
Mark Kelley, aka Wayward, at the Appalachian Trail signpost at northern end of 100 Mile Wilderness on June 11th.(That clean blue jacket, hat, and white pants would soon get a lot dirtier.)

165 later on November 23rd, Wayward popping the cork on a bottle of champagne to celebrate the completion of an AT southbound thru-hike. (the blue jacket and hat survived. The white pants did not.)
Mark Kelley (trail name “Wayward” successfully thru-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, southbound from Maine to Georgia, the opposite direction of most attempting a thru-hike.
Here are some quick facts about the adventure:
- Hiked 2,175 Appalachian Trail miles from Maine to Georgia
- Started at Mount Katahdin on June 11th and finished at Springer Mountain, Georgia November 23
- Journey lasted 165 days total
- Averaged 13.2 trail miles per day
- The first 275 miles of Appalachian Trail in Maine took 39 days (7 miles / day)
- 550 miles of Appalachian Trail in Virginia took 30 days (18.3 miles / day)
- Finished the trail with 10 consecutive marathon days (26 miles / day) – also read, ready to be done with it
- About 250 hikers to attempt the southbound thru-hike that season. Wayward was the 65th hiker passing through the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) in Harper’s Ferry, WV, and about the 16th to finish at Springer
- Cost for the trip, including airfare to Bangor, ME from Raleigh, NC, was about $5,500 (Waiting on full cost analysis)
The dates, miles and ordering don’t have significance, but I wanted to show the scale of the southbound experience.
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Wayward’s southbound thru-hike was completed solo, but he hooked up with numerous hikers and hiker groups along the way.
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