Not everyone who loves the Appalachian Trail hikes all 2,190 miles of it. A writer on The Trek has spent years chipping away at the trail in sections, but 2024 hasn't cooperated — hip pain for most of the first half of the year kept both him and his wife, Nightingale, off the trail entirely. His verdict on himself is cheerfully self-deprecating: he's a "SHAT" — Someone Who Sometimes Hikes the Appalachian Trail.

That might sound like a story about giving up. It's the opposite. Inspired by reading about a hiker called Grey Beard who finished the whole trail at 91 — for the second time — he's still working toward completing it his way, one section at a time. Realism, not quitting.

The year wasn't a total write-off. On the annual family trip to San Francisco to visit their daughter, the couple detoured to Lassen Volcanic National Park and Mount Shasta in Northern California, and got real hiking in — even passing close to where the Pacific Crest Trail runs under Interstate 5, though they saved that one for another day.

Now, with medical appointments behind them, there's a plan to squeeze in a short AT hike before the snow. And this one comes with a twist: instead of resuming his own route at the Tye River in Virginia or Duncannon, Pennsylvania, he's repeating familiar miles with family. His son Matt is coming along, bringing 12-year-old grandson Lucas — trail name "Treacherous," earned years ago for his fondness for the rockiest, muddiest parts of day hikes. This will be Lucas's first proper AT experience: an overnight trip staying in shelters, starting at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia — the same spot where both his father and grandfather began their section hikes back in 2019. Nightingale will even camp a night with them, bringing what every trail family needs: trail magic, home-made edition.

It's a sweet reminder of something hikers know well — the trail doesn't have to be a thru-hike to count. A long weekend in Maryland with your grandson can be just as much a part of the AT story as six months northbound from Georgia. As the writer puts it, borrowing from Mark Twain: there has never been an uninteresting hike. There's always drama, plenty of comedy, and hopefully only a bit of tragedy.

For anyone intimidated by the idea of "doing the AT," this is the takeaway. Section hiking, family hikes, repeating miles with a beginner — it all counts, and Harpers Ferry makes a superb jumping-off point for a first taste of the trail.