Pat Paton Facebook
On Wednesday, 25 March 2020, just before dark, I walked the ¼ mile in to the North Dugger Mountain Shelter. I cleaned up only a couple handfuls of trash, photographed the logbook pages, and headed out. I was dragging out a long, torn, jagged sheet of roofing steel which had been deposited by some past tornado. From the gathering darkness came Pat. A few minutes of conversation yielded that Pat was hiking the Eastern Continental Trail from Key West, Florida, to Cape Gaspé, Canada - For The Second Time. He offered to help me drag the metal out. We ended up splitting a motel room in Piedmont, helping John Calhoun trim the Pinhoti from FR523 southbound towards the US78 / Railroad Trailhead, resupplying in Heflin, and returning to Dugger Thursday. He was a great guy, interested in not just hiking the trail, but in helping with the trail work and meeting the Pinhoti volunteers.
Pat grew up in Saint Louis, Michigan, but spent his adult life in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
It was important to keep to his schedule so that he would be near his home to take a break on a certain date - to help the United Methodists on a Relief Trip.
In late 2016 and continuing in 2017, he walked north from Key West, knowing nothing about the Eastern Continental Trail, Florida Trail, Pinhoti Trail, or etcetera. Somewhere along the way, someone told him a bit about the ECT, and now and then he would find the trails and follow them. He had no maps, guides, etcetera, so finding the Pinhoti was a hit or miss deal for him then. He didn't quite make it to Canada in 2017, and finished in fall of 2019.
In November 2019, he started again in Key West. This time, with much more general knowledge, and using Guthook Apps, he is on the trails and off the roads much more often. Although the Pinhoti itself is not much longer than it was in 2017, he feels the trail experience has grown tremendously, and is fantastic. For example, trail angels find him, then follow his trip and help out this year. Kim and Nathan Wright found him far south along the Alabama Road Walk, around Montgomery, and not only helped various additional times as he walked to and hiked the finished Pinhoti tread north of Flagg, but also let other angels know of his approach. An example is a couple in Stewartville who took him to Talladega the next day. Pat joined AA long ago to help control his alcoholism, so it was a great pleasure that a church meeting of a couple dozen guys battling their addictions welcomed him openly in the Rockford Baptist Church along the road walk. He spent some time with Nimblewill Nomad installing a water main on Flagg Mountain, and with John and me maintaining the Pinhoti. In addition to finding the trails more easily, businesses, trail angels, and whatever else he needs is much easier to find, and often finds him before he looks for it.
In the past, a couple of times a year he helped maintain trails other than the Pinhoti - at Philmont Scout Ranch, in Vermont, and on the Appalachian Trail.
Pat thinks the Pinhoti shelters are great - especially Blue Mountain Shelter with its wood dowelled beam construction. He thought Pinhoti shelters were clean and well maintained.
Some important future goals for the Pinhoti are its extension down to Florida to eliminate the long road walk, its extension up to the Appalachian Trail, or generally improving the Georgia Pinhoti and shrinking or eliminating its road walks.
Along the road walk he usually camped behind churches. Some seemed abandoned, and no one came around at any of them while he was camped.
Also along the road walk, about 4 people a day stopped and offered assistance, including water and food. One gave him a whole bag of McDonald's Biscuits. Some knew all about the ECT and its hikers, others were just being nice. One trail angel who tries to feed hikers as they come by found out he had gotten by unnoticed, and drove miles up the road to find and feed him. Sometimes in restaurants his meal was paid for and he really couldn't tell who had paid. He finds his second ECT thru hike is all about the people along the way.
On his 2017 thru hike, some cops found him walking through Montgomery, felt he was in danger from some local problems, and gave him a ride 4 miles out of town to a motel. Nothing of the sort has happened on this trip.
Adam, Tammy, and the mayor helped him with resupply in Heflin, where he stayed at the Best Value Inn by I20.
Ahead of Pat on the ECT are Philly, in the lead, Abe Linkoln, and Skruggs. 2 guys are behind him. 2 are southbound, including Lil Bhudda.
A highlight of his 2017 trip was watching 2 eagles courting, latching claws and corkscrewing down towards the ground