January 25, 2026
I’m glad that this day is not the completion day of my Appalachian Trail thru hike! I’m living in Ohio now, and it’s a full 24 hours into a record-breaking snow event! I’m living solo now, a development of the journey that unfolded since that completion day in 2008. Although I’ve been thinking about my journey since that day all day, I haven’t sat down to write it, and haven’t really wanted to. Remembering feels adequate. However, I’ll write a list of events.
2008 I went back home to Atlanta and tried to put away my hiker persona. That didn’t work. I had told my husband about my trail relationship in which I came alive within my heart and he decided he couldn’t trust me.
May-October 2008 I walked most of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada with Hiker John, fulfilling my promise to be celibate. This walk convinced me of my ability to walk long distances, and my self-knowledge that hiking IS my system! My husband didn’t believe me when I returned home and verified that I had kept my promise.
2009-2013 My husband’s job ended, he got his Master’s degree in linguistics. fell in love with Chinese, got a job in China and stayed for two years. Meanwhile, I stayed in love with the Appalachian Trail, got a summer job as a ridgerunner on the trail and continued relating with my hiking partner. I also combined my love for walking with my new skills in Radical Forgiveness coaching and formed ForgivenessWalks. My divorce was finalized with the help of an attorney in April, 2013. I sold the house I now owned in May, 2013. Those years also saw me walking the Benton MacKaye Trail four times – in all four seasons, mostly solo. I completed my second attempt at the winter version with Hiker John in January, 2013. During those years, we also walked the Superior Hiking Trail and Foothills Trail.
2013-2014 Hiker John and I did our summer seasonal jobs on the Appalachian Trail and hiked over the winter. We worked at Yellowstone National Park for 6 weeks in Fall, 2013 preceded by a section on the Continental Divide Trail. That Fall, we walked 300 miles on the Buckeye Trail while boarding with my Mom in Ohio. The roadwalking turned us off from that trail. In January, we walked the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail. In August, 2014 I joined Hiker John in Baxter State Park while he worked as AT Steward. He rented a vacation cabin outside the park. Some of the time we had park housing as well. During those three months, I climbed Mt. Katahdin six times from three different trailheads. At the end of his season, he made a call to the ranger at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park which he had remembered from our PCT walk. He got a job! During his interview, he heard that there was also I job for me! We both started working there mid-November, 2014.
Summer 2015 After our first season at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, we both went back to Virgina as ridgerunners. After our seasons, we went up to Maine and walked south to Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts. Our goal was to walk to fill in the sections of the trail where we had not yet walked together. From there, we drove back to Ohio for a Bernard family reunion, then to SC for a visit to my middle son, then on to Atlanta and a night at the Len Foote Hike Inn with my oldest son and his girlfriend. Then, we were off to the west. Before returning to our jobs, though we took a week-long trip to the Big Island of Hawaa’i for Hiker John to summit that state’s highpoint.
Summer 2016 After another happy winter at ABDSP we skipped ridgerunning and walked another section on the Appalachian Trail. We walked from Rockfish Gap to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey state line. From there, we went to South Carolina for a visit to my first grandson and a reunion with my kids. I turned up being sick with tick-borne illness and recovered with antibiotics and herbs. From that seguey in Ohio, we drove up to Buffalo, NY for my niece’s wedding. We parked the Old Gold Van in Buffalo, rented a car and drove back to Delaware Water Gap. We resumed our AT walk and walked up to Killington, VT, completing our second pass of the Appalachian Trail. We still wanted to walk and had some time, so we kept walking north on Vermont’s Long Trail.
2017 After a third happy season at ABDSP we were offered the Mt. Rogers ridgerunning position. We creatively pieced it together. I started the season in April while Hiker John finished up his season at ABDSP and climbed four highpoints in the west – MT, CO, WY, and UT – before joining me for the last month of the ridgerunning season. Then, we went back again to ABDSP.
Summer 2018, we stayed with my Mom in Ohio for a while, then walked the New England Trail before heading back to California for another fulfilling season at the Park.
Summer 2019, we walked the Oregon Coast Trail
2019 – 2020 We both worked through the COVID drama, learning that some staff get to be front-line workers while others work from home. We made it! In May, 2020 I helped my son move his family from Charleston, SC to their new home in Damariscotta, ME. Before going back to ABDSP, however, Hiker John helped me find my own van to purchase. He drove back sooner, and I did my first solo cross-country drive.
2021 our park seasons lasted through June and started in September, so our summer was short. We did have the chance in August to guide my three clients on a week-long walk in Maine. Hiker John had flown out to Maine to meet me for a pre-hike, then joined me again to pick them up in Portland, ME. He supported us through the week and making connections in Baxter State Park for campsites before we drove the group back to Portland.
2022 Hiker John started his full-time permanent position. I drove myself to Ohio and stayed with my Mom. On my way back to ABDSP, I met my Maine Hikers at one of their homes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a few days. Then, I took a northern route back, spending a week with my sister in Idaho, meeting up with my long-time friend, Marty, in Sandpoint, then my coaching friend, Dinny in Nevada on my way back to Borrego Springs. The Fall of 2022 brought frustration and secret sabotage which culminated in me being fired without warning on March 3, 2023.
2023 – January 25, 2026 I stayed around in Borrego Springs for two months, taking lovely walks with friends and deciding what to do. In May, I drove back to Ohio and stayed with son Simon for a few days. During the next month, I hopped around at various AirBnbs and HipCamp, finally choosing a rental in July. One day I learned that they needed a Naturalist at the Hike Inn and I went! I ended up working off and on there through the Fall, even though I couldn’t take the job because I had made a year lease in Dayton and wanted to help take care of my Mom.
The past two years have seen me doing short sections on the Buckeye Trail, struggling with decision-makers hoping to influence the quality of my Mom’s care, trying my best to be a long-distance friend to Hiker John. I drove out there on a month-long journey and thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with all my old friends, taking my mentee, Eli, on a couple of advanced hikes, and visiting my Junior Rangers at the school. This past year, I joined the Rachel Carson EcoVillage as an Explorer and have been nourished by their welcoming and their Sociocratic form of governance.
This solo chapter has convinced me that I do want to have a life partner or community with whom to craft my Legacy Chapter. I’ve written a vision statement describing an ideal community of hikers living near the trail, supporting each other for hikes and aging. I’ve also learned about Terramation and think that would be an enticing business to join. For the past year, I’ve hired Alexander at Digital Shaping to craft my image and message online. Now, I’ve enrolled him in helping me package Walk for a Singing Heart. I’ve begun to acknowledge that that audio presents the essential processes that ground me in my life’s purpose. I am open to discovering a way to share that work.
Overall, I’m now in a chapter of taking each day as it comes, striving to be true to my purpose, doing excellent self-care, and exploring options for my own fulfilling aging. I’m considering joining the six-month Permaculture Design Training to put me in the company of wholesome lifestyle planning and people who are living on purpose.