First Impressions of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

With forty pounds of camping and hiking gear strapped to my back, I began reconsidering what had delivered me to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Watching sweat pour from my best friend’s head, I can see he is considering the same thought.

Standing in this space, outside of my car, took months of planning and scheming, but it all began with a red envelope from Netflix.

I don’t know what made me add Into the Wild to my Netflix queue. As a Pearl Jam fan, perhaps I learned Eddie Vedder contributed to the soundtrack. As a fan of Sean Penn’s work, maybe I wanted to see the product of his work as a director. Whatever drew me to this film, I would never be the same.

It might sound hyperbolic, but this is one of those films that changed the entire course of my life. It opened the door to the idea of moving to Seattle. It planted seeds for an idea that would morph into an attempted thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. It made me deeply question society and what I wanted out of life. It also gave birth to an unforgettable road trip stretching from Oklahoma to the Smoky Mountains to Washington, D.C. to New York and back home again.

As soon as the credits rolled, we began scheming. It was instantaneous. Over the next few days, we devised a plan. We wanted to get…