Fort man to begin 2,200-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail

By Chris Spangler

A few years ago, David Firari wrote three things on his bucket list, vowing to do at least one of them before he dies: hike the Appalachian Trail, open a breakfast-sandwich food truck, and give a career in live performance an earnest attempt.

Next week, he will set off on the adventure of a lifetime.

“I guess enduring about 2,200 miles of hiking seemed easier than the other two options,” Firari said of choosing the hike.

In 2021, Firari was working in investment operations for a wealth management firm in Austin, Texas. The job itself was interesting and his colleagues were inspiring, he said, but the workload became unbearable at times, with no additional compensation.

“Frustrated and stressed, I started daydreaming about the trail. Then it dawned on me: Why just dream? I had squirreled away most of my paychecks during the worst of COVID. Maybe this could be a reality,” the 2014 Fort Atkinson High School and 2018 Ripon College graduate recalled.

In October 2021, he quit his job and moved back to Fort Atkinson, where two former employers, The Fireside Dinner Theatre and Planet Chaos, rehired him so he could work until heading out on the trail.

“I needed to quit (the Texas job) regardless of going on the Appalachian Trail (AT) to preserve my mental health,” Firari recalled. “I often think about how, if I didn’t have my face pressed so hard into the metaphorical meat grinder, I probably would still be at that job and wouldn’t have set my sights on a through-hike. Funny how things work out in the end.”

He considered starting his trek last March. Instead, he chose to wait for the 2023 hiking season so he had time to research the trail, curate his gear and get in some much-needed practice hikes.

“I will admit, as March of 2022 got closer, I had several moments where I considered heading to Georgia and figuring things out as I went,” Firari said. “I’m very glad I stuck to my original plan. There is so much I have learned from doing shakedown hikes this summer and having the time to compare different gear for my kit.”

Firari soon will be heading to Springer, Ga., where he will begin what he expects to be a six-month hike across 14 states along the crests and valleys of the Appalachian Mountain Range to Katahdin, Maine. He will celebrate his 27th birthday in May on the trail.

Packing his gear

Firari chose his gear for the hike primarily by reading reviews from The Trek website, YouTube videos and shakedown hikes. The Trek’s “Best of 2022” article series was the starting point.

“Reflecting on my choices, I know that I highly value the opinions of recent through-hikers when compared to other sources,” he said. “I cross-referenced the ‘Best of 2022’ articles with The Trek’s 2021 hiker survey. Seeing the same gear repeatedly across different posts and videos also played a heavy hand in what gear I tested first.”

He said that almost all of his gear survived his shakedown hikes and camping trips.

“There are essentially no mountains in Wisconsin (thank you, glaciers), so the best I can replicate AT conditions is by hiking the moraines of the Ice Age Trail (thank you, glaciers). My gear will certainly change as I do my through-hike, so I am not too concerned about getting ‘the perfect kit’ before heading down to Georgia,” Firari explained.

The base weight of his backpack, with gear and clothing inside, is 20 pounds, 3 ounces.

“This will fluctuate slightly during the course of the hike,” he said. “Base weight does not include the clothes I wear daily (shoes, pair of socks, shorts, shirt, hat) nor does it include consumables (food, water, stove fuel).

“If you add five days worth of consumables to my base weight, my total weight will add up to around 38 pounds after a resupply.”

His gear includes a tent, trekking poles, sleeping pad, pillow, quilt, cooking pot, bear canister for storing food, water bottles, water filter, headlamp, first-aid kit, satellite communicator, cellphone, trowel and pocket knife, among other things.

“From what I’ve read, my kitchen is pretty standard for new hikers except for the bear canister,” Firari said. “I was initially planning on using a bear bag until I read a few articles about the benefits of using a canister. I will accept the extra weight to decrease the possibility that my actions will result in a fed, and therefore (me not) dead, bear. It also doubles as a stool and a place to put stickers, which is pretty sweet if you ask me.”

A couple trepidations

While he is looking forward to the journey, the solo hiker does have a couple apprehensions.

First, Firari was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease nearly six years ago. It greatly restricted his diet and made it impossible at times for food to move through his digestive tract.

“I was fortunate enough to receive corrective surgery in 2021,” he said. “Nearly a foot of damaged colon was removed from my body. Food now moves significantly easier through my digestive tract, and I’ve been nearly symptom-free since then. However, I still have the disease. The surgery only addressed the worst symptom, and now I’m on regular medical treatment to keep my body in this healthy condition.

