Patrick French set out on his first solo trip backpacking the entirety of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 2015 with minimal hiking experience. On Sunday, he’s appearing alongside other survivalists to battle the elements for 21 days in Argentina, naked and afraid. 

The popular Discovery Channel show follows French, a Concord native and 2000 graduate of Concord High School, and his cast mates over the course of three weeks as they traverse deadly terrain, endure severe temperatures and fight to stay alive without any provided food, water, shelter or clothing.  

“One of the hardest parts was being alone with someone you never met before in a situation where you’re hungry and exhausted and you don’t know each other,” French said of his time in Northern Argentina. “You have to really get along and make it through a bad situation and it really makes the challenge so real.”

Of course being naked adds another element to the experience, he said, but not for the reasons most would assume. Aware of his nakedness, it’s more than just being shy; it’s being entirely exposed to the elements without professional gear in an environment that could kill you. 

“This was my first experience with survivalism without any gear and I’m used to having some of the most top of the line gear in the world,” he said. “That’s been the case since 2015 and a challenge like that without anything at all is always going to be daunting. It’s one of the hardest things I have ever done.”

But it wasn’t totally terrible, either.

“Hell yeah, I would do it again,” he said while sitting on a friend’s couch in Manchester wearing tattered short shorts and a hoodie. 

French got his first taste of the outdoors after his parents divorced and he’d visit his dad in Warner. With no nearby neighbors, he’d explore the wooded area behind his father’s home, trap for animals and build forts. In the second grade, he went on his first backpacking trip with his dad and discovered his passion. 

“I like being out in nature and I love seeing new things,” French said of his experiences. “You can go to the same place on a different day and it’s completely different. I love going to sleep when it’s dark out and waking up somewhere new every morning and seeing a brand new view you didn't see when you went to bed the night before.” 

Though always active in nature, it wasn’t until French was 33 that he started backpacking full time. After graduating high school, he joined the family antiquing business and did what he thought were the “normal” things to be happy and successful like buying a car and a house and building a stable life for himself. 

“None of that really made me happy and after a bad break up, I was just like, if I’m ever going to be a parent, I’m never going to have the chance to do the Appalachian Trail and I should do it while I have this freedom right now,” French said. “I became Peter Pan, I guess.”

French learned about the Appalachian Trail early in his adolescence and it was always something he wanted to do, but figured it was impossible until he decided to give it a shot and never looked back. In the following years, he went on to complete the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington and the 3,000 mile Continental Divide Trail through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. 

Most recently, he completed a 4,800 mile thru-hike from North Dakota to Vermont near the end of November and has been in Manchester since. In 2022, the professional backpacker and experienced survivalist hiked more than 7,000 miles and set two records for the fastest known hiking times. 

“Oftentimes you hear through hiking and backpacking that doing the Appalachian Trail is a once in a lifetime experience but after a while, I started having more and more once-in-a-lifetime experiences and then all of a sudden it wasn’t fitting,” he said. “Doing something like Naked and Afraid, in your mind it’s a once in a lifetime experience, but if they ask me to do it again, I would jump at the opportunity and then it’s no longer once in a lifetime.”

French has been sponsored by several gear companies since 2015 that frequently send him on trips to test out new products and provide design feedback to make the technology better for their users. His next trip will sending him to an undisclosed location where he’ll likely miss the premier of his own show on Sunday, he said. 

When he returns, he has two goals for 2023; complete the New England trail – a 215 mile trail through Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut which would make him the third person to complete all 11 national scenic trails in the United States and complete the Great Basin Traverse which is a 1,000 mile trail that spans the length of Nevada.

“Keep a positive attitude and eventually your body will catch up to your mind,” French said to those interested in backpacking and extreme survivalism. “Listen to your body and don’t compare yourself to other people; only compare yourself to who you were yesterday.”

To watch the show, tune in to the Discovery Channel at 8 p.m. on Sunday. 

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