Welcome to Field Notes!
If you are reading this on Sunday October 19, 2025, or thereafter, it means that I have finally been able to set out on a thru hike of the Bartram Trail. Otherwise, I would have retracted this and offered you something else for today.
After I hiked the Foothills Trail in May 2024 I became committed to the idea of thru hiking long trails (50+ miles). There is something profoundly transformative in the simple fact of starting a trail at one location and following it to its conclusion at another. Maybe it is a metaphor for life itself, just in the fact of not going back to the start. These are travels through the land, to be sure, but also journeys of the spirit. Pilgrimages, really.
I set my intention on the Bartram Trail next, due to its proximity to home and reasonably accomplishable length. I won’t have to quit my job to be able to hike this one.
So, I planned to do this in September of 2024. Ultimately, I cancelled the trip a day before because of Hurricane Helene. I did that because the hurricane was projected to go straight through my hometown. I would not leave my family to deal with that without me there. However, as I sat at home relatively unaffected, Helene ravaged Appalachia, tearing directly through the path I would have been hiking. The decision to cancel realistically might have spared my life.
The aftermath of Helene was somewhat settled by the spring of 2025. I again planned to do the Bartram at the end of March and beginning of April. This time, a week before, a large wildfire erupted in the Warwoman Wildlife Management Area through which the trail travels. That section was shut down and there was no reasonable alternate. Fortunately, I was able to find an alternate trail to hike and did the 60 mile Georgia Loop instead.
And here we are. October 2025. As you read this I’m finally on the trail, or at least en route to start it.
William Bartram (1739-1823) was a naturalist and artist. He accompanied his father, a botanist, on an exploratory trip to the American Southeast in 1760. He then returned to further document and explore the region between 1773 and 1777. The Bartram Trail is a 112 mile long trail that is a close approximation of the path he took on part of this endeavor in 1775.
Bartram later wrote about this journey in his book Travels, published in 1791. This work was important in several ways. First, his trip took him through the territory of the Cherokee people and he encountered them along the way. These Cherokee villages were still recovering from losses in the French and Indian war and Bartram saw evidence of this in the form of native graves in the area. Then in 1776, after Bartram’s journey, the villages were utterly destroyed in the American Revolutionary War. His book serves as the only written description of these native towns and the appearance of the lands around them as they were cultivated by the Cherokee.
Bartram’s book is significant from a literary perspective, as well. It has been described as creative non-fiction, and heralds the Romantic era in art. In Europe his work influenced William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In America he can be viewed as a precursor to Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, and others.
I claim nowhere near the skill and accomplishment as these writers, but I would like to think that my own writing follows in this same tradition, founded by William Bartram. And now I hike a path very close to his own route, though a land I grew up with and that in some way I consider my own. I expect this to be a journey of deep personal connection.
The Bartram Trail is officially 112 miles long. However, it ends at the top of Cheoah Bald, NC. So, you must choose your own adventure of how to get down from that mountain to where ever you chose to park your car. For me, that’s an additional 8 miles along the Appalachian Trail to the Nantahala Outdoor Center. 120 miles total.
I upgraded some of my backpacking gear from last year, but much of it is the same as what I took on the Georgia Loop. The difference here is in the camera gear. For my main camera I will only bring the lens mounted on it. It is an 18-135mm lens, so gives me a good bit of focal length range, but isn’t as fast as my 50mm prime lens. I will carry an extra power bank, though, and need to offset the weight. Rather than bringing my GoPro, I will take quick pics and maybe some video along the way with my iPhone.
For anyone interested in the specifics of my gear, you can check it out HERE.
I have trained for this trip. Normally I alternate rucking and running on my endurance days, but for the past month it has been all rucking. Not crazy long miles, though. I feel like I maintain a fairly high aerobic base and there is a point of diminishing returns with endurance training. I did add a lot of weighted lunges into my strength training. The goal was to induce soreness and stiffness in the legs, while then being able to still walk with weight on consecutive days. I’m about to find out how effective this was.
As always, these trips are journeys of insight and philosophy, as well. Over the past few months I’ve done a deep dive into the works of Cicero, including On Duties, On Moral Ends, and Stoic Paradoxes. His insight will be fresh in my mind.
More recently, I read Seneca. On the Shortness of Life, On Tranquility of Mind, On the Happy Life, and On Providence all stand out. But I need to re-read them. Those works need more than a quick once over to fully absorb.
Among other things I’ve read recently and will be reflecting on as I walk, this essay from
on Savage Stoicism is a gem. Stoicism in austere environments, as we seek challenge and discomfort in the wild, in the face of real risk and danger- this is a flavor of Stoicism that resonates with me. Sam finds parallels between Stoicism and the mindset of traditional hunter gatherer peoples. That is an important reflection as I consider the history of the Cherokee people in these lands I will travel through. I encourage you to read his essay here-
Finally, Several of you generously contributed some trail magic towards my thru hike of the Bartram Trail. While the first two attempts didn’t work out, your support still helped with some of the supplies below. I used one of these meals on the Georgia Loop and now the rest will finally contribute to my Bartram Trail effort! A special thanks to-
And others who prefer to remain in the shadows!
I’m very grateful and extend my sincerest thanks!
Guys, this was a scheduled post, meaning I’m not at my computer or able to check my phone. I sincerely appreciate your comments, but I’m not sure when I’ll have an opportunity to reply. If I can I will post some notes from the field this week. If you don’t have the Substack app with Notes, I recommend it! I will schedule a post from the archives for next Sunday and hopefully it won’t be long after that I can start offering the adventure story of this trip.
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Sounds like a great hike. I saw you have a notebook with you. Do you find time to reflect as you hike? Do you mentally write these essays as as you walk and write them down in the evening?
Hooray! I hope the trail magic contribution bought you a warm and yummy meal!