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Comment by tdons | Hacker News Reader

The police poster mentioned "was only able to hike 10 miles a day".

Makes me think it's health related, 10 mi / day is absolutely abysmal for a normal thru hiker. Most aim to do that amount by 10 in the morning...

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I thought the same thing when they mentioned he was emaciated with food near by. I would rather die doing something enjoyable than sitting at a desk at work, so maybe a terminal diagnosis prompted his trek. I would assume they would have found most health issues in an autopsy, unless maybe it was something very unusual or difficult to identify after decomposition.

That doesn’t fit. You don’t discover you’re terminally ill and then brainstorm a game while you're out trying to find yourself. If you think you're terminally ill then your notebook is likely to be full of meditations on the day's endeavors and thoughts about your legacy, and your mortality, maybe even your family. You write about a game when you're nowhere near a computer, it's because you're imagining eventually being back at a computer. Or if you have the hubris to think someone will type your ideas into a computer and this game is gonna be your enduring legacy, then you write with an audience and try to tell people what they are reading -- not a private notebook.

But I think you're onto something. Non-terminally ill could be a different story.

This is almost certainly not what happened, being hyperspecific, but let me tell you a compelling possibility. If you were a programmer with a really mild form of epilepsy that was slowly getting worse and worse, you could imagine thinking that it was related to all of your time playing games and staring at screens, like you find that your eyes just kind of lock on a screen where action is happening and your heart starts beating too fast as your brain goes into overdrive processing too much action and you know you have to tear your eyes away but your eyes are not cooperating. Really uncomfortable and after a really bad episode you will probably feel like your brain is out-of-joint and any encounter with the wrong stimulus might send you back into an "acid flashback" type of situation. Possibly that sort of situation includes hiking for too long or so. Supposing you were of that mindset you might be thinking that this was environmental and, “I am going to get out in nature and these things will quiet down and I will plan my follow-up game." Mild recurrences on the trail are explained as just "no I haven't finished healing yet." Then triggered by heat and being lost and stressed in a Florida swamp, maybe you have another really big one. Zapping in and out of consciousness, maybe you don't have the mental wherewithal to figure out where you are and how to get to safety. Something like that.

Again, that particular scenario is deeply unlikely, but it shows off the basic features: he's writing in his notebook because he expects to return to work, he's taking an extended vacation in nature because he cannot stand to keep working in his current situation. Maybe.

I am really reluctant to post this, something about joining the internet's quest to solve this guy's case seems... I dunno. Fetishistic. I don't really have much to contribute except that I wish the scans were better so I could read this guy's notebook more clearly.

"That doesn’t fit. You don’t discover you’re terminally ill and then brainstorm a game while you're out trying to find yourself. If you think you're terminally ill then your notebook is likely to be full of meditations on the day's endeavors and thoughts about your legacy, and your mortality, maybe even your family."

That might work for some people, but everyone is different. It's possible he doesn't have a family, which is supported by there not being a missing persons report. If I didn't have a family, I probably wouldn't care about legacy, or musing on philosophical topics. I even told my wife that when o die she should donate my body to science, have them pay for the cremation, then spread my ashes in the garden.

The epilepsy example is quite solid. That would be something that may present in different ways without being apparent in an autopsy. It'd be a little odd that the woman he hiked with for a couple months didn't notice it if it was getting worse.

I don't think he's sick tbh. He looks like a lot of guys that I know within CS -- interested in video games and smaller, more technical subjects, very skinny because he forgets to eat, the beard/long hair because he doesn't care to shave, and these big solitary adventures. I know like 10 young men who all fit this profile.

Skinny is one thing, emaciated is something else. I'm not sure what explains how he became emaciated or the unknown cause of death, but being sick could be one explanation.

You're thinking of a person who is fighting the terminal illness. But not everyone chooses to fight, some choose to spend their remaining time doing something they want to do. It's quite possible for someone to decide the cost in suffering from fighting the disease isn't worth the extra time the fight would gain them. Note that this isn't from ignorance, those more medically knowledgeable are more likely to make such a choice.

The problem here is what would it have been that wasn't picked up in autopsy?

> "was only able to hike 10 miles a day"

Where is this quote from? It's not from the linked article.

> "10 mi / day is absolutely abysmal for a normal thru hiker."

To the best of my understanding, unless he flip-flopped, he was not a thruhiker as he started in NY. It is not clear either if he made his way south in a continuous footpath.

Moreover, even for a thru-hiker, the 10 by 10 gold standard of hiking does not apply for the majority of hikers on the A.T. It is true it is a gold standard on a well graded trails such as the PCT (well... not counting Sierra Nevada and North Washington), but it is not uncommon from what I've heard, even for thruhikers on the A.T to average 10-12 miles a day. Personally out of the triple crown of US hiking trails, I only thruhiked the PCT, but hiked other long trails where 15 miles/day can be a real struggle where as on the PCT I was able to do 25/day and sometimes more.

Also, it should be noted that he was found dead in Florida, which the Applachian Trail doesn't go through. He might have attempted the Florida Trail which goes through Big Cypress NP.

It's in an image so you can't text search :)

https://media.wired.com/photos/5fa04a3d8239757e365803ec/mast...

Bottom right under 'additional information'.

I had heard that the AT wasn't as well graded, but I wasn't aware the difference was this big, thanks!

I see now. I wonder if what Florida police took as 10 miles a day was in Florida or on the A.T. It probably makes for a big difference as the Florida Trail is much flatter and the terrain should be easier though I'm not sure the middle of the summer is the best time to hike it, and the heat + humidity could have slowed him down in different ways.

As to the A.T. — I think it's not just the grade that is to account for the low mileage but also that the season is not as narrow as on the PCT/CDT.

