[SPEAKER_05]: There was quite a bit of thunder in lightning last night, but there was just one particular crack of thunder that I think will all of us up.

[SPEAKER_05]: One of those thunder strikes that you can just feel rattling the earth.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Matt Pedolsky.

[SPEAKER_05]: In the fall of 2022, I got into my sleeping bag at the foot of Mount Katatin in Maine.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'd hiked more than 2,000 miles of the ablation trail, and my journey was coming to an end.

[SPEAKER_05]: I feel this looming shadow of Katatin.

[SPEAKER_05]: Even though we haven't had very many good views of it, just knowing that I'm so close to [SPEAKER_05]: climbing it and finishing this hike just makes it feel like this enormous looming presence.

[SPEAKER_05]: I've been hiking for six months, half a year of my life.

[SPEAKER_05]: I missed my wife and son, I missed bathrooms and hot meals, but I had also bonded with new friends and pushed myself harder than I ever had before.

[SPEAKER_05]: It was surreal to know that it was almost over.

[SPEAKER_03]: One more night in the tent, one more night in the tent, normally when I get into my tent at the end of the night I just passed out almost immediately because I'm so tired from the days hiking but I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep.

[SPEAKER_05]: For throughhikers, Katatin is a symbol.

[SPEAKER_05]: The end, or the beginning, of an entire stage of life.

[SPEAKER_05]: But Katatin is a lot more than just the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

[SPEAKER_05]: To the Wabonaki people, it is the greatest mountain and they're most important sacred sight.

[SPEAKER_05]: And to mayors, it is a protected wilderness that represents the remote beauty the state is known for.

[SPEAKER_05]: And like a lot of the things I learned about on the trail, these symbols, and the people who believe in them, don't always see eye to eye.

[SPEAKER_05]: This is Common Lands, and in this episode, my journey comes to an end.

[SPEAKER_05]: Something all through Hikers know is that the northern terminus of the ablation trail falls inside an unusual zone.

[SPEAKER_05]: Baxter State Park.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's named for Perseval Baxter, a former main governor who bought the land around Katodan and donated it to the state of Maine.

[SPEAKER_05]: And getting inside isn't always easy.

[SPEAKER_05]: There's this whole fairly convoluted and confusing system.

[SPEAKER_05]: of permitting Appalachian Trail through Hikers to camp within Baxter State Park and it's pretty much a universal source of confusion for all through Hikers that I've encountered.

[SPEAKER_05]: So they have a special camp ground for AT through Hikers called the Birches.

[SPEAKER_05]: and only the first 12 people that sign up are allowed to stay.

[SPEAKER_05]: That sign-up sheet is posted each day at the park entrance.

[SPEAKER_05]: I know several throughhikers who woke up in the middle of the night to reach the park entrance just at dawn and ensure a camping spot.

[SPEAKER_05]: My trail family had gotten lucky, we'd found one of the rare available car camping sites [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, what's your looling?

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, Matthew Podolsky?

[SPEAKER_05]: That's Zach, a Ranger at Baxter State Park.

[SPEAKER_00]: One at Trill Lane.

[SPEAKER_00]: Birdman.

[SPEAKER_00]: Northbound through Iger?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's nice.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going up and down the hunt trail?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think that's the plan.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be cold and nice if you're up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: There isn't hair at risk.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of this, uh, you're taking your own, uh, [SPEAKER_00]: safety in your own hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna go up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's hard about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Gotcha.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_03]: Open.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are no bow, nine, nine, five.

[SPEAKER_03]: Nine, five, awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: And...

[SPEAKER_00]: So you get to keep that this make sure you get to the gate when you leave.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how we know you're on the park safe.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks man.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's a unique park.

[SPEAKER_07]: There's no other park set up with the governance and structure as as backster.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's Patty Cormier, Maine's State Director of Forestry and the Chair of the Baxter State Park Authority.

[SPEAKER_07]: Part of that uniqueness of the park is this amazing donation, right?

[SPEAKER_07]: A personal former governor, a personal backster.

[SPEAKER_05]: Percival Baxter's political career began in the main state legislature, and his primary policy goal right from the beginning was to secure a protection for Katatin in the surrounding area.

[SPEAKER_05]: Twice, he introduced Bill's proposing a Katan State Park, and both times they failed to pass.

[SPEAKER_05]: So in 1930, he turned directly to the owner of the land, Great Northern Paper Company.

