Lawson, with his companion Tina Roberts, pulled the car over and tried to figure out whether they should turn around and come home.

“I said, ‘No, let’s keep going,'” Lawson said. “My mom would have told me to keep going.”

He dedicated the hike — part of the North Country Trail Association’s Hike 100 Challenge — to his mother.

In doing so, he became the first person in the nation to finish the challenge.

Jim Lawson, who dedicated his North Country Trail Association Hike 100 Challenge to his mother. He completed the challenge on Jan. 11.

Lawson has been a hiker for years and an outdoors person since he was a child, even though he wasn’t raised in an outdoors family.

“It’s just something I think you were born with,” he said. “For me, it’s a deep feeling of love, reverence, appreciation for nature. The joy I feel on the trail is incredible. Each of those moments I feel like a champion.”

Lawson said there’s a spiritual aspect to hiking for him, an activity that taken him many places, including being one of about 7,500 people to climb all 46 4,000 foot peaks in the Adirondacks.

The Hike 100 Challenge was something he intended to complete this year, but it took on an added significance in light of his mother Margaret’s passing.

“She wasn’t an outdoor person but she was always interested in what I did,” Lawson said. “Even when she was in the hospital, we knew what the outcome was going to be so I would show her pictures” from his hikes.

When she could no longer speak, he said she would “get that smile on her face” when she saw those photos.

“The day she passed, you get that word and no matter what, she was 94-and-a-half years old, she’s still your mom,” Lawson. “(It’s) emotional…. You get on the trail. The first 10-11 miles, I didn’t really say anything.”

Roberts told him he was moving pretty fast that day.

Why? “Trying to hold back the emotion,” Lawson said. “Sometimes, you’re not even holding that back. All the memories and thoughts. It was just the thing. It was actually, probably, a good thing that helped me.”

Lawson said they typically break the challenge up into 8, 13-mile hikes. During the winter, they often use trailheads on Rt. 948 and US 6 — trailheads readily accessible in winter — to get the miles in.

He returned to the trail on Jan. 2, another hike which was “pretty emotional.” That was followed by a couple days at work and “trying to take care of everything” that comes with a Thursday funeral. He had some bereavement time off in the days after the funeral.

“I just got thinking about it,” he said. “I can finish this thing up. I can hike every day.”

So out he went — 13 miles each day from Friday through the following Wednesday.

“You can say that in your mind (but you) can hurt something. Each day I would do out (thinking) I gotta get through today to get to tomorrow. When I got to the last day, I knew no matter what I was going to finish it that day if I had to crawl.”

Lawson credited the North Country Trail Association chapters throughout the state that “all do a great job at maintaining these trails. The NCT is one of his “go-to” places.

“Each section has its own unique thing,” he said, specifically highlighting the section off of Rt. 948 that goes to the Tionesta Scenic Area and “rock city.”

“That’s a pretty cool section. I’ve probably gone through there 100 times and I’m always taking pictures there.”

But he also highlighted the Minister Creek trail system, the trails at Chapman State Park and the trails that make up the Hatch Run Conservation Area.

Hiking in those areas can often be a solitary pursuit but the challenge dedicated to his mother has facilitated connections he never could have seen coming.

The national NCT Association posted about him being the first finisher for the year.

“I can’t even tell you how many people have reached out,” he said. Some people ask about hiking shoes. One was a woman whose spouse passed in November who was having trouble hiking in light of that loss.

He said it was never his intent to be the first finisher this year but the hike provided some solace in a difficult time — “peace and comfort,” he said, “maybe not right away, the first few days; but it did by the end.”