Hiking The AT Alone, My BFF’s Adventure [AUDIO] [PHOTOS]

As I sit through the daily life grind this summer, my best friend Jessie is "thru-hiking" the AT or harder to spell, the Appalachian Trail. Her text message to me last Friday said "OMG, I'm eating wild blueberries and I can see the NYC skyline". Wikipedia describes "Thru-hiking" as the process of hiking a long-distance trail from end to end. In the case of the AT the distance is 2,181 miles from Georgia to Maine and my friend Jessie is close to 3/4 of the way done. The photo gallery above of "Jessie's AT photos", are photos I stole from her Facebook page to show you.

When Jessie first mentioned hiking the AT, after her Hawaiian and European adventures the last couple of years, I brushed it off as a "yeah right" idea. I took her seriously once she started packing up her "mail drops" of gluten free food (Celiac disease sucks) and posting pictures like this on Facebook.

I was completely unfamiliar with the Appalachian Trail and what it meant to thru-hike it. No, I haven't read A Walk In The Woods, which apparently everyone but me has read. I thought she might be doing something completely reckless and be putting herself in danger. It turns out there are tons of friendly people she hikes with and then they go separate ways. Thru-hikers have trail names, Jessie is "Colorado." She has met amazingly interesting people young and old. Some of them are hiking the AT as a tribute to a lost family member, some are doing it for the personal journey. One ex-Marine told Jessie thru-hiking the AT is the hardest thing he's ever done.

This is a technical trail/journey where you have to purify your own water, endure extreme weather conditions, fight off constant mosquitoes and ticks, "camp" each night, unless you have chosen to stay at one of the many hostels or motels in nearby towns and keep going the distance every day. A lot of people's feet permanently go up a size after the trail because it's constant walking. Jessie says there are amazing moments everyday, but "that's only about 20 minutes out of each day".

The scariest thing about the AT are the numerous encounters with black bears, wild boars, copperheads and rattle snakes. The AT has been recreationally thru-hiked since the 1930's. Some people do day hikes or week long hikes, but the real adventure is in the thru-hike which takes from April to September to complete. Those are the only months you can do the thru-hike as severe weather takes over the other parts of the year. Thousands of hikers attempt to thru-hike the AT every year, although by some estimates fewer than 20% complete the entire trail. The thru-hikers are supported by past hikers and the small towns along the trails where you pick up your food via "mail drops". The Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail form what is known as the Triple Crown of long distance hiking in the United States.

JESSIE TALKS "TRAIL MAGIC" AND THE PEOPLE ON THE AT

Thebackpacker.com describes Trail Magic as "acts of kindness to Appalachian Trail hikers" left by "trail angels" which one trail blogger said are "often anonymous, trail angels help thru-hikers for no other reason than, in the words of one angel, "the satisfaction of helping another human being . . . making their journey better and in the process becoming woven into that journey."' Of course, Jessie doesn't consume most trail magic in fear of an encounter with her archnemesis, GLUTEN.

I LIKE JESSIE FOR A FEW REASONS

Reason #1 is she leaves me voicemails like this when she has cell service on the AT

Reasons #2-587, she let me crush her hand at the birth of my daughter and fully supported my online dating and meeting of my husband. We have slept in airports and cars, received police awards together and have laughed until we peed (or was that just me post childbirth?). She is one of the best humans I know, people are drawn to her. You may know her, she worked at 99.9 The Point for a long time. She is the kind of woman who you think is lying even though she is telling the truth, because she has had a lot of adventure in her life and always smiles and laughs at herself when talking. The stories she has to tell at age 25, will now just add to those mysterious truths she entertains us with. She's smart and pretty and thank god sometimes she slurps spit through her permanent retainer, otherwise she'd be too perfect. I'm incredibly proud to be able to say my best friend is hiking the AT ALONE, and loving every minute. She stopped talking about cool things to do in life and started doing them.