(lighthearted guitar music) - [Narrator] A well kept secret known to few, where the folks say sir, and ma'am.

For the ancient Appalachians down South in Alabama.

Straight from the start, they were set apart from the rest of their far-flung king.

And throughout time in this Southern climb, they never quite fit in.

But here they sit to the spite of it, majestic, proud, and free.

And I would rate my hike here, a great grand part of this Odyssey.

You can roam all or that famous trail from Baxter to Springer Mount, but you'll wind up short and to no avail when it's down to the final count.

So come feast your eyes where these mountain rise, where this magic all began.

A well kept secret, known to few, down South in Alabama.

(lighthearted guitar music) (birds chirping) - [Nathan] There's an energy on that mountain.

When you get up there, it's peaceful.

It's away from everything.

It's not real crowded.

I don't know if it's describable, but it's place you're like, "Okay, I'm coming back here."

Fast forward to 2017, I'm in Sylacauga, Alabama.

And I start reaching out to different people about the Pinhoti, and I get invited to Flagg Mountain.

"And oh, by the way, there's this guy named Nimblewill Nomad up here doing some work."

And I'm like, "Nimblewill Nomad, no way."

First of all, and I kid him about this but I was like, "He's still living?

(Nathan laughing) He's got to be 200 years old."

- [Bruce] He's one of the classic characters of the trail.

He grows beyond the size of his body.

He's enormous, he's a giant.

(Bruce laughs) - [Lucky] If I were a guitar player, and I were to pull into a parking lot outside of a concert hall, and Keith Richards were standing there and I had an opportunity to talk to him and meet him, that's what happened to me in Springer Mountain parking lot when I met Nimblewill Nomad.

- [Maggie] There's his long white hair and long white beard and his kind gentle personality.

And then the fact that at 82, he's still hiking.

Most of us wish for that.

(energetic piano music) - [Nimblewill] I mean, how are you gonna confuse this with something else?

It's me, all right?

It ain't nobody else, but me.

I'm a retired optometrist, an eye doctor.

I had a very successful practice.

Stuck in little cubicles with no windows for 30 years, and I'm an outdoors person.

Making up for it now.

To change from such a drastic, structured life, I'm just two different people.

It's just the trails all along here, that's what you're seeing is low bush blueberries.

You remember certain days in your life, the December the 14th, the year 2000.

That was the day I climbed Flagg Mountain.

And I'd been looking with great anticipation to that day for quite a while, because I would be completing my hike over the entire Appalachian Mountain range.

I stood with my head cradled in my arm for about 10 minutes and just wept.

And I promised myself then at someday, I don't know when or for what reason, but someday I'm gonna come back to Flagg Mountain.

(birds chirping) - [Nimblewill] I've been the caretaker there now for three years.

The locals love the mountain, and I've become part of the mountain.

So the locals love me too, and they come and see me.

You just welcome folks.

And you let them know that you're glad to see them, and you're really happy they came to the mountain, because you want them to feel and appreciate the specialness that is Flagg.

- [Andrew] Flagg Mountain in the 1920s was being considered as a national park.

But in the 1930s, it was administered by the federal government as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

So the Civilian Conservation Corps built a camp here.

The Pinhoti Trail was really conceived in the middle 1980s, as the way to finish the original thought of the Appalachian Trail.

Because the Appalachian Trail ends in Georgia, but the Appalachian Mountains run into Alabama, here at Flagg mountain, which is the last 1000 foot peak in the Appalachian Mountain chain.

This is one of the remanent areas for what's called Montane or Mountain Longleaf Pine.

It's one of the best in the world.

Some of these trees here have been aged to be over 350 years old.

So now we're able to combine protecting the land for the Longleaf Pine, with having this long distance trail come through the area.

- [Nathan] He's been everywhere.

A lot of people know of the three National Scenic Trails.

The triple crown, everybody knows those.

There's 11 National Scenic Trails.

There's two people in the world that's hiked all 11.

He's one of them.

And he's hiked a lot of historic trails as well.

He's thrown in Route 66, and he's done the perimeter of the US, he's done it all.

And he'll tell you, Flagg Mountain is it.

- [Nimblewill] This is my last last hike.

(Nimblewill laughs) "Hey, Nimblewill, you said you wasn't hiking anymore.

You said that was your last one."

