If you look up the length of the Appalachian Trail, you may find different answers.
There’s a reason for that, says Jefferson Countian John Leech, who hiked the entire length of the famous trail from March 3 to July 24.
“The trail is 2,197.4 miles this year,” he said. “It changes every year. They have to reroute the trail due to erosion or just general trail changes. Last year, they had tremendous rain that washed off parts of mountains. They had to reroute the trail for that.”
Leech, 56, of Festus said he had long dreamed about hiking the trail.
“I’ve wanted to walk it since I was in college, since I was 21,” said Leech, who retired from teaching at Windsor High School in Imperial in 2023.
“I told my wife I wanted to do it when I retired. She encouraged me,” he said.
His wife, Joy Hannel, is the chief legal counsel for the Missouri Court of Appeals-Eastern District.
“I’m very proud of him. It takes an incredible amount of physical ability and mental fortitude. I’m very proud he completed it. A lot of people start and not many finish,” Hannel said.
“They say anywhere from 20 to 25 percent who start the trail are successful,” Leech said.
He said he did some hiking to prepare for the Appalachian Trail, but those were far shorter than the big trail he conquered.
“This is the longest trail I’ve done,” he said. “I’d done a 60-mile hike on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, along the shore of Lake Superior.
“I work out a lot to try to stay in shape for general health and wellness. But, it’s really kind of hard to train for something like this.”
The Appalachian Trail runs from Georgia to Maine.
John Leech begins his journey at the Arch at Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia, which is the unofficial start of the trail.
“I started south – the official starting point is Springer Mountain in north Georgia, but the unofficial starting point is Amicalola Falls State Park, 7 miles south of Springer Mountain,” Leech said. “My wife drove me there and dropped me off (at Amicalola Falls State Park).”
He said there are more hikers on the Appalachian Trail than people would expect.
“You’d see people every day,” he said.
Leech said he made some friendships along the way, walking for long stretches with one particular hiker and periodically with another one.
“Everybody takes a trail name,” he said. “I walked with Strider, a guy from Minnesota, and Blaze, who was from Maryland. I only know them by their nicknames. I was Tigger because I wore a Mizzou T-shirt.
“I walked with Blaze quite a way, probably 400 to 500 miles. Strider would randomly show up.”
Leech dropped weight during his hike.
“I lost 26 pounds, from 188 to 162,” he said. “It was from the exercise and not eating as much. It’s hard to carry enough food to eat 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day to keep up your weight. That’s the ballpark figure for carrying between 30 to 35 pounds in your backpack.
“I shot for walking 18 to 22 miles a day. That’s the sweet spot, depending on the terrain, depending on how rocky or hilly it was going to be.”
Leech said Appalachian Trail hikers generally take along the same essentials.
“They talk about your big three – your tent, your sleeping system and your backpack,” he said. “I had these. It was March, so I had warm clothes. I also had a water-filtrating system. You’d stop at a creek and filter your own water.
“I also carried a stove, fuel and a first aid kit.”
Leech said he did not carry a firearm.
“That’s the No. 1 question I get. Should I take a firearm?” he said. “I’ll say no because you’re safer on the trail than anywhere else. I carried a knife.”
Leech said bears were not a concern, but there were other dangerous creatures to keep in mind.
“Rattlesnakes,” he said. “There are a lot of big rattlesnakes in Pennsylvania.”
He said he used his cell phone to keep in touch with his wife during the trip.
“You’d get cell phone service on the tops of mountains and the different high points pretty much every day,” he said. “I could at least text my wife and tell her I was safe and where I was.
“I could talk to her periodically. There usually wasn’t enough cell service to talk, but you could text.”
Hannel said she appreciated hearing from her husband during his trip.
“We would talk or text every day,” she said. “He would send a song to me through Apple music.”
Leech said he saw a lot of memorable places during the hike.
“My favorite spot was, hands down, New Hampshire,” he said. “The White Mountains were gorgeous. The trail there was challenging and it would take you above the tree line, where you could see for miles.”
Another interesting part of the trail goes through New York City.
“The trail takes you by Grand Central Station,” he said. “A guy hiking lives near there. He had us put up our tents on the roof of his building.”
Leech said the toughest part of his journey happened at the beginning.
“Early on, I wasn’t eating enough and got really weak,” he recalled. “But, I never hit a point where I wanted to quit.”
Leech encourages others to walk the Appalachian Trail, but cautions it is not for the faint of heart.
“You just walk,” he explained. “There is a fair amount of rock scrambling, like getting around a boulder. I think it’s achievable for most people. One of the guys I hiked with had had two knee replacements.”
That said, there are some difficult areas to traverse, Leech noted.
“There’s a place called Mahoosuc Notch (in Maine),” he said. “There’s no one way to get through it. You have to crawl under the rock. You take your pack off so you can fit.”
His wife and his daughter, Rachel, picked him up at the end of the trail at Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park in Maine. By that time, Leech had grown a fine beard.
It did not last long after Hannel saw it.
“The beard came off before I came home, as soon as I went to the nearest barber,” Leech said. “My wife was not a fan of that beard.”
Leech said he’s proud to have accomplished his major hiking goal.
“I had a great time. It was a wonderful experience,” he said. “That’s probably the last long hike I’ll take. I’d like to take some shorter ones.”
Hannel said she would like to accompany her husband on some of his future hikes.
“I would definitely go on some shorter backpacking trips with him,” she said.
Leech spent his entire 31-year career in education teaching English at Windsor High.