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| Contributed photo Alison Kieffer, 26, of Caribou, recently completed a five month and 11 day trek along the Appalachian Mountains. Kieffer began the 2,185.3-mile hike in April and returned to Caribou at the end of September. |
By Theron Larkins
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Caribou native Alison Kieffer, 26, recently returned home from a 2,185.3 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail.
Kieffer began her trip nearly six months ago, when she decided to take a break from the big city life in Boston, where she was previously working in a pathology lab, to make the popular hike from Springer Mt. in Georgia to Maine’s own Mt. Katahdin.
Five months and 11 days later, Kieffer returned to Caribou with a new insight on life. She explained that hiking the Appalachian Trail was something she’s wanted to do for quite some time, and she felt there was no better time than the present.
“This just felt like the right time in my life,” said Kieffer, who graduated from Caribou High School in 2006. “I’ve always really liked hiking, so I figured that while I was still young and free of any sort of attachments, this was the right time to make the hike.”
Kieffer explained that she did a great deal of research before taking to the trail, as the hike can be somewhat dangerous for an inexperienced hiker, but Kieffer knew she was well-prepared for this adventure.
“I read a lot of books on it, as well as first-hand accounts and documentaries,” Kieffer added. “So, eventually I just said, “Lets do it, it’s the right time in my life.”
Kieffer began her solo journey across the trail in April and arrived back in Maine at the end of September. She made much of the journey on her own, but she did get a little help from her mother and father along the way.
“My mom hiked the trail for the first two weeks with me, then my dad joined me for the next week,” said Kieffer. “I hadn’t done a lot of backpacking, so at first, I was a little nervous with things like sleeping in the woods. At the same time, I feel like being in the woods is actually a lot safer than being in a city like Boston.”
Kieffer explained that by the time she reached the Smoky Mountains, which stretch across the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, she was on her own.
“It was good to start with my parents, just because I hadn’t done much backpacking,” said Kieffer. “So, it was nice to have a second person to bounce ideas off.”
According to Kieffer, she hiked about 13 miles per day for the first four months or so, but by the time she reached southern Maine, the cold was enough to speed her up quite a bit.
“I would do about, the average was about 13 miles a day, but then towards the end, towards Maine, it was getting cold so that sped me right up and I did about 20 miles a day. I was certainly happy to have done the hike, but I was also very happy to finish. It was getting really cold,” said Kieffer.
Despite Kieffer completing the majority of the trip on her own, she was certainly not alone during the entirety of the hike.
“There’s a lot of other hikers that you meet a long the way,” said Kieffer. “There were times when I would stay with a group for a couple days, or a week. I would see a lot of people I recognized at night when people set up camp to sleep. You could either bring your own tent to sleep in, or you could sleep in a lean-to, but I mostly camped out in my tent because people snore and there were a lot of mice.”
She continued by explaining that the hike may not be what people might imagine, as far as being in the woods all alone.
“You’re definitely not in the woods all by yourself or anything like that,” said Kieffer. “Thousands of people start the hike every year, so there’s a lot of people you meet along the way, but I believe only about 5 percent actually finish the entire trail.”
Kieffer claimed that the feeling of satisfaction she got from finishing the hike is still sinking in and things still feel a little surreal now that she has returned from the wilderness.
“I’m still kind of putting it together that I actually hiked the whole trail,” said Kieffer. “I was so focused on finishing certain sections of the trail, while I was hiking, so it’s a lot to process now. A lot of people have been really supportive and expressed to me how big of an accomplishment it really is, but I’m still kind of getting to that point. It’s weird being back to society.”
As far as what Kieffer missed the most while on her trip, fresh fruits and vegetables were at the top of the list.
“Sometimes you just have weird cravings for food that you can’t really get while you’re out there,” she said. “I really wanted my mom’s spinach lasagna, at one point. I kept asking her to send it to me, but it wasn’t really something she could have delivered.”
The food that Kieffer was able to eat was far from a homecooked meal of spinach lasagna.
“Mostly, we had oatmeal or Pop-Tarts for breakfast, then I’d mainly eat snack foods throughout most of the day like beef jerky or trail mix,” Kieffer added. “After five months of that, it gets a little old. My mom actually did send me a lot of my food and she tried to send me a variety of things, but you’re very limited because you don’t want to have to carry much food.”
One reason Kieffer had to sacrifice some of her favorite foods is because she was already carrying a backpack that weighed 46.5 pounds at the beginning of the hike, and toward the end of the trip it was down to about 30 pounds.
“By the end, I was throwing out everything that I didn’t absolutely need because I was just sick of carrying it,” said Kieffer.
Kieffer had some advice for anyone who may be interested in hiking the Appalachian Trail, which was basically to go for it if it’s something you really want to do.
“If it’s something that you really want to do, it’s just like any other dream, if you plan it and do your research, I think that’s the key,” said Kieffer. “Anyone can do anything they put their mind to, but the research and preparation is one of the most important parts.”
