Two possible methods of quitting

The thing with the AT, is that about 10% of people who start wind up finishing. Those odds are pretty slim. I'm sort of already in the 90% of people who won't finish (though I may in the future, I really like doing this, but 3 months at a time seems a lot more 'bite-sized'). So far I've met at least six people who have quit (probably more actually, I just don't know they've gotten off). Of those I can remember a few names, or at least trail names. These are Lil' Easy, U-Haul, and Tin Can. All were really nice guys who, for one reason or another, decided to cash out.

The other way to quit the trail--the coup de grace if you will--is of course to die. This happened recently to a 65-year-old guy named Phoenix. Phoenix had thru-hiked twice in the last six years, so he's not really a quitter per se, but he did in fact die in his sleep at Mt. Collins Shelter (4 miles south of Newfound Gap and the road to Gatlinburg) about a week ago. I met Phoenix a few weeks before at Low Gap Shelter about 4 days into my hike. He was, if anything, a grizzled sonofabitch and fairly proud of it. On top of completing 2 thru-hikes, he had been a Navy Seal, kayaked the entire length of the Mississippi and killed a man who attacked him with a knife while he was working as a UPS delivery guy ("He just fell on his own knife six times"). Phoenix used to talk about his time in the service and say things like "that doesn't make me a badass, a badass with a guy with a ski mask and a nail bat." Of course, the nail bat was interchangeable with any other sort of melee weapon (length of chain, baseball bat, 10-inch blade etc.) or small-caliber handgun. The ski-mask always stayed in the picture.

The other story I heard from Phoenix was a lot nobler. On his last thru-hike he was tented-out near a shelter when he and another hiker tented nearby awoke to screams for help. They both jumped out of bed and ran to the shelter only to find some asshole trying to rape a girl who was sleeping there. Phoenix subsequently set about pulling this dude off the girl and using his military training to beat the living shit out of him. Then he marched him a few miles off into the woods and dumped him there without his pack in the middle of the night. The girl was safe, Phoenix was the hero etc. etc.

Whether or not any of this is true is debatable. I like to think it is. I for one was pretty scared of Phoenix. One night I tented next to him and just before going to bed he told me he had once set fire to the tent of someone who kept him up at night while they were inside, and that I'd better be quiet as a mouse. Needless to say, I was.

So to you Phoenix I tip my hat and pour out some beer. Even though you'd probably just call me a pussy and put me in a choke hold for even talking about you, its still very sad that you've left the trail. But seriously, what a fucking way to go.