2013 thru-hike. In this section I began to find community on the Trail: a group of friends I walked with through some cold days and colder nights. A man going by the trail name "Last Chance" stopped by a creek one afternoon to snack on a Snickers bar and share his story with me. Last Chance would become one of my closest friends from the AT . . . I might not have finished my thru-hike where it not for his pivotal help in a terrible moment further down the trail.

Chris GallawayMarch 21, 2013

Winter on the Appalachian Trail (Seasons Film)

A video poem featuring the words of Robert Frost and images from the coldest days and nights of my thru-hike.

Chris GallawayMarch 5, 2013

Difficult Winter

Two weeks into the Trail I had fairly cemented my trail name for the journey, "Frost." It was meant to be an homage to one of my favorite writers, but it began to feel like tempting fate.

Chris GallawayMarch 1, 2013

Trail Magic

There are many hard days on the Appalachian Trail, days that end in a feeling of such thorough exhaustion that you can’t imagine going on and a gnawing hunger so deep you think it will never be vanquished. One of the secrets of the trail, though, is that the bottom-scraping lows make life’s luxuries all the more sweet.

Chris GallawayFebruary 28, 2013