An Ode to the Appalachian Trail

I’m preparing for my ninth year of section hiking the Appalachian Trail, or the AT as it is commonly referred to by the hiking community. As I assemble various bags of oatmeal, snacks, and dehydrated meals, and attempt to stuff my sleeping bag and tent into my cavernous backpack, I am both contemplative and grateful. I stand by the statement that the AT has changed my life. I owe so much of who I am today to the challenges, triumphs, and camaraderie that I have experienced by walking along this four foot wide path over the past nine years. 

The trail has absorbed my tears, my laughter, and my wide-eyed wonder. It has stood witness to the dissolution of my marriage and the death of my father, as well as the excitement of beginning a new relationship, and the unknown world of starting a new business. And it has inspired my desire to share my thoughts and explore ideas through Slow, Simple and Wild.

What is it about this 2,190 mile corridor of wilderness that beckons to the 3 million other people who visit it each year? For me, the AT embodies four of my core life values:

The Value of Connection

For much of the AT, walking on the trail is compared to walking through a green tunnel. You are surrounded by the natural world 360 degrees in all directions. In 3 Gifts from Nature I shared the significance of engaging all of our senses in the natural world. On the AT, I have no choice but to put my phone in my pocket, as there is no cell service on over 50% of the trail. As I walk down the path and navigate the rock ledges in front of me that I must scramble over, or the next mountain that I must climb, all my senses come alive. After all, my health and my goal to get to shelter by nightfall depend on it.

The Value of Community

Hiking on the AT is an interesting blend of solitude and community. Much of the time I am walking alone with my thoughts (and occasionally singing off key), but there are lots of stretches where I meet up with other groups of hikers, and we will journey together for a few miles or more. In the evenings there are almost always new people at the shelters and campsites. Back home, people often ask me if I am afraid. They usually probe deeper with one of the two following questions – am I afraid of being murdered? Am I afraid of getting eaten by a bear? 

While there are times I am afraid on the trail, I have never been scared of those two scenarios. What I have discovered on the trail is the most amazing experience of serendipitous community. I have met hundreds of other hikers over the years. They bring diverse experiences and perspectives to our encounters and conversations. I have shared food with a 7-year-old (she was thru hiking with her mom, and together they were known by the trail names “Supermom” and “Supergirl”), and shared a shelter with a 75-year-old (trail name “Maui”). In this community, we have laughed and cried together, cared for injuries, educated each other, and swapped stories as easily as swapping desserts after a long day. Each year, for the few days that I am hiking, the nonstop newsreel of doom disappears, and my faith in humanity is reaffirmed.

The Value of Challenge

When my daughter was moving up to middle school, the school superintendent spoke to the assembled fifth graders and gave them the following advice: “Anything worth doing is going to be hard.” That sentence has always stuck with me. Another way of saying it is:

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”  – Neale Donald Walsch

Over the years I have grown to recognize that moving through challenge is the primary way I grow. During these past nine years the AT has challenged me physically, mentally, emotionally, and more. Those challenges have forged me into the person who I am today, and I continue to be grateful for all that I have learned.

The Value of Simplicity

Walking the AT is the ultimate exercise in paring down to the essentials. Everything I need fits within a backpack weighing 30 pounds or less. Without the burden of emails and meetings and deadlines, my goal each day is just to walk, to somehow cover 10-12 miles of the green tunnel to make it to the next shelter or town. Everything else is superfluous.

I recognize that simplicity means different things to different people. For me, simplicity is stripping away the busyness of life and things that don’t truly serve me and fill my soul. I let go of the “shoulds” and the “ought tos” and the comparisons that bombard me for so much of the year. The trail doesn’t care about how much money I make, or what college my children attend, the trail just is. And when I am on the trail, I just am.

I know hiking is not everyone’s thing. That being said, I believe that there is something for everyone. When you find the thing that lights you up, grab it and love it and let it sing to you, even if it’s off key. Find the edge of your comfort zone, and push beyond it into the person you were born to be.