They Pushed Other Hikers Off The Appalachian Trail. Then Removed The Signs. Then Got Lost.

Ryan and Derek said the Appalachian Trail was too easy for guys like them. They pushed past slower hikers. They wrote it in the trail register. Then they pulled two junction signs out of the ground because people were moving too slowly at the junctions. Then they kept walking. Without those signs Derek took a logging track in the dark and walked 18 kilometers in the wrong direction for three days. Ryan fell on a wet rock slab with a broken leg and lay alone all night because he had pushed past every hiker who might have found him sooner. The person who saved Ryan's life was one of the hikers he had told to keep moving. The signs he removed became the forensic evidence against him. This is that story. LAST KNOWN POINT — Where the trail ends, the truth begins.