One of the photos shows him holding paper in a plastic bag. The headline mentions the Pinhoti Trail. It seeks to link the Florida Trail to the AT. It is far enough along to be a working route though there is still a lot of walking on paved roads.

http://www.pinhotitrailalliance.org/

Very interesting! The ECT (Eastern Continental Trail) links Pinhoti Trail with Florida Trail (through some road walking in Alabama) and further north part of Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia until Mt. Springer where it takes on the AT.

Given that he made it to Georgia on December 1st, and that the A.T runs through 76 miles of Georgia, if he made it to where he was found dead by foot along the ECT, the mileage breakdown from where he was last seen would be: 76 (Georgia A.T) + ~300 (port of BMT) + 335 (PNRT) + 220 (road walking in Alabama) ~1000 (FT until Big Cypress NP) = 1931 miles from December 1st 2017 until the day he died (in July 2018 I assume).

In total, we have at most 8 months (minus the days that have passed since his death), which are ~240 days. Most hikers will take a day off ("zero" as in zero miles) once a week or so, so that could make it 205 total hiking days. His average mileage in that case would be 1931/205 = 9.4 miles a day, which is very close to what his max mileage was reported to be!

Finding places to sleep would have a massive effect on how far he traveled in a given day. Unlike the west, pitching a tent beside the road is less an option. Partly the weather, partly the density of undergrowth and surface water, and largely the cultural unacceptability. A lot of time each day would go to finding places that looked good enough to work and avoid interference.

Right, you might have to pitch early or late to find a decent camping ground, but that would only apply the Alabama road walking part (which is 220 mile long and part of it goes through forests so it's even less). I still think that wouldn't change my rough calculation that could align with him continuing along the ECT.

Walking along the road with a backpack is more than enough to stop a deputy sheriff pretty much every where in the south. Areas in proximity to the AT are exceptional not typical.

I am not disagreeing with your theory. Just thinking about what walking is like in the south and how it differs from other parts of the US based on nearly a lifetime living there and meaningfully traveling the west in recent years.

Got it now. I wonder if it's likely that a deputy sheriff would keep a record of such encounter, during which I assume, they might ask a hiker to provide identifying details.

A hiker from Baton Rouge is less likely to be caught at unawares and more likely to talk through an encounter. Anyway the odds of someone making paperwork for themselves is pretty low in a chance encounter.

I'm thinking "thru-hiker" isn't really the right description of this guy. It feels to me like someone who was doing long distance hiking without regard for completing a trail.

> 10 mi / day is absolutely abysmal for a normal thru hiker

It depends on the weight of what you carry with you.

That's a good point. From the article:

"He did bring a giant backpack, which his fellow hikers considered far too heavy for his journey."

Nope, its absymal. I was carrying 45 pound full on winter gear loadout while thru hiking and I was getting 23 miles a day at going from 5k ft to 13k ft

This was without any real special training.

Or he was just chilling. While I've certainly done 20+ miles pr day hikes, I find it every bit as enjoyable doing 10 miles pr day where I can sleep in, take long lunch breaks, get sidetracked, and generally just enjoy my surroundings.

From https://truecrimesociety.com/2019/08/22/unidentified-and-mos...

> He wasn’t an experienced hiker (wore jeans the first couple weeks, didn’t carry maps/gps/phone, had a tent that was too big, carried a backpack that was over 50 lbs)

Also in the pictures without jeans he was wearing knee support, he might have just had arthritis or something like that.

The whole thing really reads as mental illness to me. I bet he had it under control for the most part, but things worsened as the trip went on.

One of the biggest reasons for quitting mental illness drugs is due to the feeling that everything is "OK", and they don't need them anymore.

This almost universally false, and as the drugs leave their system, things get progressivelly worse over time. The story fits this timeline really well.

And his mix of gear suggests someone lacking experience. I'm very used to seeing novices on the trails with a wide range of gear, mostly cheap stuff. By the time you get to the top of the highest mountain in this part of the state (class 1, 17mi RT with 1 mile of climb) almost everything you see except shirts is fairly high end.

10 miles is a lot if you're just getting into it and have a heavy pack. To suggest that only something extreme could cause that is naive. Could be limited by a minor foot problem.

Or maybe he just wasn't in a hurry, wasn't a hardcore trekker.

Not able, or not interested?

I don't understand how the average person cannot comprehend this. The point isn't to "hike far, fast"; it's "walk around, hang out in nature, maybe wind up somewhere new." Maybe he wanted to head out, push as far as he was able and willing, and then die. Maybe he was sick and tired of living and working in our shitty society. What's so hard to understand about that? Particularly with the cash he had on hand, which is exactly what I would do: clear out bank accounts and/or max out credit cards with cash advances, and then disappear forever with no expectation of dealing with a financial institution ever again.

The assumption that he must have died purely by accident is absurd; or, if not, that he must have been mentally ill. I could absolutely see myself doing this in another 5-15 years. There's so very little worth living for, but I learned 10 years ago I'm not willing to off myself in the ways people normally do. Heading out into nature and lasting as long as I can on my own seems like the workaround to "being ready to die", but "not willing to hang, shoot, or poison myself".

No, I don't need help. Tried the suicide route 10 years ago (very seriously, not as a call for help), and discovered that I'm not quite that fed up with life yet; and when I am, that's not how I want to go. This story is exactly the kind of method I'd use if the desire to fade from the world resurfaces.

I hope you stick around, mainly because I hope someone will say that to me one day. I mean it too.

Codezero I hope you stick around as well. From what I see in your profile the world is a better place with you in it!

Thanks cyco - appreciate that.

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