The hardest part is trying to look normal when your whole world is on fire.
That's why I like the woods, it's just so peaceful and so beautiful.
Peace. Peace of mind. That's all I ever pray for is peace.
It's legendary. It's a legendary trail. A legendary journey.
What makes the Appalachian Trail special? It's a personal experience, where it is man
against nature for 2186 miles
It's a big undertaking to, you know, commit yourself to sometimes up to six months and having to
rely solely on your feet. Five million steps.
It starts in Georgia, Virginia, then it comes up through New Jersey, New York, Vermont,
New Hampshire and into Maine. The most remote part of the entire trail is
the Hundred-Mile Wilderness between Monson and Mt. Katahdin Maine.
There are no houses, there are no roads, no cars. It's very rough terrain.
Four cheeses mash potatoes, candy bars, sunflower seeds.
I think I might have heard of it from one of the hikers originally was about this idea
of food drops in the middle of the wilderness. So that the hikers didn't have to carry so
much weight. I was doing drywalling and had all these five
gallon buckets and I came up with the idea of...
I could put the food in buckets and hanging buckets in a tree and make little maps to
tell them where to find their buckets. Saves them a lot of packing a lot of weight.
It is just rewarding, gratifying to be able to help people out in that way.
I am Ponytail Paul. I live in Dover-Foxcroft Maine, and I am fifty years old and I am considered
a trail angel.
It began with toys. Simple wooden animated pull toys and it just began to evolve. did more elaborate toys.
Business grew. It doubled every year for 10 years. I went from two employees to
four employees to eight employees to 16 employees and onward and onward and up.
I had a wife and two boys. A beautiful little house here in town.
Ummm you know a picket fence and the whole nine yards. I had my first flash back in church
and all of a sudden I just started shaking and
things kind of greyed out. It was the incubation and terror from a very
early age. I was just terrified of my father's wrath.
They call it the dilemma of the ruptured identity. What you have been is not true you and symptoms
start welling up flashbacks and made me really withdrawing from society and from life.
I sit in my shop just shake and cry. I had to file bankruptcy. I was penniless. Just living
in an abandon building. The sickness just over took me and I couldn't
talk to people and didn't know why. I started going out into the woods. It was
just a therapy for me help heal myself. The first hikers I help were elderly ladies
that just came off the trail and wanted a ride
and were standing on the side of the road with backpacks and I went to pick up and pack
and put it in and I was like "Oh, my god"
and they said ya we are thru-hikers and we are coming from Georgia
and we are going to Baxter State Park, Mt. Katahdin.
I began to meet people from all walks of life, all aspects you know different reasons
military guys who had come back from war. People going through divorce. People loosing
jobs. People just needed time to themselves.
Trail Magic in the middle of the hundred miles. I wasn't expecting that.
There is potato salad, there's cookies, there's donuts. The trails seems to draw out a power
that that's I know it's drawing out for me is to develop trust. To be able to trust in
people and they trusted me
I have seen change a lot of people's lives and very positive ways. Its change mine.
Helping Appalachian Trail hikers you know when they're going through difficult situations
I'm helping them but they are helping me same time
I am starting to find peace. Peace of mind.