Help Lauren Thru-Hike the Appalachian Trail!
Donation protected
*****UPDATE: Do to Covid-19, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy asked all hikers to postpone or cancel their thru hikes, and many parks along the AT closed. For this reason, I was not able to start a northbound thru hike in spring of 2020. By the time restrictions began to lift, and parks and hostels opened, my life had no choice but to adapt to a new plan, and I did not have the time to complete a thru hike before beginning my PhD in September 2020.
I had already purchased about $1500 worth of gear, bought plane tickets (which are now ecredits), and made travel plans. The new plan is to thru-hike the AT in 2024, after the completion of my doctorate. Saying goodbye (temporarily) to this dream was one of the hardest things I've ever had to accept. However, rest easy that the support provided will fuel my 2024 thru hike and that there is no reality where I do not achieve this goal.
Thank you everyone. Stay safe.
Friends and family,
It's been a life-long dream of mine to hike the Appalachian trail.
For the last couple of years, I have been actively trying to include it in my life's plan. I have done an obsessive amount of research, have spreadsheets of gear lists, weights, town stops, meal ideas, etc. March-August 2020, 2,190 miles, northbound Georgia to Maine, solo and nothing but 30 lbs on my back.
Because I anticipate being done with my masters this spring and am starting my PhD in the fall, hiking the AT in 2020 is my ONLY opportunity to achieve this goal while my body is young and capable. My next opportunity will be when I am tenured faculty and can take a sabbatical, at least 15 years from now. (The tenure part is wishful thinking).
Why do I want to do it? The Appalachians have always meant a great deal to me. For the first 18 years of my life, the Smokies were the only place outside Florida I had ever visited, and they inspired the wanderlust that has led me to where I am now. Now that I have had the amazing opportunity to do my masters research in the streams of the steep southern Appalachians in WNC, I'm even more motivated, as I'd like to experience their beauty and wisdom without the stressful pressures of field research. I'm also... really tired of being a human in modern society? As I write this I have not had a full day off in about 3 weeks, and the burnout will only increase exponentially as I start writing my masters thesis. I want to know what it's like to just exist in the purest form I can imagine. As an animal, surviving day to day in the dirty wilderness, eating for energy, letting my leg hair run wild, using my body to move me, waking up with the birds, and going to sleep with the fireflies.
This is an expensive endeavor, normally about ~$1,000 /month you spend on trail plus about $1,000-2,000 on gear. Trail costs include gear replacements, food re-stocks, town stays, travel to and from the northern and southern terminals, and typical bills such as phone and health insurance.
That's $5,500-$7,000 total, assuming I take the average amount of time and don't attain any costly injuries. It's no wonder that the demographic of the AT is predominantly white and upper middle-class. Only 2% of 2018 thru-hikers were hispanic/latinx. Help ya girl raise that! Minorities like nature too! Even if our parents didn't take us skiing and backpacking when we were 4 :) More on average thru-hiker demographics, budgets, etc. can be found here.
Since I have been on a graduate student salary of about ~$15k a year for the last couple years and have a significant amount of student debt, saving is difficult. Not only that, but I will have to continue paying for my apartment for the first few months on trail, will need something left over to start my life over again post-trail, and will need to continue paying off student loans (5 months on trail = ~$900 of interest alone). I got spreadsheets on spreadsheets dedicated to figuring this out. However, I'll still be cutting it really, really close and will probably end this journey without a penny to my name.
This is where you come in.
What may be a drop in the bucket for you is going to get me that much closer to what would be one of the most significant achievements of my life, and you'll have the satisfaction if knowing you helped make that happen. If anything happens where I would need to cut my time on trail short such as a significant injury a few days wouldn't heal, I would return every extra cent to every single person who helped me. Seriously y'all, if you know me you know I don't take handouts. After all, I was raised to believe I was nothing but a financial burden to everyone around me (lol TMI?). So asking for money to do something for me and not for an immediate necessity is... difficult. I cannot even express with words how grateful I would be for any amount of help, I can only sincerely say how much love and gratitude I would feel for you.
