Pour Me A Story, Vol. 41
feat. Mikey Kerwin, perfect strangers and more
greetings friends, and welcome back to Pour Me A Story. we’ve got a doozy in store this week, which is great for me because it lessens the self-inflicted pressure on me to write.
this week was the first full-time week of my new role and the amount of new information I’ve consumed over the past four days has my brain feeling like a soaked sponge which is somehow also on fire? I even had my customary “second-Tuesday-in-a-new-role” meltdown, wherein my overwhelmed and imposter-syndrome-heavy self decides there’s absolutely no way I can do this role, no way in hell, and that the hiring manager has made a huge mistake.
in saying that, at least this time I recognized it (last time it happened, I sent my brand-new manager a Slack message at 6pm questioning the wisdom of my hire) so…growth, right? suffice it to say, the rest of Tuesday and the week has panned out just fine and I’m slowly but surely figuring it out.
Anyway, We Have Company
this week’s guest is a good friend of mine from Denver who’s been mentioned a couple of times in these pages, most recently 10 editions ago in Vol. 31. Mikey Kerwin is a New York native who befriended me on Pride weekend in 2017, mere weeks after I moved to the Mile High City, and then became my boss the following spring at Capitol Hill Tavern, may it rest in peace. Mikey spent more than half of 2021 on the Appalachian Trail, working his way from Georgia to Maine on foot and in the woods. I’ve been excited to talk to him about it for the newsletter, and here it finally is.
AC: you just got done hiking the Appalachian Trail, which is around 2,190 miles from end to end. for all those reading along at home, where did the idea come from and how did you go from ostensibly a regular life to "hiking for six months?"
MK: The idea to hike the AT essentially came about from a desire to get in shape, boredom and age. I realized pretty early in the pandemic I had to do something to keep the weight off, and I was going to get back into running like I had years ago. But I was carrying more weight than I had in the past, and running was really killing my knees. I began throwing my backpack on with some water and maybe a snack and just walking the trails throughout Denver for hours. Fives miles, then ten, to a few months later doing 30. At that point I was thinking “what now?” I was intrigued reading about thru-hiking the AT not because of my love of the outdoors, but because statistically they say only 25% of the people who attempt it will finish. I wanted the challenge.
AC: what's it like to be alone on a journey like that for days and weeks at a time? did you find yourself wanting to fill the silence or relish it?
MK: -The silence and the solitude was quite frankly amazing. It certainly was strange at first, but I got use to it quite quickly. A year of Covid isolation before most likely made the transition easier. I often found myself in the “hiker’s stare,” where I may be sitting eating a snack, just staring into the abyss, literally thinking about nothing. It’s a strange, beautiful feeling.
AC: a couple months ago we spoke about your top five meals on the trail, and I know there must be a revised list post-hike. what were the ultimate eats along the way?
MK: The basic diet for thru-hikers is “see food.” See food, eat it. Unfortunately, for a lot of people including me, that diet is really not good for you. Go-to food that you crave is essentially terrible for you in any other setting. Give me all the sugar and fat. Coming into a town to resupply, I wanted cheeseburgers and donuts and bbq. And the amount of soda I drank was gross. One day in two hours I drank three 30oz Gatorades and three 20oz sodas. That’s roughly 1,500 calories in liquid, and I lost 30lbs. My ultimate craving was grape soda, and I don’t know why. I had one early in my hike and from that point on went out of my way to find it. Before the hike I don’t think I had a grape soda in the last 20 years.
AC: in that same vein, I have a really bad short-term memory for things I do day to day. did you keep a log or a journal or anything as you went? what were the stand-out moments on the AT for you?
MK: As far as journaling, I kept a daily mile log with a note or two for about 1900 miles, then I just gave up because I really didn’t care. Writing “20 miles” again just seemed pointless. I will probably regret not documenting it more, but as of now everything is pretty fresh. You hike through 14 states, so anytime you cross a border I would consider it a highlight. There is a sense of accomplishment, even after only hiking 90 miles and hitting North Carolina. At that point you still have over 2000 miles to go, but it’s a great feeling hitting the border.
That being said, getting to Harpers Ferry is a huge highlight. Though not quite halfway, it is somewhat if the “mental halfway” because you finally get out of Virginia, which has the most miles of any state at 550. When you hit HF you have gone over 1000, and it’s quite a feeling. There were many other highlights, but nothing really compares to getting to the White [Mountains] of New Hampshire. For months you hear about the beauty of the mountains combined with the difficulty of the terrain, and wonder if you will make it there, and how tough it will be. Then you hit the summit on these mountains above tree line and take it all in. It’s a feeling that’s difficult to describe.