I said, "Well, this is just my last, last one."

And I started at Flagg for the very purpose of being able to meet people along the way and heightened the awareness of the Southern Appalachians.

- [Crew] Where are we going today?

- [Nimblewill] We've been over here, that's all done.

This huge gap.

That's where you picked us up yesterday.

That's where you're gonna drop us off today.

See you on the other side, here we go.

The Appalachians don't start on Springer Mountains.

They start way down in Alabama on a little mountain that nobody knows much about, but they're hearing about it now.

(birds chirping) (water burbling) - [Nimblewill] The Southern Appalachians are just nothing like any of the other places you've been like on this.

The Springer Mountain is not the Southern Apalachians.

- [Man And Woman] No.

No, no.

- [Man] We're gonna tell everybody it's been owned.

- [Nimblewill] Head on over into Alabama it's a whole different story.

- [Man] There's a guy down there named Nimblewill that's gonna-- - [Nimblewill] He'll get you straightened out.

- [Woman] Yeah.

- [Man] Straighten out, yeah.

Tell you where the Southern part of it is.

Bye.

We'll set a draft for you to follow us.

- [Nimblewill] Okey-dokey.

Be careful.

- [Man] Take care.

(birds chirping) - [Nimblewill] They can move.

They moved down the trail.

I know where I can keep up with them.

- [Lucky] It takes something to get up every day, and accomplish a task like he's trying to accomplish right now.

He's literally doing something that is unprecedented.

- [Lucky] I reckon we can go see if they've got our room ready.

- [Nimblewill] I've got support now, I'll have someone that'll meet me at the road crossing in the evening, and take me to town or to a hospital or wherever, so that I can get cleaned up and get a nursing meal.

And put me back on the trail again in the morning.

- [Bruce] I wanted to come up here, and help support Nimblewill just because I wanted to in some way, be a small part of his journey.

I'm the little wheel, the little cog in the machine that maybe makes it all go through this part of the trail.

- [Lucky] Oh, listen to this.

It's appropriate song that's coming on.

(music plays on the radio) Sweet home, Alabama.

- [Nimblewill] Don't forget to come after, and check on us, okay?

- [Lucky] I'll catch up with you, in just few minutes.

(birds chirping) - [Nimblewill] When you get to be my age, there are just many things about you and about the trail, about your attitude about the trail, about your physical abilities and your limitations.

I'm balancing my reflexes, they're pretty much short.

I can't carry the weight that I used to carry in my back and my legs and my knees.

Just certainly would not permit me to carry a 30 pound pack anymore.

And I've had to slow down considerably.

(birds chirping) - [Nimblewill] I put my pack on, on full energy and I'll get it going and I'll stumble over a rock or a root.

And you say, "Thank you Lord."

And I say my daily blessing, that I didn't go down and bust something.

So sure, you're gonna have doubt and misgivings, and full-on-feelings.

(gentle guitar music plays) - [Nimblewill] Days like this, you say, "What are you doing out here?

Why don't you just go home?"

It's an ongoing tug of war between, what I plan to do, and what my mind and my body keep telling me, "You may not do it."

I've gotta come up with the dedication and the perseverance, that it's gonna take just to keep chewing on it and get it done.

(melancholy music) - [Lucky] I don't see anything.

- [Bruce] You're good over here.

- [Lucky] All right, thank you.

- [Bruce] We'll be all right.

As soon as you pass this road, see that ground shot on the left, pull in there.

(birds chirping from a distance) (Indistinct chatter) - [Nimblewill] My goodness folks, thanks so much for coming.

You can probably tell I'm an old man.

I've been around a while, and I'm taking a whack at this trail for the fourth time.

- [Audience] How young are you?

- [Nimblewill] That might be one of the reasons I'm out here again on the AT.

There's a fellow three years ago that hiked this trail.

His name is Grey Beard.

Grey Beard holds the age of record for thru-hiking, the Appalachian Trail.

And I talked to Grey Beard and I said, "Well, Grey Beard, you need to turn your head way around like this, and watch real close 'cause I'm coming up behind you."

(Audience clapping) - [Nimblewill] He turned 82 when he hiked it, July that year.

And I turned 82 last October.

Chronologically I'll be the oldest person to pull off a thru-hike to the Appalachian Trail.

I'm 1,500 miles into it now.

