Delta hiking trip

When three Mountain Brook High School graduates traded a spring break beach trip for a hike through Mississippi, they added something surprising to their list of life experiences: hitchhiking.

“Hitchhiking is awesome. Everyone should try it. The feeling of riding in a truck bed after hiking for hours is amazing,” said 2014 MBHS alumnus Jack Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick and fellow 2014 graduates Allan White and Peyton Alexander are longtime friends now going to college in different areas — University of Mississippi, University of Alabama and Auburn University, respectively. All three are Eagle Scouts and decided to use their spring break in late March as a chance to explore the Mississippi Delta and enjoy time together.

Originally, Fitzpatrick planned to hike through the Delta alone, which he now concedes wasn’t a great idea. He wanted to see the area up close, meet interesting people and hike the Delta’s forests.

“I wanted to see how it felt to be a vagabond. Walking on highways all day, people looking at you funny,” he said.

Alexander and White joined him, and they plotted a path through the Delta National Forest, Panther Swamp Wildlife Refuge, Theodore Roosevelt Wildlife Refuge and ending at the Mississippi River over the course of a week. Due to bad weather, the trio only hiked about 40 miles of the trip and drove to see the Mississippi River instead, but their spring break was still full of new experiences.

“It is truly an adventure in all senses of the word. Although Jack may have driven on some of the roads previous to our walk through them, Peyton and I knew nothing about the area other than it was flat, hot, humid farmland,” White said.

Their trail led them through forests, where they saw alligators, deer, herons and other wildlife, as well as miles of highways.

“We thought hiking on flat highways would be a breeze compared to going up and down mountains. That was not the case. Your feet and calves get destroyed with the lack of incline. There is also a psychological part of walking with little change in scenery,” Fitzpatrick said.

While their phones sat mostly unused in their pockets, Fitzpatrick, Alexander and White passed the time by catching up on each other’s lives. They also got to see small towns and farms as well as a few historic places, such as the Vicksburg National Military Park and the site where former President Theodore Roosevelt famously refused to kill a captured bear.

All three agreed that the people they met were surprisingly friendly. They met the owner of Lee Hong’s Grocery, known for its famous Hoover Sauce, in Louise, Mississippi. Drivers would pause on the highway to ask what they were doing, and in one case came back to check on Fitzpatrick, Alexander and White at the end of their first day.

“Every motorist who cared enough to slow down and chat with us seemed confused as to why we had chosen to walk around the area,” White said.

“It was cool to see how much the people from around there wanted to know what we were doing and genuinely cared for our safety while on the trip and offered us any help if we ever needed it,” Alexander said.

Twice, the trio decided to hitch rides from passing cars. One of those rides came in the middle of a particularly hot and difficult portion of highway, and they said that climbing into the truck was a sweet relief.

“The ride to the end of the [West Levee Road] was a glorious, wind-in-the-hair experience and lifted our spirits for the rest of the day,” White said. “I had never actually hitch-hiked before, and do not know of very many, if any, people that have. I now know that it is not only possible, but can and should be enjoyable.”

Though flooding and bad weather changed their route and shortened the trip, Fitzpatrick said hiking through the Delta was an opportunity to learn about small towns, many of which were shrinking, and push their own personal boundaries. 

“Walking through the lower Delta, people thought we were insane. Everyone thought we would get shot or robbed or just not be able to walk it. We are real people, ordinary people, and we did this. People can do more than they think they are capable of,” Fitzpatrick said.

It also changed his point of view once he got back into a car.

“On my way back to school I picked up a hitchhiker. I felt like I owed the world something in return,” Fitzpatrick said.