[SPEAKER_05]: He purchased almost 6,000 acres, encompassing most of Katan with his own personal funds.

[SPEAKER_05]: The next year, he donated the land back to the state of Maine, establishing Backstreet State Park.

[SPEAKER_05]: Over the following decades, he continued buying up property, expanding the park by over 30 square miles.

[SPEAKER_05]: Today, it's one of the biggest state parks in the entire country.

[SPEAKER_07]: And he had three experts that helped him.

[SPEAKER_07]: in his quest for putting these parcels together and purchasing, designing the road and you know thinking about management and that was at the time a game board in New York with and the the head of it was the forestry district and the legal aspect of the attorney general and so that was the foundation for him that those three people helped him so he always wanted that the [SPEAKER_07]: would be those three people that he trusted so much.

[SPEAKER_05]: Those three positions, the main attorney general, the director of the main forest service, and the commissioner of inland fisheries and wildlife, now make up the Baxter State Park Authority, which is responsible for decision making within the park.

[SPEAKER_02]: The management of Baxter State Park is a really interesting subject in land management because it's a trust.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's Mills Kelly, professor of history at George Mason University and the host of the Green Tunnel podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so those trustees operate that park on behalf of the ecosystem, not on behalf of people.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's about wildlife before people.

[SPEAKER_07]: So if there's a conflict with campers in a bear, if it's about campers harassing a bear, then the campers have to go.

[SPEAKER_07]: Most of the park is not managed as far as forest management goes while like management.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's, it's, it's, uh, lead alone.

[SPEAKER_07]: Let, while.

[SPEAKER_05]: Strong winds were blowing through the trees as I started my way.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm katana.

[SPEAKER_05]: Alright.

[SPEAKER_05]: This is it, stirring up the hunt trail to the top of Katat and last 5.3 miles of the Appalachian trail.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yep, pretty surreal, pretty surreal feeling to be at the end almost six months of intense effort [SPEAKER_05]: it was September, which at high elevations in Maine can feel more like mid-winter.

[SPEAKER_05]: Alright, well, um, good ways out, maybe like halfway up.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's out in here, and, uh, a group of three hikers, including a few folks we know, just came down the opposite direction, they made it to the tree line.

[SPEAKER_05]: and then turned around.

[SPEAKER_05]: They said the wind was really bad.

[SPEAKER_05]: Like 50 miles per hour, or maybe.

[SPEAKER_05]: And they decided not to go to the summit.

[SPEAKER_05]: But still got part of our group is still ahead.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I'm at least gonna get up to the tree line here and scope it out for myself.

[SPEAKER_05]: Let's see what everyone else is thinking.

[SPEAKER_05]: But.

[SPEAKER_05]: Fuck.

[SPEAKER_05]: That would suck.

[SPEAKER_05]: If we had to go back down and couldn't sum it today.

[SPEAKER_05]: Fuck.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he can hear the wind just whip in.

[SPEAKER_05]: For thru hikers, Katatin is a rite of passage, but Baxter State Park is managed under strict rules.

[SPEAKER_05]: On Katatin Summit, groups of more than 12 people aren't allowed, and hikers are asked to stay reasonably quiet and refrain from drinking alcohol.

[SPEAKER_02]: The fact is, hikers going to the summit of Katatin have been misbehaving for decades.

[SPEAKER_05]: Again, that's Mills Kelly.

[SPEAKER_02]: and have been trampling fragile flora and have been, you know, spraying champagne around or beer around up on the summit and, you know, doing all the things that they're not allowed to do, because the attitude is, hey, I just hike up here.

[SPEAKER_05]: I get to do what I want to do conflict between Baxter State Park and the Appalachian Trail have been brewing for decades, but came to a head in 2014.

[SPEAKER_05]: Then director of the park, Jensen Bissel, drafted a letter to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

[SPEAKER_05]: Bissel wrote, quote, The Appalachian Trail model seems to be based on unlimited growth in use, while Baxter State Park operates under a fixed capacity model, end quote.

[SPEAKER_05]: He concluded the letter by suggesting that if the Appalachian Trail Conservancy didn't institute a permitting system so that they could limit the number of [SPEAKER_02]: It came really close, you know, it came really close to the sign coming off the summit of Katadne and being in the parking lot at the base.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because the trustees were done, like they were done with misbehavior up on the summit.

[SPEAKER_05]: This is hard for me to imagine.