With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions about my plans, motivations, etc. If you've even read this far, I love you.
THANK YOU.
I had already purchased about $1500 worth of gear, bought plane tickets (which are now ecredits), and made travel plans. The new plan is to thru-hike the AT in 2024, after the completion of my doctorate. Saying goodbye (temporarily) to this dream was one of the hardest things I've ever had to accept. However, rest easy that the support provided will fuel my 2024 thru hike and that there is no reality where I do not achieve this goal.
Thank you everyone. Stay safe.
Friends and family,
It's been a life-long dream of mine to hike the Appalachian trail.
For the last couple of years, I have been actively trying to include it in my life's plan. I have done an obsessive amount of research, have spreadsheets of gear lists, weights, town stops, meal ideas, etc. March-August 2020, 2,190 miles, northbound Georgia to Maine, solo and nothing but 30 lbs on my back.
Because I anticipate being done with my masters this spring and am starting my PhD in the fall, hiking the AT in 2020 is my ONLY opportunity to achieve this goal while my body is young and capable. My next opportunity will be when I am tenured faculty and can take a sabbatical, at least 15 years from now. (The tenure part is wishful thinking).
Why do I want to do it? The Appalachians have always meant a great deal to me. For the first 18 years of my life, the Smokies were the only place outside Florida I had ever visited, and they inspired the wanderlust that has led me to where I am now. Now that I have had the amazing opportunity to do my masters research in the streams of the steep southern Appalachians in WNC, I'm even more motivated, as I'd like to experience their beauty and wisdom without the stressful pressures of field research. I'm also... really tired of being a human in modern society? As I write this I have not had a full day off in about 3 weeks, and the burnout will only increase exponentially as I start writing my masters thesis. I want to know what it's like to just exist in the purest form I can imagine. As an animal, surviving day to day in the dirty wilderness, eating for energy, letting my leg hair run wild, using my body to move me, waking up with the birds, and going to sleep with the fireflies.
This is an expensive endeavor, normally about ~$1,000 /month you spend on trail plus about $1,000-2,000 on gear. Trail costs include gear replacements, food re-stocks, town stays, travel to and from the northern and southern terminals, and typical bills such as phone and health insurance.
That's $5,500-$7,000 total, assuming I take the average amount of time and don't attain any costly injuries. It's no wonder that the demographic of the AT is predominantly white and upper middle-class. Only 2% of 2018 thru-hikers were hispanic/latinx. Help ya girl raise that! Minorities like nature too! Even if our parents didn't take us skiing and backpacking when we were 4 :) More on average thru-hiker demographics, budgets, etc. can be found here.
Since I have been on a graduate student salary of about ~$15k a year for the last couple years and have a significant amount of student debt, saving is difficult. Not only that, but I will have to continue paying for my apartment for the first few months on trail, will need something left over to start my life over again post-trail, and will need to continue paying off student loans (5 months on trail = ~$900 of interest alone). I got spreadsheets on spreadsheets dedicated to figuring this out. However, I'll still be cutting it really, really close and will probably end this journey without a penny to my name.
This is where you come in.
What may be a drop in the bucket for you is going to get me that much closer to what would be one of the most significant achievements of my life, and you'll have the satisfaction if knowing you helped make that happen. If anything happens where I would need to cut my time on trail short such as a significant injury a few days wouldn't heal, I would return every extra cent to every single person who helped me. Seriously y'all, if you know me you know I don't take handouts. After all, I was raised to believe I was nothing but a financial burden to everyone around me (lol TMI?). So asking for money to do something for me and not for an immediate necessity is... difficult. I cannot even express with words how grateful I would be for any amount of help, I can only sincerely say how much love and gratitude I would feel for you.
With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions about my plans, motivations, etc. If you've even read this far, I love you.
THANK YOU.
Organizer
Lauren Diaz
Organizer
Central, SC
