Gene Espy (born 1927) is recognized as the second person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail,[1] making the entire 2,025-mile journey alone in one outing, covering 14 states in just over 123 days.
[2] Born and raised in Cordele, Georgia, Espy first heard about the Appalachian Trail from his seventh-grade teacher.
[2] Several years later, Espy and a friend hiked a section of the trail in the Great Smoky Mountains, but it was not until shortly after his graduation from the Georgia Institute of Technology that Espy decided to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.
Espy traveled light, mailing replacement boots and other supplies to post office boxes at towns along the way and living off a diet of sandwiches, dehydrated potatoes, pudding and cornmeal, none of which required cooking.
[2] During his hike, Espy chanced to meet Chester Dziengielewski, who was thru hiking southbound, at the Smith Gap Shelter in Pennsylvania on August 6, the first ever meeting of a northbound and a southbound thru hiker on the Appalachian Trail.