[SPEAKER_05]: While you're on it, the trail can seem fixed, ancient, but that's not the case.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the trail's 100 years old, you know, things change.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, springer was not the southern terminus.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oglesorp was, and so Oglesorp was the beacon that people hiked toward, and then it wasn't.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so, you know, Catadna's Catadna is awesome, but it doesn't have to be the terminus.

[SPEAKER_02]: It just feels like it has to be the terminus because it's so cool.

[SPEAKER_02]: But could it be a different mountain in Maine?

[SPEAKER_02]: Could be.

[SPEAKER_05]: doesn't have to be cathodden, but for now it is cathodden, and the conflict seems to have subsided.

[SPEAKER_07]: I think outreach and communications have happened a much better pace and tenor than had been before.

[SPEAKER_05]: Again, that's Patty Kormier, the chair of the [SPEAKER_07]: folks, you know, Appalachian Trail, folks are working much closer with backster and vice versa.

[SPEAKER_05]: Like can you imagine a scenario where like the park would have to say like, now the signs coming down off that mountain?

[SPEAKER_07]: I can't think of that.

[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, there's always probably going to be some inherent conflict, but no, I can't, I can't see why that would happen.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I don't know, if I'm going to have to lay her up and go to where he's at and see what I mean.

[SPEAKER_05]: I reached tree line where a group of about a dozen through hikers had gathered.

[SPEAKER_05]: What do you guys think?

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to at least go a little ways up and scope it out.

[SPEAKER_05]: So if I come back down, I mean, I'm turning around.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm not, I'm gonna go for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Looks easy to get up, how the hell are you gonna get that right?

[SPEAKER_05]: What do you think of Chopped Up?

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, powerful one, what a fan.

[SPEAKER_05]: I know, right?

[SPEAKER_05]: The conditions split my trail family.

[SPEAKER_05]: BearSnack, Kuzzi and Saus turned back, but Chopped Chop and I decided to push forward, knowing that our friend KFC was just ahead of us.

[SPEAKER_05]: Look at his eyes on the rock, man.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's crazy.

[SPEAKER_05]: Like the whole side, it's just like coated in a layer of ice.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's gnarly.

[SPEAKER_04]: Gnarly.

[SPEAKER_05]: Winter is here, yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: We're almost at the top of the steepest section of the trail.

[SPEAKER_05]: Which is called the Gateway.

[SPEAKER_05]: a little over mile and a half for backster peak, all the stunted little trees and shrubs covered on a layer of ice.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's actually beautiful, it's amazing.

[SPEAKER_05]: We'll be back with more about the Appalachian Trail and Backstreet State Park after a short break.

[SPEAKER_05]: We're back, I'm at Pedolsky, and this is Common Land, a show about the Appalachian Trail.

[SPEAKER_05]: Before the break, we were exploring some of the disagreements between Backstreet State Park and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

[SPEAKER_05]: But there is also a history of conflict between the park and nearby indigenous nations.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are the land and the land is sort of the very driving force of our resistance to colonialism throughout history and into the present day.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's Nolan Ultivator, a citizen of the Passima Quality Tribe and an educator and storyteller who works for the Passima Quality Tribal Preservation Office.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there may be no homogeneous world view or indigenous identity, but there's this sort of these fundamental understandings that how we have structured our socioeconomic lives and relationships directly impact the sustainability of our home lands.

[SPEAKER_01]: and that the teachings found within our oral histories and other forms of knowledge sort of convey this, and that conceptions of nature in these systems [SPEAKER_01]: We're not often, you know, separate from us as I was saying, like we are, the land and what happens to the land happens to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's putting it very, very simply, but it is a lot more complex than that when you actually see sort of how indigenous knowledge systems build relationships with their home lands.

[SPEAKER_01]: Catalan is located amongst two of the branches of the Penobscot River, which is the ancestral river of the Penobscot nation, and they've been traveling back for since time immemorial.

[SPEAKER_01]: When backster state park became the colonial thing that it is today, and with that, with their rules around the specific activities you can do there, there was a time where ceremony was not allowed in that area.

[SPEAKER_01]: Recently, there was legislation put forward to appoint a Penopslet tribal member to the Baxter State Park Authority.

[SPEAKER_01]: This bill was rejected both.

[SPEAKER_01]: do again the blatant unrecognition of of Wabanaki sovereignty that you'll see from the governor and and main attorney general.

[SPEAKER_01]: But also it being contradictory to the trust that backs their created.

