Stay engaged with the hiking community

Hiking season is officially here! Although I won’t be doing any trails this year, I still enjoy being connected to the trail community. There are so many bloggers and vloggers to follow! Also, some of my hiking buddies are going out again this year.

While I enjoy reading and watching the hiking adventures of others, my favorite way to stay involved in hiking (other than hiking a trail) is to talk about my trips. Last year, I gave several presentations about my hike on the Appalachian Trail to school, library, and church audiences. I was blown away by how intrigued everyone was in my story. 8-year-old elementary students followed me to the door to ask more questions, and 80-year-old women in a senior group wanted to know when I would speak again. Even the high school students were not too embarrassed to raise their hands.

I think what most people enjoyed was the idea of ​​undertaking a seemingly impossible adventure. The idea of ​​escaping normal life and living among the wild animals of the forest is exciting. While I love being able to show people that there are many fantastic adventures to have in life, I hope my story also inspires people to do the hard thing, dream big, and keep going even when times get tough.

This year, I will be sharing my story at the Central Trail Angel Conference in Pinecrest, CA. The conference, which will take place May 29-31, is for hikers and trail lovers alike. I’ll talk about how my experiences with trail angels on the 3 trails have been different and provide some ideas from hikers on how to be an effective trail angel. If you are interested in attending, you can find more information here: https://trailangelcentral.org/conference/. The conference is hosted by Trail Angel Central, run by Cookies, an amazing trail angel I stayed with in Pinecrest.

Cookies (left) with a pair of hikers

Like all hikers, I love sharing my story. I hope I can continue to inspire others to go out and enjoy this wonderful thing called life. I hope to see you there!

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