Kate Schmidlin completed the Appalachian Trail six months and one day after she started. Along the way, she learned a lot about life and how she wants to live it.
Six months and one day. That’s how long Kate Schmidlin spent hiking the 2,180-mile long Appalachian Trail, which passes through 14 states. For reference, walking from Peden Stadium to Seigfred Hall is only 0.9 miles, meaning Schmidlin walked that distance across campus 2,422 times.
Schmidlin graduated in December 2013 with a degree in exercise physiology. Only three months later, on March 23, she began her trek as a “thru-hiker,” the term used to describe someone who walks the entire trail in a continuous journey. She reached Mount Katahdin, the final peak of the trail, on Sept. 24 after walking an average of 15 to 20 miles per day.
Along the way, she met a multi-billionaire, found a surrogate sister and had her faith restored in humanity, all the while maintaining a “no-quitting” mentality.
What was your favorite moment?
I had camped near a lake and woke up in the middle of the night. I walked out onto the little rocky beach and sat on a piece of driftwood for maybe a half hour in the middle of the night. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, just uninterrupted sky. … I sat there by myself just watching shooting stars. I got a whole different perspective on how small everything I worry about really is and how small my day-to-day life is, and it’s up to me to make it important if I want it to be important.
How did you stay in touch with people?
I had a Samsung Galaxy S3 and two external batteries for it. To ease my parents’ mind, I installed a tracking device in my phone that recorded by location every 15 minutes. … I used my phone mostly as a camera … I tried to keep my family and friends at home updated through Facebook and my blog as much as I could.
Did you ever want to quit?
Being uncomfortable, exhausted, hungry and poor for six months and one day is definitely trying on the mind. The first three weeks were the worst on my body, and then my body just acclimated to the stress I was putting on it. From then on, it was more of a mind game and a lesson in self-care. If I felt my body breaking down and becoming more exhausted, then it was just time to stop — it didn’t matter what time of day it was or how far I’ve gone.
Who did you hike with?
Most thru-hikers start out in late March/ early April. They estimated about 2,000 people started out, so there’s going to be people around you. … I ended up with one girl who I walked about 1,000 miles with, and we finished together at the top. … It was like we were sisters by the end of it. I never expected the social aspect.
How often did you take breaks?
Everybody takes what’s called “Zero Days,” when you just take a day off and sit in town. It’s really necessary for your body. … I feel people at home expected me to do day after day after day, and that’s just not how my body worked and that was OK. … Some people do it. The record holder did the trail in 48 days, which means she averaged something like 50 miles a day, and that sounds terrible.
What kept you going for that long and kept you from quitting?
There was really no space in my head for thoughts of quitting. … Without injury or family emergencies, I knew I wasn’t going to get off the trail. … There’s no way to fail. … There’s a motto on the trail to ‘Hike your own hike.’ It’s such a supportive environment.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned?
Everything works out in the end. … It’s just a matter of time of how long it will take before you realize that it has worked itself out. … I don’t want to go back in academia because there’s so much pressure. I was just so freed and liberated by the ‘you can’t fail on the trail’ atmosphere. Even if you don’t do anything that day, a crappy day in the woods is better than any day in the office.
Did you find a favorite spot?
Mahoosuc Notch is about a mile of trail. In the map it’s noted as one of the most challenging and most fun sections of the Appalachian Trail. It’s only one mile long … but it was easily the most challenging section I’ve ever done. It was just huge, jagged boulders the size of cars heaped in this big valley you just have to scramble over. It was so much fun. It was kind of raining a little bit, so the rocks were kind of slippery. … Your life flashed before your eyes every time your foot slipped a millimeter and you almost fell into the crevice, but it was a fun, doable challenge. … It’s a very dangerous spot. I’m surprised more people don’t get injured honestly. Situations like 127 Hours could have happened anywhere on the trail.
How did your family react to your decision to do the thru-hike?
My parents were apprehensive, but supportive through the whole journey. Of course, they were nervous about me venturing out on my own, but they knew what I was getting myself into and had confidence I could do it.
What were the other hikers like?
It’s such a huge diversity of people, not necessarily racially or ethnically. … There’s usually 20- to 25-year-olds or retired folks because that’s the only time you have in your life where you can just ditch everything for six months. … Also there was a guy who was a multi-billionaire I was walking with for a really long time, and he never said a thing. We’d small talk and asked what he did at home and he said, ‘Oh some odd jobs.’ And I never asked again. I found out later because our buddy got off the trail and that guy offered to fly him home in his private jet. Then there are some people who are homeless and just roaming the trail because there’s nowhere else to go. You really see the full spectrum. It doesn’t look diverse but once you get to know the people, there are all kinds of folks.
What is your strangest wilderness interaction story from the trip?
Oh my goodness, there are so many. I guess I was scared by this little creature called a marten. … I had no idea what it was. It scampered up a tree in front of me. I just stared at it because I couldn’t put together what it was. Its face is like a kitten mixed with a wolf cub — this fluffy, cute little thing — but it’s body looks like a ferret. I had no idea what this thing was so I stared at it and it cocked its head sideways back and forth like a puppy. It was so cute! We just stared at each other for two or three minutes. Then I walked away and he ran up a tree.
How did you stock up on supplies and keep up with hygiene?
Maybe every five days or so I would go into town and refill my food. I was lucky enough to have my parents visit me every four or five weeks. They would drop off a big package of food for me where I was and then they’d drive up the trail and drop off food packages to the town I was going to be in, which was so convenient. It saved me a lot of money. My mom made a lot of dehydrated dinners for me. She would just cook a dinner at home and put it in a dehydrator and package it up in single servings, so I would have healthy and nutritious meals whereas most people were just eating Ramen and Pasta Sides for dinner while I had white chicken chili, lasagna, Thai noodles — all for free too. … I had a bottle of soap that worked as universal detergent for dishes or shampoo or whatever. … There are so many hostels. I didn’t realize there are hostels in America; I thought that was only a European thing. I stayed in probably 20 hostels, and they were all different. I did a lot of work-for-stays. I worked on an organic farm to pay for my stay. I washed a stove to stay in a lady’s mobile home. For one house, I just swept the floor so I could stay for free. That’s a thing a lot of people take advantage of. They’re plentiful. There’s one or two in each of the towns I went to. … There are only three or four towns actually on the trail, so most of them you have to hitchhike to but it’s usually five or 10 miles.
Did you have any issues with weather?
I had snow in the southern and northern end. There were a couple really rainy, stormy days where everything was soaked. Even with a waterproof tent and a waterproof backpack, nothing is dry because there’s no way to actually get out of the rain. That was just the worst. It’s so uncomfortable to have wet clothes all day and then at the end of the day you take off your wet clothes and get in your wet sleeping bag and then you wake up and put on your wet clothes and wet boots. It’s really bad on morale. But overall, we really lucked out with weather. We only had maybe six to 10 awful days in terms of weather, which is nothing out of 180-some days.
What did you learn after this journey? What are you taking away from this experience?
Things always work out. I was blown away by how it seemed everything conspired in my favor. I would be all stressed out about something or I couldn’t get into town or was running out of food, and the trail always provided something. One time, I was low on money and trying to hitchhike into town. My friend and I got picked up by this woman who was a local and she drove us into town and asked us where we wanted to be dropped off. We said we had $60 and asked what cheap motel we could stay at. She said she had a 21-year-old daughter and wouldn’t want her staying at that kind of motel room, so she’d pick a hotel room and cover the tab of it if we just gave her the $60. She got us this huge room with two queen beds, two TVs, a kitchenette and it was a total stranger! She drove away, and we never saw her again. It was stuff like that when we were both kind of down on our luck and the morale was low, and someone like that comes along. The generosity of people blew me away. … My faith in humanity has been so restored.
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