About Me

About My Project: hiking 100+ miles as a teen in a global pandemic

I am not a stereotypical “athletic person”. I never excelled at any sports, never was the star of any gym class. One thing I have loved since I was little was hiking. When I was eight years old, my parents sent me to sleep away camp for the first time. Each year I, along with the rest of my cabin, embarked on an adventure through the wilderness of New England. From dozens of miles spent in a canoe, to hundreds spent on long bike trips, my favorite trips were always the hikes. In 2019 alone, my cabin hiked a 70 mile section of the AT and biked over 500 miles through Maine. From the start of my experience at camp, I was promised that by the time I turned eighteen, I would have already biked hundreds of miles through Nova Scotia and hiked the last 100+ miles of the Appalachian Trail ending with Mount Katahdin. I have been looking forward to these trips all my life, but as March 2020 came around, the promise of those adventures was out the window. I was crushed and gave up on hiking all together for a while, but when the summer of 2021 came along, I finally decided to blaze my own trail.

This summer, I am hiking as many mountains as I can, with whoever agrees to come with me. My goal is to reach over 100 miles of hiking by the end of the summer. I have already come across obstacles, including my job five days a week, college preparation as I enter my senior year, and the ever-present longing to just stay in bed. But as this summer has progressed, I have pushed myself to the limit as much as I can and I am currently on my way to reaching my goal.

I decided to start this blog to not only show people my journey, but to also inspire members of my community, and beyond, to take a day to just hike. None of the mountains I am hiking are especially impressive or “impossible”. I am a 17-year-old camp counselor who teaches music and sign language to children throughout the school year and summer, I have my limits. My options are limited to how far I, as a new driver, can drive, and how much I think that the members of my group as well as myself can physically withstand.

So read along with me as I post about each new hike and each new experience, and I dare you each to embark on a journey of your own.