AC: obviously the world has been in a fuckin’ pickle for a while now. what was it like to be relatively disconnected from it, and popping back in and out every few days (either in the real world or when you had cell service)?
MK: The break from the “real world” and the news that comes with it was really unbelievable. Even if I happened to have service somewhere in the woods, I may catch myself checking some news only to put my phone away because I just didn’t care. After 5 1/2 months, everyone is still arguing about all the same shit, and it really seems like no progress has been made in many aspects of life. Realizing and accepting this makes it a lot easier to continue ignoring a lot of things.
AC: what was the thing you missed the most while you were on the trail, and what do you miss most about the hike now that you're finished?
MK: I would say the thing I missed most while hiking was putting on dry shoes in the morning. It rained basically the entire month of July, and even if there was a day when it didn’t rain, you feet would get soaked hiking on the trail regardless. It’s funny, but I will never take putting on dry shoes every day for granted. As for what I miss about the hike, I would say the simplistic life. Wake up, eat, hike, eat, hike some more, make camp, eat, go to bed. The only thing you consistently think about is “how many miles am I doing today?” You even stop checking the weather, because there is no point. You are hiking regardless, and it’s always wrong anyway, so why even worry about it? If it rains, it rains. If it’s hot, it’s hot. I walked through a lot of thunderstorms. You just put your head down and keep pushing, because there is really no other option.
AC: have you had to wean yourself off walking dozens of miles a day? surely it's gotta be impossible to go truly cold turkey.
MK: I got my mom’s in Syracuse two days after I finished. It proceeded to rain for three days and was kind of losing it being cooped up. By the end of day three, the weather cleared and I walked three miles to grab some food and three back just to get out of the house. I am not sure if I was even hungry. I just looked at my mom and said “I gotta get out of here.” The next day I went to visit a buddy from high school, who lived 11 miles away. I just walked it. No mountains, just a flat 11 miles, was almost an appetizer for what I had been doing. So to answer your question, I have not been able to go cold turkey. It’s now been 12 days since I finished, and I am ready to get back out there.
AC: the weekly guest gets to nominate the song of the week, something you've been jamming to lately or your most-played track on the trail, or whatever you like really.
MK: song of the week, “Wolf Like Me,” a cover song by Lera Lynn w/ Shovels and Rope. The original is by TV on the Radio, and both are excellent, but Lera Lynn’s version I found at some point on the trail and it became a staple. “My mind has changed my body’s frame, but god I like it.”
AC: last but not least, this is where you get to plug something. again it can be anything you like: something meaningful to you, or a great sandwich you ate recently, or whatever. sky's the limit!
MK: I currently do not really have anything to plug, so I am going to plug the New York Knicks. For once it appears like they have a competent front office and are trying to build off their playoff appearance from last year. For the first time in years I am not embarrassed to say I am a Knicks fan.
Worthy Consumables
sometimes I wonder what it’s like to work in Hollywood, or TV production at the very least. I mostly wonder this because it feels as though we’re on a content treadmill where so much of the scenery remains the same. so frequently we’re watching movie remakes, reboots or retellings, with nary an original idea among them.
this is probably why, when Alex and I sat down to watch a new serial drama on Hulu last weekend, it felt incredibly familiar from the title theme onwards. back in episode 15, in the relative infancy of this newsletter, I talked about big-budget title sequences in TV series, and the one we were shown felt almost as though we’d seen it before.
the TV show in question is Nine Perfect Strangers, based on a Liane Moriarty novel of the same name. it stars Nicole Kidman, which combined with the high-production-value title theme to remind us of the last series we watched her in, The Undoing on HBO. and now that I look up the name of the author who wrote the source material here, I learn that she also wrote Big Little Lies, a third Kidman vehicle which also appears on HBO.
anyway. it centers around the titular nine perfect strangers, who all are invited to a wellness retreat in (ostensibly) the California wilderness. Kidman plays the Russian owner/director/grand pu-bah of the retreat, and from the jump you realize that Something’s Not Quite Right.
episodes are releasing weekly and I think it’s five episodes in, but I’m still on the fence about it. it’s somewhat predictable, and very dramatic. but this is a wishy-washy recommendation because I don’t know whether I like it, but I’m intrigued to find out what the fuck is going on with it. talk about a ringing endorsement!
Parting Note
Mikey was good enough to provide the YouTube link to his song choice of the week, which saved me a couple clicks at 9:15pm. what a guy!
thanks as always for coming along for the ride this week, pals. I hope your weekends are full of great stuff, and I’ll catch you next Friday.
— adrian ✌🏻
I'd love to hike the AT. I've done some small segments in my neck of the woods but would absolutely love to plan and hike the whole thing. Great interview!