Ponytail Paul is a moniker that you’re probably unfamiliar with. Unfamiliar, that is, unless you’re an avid hiker or Appalachian Trail survivor. Paul is the subject of REI’s most recent in a series of character profiles. Each short film in the series ties into the core message of REI’s branding: one of individuality, reconnection with nature, and fulfillment in the road less traveled. That metaphorical trail is most concretely symbolized in America by the Appalachian Trail, that 2000+ mile journey that bisects the eastern part of the country.
Many people journey all or part of the Trail each year, a difficult excursion for any. It’s a lonely journey. Not enough people attempt it for almost any region of the trail to be crowded. This makes the Appalachian Trail a magnet for people working through journeys of the heart: those who have lost their jobs, ended marriages, young people who don’t know what to do with their lives. For these people, Ponytail is a self-described “Trail Angel”, placing buckets of food in trees for the weary and hungry, and putting on impromptu cookouts for hikers who happen to pass by.
Paul knows that these strategies are effective, because he himself experiences healing on the trail. A victim of intense childhood trauma, Paul suffered the effects of the festering spiritual wound all of his early adulthood. After experiencing what most would describe as a nervous breakdown, Paul retreated from society. He sought help from nature itself, hiking large portions of the Appalachian Trail until he started to feel himself come back together again. Now he extends his newfound peace and perspective to those he helps on the trail, and to the people who buy his products – handbuilt wooden toys created by him and his staff of two dozen. It’s an unconventional life, but most fulfilled lives are.
Watch a video here:
