Senior Emma Wright reflects on her Appalachian Trail solo hike

<p>Senior Emma Wright hiked from Georgia to Maine this year along the Appalachian Trail.</p>

Senior Emma Wright hiked from Georgia to Maine this year along the Appalachian Trail.

Senior Emma Wright recently completed a solo hike of the entire Appalachian Trail going northbound from Georgia to Maine. From February 29 to July 14, she hiked a total of 123 days from Georgia’s Amicalola Falls Visitor Center to Maine’s Mount Katahdin with only four days of rest in between—barring injury—averaging eighteen miles a day. The Chronicle’s Rob Palmisano communicated with Emma over email about the inspiration behind her solo hike and her experiences along the way.

TC: What originally motivated you to undertake a solo hike of the entire Appalachian Trail?

EW: I spent three weeks hiking on the AT after my first year of college, and I fell in love with it after that first exposure. I knew from that moment that some day I wanted to hike the whole trail; however, at that point it was a distance goal. Then, while studying abroad in Chile this fall, I began considering the possibility of taking a semester off from college to hike. Every hiker has a book full of reasons for hiking the trail. The biggest reason for me was that I wanted the opportunity to focus on myself for a bit. I wanted to be challenged and to feel successful in something other than grades, looks and wealth. I wanted to learn to love myself better. I wanted to grow deeper in my relationship with God. Therefore, hiking solo was a major criterion for me. My parents were originally really uncomfortable with the idea of me hiking alone, but they never told me I couldn’t do it. They supported me the whole way, and I drew a lot of strength from their faith in me.

TC: Where does your passion for it originate from?

EW: I am not sure I can articulate exactly why I love hiking. To be honest, most of the time I am tired, sore, cold, wet, hungry or some combination of those. Hiking is hard work, but it is also one of the most rewarding activities I know. When I lay down to sleep each night, I am proud of what I accomplished that day. Time never feels wasted. As long as I’m walking north, I feel productive. I don’t have to worry about anyone other than myself, and that’s liberating. For me, hiking isn’t about reaching a summit or view; it’s truly about the hike itself. I gain far more from the process of walking than I ever do from reaching the destination. I have always felt closest to God in the mountains, and when I’m hiking, the repetition of walking becomes a meditative prayer. Without the distractions of daily life, I am able to relate to God on a deeper level.

TC: If you had to name a highlight of the hike, what would it be and why?

EW: My favorite section of the trail was New Hampshire. The White Mountains were some of the most difficult terrain but also the most beautiful. I had never hiked above tree-line prior to Mount Moosilauke, so I was awestruck by the views throughout the Whites. My least favorite state was definitely Pennsylvania because the trail is covered with sharp rocks that stabbed my feet all day long.

TC: What was the greatest challenge you faced along the way, and how did you overcome it?

EW: The most challenging part of my thru-hike was dealing with the mental struggles of physical injuries. I am tough, stubborn and capable of pushing through pain to the point of fainting or total loss of function. However, this hike was different because instead of surviving a two-day tournament, I had to stay functional for four months.In southern Virginia, around mile 550, I started feeling shin splints in my right leg. The pain was sharp and severe. Having just switched to new shoes and insoles in Damascus, I assumed that my body was just adjusting to the new arch support, so I tried to stretch more and dropped my mileage to only 18 miles per day. The pain got so bad that my entire lower shin, ankle and foot became swollen and bruised. I lost movement in my toes due to swelling and winced with almost every step while walking. Occasionally, my right leg would simply give out causing me to fall unexpectedly. I continued hiking (or limping) like this for eight days. Those eight days were the most mentally exhausting experience of my life. Finding the mental strength to keep walking for ten hours when every single step hurts is exhausting; doing that day after day is debilitating. Finally, I walked into an urgent care in Daleville, VA, Mile 727, and the doctor sent me out on crutches. Admitting to myself that I needed to take some time off trail to heal was heartbreaking, especially since I feared this injury would end my hike for good. Luckily, after two weeks of rest, I was able to get back on trail without any recurring leg issues.

