Interview with Bill

Bill Krause, 64, owns an insurance agency in Troy, Ohio. He section-hiked four days of the Appalachian Trail through Tennessee with his nephews and a few family friends. Bill has been section-hiking on the AT for almost 40 years since he began in college. The interview took place at Saunders Shelter on the AT in Virginia.

Bill and his hiking group at Saunders Shelter. Bill is sitting second from the left.

How did you first learn about the Appalachian Trail?

I went to Manchester College in Indiana, and three of my friends decided we didn't want to do the typical spring break thing of going to Florida and going to the beach. And we said, “Let's go hike in the the the Smokies.” And so that's what we did. We went up, and we had all the wrong gear. We didn’t know anything. We rented a backpack from an outfitter. We had cast iron and the old Coleman stoves and canvas tents. We weren't prepared at all. But we just fell in love with hiking, not only in the Smokies but on the AT. That was in the spring of my freshman year, which would have been 1979, and we started doing it. Mostly the same group, four or five of us, and people float in and out. We probably did that for the next five to six years, three or four times a year, hiking in the fall, in the winter, spring, and summer.

What is your favorite part of hiking on the Appalachian Trail?

I think what I like the most about it and what has always drawn me back is the views, the nature. It's back to the Garden of Eden, right? You're back into nature. As opposed to the modern world. Nature without any of the influences and impacts of civilization. And there's an element of self-reliability, right? Because you can die out here, right? I mean, it happens. It's not like I'm not doing underwater cave exploration or something, but there's an element of thrill and adventure. But just being out here and sitting around a fire, looking at the stars, listening to the animals. This is what nature and creation is all about. 

The other piece is the camaraderie of the hikers and how everybody on the trail is so good. People come out here for a bunch of different reasons, right? Some of them come out to the trail as a spiritual experience, or they’ve had some important event in their lives. 

We met a guy named Michael, met him two nights ago, over at another shelter, right? And so we got to talking, and he's a mechanical engineer. He said, “I’m 38 years old, and my long-term girlfriend and I broke up. I hate my job, so I decided I'm going to walk the Appalachian Trail. My parents think I'm nuts. Everybody thinks I'm nuts.” And it was day 50 for him. He said he had to go up to Marion [a town in Virginia at mile 535 of the AT] and then go back to work because he was on a work leave. But he decided to quit and just keep walking. And then he said that when he finished the trail, maybe he would go and become a fireman. And it seemed like almost a spiritual epiphany for him. He starts at Springer Mountain as an engineer, and by the time he gets to Virginia, he wants to be a little kid again and become a fireman. I think that's what the trail does to you. I really do. 

You have been doing this for almost 40 years; what keeps you coming back to the trail?

It's just one of those things. It's the hardest, most miserable thing I've ever done that has brought me the greatest joy that I've ever experienced Maybe for some people, going up the mountains carrying 35, 40 pounds on your back isn’t that bad. I hate it. I absolutely hate it. I mean, I speak three languages, and I curse those stones in all three languages for hours. It’s not like there's just one bad stretch. As soon as it starts going uphill, I know what I’m in for. And I’ve been doing it for 40 years. And I still come back out here because all the pain, misery, and suckiness of the trail just wipes the slate clean.