HIKE for Mental Health

By Allen Irwin. Mental health was never once a topic in my household and when it reeled its ugly head, a purple elephant showed up to the party that was somehow invisible. Crazy to look back and try to wrap my head around the fact that any of this could ever be ignored. Yet, this has been the very same story being told all around the world. Why would anyone want to talk about something that can’t be seen. I found myself sitting in a jail cell detoxing from Oxycontin and wondering where it had all gone wrong. And this was how I disguised my mental health by digging myself a hole that I nearly couldn’t climb out of.

By Zach Davis. The year was 2011. I was both stressed and depressed – largely the result of working on my laptop 70 hours a week. What little free time I had was filled with alcohol and even more screen time in the form of Netflix, YouTube, and the black hole that is social media. One night out at the local watering hole, a friend confided his plan to hike from Georgia to Maine on a path called the Appalachian Trail. This was the first time I had heard these two words used consecutively. Despite not having any outdoor experience or a clear path to escape my current obligations, I committed to join him.

By Judy Gross. The outdoors were my sanctuary – a place I could be alone and explore. I also grew up thinking the outdoors were a women’s sanctuary, that men didn’t go out in nature – I told this to someone recently (a man) and was laughed at – what little does he know – if you look at recent statistics, there are more women than men in many outdoor activities.

by Cindy Ross. Hiking gave me my life. It began with the Appalachian Trail which I hiked as a young woman. Upon reaching Mount Katahdin in Maine, I ran my finger across the routed wooden sign that pointed south and read Springer Mountain, Georgia, 2100 miles. I suddenly realized that I could have a dream and if I worked hard enough and believed in it deeply enough, it would come true. All it took was a strong passion and a lot of perseverance. Hiking gave me many gifts, but the most priceless one was this incredible self-confidence and belief in myself. The trail taught me to not see limits.

By Betsy Kane. In college, I found myself seeking out local trails to find peace and solitude away from campus. Hiking became an escape from reality in my mid-twenties, when I was facing divorce at a young age. When I was almost 30, a car slammed into mine on my way home from work one day, and I ended up needing spinal surgery. During that time of physical weakness, I decided that I should go for a hike on the Appalachian Trail. My mom angrily reacted to this decision by telling me to stick a note in my pocket saying where to send my dead body.

By Amanda Moutsoulas. Before this past summer, I never hiked. In my entire 35 years, I had hiked exactly once, ten years ago, on New Hampshire’s Mt. Major, with my husband. I have spent much of my life battling intermittent depression, and even during the periods when getting out of bed wasn’t a struggle, I wasn’t what anyone would call “active.” That changed when a sudden, devastating loss led me to begin running in January.

by Karen Viola. Walking in wildness with intention is a body-mind workout. It is all types of fun, alone or with friends. For me, it goes beyond recreational privilege. Hiking has grown to be my pilgrimage to presence and possibility. And yes, it is a privilege.

by Ron Tipton, retired President/CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. My life was transformed by my A.T. journey. I decided my mission was to spend the rest of my career protecting national parks and wilderness areas and other special places in the American landscape, including the Appalachian Trail. When I hiked in 1978, more than 200 miles of the Trail were on public roads and more than 600 miles were in private ownership. Today the entire A.T. is publicly owned, permanently protected and managed by federal and state conservation agencies. I am proud to say I had a role in that historic achievement.

By Cristen Heavens. I remember when I cried because I wasn’t sure I’d ever enjoy hiking again. The hiking backpack I’d bought, clean and new, was still beckoning me from the corner of my room. I kept promising myself that, once I felt well again, I’d take it on a trip. It still pains me that I sold the backpack before that day ever came.

by Mark Larabee. The thing is, while we joke about the exertion and the exhaustion that hiking can bring, there’s no place either of us feels more at peace. We both spend our working days at the keyboard, so time outside is always precious, no matter how arduous. Whenever life’s daily grind becomes overwhelming, a walk in the woods is typically the cure.

by Timmy Le. Living with cerebral palsy, I love to challenge and push myself beyond what I once thought was my outer boundaries. If I can reach the summit of a mountain then all of the challenges that I face in my daily life are easy in comparison. This lesson, just like everything I learned in the lab as a scientist, taught me that the best teacher is nature…

