Pa. woman shares insights on her 98-day hike across the Appalachian National Scenic Trail

A Pennsylvania woman had her two daughters drive her to Georgia and let her off on a trail. She willingly solo-hiked all the way back to the Keystone State, and then kept on going north into Maine.

It was part of a Somerset County woman’s quest to hike all 2,197 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail this summer.

Georgetta Frederick, 43, of Conemaugh Township, made the journey across 14 states in 98 days.

She finished her adventure Aug. 6. It was a trip several years in the making.

“In 2017 is when I discovered backpacking. There’s a trail here called the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail, it’s kind of local. I got to do that with my youngest daughter and a friend, and we did it in five days. And the first time on that trip, I found my thing,” she said.

“I went back a couple of weeks later and did it by myself in three days ― it’s 70 miles,” she said. At that time she didn’t realize that most hikers don’t go on consecutive 23-mile days.

Becoming passionate about hiking, Frederick soon found out about the Appalachian Trail and decided that would be her next goal. “I’m a single parent, so I had to wait until my youngest daughter turned old enough for me to leave,” she said. “That’s why I did it this year.” Her daughters are Carla, 23, and Kaylee, 19.

Over the past five or six years she started planning and saving for this more than three-month adventure. In January, her official planning for the massive hike began. “I started planning logistics, food all that kind of stuff,” she said.

“I’m a very active person,” she said. Frederick is a self-employed house cleaner, she goes to a gym at least five days a week and does a variety of exercises at home.

How the Appalachian Trail hike began

Frederick backpacks with friends as much as possible but other times goes by herself. She took on the AT as a solo adventure because she wanted to travel at her own pace.

She explained that two hikers might not always want to go the same distance each day or would want to stay at camp for different amounts of time.

She started out May 1 at the trailhead in Georgia. “My daughters drove me down. It was so hard,” she said about saying goodbye to them. “They saw me off on the approach trail. It was hard to say, 'See you later.' I’ve never been away from them that long. But they were so excited and supportive, wanting me to go do my dream, which is super cool.”

She planned out her trip and had target distances for each day that averaged 23 miles. “I’m glad I had a plan, but it changes,” she said.

“I didn’t plan any recovery days, but I did take two recovery days. They are called zero days on the trail, which means you don’t hike any.” She took those days where she could find a place to sleep, take a shower and refuel at a restaurant where she could eat a lot. “That was a big thing, being able to consume the amount of calories you need when you’re operating at a calorie deficit like every day."

Even though she trained and was in good physical condition, she still lost 12 pounds over the trip. “I thought it might have been more, but it wasn’t, so that is good,” she said.

She encountered steep terrain and the weather didn't always cooperate. “In the first week, the first two days were beautiful, the next five days it rained,” she said. With this being a several-month trek, she wasn’t used to not being able to get home and regroup.

“Anytime I’ve had to deal with rain, it’s never been a super big issue because you know you’re going to get off the trail and go home and dry your feet out and you have different shoes. If your gear gets wet, so what, you can dry it. This was different,” she said.

At the end of the first week, her tent was wet from the rain and condensation and she started getting concerned about her down-filled sleeping bag. Fortunately, she was able to get off the trail for a day to dry out.

She finished faster than most people who take on this quest. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy reports most hikers need five months or more to go end to end. The challenge is something more than 20,000 people have accomplished, with some hikers breaking up the distance over several years.

“If I did something like this again, I probably would incorporate a little bit more rest days. Because every time I did take a rest day, my performance improved after that. You don’t realize how tired you’re getting,” she recalled.

Looking back on her journey, Frederick said, “I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of it. There were definitely times that were very hard, mentally hard,”

Even though she met people on the trail, she said she had some lonely times.

“I enjoy spending time with people a lot, every day,” she said about missing people in her hometown.

