Lakeside Link: ‘14 grad walks away from work for six months

Neil Young had never backpacked until he went to Mohican State Forest in Ohio with some college friends during COVID. “I was hooked,“ he says. “Something about the feeling of knowing whatever you had and needed was all on your back appealed to me. I did a lot of research about thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT), but never thought I would find the time.”

Years later, he was living in New York City with his wife, Kelsey, and was working a job that left him miserable with little free time. “She and I were kicking around ideas of what I wanted to do next work-wise, when she brought up quitting to hike the AT.” Within a few days, he put in his two weeks at work—and three weeks later he was hiking.

“Looking back, being rushed was for the best,” he says. “A thru-hike is unpredictable, so it’s not really possible to plan it day by day or even week by week. I just accepted that however it was going to happen is how it was going to be.”

He scrambled to get lightweight gear and assembled it the night before. His base weight—everything that wasn’t food or water—was a reasonable 15 lbs. The next day he flew to Atlanta, and he started the Approach Trail on April 10, 2023.

“There were certainly a lot of challenges—the biggest missing my wife. I’m comfortable alone, but going weeks without seeing her was the hardest part,” he admitted. The weather also was an issue. “The closest I came to quitting was in southern Virginia. It was the 10th day of rain. I called Kelsey, basically in tears. The hike was well past being a vacation, and was turning into a grind. But, she didn’t let me quit.”

Each morning he put on the same shirt, shorts, socks and shoes, knowing they’d still be wet from rain or sweat from the humid midAtlantic summer. “You eventually embrace the smell, become proud of it in some twisted way,” he said.

Next on the challenge list were mosquitoes. “At any given time I probably had 30+ bites on each leg. Somewhere in NY, I looked down and saw 4-5 mosquitos at once. After muttering words that would certainly get me a detention slip at Lakeside, I hitchhiked to the nearest town and bought pants.” He ate the same food everyday—Knorr’s meals and canned chicken. Ultimately, hiking everyday was just hard and something was always hurting. “End of each day, I reminded myself how lucky I was to be able to have the opportunity to hike every day and enjoy God’s beautiful creation,” he says.

Neil summited Mt. Katahdin on October 9, 2023—and then returned to living almost the same life. He and Kelsey are still in New York where he now works as an equity analyst at an investment bank that covers the semiconductor industry. “From lifestyle aspect, nothing really changed pre- versus posthike,” he says. “However, in terms of personality, I went from being a glass half-empty, to a glass half-full type person. There were some miserable days while hiking, and I was forced to take a positive viewpoint. Otherwise, I’d want to give up.”

His time at Lakeside helped prepare him for the trip, spiritually. “The biggest thing I took away from high school was the importance of staying connected with Jesus. The traditional way of attending church was a challenge while hiking, so I would listen to podcasts and read weekly devotions. There was not a single day that went by that I didn’t pray to God, either to give thanks for the amazing views or for strength to just keep going.”

We usually ask our alum interviewees about memories from their time at LL. Neil shared, “I will admit I certainly wasn’t the easiest student to teach. Even so, there were plenty of teachers that were patient with me and did their best to try to make sure I would get a great education. PC was always there as a figure I could go to talk to about whatever I was dealing with. I always liked history, so I enjoyed Mr. Doering as a teacher, and I think I have to give the financial literacy class he taught the credit for sparking my interest in finance and the stock market. I also enjoyed being in Mr. Johnson’s homeroom. Lastly, I will never forget Mr. Kuehl’s dry sense of humor that I got to enjoy throughout JV basketball and speech class.”