I often feel like I’m moments away from losing my mind. As a child I watched my grandmother lose touch with reality and somehow I knew I would go the same way. In a world that fears what it does not understand, we simply never talk about mental illness for fear of being shunned. I think that most who suffer, still do so silently and alone. Through years of work and education the stigma is starting fade, but we still have work to do. My name is Odie and I’m as crazy as the Loons in the ponds of southern Maine.

by Sugar. I #hikeOctober because I can! In 1997 I was in a bad car accident and was told I would never walk again… it brought on a lot of depression and the fact that I was raised in a very abusive and dysfunctional household made it even worse. Until I hiked the John Muir trail in ’07, I didn’t have much confidence in myself as a person much of it from my upbringing. I found that hiking sometimes alone for many hours not only helped me spiritually but with my self confidence as well. It gave me much time to reflect on my life and where I was going and what I wanted to make of myself.

by Keely Carney. When I was 22, I found myself in rehab. Years of daily blackout drinking and a crippling case of alcoholism will do that. But I wasn’t just in rehab because I struggled with alcoholism. I was in rehab because I struggled with life. Like most people battling mental illness, my story was complex. I’d dealt with depression. I’d dabbled in eating disorders. I’d spent the majority of my life feeling deeply uncomfortable in my skin and in this world. So there I was. While most of my classmates were preparing to graduate college, I was livin’ it up in rehab. At this particular rehab, livin’ it up included going on weekly hikes. Even though it was January. In Connecticut. And snowing. Nothing like forcing someone who’s already uncomfortable all the time to get more uncomfortable… And it was. My first hike was deeply uncomfortable.

by Kerry “Cyndi Loppers” Stewart. I #hikeOctober because fear can be crippling. I was afraid of one thing or another my entire childhood. I was afraid of more than one thing or another most of my adult life. I am scared of crossing the street without a crosswalk, making unprotected left turns while driving, being alone, peanut shells, anything that flies, crowded rooms, physical contact with strangers, heights, clowns, thunder, strange dogs, germs … The list goes on. I am not completely agoraphobic but I choose to rarely leave my home unless it’s to go to work or to the grocery store.

by Leo Walker. Today would be my mom’s birthday. As kids growing up, it was obvious to us that there was something different about her. I tell people she had schizophrenia although strictly speaking I never heard that diagnosis said. In fact, I never heard any specific explanation for her unusual and at times frightening behavior. My dad was a very private person and felt things like that were best not talked about, even within the family.

by Vera Hurst aka “Missing Kink”. I have always been an outdoor, rugged kind of girl. Spending hours in the yard looking at bugs, walking barefoot in the yard, playing baseball and catching tadpoles were the things that took up my time as a child. Through Girl Scouting, I learned to camp, make fire and live. It felt like home being in a tent in the wilderness. But, I grew up, went to college, met someone, got married, had kids. Life showed up with its stressors and hormonal issues and anger. It was normal to feel upset when you had all this happening at the same time, right? Back then doctors dismissed these things as woman’s problems and I was just told to deal with it.

by Ray Coffield / Beep. I #hikeOctober because HIKE for Mental Health came into my life 2 years ago in 2015. It was like getting a real purpose to my obsession (goal, bucket list, or whatever you want to call it) with hiking. Knowing that the accomplishment of my enjoyment can help others makes it even better. I think the Appalachian Trail became a goal when my fourth grad teach talked about being out on a trail, for 6 months, living in a tent, and hiking for miles and miles.

by Ally Lang. I #hikeOctober because the outdoors is my happy place. I discovered in my early 20’s that staying in one place was, at once; uncomfortable , yet what most of society expected – settling down. Add to that a multi-focal mental illness diagnosis and it spelled disaster. From and even earlier age, I’ve always felt more calm outdoors. Nature has that healing quality that seems to be neglected as technology moves us indoors. It slows me. I thinking of hiking as a medicine. Forget to take it and my system is thrown into a dysfunctional state.

by Matthew “Odie” Norman. I #hikeOctober because I want to help overcome the stigma of mental illness and hiking helps me deal with my own battles of anxiety and depression. My first overnight backpacking trip was also the first night on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2013. To be honest, I was running away from a life I could no longer manage. I had self-medicated and self-internalized to deal with what I saw as a failing life. The stigma of mental disorder is very real and as a result I would hide my suffering from the world to “fit in.”