TC: What did you think about the most while you were hiking?

EW: Food. Food was always on my mind: what I ate last, what I will eat next, when I can eat next, how much I can eat without running out of food, what I will eat in the next town. The list goes on and on. Food is calories; calories are energy; and energy climbs mountains and walks miles. I like to describe, “Thru-hiking is being more tired, wet, cold and hungry than you’ve ever been in your life and yet somehow loving it.”

TC: Who are some of the people you encountered?

EW: The people are one of the best parts of the trail. Everyone from other hikers to trail maintainers to trail angels is incredible. I have never experienced as much generosity in my entire life as I did on the trail. In fact, I found that being surrounded by so much generosity actually made me want to give more. The trail community fosters an environment where helping strangers is the norm. Hikers often rely on random acts of kindness to survive.

TC: Were there any particularly scary moments?

EW: I saw fourteen bears, two rattlesnakes and a bobcat among other wildlife on the AT. Most of those encounters were totally uneventful; I would simply scare them off by making noise. However, one day in northern New Jersey a mama bear actually growled at me and took three lunging steps toward me when I accidentally spooked her coming around a corner. That was the most terrifying animal encounter I had. Another category of scary was when I felt sick in Maine and worried I would faint on the trail and injure myself or feel too weak to make it to the next shelter or road. I felt inexplicably fatigued and sore throughout Maine, only to be diagnosed with Lyme’s disease this past Wednesday. So it turns out that I hiked the last 300 miles of the Appalachian Trail with Lyme’s disease. Finally, the last category of scary things is people. Almost all thru-hikers are fun, inspiring, chill people. However, every now and then I met day hikers or weekenders who made me nervous. Maybe they said something creepy or just gave off uneasy vibes. As a solo female hiker, I got really good at trusting my instincts about people. If somebody seemed sketchy within our first few seconds of interacting, I would remove myself from the situation immediately by speed-hiking ahead. There were definitely a few nights when I slept with my knife and cell phone in my hands so that I could defend myself or sprint away if anything turned for the worse. I remember a man saying to me, “Well, I just won’t tell my wife about you” or another group of section hiking men who made jokes about chloroform, when I was the only other person in the shelter that night.

I think it’s also important for me to say that I noticed my woman-ness more on this hike than I usually do at school or home. Thru-hikers are constantly comparing weight and mileages, and I frequently surprised people because I walked faster than average and passed many men. I averaged about 18 miles per day total, including rest days but excluding my two-week injury. That means most days I walked over 20 miles, occasionally over 30 miles in a day. The AT is diverse in some ways because you can have an astronaut and a teenage drug dealer hiking side by side and not know the difference, but there is very little racial diversity and only about 25 percent of hikers are women. 

TC: What was the biggest nuisance?

EW: Filtering water was easily the most annoying daily chore. In fact, I regularly bypassed the filtration process and crossed my fingers that the water was clean. The longest I ever went without filtering my water was two weeks in Virginia because my filter broke.

TC: What was the greatest lesson you learned?

EW: “Hike your own hike.” This is a phrase echoed among long distance hikers; it’s the unofficial motto of the Appalachian Trail. It encompasses the idea that I cannot tell any other hiker how fast they should go, where they should sleep, what they should eat or how to do their thru-hike. Each person is responsible only for themselves. For me, this lesson was an important reminder not to be competitive. I am ridiculously competitive by nature, so I had to fight my urges to turn the hike into a race to the finish.

TC: How would you defend the importance of preserving outdoor hiking trails for subsequent generations?

EW: Long distance trails like the AT and [Pacific Crest Trail] are more than just pathways; they offer community to the lonely and healing to the hurting. They are opportunities to feel small, to be humbled by Earth’s natural beauty, while also proving your mental and physical strength as you summit mountain after mountain after mountain. If you want to find yourself, go get a little lost in the woods. There’s no better way to learn about yourself than spending twelve hours per day walking in solitude, surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty.

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