October 06, 2005

Reaching her goal

Last March I wrote a post about a former student who was setting off to hike the Appalachian Trail, following the trail up and down mountains for 2175 miles, all the way from Georgia to Maine.

SmilingStudent sent email updates whenever she could, always cheerful and upbeat. She talked about the wonderful community she found on the trail. "We are a species who are at our best when we work together." She said that before beginning the journey she thought that she would be pushing herself physically, but really the biggest challenge was learning the importance of patience and communication.

Last week, on a dark rainy day, Smiling Student made it to the summit at Katahdin - and completed the Appalachian Trail.

13 comments:

Liz Miller said...

Yay Hiking Student!!! That is so cool.

ccw said...

Congratulations to her! That is quite an accomplishment.

Mona Buonanotte said...

I got all goose-bumpy reading this. Go girl!

listie said...

What an accomplishment; good for her!

Piece of Work said...

Awesome!

Rana said...

What a great accomplishment! :)

RussianViolets said...

That is a-mazing!!! I know a person who did it, and I am amazed again each time I hear that someone has done it.

Coffee-Drinking Woman said...

Wow! That's great. I'm really impressed!

negativecapability said...

That's great to hear; keep us updated on what SmilingStudent decides on for her next adventure!

Unknown said...

Bravo for Smiling Student!
You know, that was the first post I ever read here. And the comments included one from Waterfall, who was a Y2K Southbounder and knew Pure Luck. Small world.

mc said...

That's incredible!

A few years back, we hiked near Katahdin this time of year and walked a mile or two on the AT, where we ran into a group of three thru-hikers who were a day's hike from the summit. They were just glowing in anticipation of reaching it... it was a great encounter.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Congratulations to smiling student--what an awesome accomplishment--it will give her confidence through life to know she accomplished that!!! YAY! YEBA! Mary :-)

Minoa said...

That is wonderful!
Love to hear news like this!
You sound very proud of her :)