Walking the dog along the biggest of trails

On the longest “hiking only” footpath in the world, folks don’t answer to their real names.

They give each other nicknames. “Ironfoot” and “Skywalker” stick like mud to the soles of hiking boots.

Sometimes, the name tags make it to the end of the Appalachian Trail. Sometimes, not. The hikers don’t always make it, either.

Will Ransom is now at the halfway point of his 2,190-mile trail journey. He hit the 1,000-mile mark this past week, and expects to make it to the midway mark near Harper’s Ferry this weekend.

When he crosses into Pennsylvania, it will be his sixth state on a trip that began in late April. He recently rolled through a steep section, with few switchbacks, known as the “Roller Coaster.”

It’s not all downhill from here. Not by any means. The rise and fall of elevation from the southern terminus at Springer Mountain in Georgia to the finish line at Mount Katahdin, Maine, is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest more than a dozen times.

Will is a revolving door of nicknames. The young man from Unadilla, who turned 31 three weeks ago Sunday, is now on his fourth handle. Appropriately enough, the latest is “Ever Changing.” It has followed him for the last 500 miles.

Fellow hikers dubbed him “Hazard” after he clumsily burned his knees with boiling water trying to re-hydrate his food pouch. Before that, he was known as “Bear Spray,” a nickname he earned after accidentally dousing himself with a pepper spray chemical used to ward off aggressive black bears.

“At the beginning of the trail, people called me ‘Shepherd,’ ” he said, laughing. “It was raining, and I had on a poncho. I guess I looked like a shepherd, with my dog and walking stick.”

The dog.

The dog is what makes Will’s story unique and newsworthy enough to be featured in a recent issue of the American Kennel Club magazine. He is making the trip with his best friend, Rhetta, an Australian cattle dog who will be 7 in November, one month after they hope to reach the end of the trail together.

About 3,000 hikers annually attempt to “thru-hike” the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Only about one in four finish, and an almost infinitesimal number try to complete the 14-state trek with a dog. Some bring along their pets for “section” hikes, but few go the distance with an animal.

“She is what sets me apart,” said Will. “Everyone always remembers the dog and not me.”

This has been a lifelong dream. When Will was 9 years old, his father, Jack Ransom, took him and his older brother, Joshua, hiking on the 79-mile Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail.

Will was bitten by the trail bug. After graduating from Fullington Academy in Pinehurst in 2004 and attending Darton State College in Albany, he took a job at UPS in Unadilla. He stayed close to home to help his family care for his grandmother, Audrey Ransom, who passed away late last year.

For years, he planned and collected supplies for his hike. By spring, he quit his job and began preparing for his great adventure. At the top of his packing list was Rhetta, who has herded cows on his parents’ 20-acre farm in Dooly County and whose father, Clutch, has been a family pet for 14 years. (Will named her Rhetta, a shortened variation of the spelling of country singer Loretta Lynn.)

“I don’t think there was a moment when he would have considered not taking her,” said Joshua. “The dog goes everywhere with him. She is his buddy, and there is an incredible bond between them. She is a great source of company and support.”

Rhetta weighs 43 pounds – about the same as Will’s backpack – and has her own trail name, “Foxy Lady.” She is on a leash when they are walking the trail and sleeps at Will’s feet in his one-person tent at night under the stars.

There are portions of the trail where dogs are not allowed. Will has already finished one of them – a 70-mile stretch near the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His father caught up with him and took care of Rhetta until they were reunited three days later.

Will admits the difficult trail would be less challenging without a fur baby in tow.

But, without walking the dog, the journey would have ended before it began.

“If she wasn’t going, I wasn’t going,” Will said. “We do everything together. There definitely was an adjustment period at the beginning. For me, it was carrying all that extra weight. For her, walking up a mountain is different from back home in Georgia.”

He began his hike on April 20, and there have been the ongoing tests of weather, terrain and physical demands. In early June, he spent 13 days at a trail hostel recovering from severe shin splints. He recently had a close encounter with two bears. Rhetta barked while he threw rocks and shouted to drive them away. He also came to the rescue of a fellow hiker in Shenandoah National Park who became severely dehydrated and suffered heat exhaustion along a 13-mile stretch without water.

His parents, Jack and Judy, have met him at several points on the trail to re-stock him with food and supplies. As he travels farther from Georgia, those rendezvouses will become less frequent, and his family plans to mail supplies to drop points along the trail.

This past weekend, Jack and Joshua drove to Virginia to visit Will. They took a watermelon from neighboring Cordele, the “watermelon capital of the world.” Will stuck it in his backpack and carried it 11 miles to an overnight shelter, where he shared it with his fellow hikers.

“It looked like he had a bowling ball in there,” Joshua said, laughing.

Although there won’t be a pot of gold – or a watermelon — at the end of the trail, Will said his experience has been “eye-opening” and ‘’life-changing.”

“It makes you look at the world differently,” he said. “You appreciate everything more, like water. On the trail, you have to get it out of springs, and you have to walk miles to get it.

“It’s enlightening. It changes your outlook. You don’t judge people. There are multiple life lessons daily, and I expect a ton more before I get done with this. What you get from the trail is way better than what it takes from you physically to do it.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2017 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Walking the dog along the biggest of trails."