She saw turkeys, three bears, “a whole bunch” of snakes including one rattlesnake, and a beaver that wasn’t happy she was there. “I never saw a beaver before in my life and I was going into an area that was boggy … and I hear this hissing,” she said.

She soon saw that it was a beaver standing on a wooden plank and she backed up, tripped and fell down. “I got up and went around it,” she said about the beaver being angry, but not aggressive toward her.

Thinking back about the 14-state trek, Frederick said the views in New Hampshire were phenomenal. "New Hampshire was probably my favorite aside from Mount Katahdin, the very end. Because you just come out of the trees and you’re on this ridge-top for miles. You can see forever. You can see where you’re going, you can see where you’ve been. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was just wonderful,” she said.

Early on her journey, she looked forward to seeing the Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia where there are wild ponies.

“I got there in the morning, it was rainy, it was cold it was foggy,” she said. “I did see a couple of ponies, but my experience there wasn’t great because of the weather. The weather really played a part in whether I could enjoy things or not. Because of the mileage that I was intending to do, I had to hike in all the weather, in all of it.”

She didn’t get any blisters on her feet, but she did break a bone. One day when she was trying to let her trail running shoes dry, she wore her camp sandals and accidentally kicked a rock and broke a toe. Fortunately, with the help of ibuprofen, she was able to continue her hike.

“I didn’t wear my sandals anymore,” she said.

What she learned about herself

At the end of her journey, she realized that, “I can do hard things. I knew that I could do hard things, but this was probably the hardest thing I ever tried to do. For the length of time and the mental aspect was much harder than I expected,” she said.

She also reflected on a saying: No person is an island.

“Really, that’s the biggest thing that I learned is that I know what my capacities are to some level. And that I don’t need help doing things, but help makes it so much better if friends are around,” she said. The people who supported her along the way were an important part of her journey. For example, her daughter, Carla, sent her boxes of things to resupply her food in different towns along the way.

“Know thyself was a thing I wanted to come out of this, understanding myself better, and I think I do,” she said. “I can do hard things if I persevere.”

Even on the bad days, she knew she would continue to the finish line. The only two ways she said she would have quit would have been if she would have been injured ― “Because that is a reality. That happens to people" ― or if she ran out of her allotted 100 days. She completed her challenge two days ahead of schedule.

Completing the Appalachian Trail

When she finally made it to the summit of Katahdin in Maine's Baxter State Park, she said, “It was just amazing. I can’t believe I’m here. I’ve been chasing this for months. It was just the most perfect day.”

She was blessed with a clear day to enjoy the moment. She remembers not always being so fortunate on some hikes where the mountaintops were foggy. “It wasn’t. It was just a beautiful day,” she said. “You could see everywhere. It was just so amazing,” she said about the view.

Two of her friends, Chris and Payton Janovich, were with her on the final 10 days of her adventure. “They did not hike every day, but they were with me, they helped me,” she said about the father and daughter. They also drove back home.

If she tries it again, she plans to incorporate more time for rest and have a longer trip. “It would be more enjoyable at a less demanding pace,” she said.

What’s next?

Frederick is already thinking about conquering two other distance trails in the United States including the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail.

Frederick likes to introduce people to hiking. People can contact her through her Trail Mama Hikes Facebook page. She’s able to advise people on what they need and can guide them in the Laurel Highlands. “So they are not out there by themselves and know they have somebody who knows what they are doing, just helping with the full experience,” she said about enjoying the outdoors.

For those contemplating an outdoor adventure, Frederick offers this advice. “Don’t wait. If you want to do something, figure out how to do it as soon as you can. So many people put off things.”

She said there will always be reasons not to do something, but don’t let that stop you. “If I waited for two years to make sure I had enough money, who knows what’s going to happen in those two years? Will I be physically able to do it? I don’t want to end my life being regretful of the things I didn’t do,” she said.

“Make a way. Go do it.”

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors .

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Pa. woman shares insights on her 98-day hike across the Appalachian National Scenic Trail