[SPEAKER_07]: Word of course very well aware and respect the relationship of the [SPEAKER_07]: That bill, the LD294, that went through the legislature, was a good starting point for increasing communications and working with the tribes, and that has occurred, and there's some good things happening, and it's about trust, right?

[SPEAKER_07]: I think [SPEAKER_07]: we have to get to that point of talking to each other and trusting each other you know I don't think 294 really it was a law right and it was kind of forcing things and that's not how you get to like driving something down people's throat that's not really the best way to go about it was that setting up trust by having this law to force something [SPEAKER_05]: like I don't understand why it's controversial without and I mean I guess I can start to like as I've learned more about backster and how the authority works but like on the surface for somebody that's just like oh like the anopscot nation wanted to add a fourth member to the authority and have their voice represented like why is that controversial?

[SPEAKER_07]: Well it simply the simplest way to say it is it comes to that [SPEAKER_05]: the deeds of trust.

[SPEAKER_05]: These are the conditions that went along with Percival Baxter's donation.

[SPEAKER_05]: And they're a big deal because there's a clause in there saying that if the deeds of trust are broken, the lands will revert back to Baxter's family.

[SPEAKER_05]: What makes this even more difficult is that the deeds aren't always the easiest documents to interpret.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's not so structured.

[SPEAKER_07]: You've just got to work around [SPEAKER_05]: and what he wanted at that time and adjusted to what's going on now saying what would he do now he wasn't dealing with that then and makes it like as you're talking about it I'm thinking about like constitutional scholars right and like originalism is like you know like it sounds really similar to that kind of those kinds of debates right.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now, that's a good analogy.

[SPEAKER_05]: If we run with that analogy and we think of the three-person Baxter State Park Authority as the equivalent to the Supreme Court Justices tasked with interpreting the Constitution, it's clear that all three members of the Baxter State Park Authority are originalists.

[SPEAKER_05]: It feels like there's not much room for treating the deeds of trust as more of a living document.

[SPEAKER_05]: but that could be fueled in part by a fear of the consequences of breaking back-to-state parks, deeds of trust.

[SPEAKER_07]: So it came down to this legal question of putting another person on it was gonna break that deed.

[SPEAKER_07]: Breaking that deed, it's also spelled out that the land reverts to a family of backster.

[SPEAKER_05]: Would Baxter State Park have really ceased to exist as we know it if this bill had been signed into law?

[SPEAKER_05]: This kind of action, adding a new member to the Baxter State Park Authority, has never been tested in court.

[SPEAKER_05]: Nobody can say for sure what might have happened had the bill passed.

[SPEAKER_05]: Here's Nolan Ultivator.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were kind of scared that wouldn't that make the trust no-in-void if we're going against it?

[SPEAKER_01]: And, like, you know, I've climbed Katadin and like obviously like, I have that community and ancestral connecting to it, but there's also that level of like, yeah, this is a beautiful landscape and a powerful place.

[SPEAKER_05]: When I reached Catodon Summit, KFC was the only other person there.

[SPEAKER_05]: If this less windy right at the top, or maybe the wind just died down.

[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_05]: It was pretty.

[SPEAKER_05]: That was f**k.

Narlie.

[SPEAKER_05]: That last half month.

[SPEAKER_04]: The last half month.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm like, yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: But chop chop and another hiker wrong way were just a few minutes behind me.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, guys.

[SPEAKER_05]: He made it.

[SPEAKER_03]: We made it.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh my god.

[SPEAKER_06]: I told all of them, I said, KST, KST has to come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, yeah, just come back, [SPEAKER_05]: We had only about 10 to 15 minutes to linger on the summit before our fingers and toes would start to go numb from the cold.

[SPEAKER_05]: At the summit is a wooden sign, kind of like a weathered sandwich board.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's a tradition for through hikers to stand on the wooden plank in the back and have their picture taken.

[SPEAKER_05]: My friend, Chop Chop, stepped up to the plank first.

[SPEAKER_04]: Be careful getting out there at the back is covered in ice.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to hand your pulse.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, did you want a video of you getting up there?

[SPEAKER_04]: Or...

Just like it up there.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah!

[SPEAKER_06]: Yes!

[SPEAKER_06]: Yes!

[SPEAKER_06]: Yes!

[SPEAKER_06]: Let's go!

[SPEAKER_06]: Woo!

[SPEAKER_06]: Woo!

[SPEAKER_04]: It's proud of you.

[SPEAKER_04]: Fernand, you want your photo?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: and then it was my turn.

[SPEAKER_05]: The wind was whipping.