I’m Casey Chon, and I #hikeOctober to raise awareness of diversity and of the outdoors. In third grade, I read a book called Halfway to the Sky. My nine-year-old self became obsessed with the Appalachian Trail and hiking. However, growing up in the suburbs of New York City, I was nowhere near the Appalachian Trail, and you can’t really go hardcore hiking in the suburbs. I played a lot of sports, but never went camping and did “real” outdoors-y things.

by Hotrock. I grew up in a broken household, my father had problems with alcohol and left our family when I was 12. I lost that father figure to look up to, and many of life lessons that only a father and son share. I had to make a lot of decisions on my own, unfortunately most were not the right ones. I job hopped for many years. In 2001 my father died, and I decided to hike the Appalachian Trail. I brought him with me — his ashes were in my pack the whole way.

by Laura Skorich. Hiking makes me feel more empowered, inspired, energized, free, grounded. Strong yet know I am but a speck in this great big world. Knowing I can find my inner strength and complete an extremely difficult hike, like Mt Whitney, reaffirms that I am strong and can get through the hard times if I just focus and take action. Hiking fills me with awe and curiosity, allows me to escape the noise and stress of every day life, helps me free my mind and feeds my soul…

by Joe O’Donnell. I #hikeOctober because in nature, there isn’t stigma, the need to covering up mental illness and emotional pain.  Nature itself provides some healing, but so do the people you meet walking and reflections and insights you have along the way.  This was my experience in 2015, when I completed an Appalachian Trail thru-hike fundraising for HIKE for Mental Health.  I haven’t done anything nearly as big since, but I carry with me the lessons I learned from that experience.

by Sue Twombley. Officially, mental illness has been a part of my life for nearly twenty years, but I now know that I’ve suffered from it nearly all of my life. It all came to a head in 2011 when I was officially diagnosed with Bi-Polar Since that time I have been receiving proper medication and I’m doing better than I have in years but it doesn’t and can’t end there.

by Brandon “Flying Crow”. Many of us suffer from mental illness in one form or another. Many of us tend to be silent. I know it’s not the best thing to do but finding it better to open up and sharing with others is. Connecting with others on or off the trails and being able to sharing our experiences has also shown me that we are not alone. There are so many out there affected by mental illness more than we know. I know I have had my share of moments with depression and to me hiking is a way to ground myself.

by Lexi Gross. Whether I am out alone or with friends, hiking or trail running, being in nature invites me to bring my whole self along. Hiking and trail running are the easiest ways for me to be present and connect my mind and body. These activities help keep my inner child alive and well. It is hard for my carefree, laughing self not to show up when I am scrambling across rocks along creeks, chasing salamanders and crawdads in streams, or bounding down trails as fast as my legs can carry me. Allowing myself to connect with this part of myself brings clarity and stillness to my often overactive mind.

by Tom Kennedy. I hike October, because it was 2011 when a strange set of circumstances brought three souls together. It was in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. At the time Leo was living in Toronto, Nancy in the Houston area of Texas and me in New Jersey. At that time I didn’t think that this happenstance was a life changer but it was. One day over dinner at a local Holiday Inn, we decided that we wanted to do something to give back, something to do with hiking. So Leo said, Okay, let’s think about this, why do we hike? I immediately said. “We HIKE for Mental Health.

by Karen Viola. I hike for mental health. I enjoy doing it with others, but it is medicinal for me when I bring just my self along. With paper and a pen. This ‘treatment’ began years ago in a small wooded park near my workplace at the time, as a self-prescribed way to revive my ‘here and now’, which was being squeezed lifeless by the grip of where I’d been and where I was going. These little doses of solo time helped me notice for the sake of noticing. My sketchbooks filled with twisted roots, vines, and weathered stumps still alive with decay. Sentinel trees interacted and posed in a magical theater of the round. How had I missed all this before? I became enamoured with the very concept of a blazed trail, a scrolling menu of sensory delights and in-season specials… it made me hungry for more.

by Brayden Donnelly. Today, on October 1st, 2017, my 23rd birthday, I choose success. Success in finding happiness through friends and family. Success in advocating for the continued conversation surrounding mental health stigmas. Success in capturing the beauty of, and protecting the importance of, our shared trails and outdoor spaces. In a relatively short period of time I was both unfortunate and fortunate enough to have experienced the highs, lows, and confusion of anxiety disorder and depression. I #hikeOctober because I finally understand that the only way to change the world is to put one foot in front of the other.