One with nature: On Appalachian Trail, Lock Haven native Yale enjoys everything
PHOTO PROVIDED Lock Haven native Steve Yale, who lived in Lock Haven for 17 years and attended the former Lock Haven High School, sits on the edge of a cliff and takes in nature during his excursion along the Appalachian Trail. Yale, who was born in Williamsport in 1975, is hiking the Appalachian Trail in its entirety for the fifth consecutive year.
PHOTO PROVIDED Shown is a view along the Appalachian Trail. Lock Haven native Steve Yale, who lived in Lock Haven for 17 years and attended the former Lock Haven High School, is hiking the Appalachian Trail in its entirety for the fifth consecutive year.
PHOTO PROVIDED Lock Haven native Steve Yale, who lived in Lock Haven for 17 years and attended the former Lock Haven High School, takes a photo with horses grazing nearby during his excursion along the Appalachian Trail. Yale, who was born in Williamsport in 1975, is hiking the Appalachian Trail in its entirety for the fifth consecutive year.
PHOTO PROVIDED Lock Haven native Steve Yale, who lived in Lock Haven for 17 years and attended the former Lock Haven High School, sits on the edge of a cliff and takes in nature during his excursion along the Appalachian Trail. Yale, who was born in Williamsport in 1975, is hiking the Appalachian Trail in its entirety for the fifth consecutive year.
PHOTO PROVIDED Shown is a view along the Appalachian Trail. Lock Haven native Steve Yale, who lived in Lock Haven for 17 years and attended the former Lock Haven High School, is hiking the Appalachian Trail in its entirety for the fifth consecutive year.
PHOTO PROVIDED Lock Haven native Steve Yale, who lived in Lock Haven for 17 years and attended the former Lock Haven High School, takes a photo with horses grazing nearby during his excursion along the Appalachian Trail. Yale, who was born in Williamsport in 1975, is hiking the Appalachian Trail in its entirety for the fifth consecutive year.
Trending
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part two of a four-part series about Steve Yale, who was born in Williamsport and lived in Lock Haven for 17 years, who is hiking the Appalachian Trail for the fifth time.
There isn't a lot of luxury or comfort when on the Appalachian Trail. There's miles and miles of seclusion. Some terrain is hilly. Some is flat. You might encounter a peaceful stream nearby, or maybe a torrential downpour with no real shelter from the rain and cold.
It's just you, whatever you're carrying on your person in a backpack and, well, that's it.
Steve Yale, who was born in Williamsport in 1975 and later lived in Lock Haven for 17 years, knows all too well the sacrifices for comfort you make when you're hiking the trail. He doesn't have a comfortable air mattress or anything to sleep on. He just puts up a tent and sleeps directly on the ground.
"I sacrificed a lot of my comforts for my hiking. … I don't have a bed roll (something for my bag and body to be on)," former Lock Haven High School student Yale said on "Mighty Blue on the A.T." podcast. "I just go straight tent to the ground, I pile stuff underneath me like rain gear, but I'm usually so tired I just fall right asleep. I have no problems with my hips or back. I sleep better in the woods than when I'm back in the city at Texas."
Yale, by his own admission, is a tad superstitious when he's out on the Appalachian Trail. So he has his routines, which include talking to the trees and rocks, and thanking them for the oxygen and telling the rocks not to trip him.
Does it work? Yale thinks so, although he admits to falling a good amount.
Out on the trail -- be in it Georgia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania or up in Maine -- there's monotony to break up. That's why Yale occasionally will just walk backwards. It gives him a different view.
"Just to break up the day, have a different view. I mean, the trail gets kind of the same thing over and over, so anything you can do to break it up," Yale said on "Mighty Blue on the A.T." podcast. "Sometimes I close my eyes and walk and see how long I can stay on the trail before I go off."
It takes a while to get into a rhythm when hiking the trail. Yale found that out his first trek on the journey. Most hikers don't get comfortable with their trail legs until about 200 miles along the trail.
"I love the physics of hiking and the footwork. I play this trail like a fiddle with my feet," Yale told the Sun-Gazette. "I go lightweight so I can skip across rocks. It's like riding a dirt bike, except I am the bike."
But comfortable on the trail is a relative term, just ask Yale or anyone else who's hiked it. That's why Yale was unsure after that first excursion in 2019 if he'd hike it again.
It wore him down, not just from a physical standpoint, but mentally as well. After all, it's more than 2,000-miles from start to finish and takes months to complete across very tough terrain and mountain ranges.
"It was the most demanding thing I've ever done in my life. I can't believe I did 2,100 miles," Yale said on "Mighty Blue on the A.T." podcast. "I was under-funded, under-equipped, but a lot of stuff I made improvements on the next year."
"It takes a lot of dedication doing it multiple times because I know the pain and mental struggles of doing the trail, but I still do it over and over," Yale told the Sun-Gazette.
With how draining and exhausting it can be, it was a bit surprise just six months after he completed the trail in 2019, he was back in Georgia ready to hike it again for Round 2. But for Yale, he fell in love with the entire Appalachian Trail and the peace and challenges it can present oneself.
"It's all I think about in the offseason is the trail. I fell in love with so many parts of it. The people and the foot work, I really loved the mechanics of the foot work and challenging myself to see how much I could do," Yale said on "Mighty Blue on the A.T." podcast. "The views, its just a melting pot of reasons to do it. I find no reason not to go out and do it every year."
That's why this marks the fifth consecutive year he's hiking it on his way to the end of the trail in Maine.
The trail is an enormous task to take on, and one that many people quit less than halfway through.
But then again, Yale isn't like most people. He's one with nature and loves every step he takes on the Appalachian Trail.