A hike for a lost friend

Go to the blogspot for Appalachian Trail hikers Spencer McKay, Ben Burchardi and Garrett Dixon, and look at the gear lists.

Every item in their packs has been weighed and measured.

Two pair of boxers -- 4 ounces. Two pair X-Hale hiking socks -- 3 ounces. One spork -- 0.5 ounce.

As any seasoned hiker will tell you, there is no room for excess when you're hauling it over a mountain on your back.

But there is one item -- the most important item on these hikers' trip -- that does not appear on the list.

It is a miniature Nalgene water bottle containing some of the ashes of the hikers' friend Stephen Harrington.

In the summer of 2005, Spencer, Ben, Garrett and Stephen made a pact to hike the entire 2,173-mile trail. Then, in October 2005, Harrington, a sophomore at Appalachian State University, was murdered in an apparent drug dispute. He was stuffed into the back of his red Subaru, and the car was set on fire. The men accused of killing him are scheduled to stand trial in September in the western part of the state.

But that's a Stephen Harrington his friends didn't know.

Instead, the three young men are hiking the Appalachian Trail for the boyhood buddy they remember -- the Eagle Scout, letter-winning swimmer and cross-country runner. They're hiking to honor his memory and their memories together.

If the young men's histories are woven together, the Appalachian Trail is the thread.

Ben and Stephen met at age 5, in kindergarten at Brassfield Elementary in Raleigh. They were best friends forever.

At 11, Ben and Stephen met Spencer when they all joined Boy Scout Troop 215.

"This was not a drive-to-the-state-park-and-camp kind of troop," says Pete Haeseker, one of the troop leaders.

Every June they would spend a week hiking one 50- to 70-mile stretch of the AT.

Even when the young men had all gone their separate ways -- different high schools and different colleges, Ben moved to Florida -- they continued to return for the annual hikes. For years, they were senior patrol leaders. Later, after each had earned his Eagle Scout rank, they still returned.

"They hiked. That's how they always connected," says Haeseker.

It was a physical challenge. It was a mental challenge. They were guys, so it was a competition too.

It was never the easy hikes they remembered. It was the trip where they all ended up slogging through whitewater with all their gear. It was the "bear incident" when Stephen's backpack, though hung in a tree, was nearly shredded by a frisky bear in the middle of the night.

In June 2005, the friends helped celebrate the 10th anniversary of the troop by joining younger Scouts on a hike of the southernmost stretch of the trail, starting at Springer Mountain in Georgia where the AT officially begins.

That's where the idea of a through-hike -- AT parlance for hiking the entire trail -- was born.

Later that summer, the concept was solidified when Spencer, Stephen, and Garrett got together in Maine to hike the northernmost section of the AT, ending with the moonscape of Mount Katahdin.

"We figured we'd done the beginning and end, why not do everything in between?" Spencer says.

In a photo marking the Katahdin ascent, a beaming Stephen mugged for the camera with a candy bar that says it all:

Payday.

Two months later, he was dead.

Stunned by his death

None of the guys suspected anything was going on with their old friend as they all set off for their second year of college.

They were stunned when they learned the circumstances of his death.

Ben delivered the eulogy.