[SPEAKER_05]: There was no view, but I had made it.

[UNKNOWN]: We're gonna have to set the gun.

[UNKNOWN]: Why is the up here?

[UNKNOWN]: Don't worry.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo!

[UNKNOWN]: Hey!

[UNKNOWN]: Woo!

[UNKNOWN]: Woo!

[SPEAKER_03]: Woo!

[SPEAKER_03]: Woo!

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah!

[SPEAKER_03]: Fuck me!

[SPEAKER_03]: Woo!

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's alright, I need to cry a lot when I got up here and that's kind of glad.

[SPEAKER_07]: No, I don't know who's here.

[SPEAKER_05]: Were you the only one up here?

[SPEAKER_05]: What do you got here?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, if you're not going to be up here in a beautiful day, my eyes will be the f***in' stream opposite of that.

[SPEAKER_05]: You know?

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, this felt like a f***in' winter hike.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'm coming up that.

[SPEAKER_05]: I feel like I should have my skis on my back.

[SPEAKER_05]: And just like that, it was time to hike down.

[SPEAKER_05]: My through hike was over.

[SPEAKER_05]: The through hike is over.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm coming down from Katata and back below the tree line.

[SPEAKER_05]: The peak of Katata is definitely still up in the clouds and I'm sure the wind is still whipping up there and that it's freezing cold but down here.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's a beautiful day, and I just finished my thru ride.

[SPEAKER_05]: Of course, after six months living on the trail, it isn't easy to just stop.

[SPEAKER_05]: I was reluctant to leave, especially knowing that some of the other members of my trail family had yet to make it up to Katata and Summit.

[SPEAKER_05]: So a couple of days later, I joined them for their second attempt.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I just made up onto the table and it's spectacular.

[SPEAKER_05]: amazing.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, a clear day, barely any clouds in the sky.

[SPEAKER_05]: There's some wind but it's a very comfortable temperature.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's such just, I can't, there's no way to put into words these [SPEAKER_05]: Spectacular, breathtaking.

[SPEAKER_05]: What I learned over six months on the Appalachian Trail is that things are always changing.

[SPEAKER_05]: 100 years ago, the first Appalachian Trail conference was held, and the AT was born.

[SPEAKER_05]: But some of the actual paths that the AT follows are ancient.

[SPEAKER_05]: These 2200 connected miles can feel as old as time, and in a sense they are.

[SPEAKER_05]: But they aren't static, they are constantly changing, and the pace of that change has accelerated.

[SPEAKER_05]: The next 100 years, we'll bring dramatic changes to this iconic trail.

[SPEAKER_05]: But as long as people keep hiking, the trail will persist.

[SPEAKER_05]: I enjoyed every moment of that final climb and stood on the summit again.

[SPEAKER_05]: This time, with two dozen hikers who had just completed the journey of a lifetime.

[SPEAKER_03]: I hope you're welcome.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's it.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're welcome.

[SPEAKER_03]: Houston.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_03]: What are you doing?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: What are you doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why don't you guys take a picture of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.

[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_06]: Here you go.

[SPEAKER_06]: Woo.

[SPEAKER_06]: Woo.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_06]: Good.

[SPEAKER_06]: Good.

[SPEAKER_06]: That's it.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[SPEAKER_06]: Woo.

[SPEAKER_06]: Woo.

[SPEAKER_06]: Woo.

[UNKNOWN]: Woo.

[SPEAKER_05]: Although my mom wasn't able to climb Katat in with me, she met me at the bottom and joined in the celebration.

[SPEAKER_05]: The following summer, she hiked from Connecticut to New Hampshire, before being forced off trail by wildfires make.

[SPEAKER_05]: She hopes to complete the rest of the trail in 2025.

[SPEAKER_05]: I've stayed in touch with KFC, Chop Chop, Kuzzi, Bersnac, and sauce.

[SPEAKER_05]: Bersnac, through like the Pacific Rest trail, this past spring and summer, and I couldn't have been more jealous.

[SPEAKER_05]: My long-distance hiking career is far from over.

[SPEAKER_05]: Commonland is a production of the Wildlands Collective.

[SPEAKER_05]: This season was produced in partnership with New Hampshire Public Radio.

[SPEAKER_05]: This episode was produced by me, your host, Net Middlestein.

[SPEAKER_05]: Music is by Foodot Sessions.

[SPEAKER_05]: To learn more about the show and to see a full list of credits, go to commonlandpodcast.com.