Rumble: When and why did you initially begin hiking? 

Kathy: I began hiking as a kid on family camping vacations to Cape Cod. My parents grew up as Illinois farm kids but moved to Massachusetts just before I was born. Their new MA friends took them under their wing, and we enjoyed many outdoor activities while living there. The outdoor tradition continued when my husband and I raised our kids in Nebraska. When I moved to Western North Carolina in 2001, I got involved with a local hiking club, Haywood Hikers, and haven't stopped hiking since. My Appalachian Trail (AT) interest took root from an article in the February 1987 edition of National Geographic. I dreamed of hiking the AT, but I was living in Nebraska with small children and had no idea I'd be in WNC in less than 15 years.

Rumble: How do you gather the women you hike with? 

Kathy: Hiking every Saturday year-round with the Haywood Hikers provided opportunities to meet people who also love the outdoors. On one Haywood Hikers hike, a woman and I began talking and dreaming about hiking the AT and we soon started hiking sections here and there. Cindy became one of my AT hiking and backpacking mentors. Other friends became interested in women-only hikes and over the 16 years of hiking and backpacking the AT, about 17 different women have joined me, all the way from the age of my daughter Amber, 33, to twins Sue and Elrose, 78, who were also early mentors to me. Some of the gals, Debbie and Cathy, were ones I met on the AT, usually while staying overnight at a shelter or frog-leaping each other on the trail. We'd exchange contact info and then hike subsequent years. I met Clara through a hiking blog. We day-hiked many sections in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where she lived. Then she became a trail angel transporting me to nearby trailheads and later offering her home overnight on my way further north on the trail. Another gal, Sherrie, and I met through my son in Durham who I learned was also section hiking the AT. After finishing the AT a year apart, Sherrie and I began backpacking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST). In the past several years, I've led backpack weekends for just women through a former local non-profit, Outdoor Mission Community, now Environmental Action Community.

Rumble: How often do you hike now? 

Kathy: I still hike one to two times every week year-round, unless the weather is very cold, windy or wet. I am grateful to have a part time job as a Hike Guide for Haywood County  - getting paid to do something I love? Bring it on! 

Rumble: What are some of your favorite trails? 

Kathy: Honestly, I love all trails. The MST is one favorite in Haywood County because it's so close and accessible via the four roads that intersect the Blue Ridge Parkway - Soco Gap (Hwy 19), Balsam Gap (Hwy 74), Rt 215 and Rt 276. Near all of these intersections there are two directions to hike the MST, creating eight MST hikes that are accessible year round. Of course, I love the AT most anywhere. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pisgah Forest and Nantahala Forest also have many trails close by. 

Rumble: Why do you feel nature is soothing for the soul? 

Kathy: When I get out on the trail and take a deep breath, I begin to let go of obligations, lists of things to do and feel joy in the simple, natural, and replenishing beauty all around me. Sights and sounds fill me up - simple things, the texture and form of a stump or a rock, the sound of a nearly fallen tree rubbing against another, how creek water bubbles over a rock, the fresh smell of the woods waking up in spring or the stark contrasts of color, texture and size of dormant things in the winter. During the depths of COVID, I reflected this - The trails and forests of spring are a delight to me, unpretentiously showing their wild beauty. And again, predictably and regardless of the current COVID-19 crisis, the spring wildflowers burst with beauty and hope, innocent of the turmoil all around.