Neal Walker Hanlin

Neal Walker (O.G. - “Old Gear”) Hanlin passed away on August 29, 2020 at the age of 41. He was at his home in Portland, Oregon where he lived with his cousin George Hanlin, Jr., friend Poncho, and several pets for the past six years.

Neal is survived by his parents Dr. Hugh Grady Hanlin and Sue Ann Walker Hanlin, both residing in Aiken, South Carolina, and his three brothers, Carey Hays Hanlin, also of Aiken, Ryan Prater Hanlin of Durham, North Carolina, and Michael (“Macky”) Guilherme, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Neal was born on March 5, 1979 in Barbourville, Kentucky to Hugh and Sue Ann Hanlin. He graduated from Clemson University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Language & International Trade concentrating in Spanish. He also received his Diploma de Espanol como Lengua Extranjera (Nivel Basico) in 2002 while studying abroad in Tarragona, Spain.

While Neal never married, his two loves in this life were traveling and hiking. In addition to his time studying in Spain, Neal also spent semesters abroad in Argentina, South America, Melbourne, Australia, and summers completing several cross-country road trips visiting friends. After college, Neal lived in Charleston, South Carolina before moving to Memphis, Tennessee to take an inside sales position with OOCL (Orient Overseas Container Line). While with OOCL, he relocated to Cerritos, California for a Sales Analyst role before stepping away from the grind of corporate life to rediscover himself on the trails and in the wilderness of North America.

Where travel defined most of Neal’s 20’s, hiking across the county and experiencing the great outdoors came to define his 30’s. In 2009, Neal spent seven months thru-hiking the Appalachian National Scenic Trail from terminus to terminus, a total distance of 2,178 miles. Here he met many of the friends and kindred spirits he would gather with in later years to reminisce about their experiences and discuss goals for larger feats. After his first thru-hike, Neal went back to work for DHL Global Forwarding in Columbia, South Carolina, but never lost sight of what he learned on the trail or his desire to get back out there. While progressing through several promotions with DHL between 2010 to 2014, he set his sights on hiking Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and began mentoring other thru-hikers through the Appalachian Trail Conservatory. An interview with Neal about what he learned on the trail can be found here:

https://journeys.appalachiantrail.org/issue/winter-2018/momentum-flow/

In 2014, it was time to hit the trail again and Neal set out in April to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Detoured by wildfires in the west but undaunted, Neal completed the 2,659 mile trail in five months to finish in September 2014. This time when Neal came back, he took a position as an Import Specialist with TLR (Total Logistics Resources) in Portland, Oregon in 2015. He was promoted to Import Supervisor less than a year later, but still could not shake the call of the trail. With his eyes set on the monumental goal of completing his Triple Crown, Neal left again to thru-hike Continental Divide National Scenic Trail in July of 2017.  Five months and 3,059 miles later, Neal “Old Gear” Hanlin completed his Triple Crown. He was officially honored for completing all three trails a year later at the annual ALDHA-West meeting in September 2018. At that time he was the 891st person to complete all three trails totaling 7,896 miles.

Since his time on the trail, Neal spent a year in Portland as a Sales Specialist at REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.), and then moved into the coffee business for another year as the Seattle Operations Manager with Costa Oro International. Most recently Neal joined Hawthorne Gardening Company in late 2019 as a Fulfillment Planner and enjoyed his time there until his passing.

Neal Hanlin was cremated in Portland, Oregon on September 3, 2020 before making the journey home to Aiken, South Carolina with his brother Carey a few days later.  Neal will certainly be missed for the rest of our days, but that is largely due to smiles he placed on our faces for the last 41 years. 

Unfortunately, as Neal expressed more than once, 2020 has basically been a dumpster fire and there is a global pandemic preventing us from getting together to celebrate his life and the joy he brought to ours. In the absence of meeting in person, the family has chosen to place his memorial online to help us all grieve in a common space, and also to bring people back together and give them an opportunity to share stories, pictures, and more.

We do not have a timeline to get people together in-person with everything going on in the world, but if smaller groups would like to meet virtually or in-person we can help facilitate that here.  Please register for Neal’s mykeeper.com memorial and we will notify everyone as plans are made. 

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of the following charities we know Neal would have supported –

• Hike for Mental Health – you can support an individual and their journey or the organization itself through their website
• Appalachian Trail Conservatory – in addition to mentoring other thru-hikers with the ATC, this is where Neal found comradery and the opportunity to share his experiences