Family tackles 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail trek

The Skogman family of Dahlonega recently completed a major milestone in their outdoor adventures, using determination and teamwork to complete a “flip-flop” thru-hike of the infamous Appalachian Trail. The family of five completed their epic journey on December 2, 2022, and have a growing Youtube channel to prove it. The 186-day hike was not without unexpected challenges, as two members of the family faced leg injuries along the way, forcing last-minute changes of plan. However, Darrell and Joni Skogman kept on trekking alongside their three sons Jasper, Baxter, and Grayson as they persevered as a family and a hiking team.
Traditionally, thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail are given a trail name by fellow hikers at some point along the way, something that uniquely reflects their presence on the trail.
Darrell “Skipper” Skogman's nickname came pretty easily.
“I was ‘skipping’ school," he said. “I’m a high school teacher. I resigned in February [2022] and taught through May. And when school started back in August, I was not there any more. We didn’t finish [the A.T.] until December, so I missed that whole semester of school. And a skipper is kind of the leader of the group.”
The Skogmans set off on their trek much later than most, practically at the start of June, and so they had to adopt a different approach to thru-hiking the A.T. that is rapidly gaining popularity. It is known as a flip-flop thru-hike, and it is officially recognized as a valid method for completing the trail by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
“A flip-flop means you start somewhere in the middle,” said Joni. “… So we did New Jersey to Maine, rented a car, drove back to New Jersey, and then did New Jersey to Georgia.”
Weather plays a big factor in that decision.
“Had we started at Springer at the end of May  we wouldn’t have made it to Katahdin on the north end before winter,” said Darrell.  
Joni, who was given the trail name “North Star,” explained the significance of her moniker.
“Another thru-hiker gave me my trail name after just hearing our story,” she said. “The hike was pretty much my idea, so she kind of ran with that. She suggested North Star, and I really liked it. I provide the constant guidance for our family.”
Jasper, 15, who went by the trail name of Ninjasquirrel, is a black belt in karate. He’s also spotted a rare black squirrel while hiking.
Baxter, 13, who went by the trail name of “Texas Pete,” would be the only member of the family to begin the A.T. hike with a trail name already established. He earned it after an epic rock-paper-scissors battle over a package of hot sauce while hiking in the Smokies.
“We tied four times before I won it,” said Baxter. “And that’s where I got the Texas Pete name.”
“The crowd went mild,” Darrell added with impeccable dad-joke timing.
Grayson’s nickname, "Fish,"  probably came the easiest of the family members.
“I just swam a lot in the north, but then it got really cold in the south. So it was really just in the north that I swam,” the 11-year-old explained.
“Grayson swam in every river, stream, puddle, pond, and lake,” Darrell said.

GEARING UP

While planning for the trip, the Skogmans made a deliberate decision not to mail themselves a large amount of food or supplies to points along the way.
Darrell explained that doing so would have been much more of a financial burden for a family of five than for a solo hiker, due to increases in shipping costs. So they often bought food each time they reached civilization.
When asked whether the family pre-planned all of its overnight stays on the trail, Darrell said that they had a general idea where they would be staying most of the time, but that adjustments still had to be made on the fly.
“We would wake up in the morning, and we would know we were going to go probably about fifteen miles that day,” he said. “We would know most of the time kind of where we were headed. But we did like to hike that last hour of the day together, because sometimes we’d change the plan right there at the end: camp early, or go late.”
“Where we camped was often around a shelter, because that’s where the water source is. But if there are other water sources, we enjoyed just being on our own in the woods, not necessarily next to a shelter,” Joni added.
As for physical preparations that the family undertook prior to the start of their hike, Joni described it as a mix of their usual activity along with some targeted exercise.
“In the previous few years, we had done backpacking trips as a family. Like week-long to weekend trips. But we focused actually on weight-training the previous school year. So we were all doing some weight training and just being active through basketball, karate, wrestling, coming to the park and playing. So we stayed active, but the only kind of focused thing is we tried to do some weight training,” Joni said.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

When asked what it was like to hike the A.T. as a family unit rather than as individuals, Jasper was quick to respond.
“Well, Dad’s a math teacher, and we did the problem. There are five people, if everybody hikes with everybody else, how many combinations are there?” asked Jasper.
“120 is the answer,” Darrell replied.
“This came from some experience being on the trail. We said to the boys ‘hike ahead, but when you get to a road crossing or a trail junction you should wait. So that proved to be a pretty good rule for most of the north side,” Darrell added.
“We always tried to be aware of where the kids were, if they were in front of us, or behind us,” said Joni.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

The Skogmans admitted that their pre-trail planning had not been without flaws.
“The weight was a big thing,” said Darrell. “We had done several hundred miles of backpacking before we went on this hike. We pretty much had our gear how we liked it, but it proved to be too heavy for the Appalachian Trail. Day after day after day of 10, 15, 20 miles and you just can’t carry what we were used to carrying.”
"Little things can added up," agreed Jasper.
“You’re not backpacking on the A.T., you’re thru-hiking, and that’s something different,” he said. “So something that works 3-4 days, maybe a week, that can’t work when you’re living that for several months at a time.”
As a result, some items were sent home or switched out.
“You strip it down to the bare necessities,” Darrell said.
Unfortunately, injuries were another problem that would plague the Skogmans on their journey.
“Joni was the first injury, actually. Early on, in the first maybe two and a half weeks. Hers wasn’t nearly as bad as Baxter’s, but we were able with five of us to just take all the weight out of her pack. We ended up carrying her sleeping bag, some of her food, her clothes, her sleeping pad,” Darrell said.
“It was my left leg. I think it ended up being a severe muscle strain, or tendonitis,” Joni said.
Hiking shorter days and taking the weight off her back helped Joni’s leg to heal, enabling the family to press on.
But another even more serious leg injury would occur on the second half of the flip-flop, and this one threatened to bring the entire hike to a halt.
It was during a strenuous stretch between New Jersey and Pennsylvania that Baxter started to feel pain in his left leg.
“So I hiked on the hurt leg for 400 miles,” he said. “We got to Harrisburg, about halfway through Virginia, and we had to stop because it just hurt too much. We had an x-ray, and there was a stress fracture, a hairline fracture in my tibia, and I had to get off-trail with dad. Me and dad got in the van. And we shadowed those three while they kept on hiking the rest of the trail to Georgia.”
Amazingly, despite two members having to go off-trail, the injury did not stop the Skogmans from staying together and completing the journey as a family.
“We managed to camp, all five of us together, every night, from Harrisburg all the way home. Which was unexpected,” Darrell said.
Joni was equally surprised that Darrell and Baxter were able to develop a plan on the fly and execute it to perfection.
“We did not anticipate that,” she said. “We thought the three of us would probably be [camping by ourselves] overnight here or there, because there would’t be a road crossing, but we were able to meet up every night.”
Still, the rolling support of Darrell and Baxter found a way.
“Baxter and I could scout out where we would camp that evening and we would have food ready, and the van proved to be nice on a few morning when it was very cold or very wet, because most hikers will stay in a shelter but he was on crutches so we couldn’t get to a shelter. So we made it work,” Darrell said.

FUTURE ENDEAVORS

The Skogman family’s next hiking adventure is already a foregone conclusion.
“Baxter and I have an adventure ahead of us this summer,” said Darrell. “We’re going to go finish that 650 miles from Harrisburg south to Springer. Grayson wants to come along.”
But there’s more.
“Jasper, when we got back home, bought a Pacific Crest Trail map. It’s a 3,000 mile trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. I think the boys will probably do another long distance trail. This thru-hike’s free, but the next one you’re going to have to pay for,” Darrell said with a smile as he looked on at his children.
But Darrell has one other adventure still up his sleeve.
“Baxter is named for Baxter State Park, in Maine,” said Darrell. “So we’ve taken Baxter to Baxter. We’ve taken Grayson to Grayson Highlands State Park, that’s in southwest Virginia. But we have not taken Jasper to Jasper National Park in Canada. So Jasper National Park was on our list in 2021. And so we think that might be 2024.”
This idea gets an enthusiastic response from the boys.
“We’re kind of playing around with that idea. It’s in Alberta, Canada, north of Montana. Joni and I went there before the kids. But we haven’t been back, so that would be neat,” said Darrell  with a smile.  

You can keep up with the Skogmans and all of their hiking adventures by following their Youtube channel “Skogman Family - Hike on or be Hiked On,” or by viewing Skipper’s daily hiking journal at www.trailjournals.com/Skogman.