
WRAL-TVs Tar Heel Traveler Scott Mason recently celebrated being 60 by hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail with a close friend. The trip fulfilled a promise made long ago. He penned a piece about their adventure:
Boots on The Ground By Scott Mason
WRAL-TV's Scott Mason shared this photo from his recent Appalachian Trail adventure. He and a close friend make a long-awaited trek to make Mason's turning 60.
Im a city boy. Never camped before, not really. But always love playing the cowboy.
I sprang for a pair of boots once on a trip to Dallas, fake snakeskin, and went strutting around Harris-Teeter back home in Raleigh. I felt tall and rugged though I dont think anybody noticed.
Awhile later, I took another trip, this time to Cleveland, and met an old college buddy over beers in a bar. He brought up the Appalachian Trail. Well start in Georgia, hike a week or two, then pick up where we left off the next year, and the next. Shoot, well hit Maine by the time we lose our hair.
I hoisted my PBR, whacked the can against his, and hollered, Im in!
But I wasnt in when the trail came calling that fall. Too much to do, I told him. Next year. But the next year, he solo trekked again and again and again. I didnt wear my fake snakeskins to the Teeter anymore.
A decade passed, and all the while my buddy kept section hiking his way up the mighty AT. I was sure hed given up on me the way my Orthopedic had bailed on my hips. Double replacement very soon, the doc said with a face grimmer than Clint Eastwoods in a spaghetti western.
I joined a gym. My wife bought a Peloton. I lifted and biked, and the ol hips improved, and when my buddy rang me out of the blue Yeehaw! I was suddenly back in the saddle. Yes, I told him. Yes, yes, Im in! I was also in AARP. I was about to turn 60, and this time there was no turning back.
We met on a Sunday night at a hotel in Hagerstown, Maryland, and I splayed my backpack belongings all over the bed. Too many clothes, too many Cliff bars. I left a pound or two in the car, repacked the pack, and we toasted our journey-to-be. Craft beer instead of PBR, but okay.
We caught a ride the next morning to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, our starting point, and I felt like a hiker. I looked like a hiker. I was ready to be a hiker. We hiked and my loaded pack grew heavier with every step. Maybe I was not so ready.
The scenery, at least, proved a pleasant distraction. The Potomac River shimmered in the morning sun. A deer eyeballed me from 20 yards away. Everything was lush and green. My buddy showed me how to adjust my shoulder straps, and the weight shifted. Much better, and okay, this was good. This was great. I was loving it but love proved a short honeymoon.
The woods closed in, and the rocks popped up. So many rocks. By day two, I would have given a hundred Cliff bars for one pair of ankle braces.
Three nights, four days, 40 miles through Maryland, and at one point, the trail was not a trail at all but an endless series of boulders. My legs wobbled over them, my poles scraped across them, and worse, we bounded the daggum boulders in a driving rain.
Oh, yes, it rained, but that was day three, and by then I was a battle-scarred veteran. Bring it on, I growled. Aint gonna stop, and I didnt. And rarely did the rain.
WRAL-TV's Scott Mason shared this photo from his recent Appalachian Trail adventure. He and a close friend make a long-awaited trek to make Mason's turning 60.
I planted one foot in front of the other during those grueling days. I sang the National Anthem to myself 10 times. I wrote a short story in my head though I cant remember it now. I told my friend jokes I hadnt thought of in years.
We laughed. We hiked. We camped. Each night, I set up my tent in an hour and slept about as long. I thought an air mattress was supposed to be comfortable. I thought the middle of nowhere was supposed to be quiet.
Breakfast was always a slim packet of oatmeal, but I wasnt hungry anyway. I guess the exertion robbed my appetite though even that early, I nearly scarfed a Mountain House lasagna just to rid the pack of a few more ounces.
Each day was like the other. But not like it, too. Surprises greeted us along the way, such as the friendly fellow hikers we met. One gave us his spare water filter when ours broke. We asked for his address so we could mail him a check later, but he waved us away. Nah. Glad to help.
We rested at beautiful overlooks and passed Civil War battlefields. We came upon a stretch near Boonsboro dedicated to George Washington, and around the bend rose the Washington Monument, the original one, a 40-foot stone tower built in 1827.
The whole trip was a surprise, the fact I made it, that my body made it. My ankles and hips, too. I practically jogged the last half mile, the pack never so light as it was then.
We arrived just before dusk at Pen Mar County Park, about a quarter mile from the Pennsylvania line. My buddy hiked that last little bit and stepped across, but not me. P.A. could wait, I thought. Maybe next fall, maybe the next state on the list, and forget tiptoeing over. Id tackle it from one end to the other. All in. Yeehaw!
I settled myself on a bench, slipped off my pack, and kept an eye out for our ride. The driver was running late, but that was okay. It was all okay. Everything was outstanding. I gulped the crisp air and gazed at the grey sky. The rain had quit. But I had just begun.
Alone with my thoughts, my cowboy boots sprang to mind, the snakeskins Id tucked deep in my closet. I realized my hiking boots would not be keeping them company. At that moment, I knew the muddy clodhoppers now on my feet would remain close at hand and, sure, maybe Id even wear them to Harris-Teeter just so theyd stay broken in.
But without a doubt, I also
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
03/09/2026
Yospace will be at IBC from 11th - 14th September (booth 5.C78). For more inform...
03/09/2026
NEP Group has announced leadership changes at Creative Technology Group. Founder and CEO Graham Andrews will step away from day-to-day leadership at the end of ...
03/09/2026
The NFL and TikTok have announced a multi-year partnership renewal expanding the league's presence on the platform. NFL posts on TikTok increased more than ...
03/09/2026
Grass Valley has appointed Ronny Van Geel as Vice President, Cameras. Van Geel began his career in 1999 at Philips DVS and moved into product management in 2005...
03/09/2026
Telestream has announced Vantage Super Resolution, an AI-powered upscaling capability for the Vantage media workflow platform, developed in collaboration with N...
03/09/2026
Solid State Logic (SSL) will debut the TCA Tour at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand 8.B45), a portable production system built from System T components in a desktop frame...
03/09/2026
DPA Microphones has announced the 6388 CORE Headset Microphone, making its debut at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand D60). The supercardioid headset features a physicall...
03/09/2026
Qvest will present a multi-vendor Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) showcase at IBC2026 (Booth 10.C24), demonstrating how the EBU's DMF architecture can be imple...
03/09/2026
Imagine Communications will showcase the Magellan PanelFlex control surface and other control portfolio updates at IBC2026 (Stand 1.B73, RAI Amsterdam, Septembe...
03/09/2026
Bridge Technologies will announce at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71) that its VB440 production probe is now available as a software-based solution, deployable on commerci...
03/09/2026
Audio-Technica has unveiled the BP350ST MS (mid-side) microphone in two versions: the camera-mount BP350ST-UL and the boundary or gooseneck-mountable BP350ST-UB...
03/09/2026
Telos Alliance will introduce updates to the J nger Audio flexAI audio processin...
03/09/2026
DUNKMAN, the professional dunk league founded by Shaquille O'Neal in partner...
03/09/2026
Orlando's WRDQ TV 27, WFTV Channel 9 previously named over-the-air broadcast...
03/09/2026
EverPass Media has announced a multi-year commercial distribution agreement with Netflix, expanding on an existing partnership that has delivered NFL Christmas ...
03/09/2026
Yahoo Sports and Apple TV have announced a partnership to deliver alternate broadcasts of select Friday Night Baseball and MLS games on the Yahoo Sports website...
03/09/2026
With another academic year underway, college athletic departments across the cou...
03/09/2026
Facility becomes permanent home of NFL Live on Sept. 9; centerpiece studio for c...
03/09/2026
Create musical synth bass sounds from scratch
Anthony Marinelli Music have recently announced the launch of Bass DNA, a new online course that teaches music...
03/09/2026
Most powerful Tonex hardware to date
IK Multimedia's latest release introduces their most advanced Tonex hardware unit to date, combining their AI Machi...
03/09/2026
Upmix & downmix software upgraded
Penteo Audio Plugins have announced that the latest version of their powerful upmix and downmix software is now available....
03/09/2026
With the start of the new apprenticeship year, young talent has once again begun their professional careers at SGL Carbon's sites in Germany. Recently, the ...
03/09/2026
With the industry increasingly embracing hybrid, software-defined production models, Calrec will preview a series of Argo and ImPulseV software enhancements at ...
03/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/09/2026
Recognizing the ever-increasing demands for media throughput in challenging environments like post-production, two leaders in network technology have worked tog...
03/09/2026
EVS, a leader in live video technology and production infrastructure solutions, and Matrox Video, a leader in software-defined media technology and IP-based vid...
03/09/2026
AJA Debuts OG-FiDO-4 openGear Four-Channel SDI/Fiber Conversion Cards
Brie Clayton September 3, 2026
0 Comments
New product family expands 12G-SDI and...
03/09/2026
Nice Touch launches V2 of its AI edit assistant for professional editors
Brie Clayton September 3, 2026
0 Comments
Built by two editors with twelve ye...
03/09/2026
Accedo, a global provider of video streaming software and services, and MediaKind, a world-leading video technology company and the number one independent provi...
03/09/2026
International research from Big Blue Marble puts a consumer churn number against a technical failure, and sets out what streaming providers must fix before 2030...
03/09/2026
High-performance points of presence power video streaming delivery to large audiences across Latin America with guaranteed quality of experience
Broadpeak , a ...
03/09/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, will unveil the next evolution of Dalia at IBC2026 (7.A43), its media-aware agent...
03/09/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the world's largest independent IT and business consulting services firms, will showcase CGI OpenMedia Evolve and CGI d...
03/09/2026
LiveU is participating in the IBC Accelerator Incubator 2026: Smart Stories The New Knowledge Architecture for Content Production, an industry-wide initiative...
03/09/2026
Broadcast Solutions, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast and media industry, has taken another major step in its...
03/09/2026
Quortex today announced that it will showcase how it is accelerating innovation and the transition to IP at IBC 2026. The company will debut its newest intellig...
03/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/09/2026
The EZDRM approach to Revenue Security on streaming video can be visualized as a multi-dimensional set of solutions. A growing dimension of that approach is the...
03/09/2026
From field capture to management, control and production, Kiloview will demonstrate one connected Hybrid AV-over-IP workflow including a complete 4RU producti...
03/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced Mediagenix Curation, a new...
03/09/2026
LucidLink, the Emmy-winning cloud-native file streaming platform for instant, secure access to large files, today announced the next step in its vision to make ...
03/09/2026
Fraudulent communications purportedly from Screen Australia 3 September 2026
Screen Australia is aware of scam attempts involving fake emails and promotional m...