“With all this in mind, through-hiking this year is the prudent choice. While I am hopeful I will be symptom-free for years to come, it’s not a guarantee. I want to celebrate and make the most of my body while it will let me do so,” he added.

He gets an infusion at a Fort Atkinson clinic every eight weeks to help manage his Crohn’s disease. 

“I sit in a chair for an hour while a medical cocktail is administered via IV, Firari said of the infusion. “The meds cause my white blood cells to not view my intestines as a foreign entity. Without meds, my immune system would slowly attack my bowels, causing inflammation, scarring, preventing food from moving down the GI track and general pain.” 

A November 2022 colonoscopy showed that his Crohn’s disease is in “deep remission.” However, Firari still needs the regular infusions to maintain that outcome.

Thus, his parents, Keith and Martha Firari, will meet him on the trail to drive him home for the infusions.

“The plan is that my parents will drive from Fort to wherever I am currently on trail, drive me back to Fort in time for my scheduled infusion, then turn around and drive me back to the spot where they found me,” Firari said. “That way I can hike as close to 100% of the trail as possible.”

He estimates that it will take his parents two to three days to drive out to meet him and two to three days to drive him back to Fort Atkinson so he will arrive the day before treatment.

“I’ll get up the next morning to get my infusion and then leave from the treatment clinic to drive two to three days back to where I left the trail,” he said.

A second apprehension for Firari is that hiking alone can be scary.

“Until I started prepping for this hike, I had been camping maybe twice. … I’m still not comfortable walking around the woods at night. In my mind, every leaf rustle is Bigfoot and every twig snap is Mothman until proven otherwise,” he said.

In addition, Firari is leaving behind his family, friends, two cats and girlfriend, Abi, to take on this challenge.

“Physically separating myself from those I love is one of my largest apprehensions of the hike. After the isolation I experienced during COVID, I am not looking forward to more alone time,” Firari said. “But I have decided that I don’t want to live my life avoiding things because they scare me. It is my hope that I will come out of this adventure braver and more confident than I am now.”

He said that there is something to be said for doing difficult things of one’s own volition.

“Yes, I expect the trail to be difficult, and yes, I expect to have some low-morale days. But it will all occur because I seek the challenge. … Completing the trail feels like it will earn me the ability to push through anything. Thinking, ‘If you got to Katahdin, you can handle this,’ will certainly make future challenges seem more manageable.”

On the trail

People may follow Firari’s journey via https://thetrek.co/author/david-firari/ and Instagram at @hopefully.its.david  He hopes to post about every five days or so when he heads into a friendly resupply town for a shower, doing laundry and refurbishing his food supply. 

He will be going by the handle “Good Soup” on the trail. 

“As for ‘Good Soup,’ it started when my friend showed me a clip from the HBO show ‘Girls,’” he said. “Adam Driver’s character tries to lighten the mood by commenting on his meal, saying ‘Good soup.’ I appropriated the phrase into my life, using it the same way someone might say ‘that’s cool.’ And I say it a lot, so the name stuck.”

There is no doubt that pupils at Pine Island Middle School in Pine Island, Minn., will be following Firari’s trek online. 

His sister, Grace (Firari) Bruening, teaches eighth-grade English and Language Arts (ELA) there, and in January, Firari presented a PowerPoint covering a brief history of the Appalachian Trail, what through-hiking is like, why people might want to through-hike, how he researched the trail and how he vetted sources for quality and trustworthy information.

“My sister’s class was starting their research paper unit so I was brought in as a more exciting alternative than diving right into the unit,” he said. “The kids were very receptive, polite and asked excellent questions.”

One of those excellent questions was whether he worries about people thinking of him as a failure should he not finish hiking the entire trail. After all, about three-fourths of the trekkers do not make it to the end.

“I felt I had to meet other people’s expectations of a through-hike in order to justify my hiking decisions, but then the obvious struck me: If I’m hiking this trail for myself, why do other people’s definitions of success matter to me?” Firari asked.

He continued: “With this realization, the pressure I was letting imaginary others put on me is beginning to dissipate.  … I am at peace with my preparations. My goal is to complete as much of a northbound through-hike of the Appalachian Trail as possible and enjoy as much of it as I can. I am confident that I will complete all 2,200 miles, but if it’s less than that, I will be OK.

“Come what may, I will have the bliss of nothing to prove to others and a trail to hike.”