I was so pathetic

Brian Edward Keenan

Sep 12, 2024 • 6 min read

I was wearing cotton tube socks! See those boots by the fire? Those are mine. They got a bit burnt.

I was 12 on my first backpacking trip - a 50-miler with Troop 676, Essex, Vermont. It was on Vermont's Long Trail, from North Adam's Massachusetts to Peru, Vermont. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that first year (1984.)

1985, however, was a different story. I started that year with Troop 676's 50-miler, continuing from where the troop had finished the year before. We started off in the rain.

I think I'm the one squatting down the lowest

That's me at Lost Pond Shelter, June 1985. It finally stopped raining!

I was 13, and though I had one 50-miler under my belt, I had much to learn. That's me roasting my socks on a stick over the fire. How pathetic.

I was just a skinny lad, never knew no good from bad, but I knew dry socks were better eternally..... (Greenwall shelter, 1985)

The Long Trail in Southern Vermont, for the first 80ish miles, is pretty tame. There are a few mountains, but there's a lot of ridge walking, bogs, and ponds.

I thought I was a stud. Look at me holding up the roof up! Minerva Hinchy Shelter, June 1985

Who you Gonna call? Ghost Busters! Tucker Johson Shelter, June 1985. If I remember correctly, that was a ski gate pole I was using as a hiking stick. Can't remember if I picked that up on this trip, or one of the training hikes prior to that trip.

The comradery of that trip sticks firmly in my mind. I vividly remember doing pull-ups from the rafters of Governor Clement shelter, intentionally pausing with my butt inches from the face of one troop mate seated on the top bunk to pass gas. I also remember the scene arriving at this shelter. We surprised two co-ed college students nude sunbathing on the lawn! They quickly packed up and moved along!

Govenor Clement Shelter, June 1985. I can still picture that pair of co-eds scurrying off!

Govenor Clement shelter was also famous for its outhouse. The famed "gazebo" was a 2-holer!

This trip included the first "real" mountains on the LT - Pico and Killington peaks. I vividly remember sitting at the table at Cooper Lodge eating lunch after finishing Killington when an Appalachian Trail hiker stopped by to eat his lunch. At this point I was feeling pretty cocky, having just conquered the second highest peak in the state. That is until I overheard the AT hiker openly contemplating completing the rest of the LT as a "side trail." A SIDE TRAIL! And here I was, thinking I was a stud, only to find this unassuming hiker was hardly breaking a sweat, doubling what I'd done, and had been doing it day-after-day for months. Holy crap! Wake up call for Brian!

Killington Peak from Pico Camp, June 1985

Ken Smullen and Larry Kurfis - two of the adults with us on that 50-miler - changing shoes following the completion of the trip. June, 1985.

The 1985 50-miler was the first one my dad accompanied me on. After he observed how much I took to it, he decided to relive his youth with me. While he had done several portions of the LT in his younger years, he had never completed it. Over the course of several weekends in the summer and fall of 1985, he and I pieced together the remaining ~150 miles. I signed our posts in shelter logbooks as the "Keenan Express."

The "Keenan Express" leaving for one of our trips, 1985.

I still have that pack - but it's now relegated to wall decoration. Doesn't fit nearly as well anymore for some reason!

My trusty pack and prized sleeping bag - now just wall decoration

This pic is from one of the father-son LT excursion weekends. It was taken on top of Prospect Rock. I am retying my boots after treating blisters. Look at how thin and pathetic my sleeping pad was. No way in hell I could use that thing today!

This is me on Laraway Mountain looking south. That's Mt Mansfield in the distance. 1985. Don't I look like a homeless vagabond?

This is me on top of Jay Peak, looking south, 1985

This is me at Shooting Star shelter, just shy of the Canadian border, 1985. Dude! Cut that hair!

This was our first trip to the northern terminus of the Long Trail (the Canadian border.) September 3, 1985. We would finish the remaining sections of the trail in October.

This is me awaiting pickup at trails end, 1985

My dad and I finished the Long Trail for the first time that year (1985.) We went together on Troop 50-milers again in 1986, 1987 and 1988. We did a 170ish mile trip from North Adams, Mass to Appalachian Gap the summer of 1986. We followed that up with a 90ish mile trip from Appalachian Gap to the Canadian border in 1987 to finish the Long Trail for the second time. We would go to Philmont together (but on different crews) in 1988. We didn't do the troop 50 miler together in 1989 because I returned to Philmont to spend a month on Trail Crew. (Click here for a write up on that adventure.) We would do one last trip together the summer of my Junior year of college thru-hiking the Northville-Placid trail in New York. (The writeup for that adventure is the bookend to this article. Click here to read more.)

My dad wanted me to know that our backpacking time together was his gift to me. It was something he specifically wanted to do because his father never made time to do it with him. I can't thank my dad enough. Those hundreds of miles together cemented in me a love of backpacking, self-reliance, confidence, and self-worth. Though his body can no longer do it, his spirit is still with me every trip I take. Thank you dad.

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