On November 7^th, 2009, I made my way to the summit of Springer Mountain, Georgia, ready to begin my Appalachian Trail through hike. The plaque there read:

“Appalachian Trail: A Footpath for Those who seek Fellowship with the Wilderness.”

After one million steps and five months later, I completed the 2,200-mile long hike that wound its way through 12 states.

Three years later, not a day goes by that I do not think about my physical and personal journey. I cannot put into words how monumental this trip has been and how it will continue to be an important part in my life. The skills I learned transfer to my daily life, my relationships with others and at High Trails.

When I reflect on my experience, there are a few lessons I learned and continue to develop each and everyday that have helped me to become a successful leader, devote friend, life-long student and passionate teacher.

Lesson One: Friends

Your friends are the most important people in the world.  Keep them close to your heart!

When I started hiking, I was very open to the idea of meeting someone else to hike with my brother an I.  It did not matter if that person hiked with us for days or weeks.  I was fortunate enough to meet a 56 year old man retired man from FL, Buffalo, and hiked over 800 miles with him.  At around the same time, I got ahead of him on trail and met a 34 year old veteran/poker player, Guy.  I eventually hiked with Guy for over 1,000 miles.

The bonds I formed with these individuals became strong, especially when you are pushing your body to the limits each and every day. You really see the true colors of each person. To this day, I visit Guy in San Diego and call each of them on a monthly basis.  We share something that the majority of people have not done.  We were able to vent to each other, make decisions together, and split the finances wherever we went.

Get to truly know the friends that you have. If you put so much energy into a friendship, why not make it truly meaningful and significant in your life?

Lesson Two: Working With Friends

Working with others makes things easier, but also has its challenges.

My brother and I made a good team after a couple weeks of hiking. We were a partnership. He had his duties each day and I had mine. Every other morning, I would get out of my sleeping bag to get breakfast while he purified water for us. He was mainly the one who looked at the data book to figure out mileages and water sources and I enjoyed figuring out the menu when we had to resupply on food at a grocery store or gas station.

Once we met our friends and added two people to our team, things changed fast.  Instead of making a decision with one other person, there were four of us who had to agree on the day’s adventure. Yes, we knew we would be hiking, but when we wanted breaks or where to stay for the night was a collective decision.  Sometimes, we would spend more time arguing about our plan, especially when we were looking ahead weeks in advance.

Arguing and yelling ensued on occasion but we always came to decision that suited all of us. It was not uncommon that two of us just would not feel like hiking twenty-five miles in a day, even though we knew where we needed to be in four days.

Hiking in a group was challenging and it also had it’s advantages. I remember when we got to a road and the grocery store and Laundromat were in two different directions. The easiest solution was to just split us in half so we could save time. We were also able to reduce weight in our packs and split hostel/motel room so it was cheaper.

Always remember that it is ok to have time for yourself; however, working in groups provides many more ideas that might be better than your own.  Asking for help is never a bad idea; someone will always be ready to help if you let him/her.

What these lessons mean

The longer I hiked and the more effort I put into those interpersonal relationships, the easier it was to be successful and to have a positive attitude.  I can never quantify how important every person I met on the trail was and how they were all a part of my journey and experience.

Some of my relationships are life long; some encounters lasted only a few minutes. However, this was not everything I learned from hiking. In the next blog, I explore my hike in a different way by looking at the over-arching mantras that stemmed from the experience as a whole.

At High Trails Outdoor Science School, we literally force our instructors to write about elementary outdoor education, teaching outside, learning outside, our dirty classroom (the forest…gosh), environmental science, outdoor science, and all other tree hugging student and kid loving things that keep us engaged, passionate, driven, loving our job, digging our life, and spreading the word to anyone whose attention we can hold for long enough to actually make it through reading this entire sentence. Whew…. www.dirtyclassroom.com