I started at a place called Flagg Mountain, Alabama.

Some of you have heard of Flagg Mountain, Alabama.

Some of you say, "What's that?

and where's that?"

We've got a beautiful trail that starts at Flagg Mountain, Alabama.

And I'm surprised how many of you have heard about this trail, it's called the Pinhoti Trail.

Come down to Flagg Mountain, and I assure you're gonna be treated kindly and welcomed.

And we'd like for you to come and hike some of our trail.

I appreciate you all coming and sitting out in the sun today.

(Audience clapping) - [Nathan] He's a celebrity on the trail, in the trail world he's one of those elite, and cause he is an elite hiker.

- [Nimblewill] I'm very happy very pleased, to know that I'm having a positive influence in this world, and especially on people that I like to have for my friends.

(car engine revving) - [Car Assistant] You've arrived.

- [Bruce] Thank you.

(car door bangs) - [Nimblewill] I don't know how to thank you.

I'll just say thank you.

- [Lucky] I don't know how to thank you.

This is a mutual thing here.

And you know that right?

(scoffs) - [Nimblewill] You promise to come down to see me.

- [Lucky] All right.

(Indistinct chatter) (water sloshing) - [Bruce] You've got the trails young man.

(water bubbling) - [Nimblewill] I didn't know Lucky or Nimrod, until I stumbled into above the Cloud hospital in (indistinct) And we've just been like brothers ever since, and I guess when we remain like brothers for the rest of our life.

That's another characteristic of our community.

It's those relationships are just very special.

(water bubbling) - [Lucky] I didn't think that would hurt me as much as I would see it.

(gentle music playing) - [Nimblewill] My church has no roof.

(birds chirping) It's where you go to restore your soul.

The Lord is in that leaf, on that branch on that tree there.

(somber music) - [Nimblewill] But the trail itself has changed significantly.

The erosion, the traffic on the trail, taking their toll.

It's discouraged me and disappointed me a little to see that the degradation of the trail.

But I'm adding to it, I'm out here beating the death the to it, so.

(somber music) - [Andrew] There is always going to have to be a balance of protecting a place and loving a place.

You don't wanna have too many people come, and as we call it, "Love it to death."

- [Nimblewill] Right now, I'd like people to know about a Flagg, to come to Flagg then see our trails.

Spend time there and experience it.

But we're promoting Flagg in a way that ultimately there's a potential for becoming a real problem.

- [Maggie] I don't think there's an easy solution.

I think we want to teach people how to respect, and how to take care and how to protect that natural world.

But then how do you do that, without getting them out?

We have the responsibility to introduce people to the connections that they have with wild places.

- [Nimblewill] There's an amber burning.

There's a little bit of a fire down here, telling us that we need to be free.

We need to go.

We need to break the shackles and the bonds, and all the things that keep us tied down.

That's the wanderlust that's trying to come out and be free in your thoughts and in your mind.

Well, I've cultivated that.

And you're seeing what's happening.

I'm the epitome of folks that are consumed with wanderlust I guess.

I've got 11 more weeks of this and I'll be done with it.

And once that's behind me and I have that accomplished, I'm gonna be very content and very satisfied with my life.

I think this is kind of on the end run of the thing to me.

The end run of it.

- [Nathan] I was with him when he finished his route 66 hike.

And he looked at me with tears in his eyes and he said, "This is it, this is my last hike."

That was in 2017.

And he didn't hike again after that, until he started February this year.

And I believed him back then, and I believe him again now.

I know he's not planning another one, but it's in him.

Hiking is in him.

He's restless.

The three years he spent at Flagg Mountain as the caretaker is the longest he's been in one place in over 20 years.

He owns a backpack and he does have a truck.

And that's all he wants to hike.

I'll say I believe him 'cause he says it, but I hold a little reservation to, he might have one more aim.

We'll see.

It'd be fun to see.

- [Narrator] The long distance hiker, a breed set apart from the likes of the usual pack.

A hoist in his gear, he knows in his heart.

He is gone, long for he'll come back.

(somber music) (chanting, clapping) - [Nimblewill] It's a done deal.

- [Crew] It's a done deal.

- [Nimblewill] We'll see what time brings.

This is my last, last part, okay.

- [Crew] No promises on whether you have a last, last, last- - [Nimblewill] Last, last.

(chuckling)