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Solo Hiking for Women: How Katie Spatara Went from Luxury to the Colorado Trail · Roam Alone

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Rome Alone, the podcast for those who are ready to take the trip, climb the mountain, or start the whole new chapter on their own.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Teresa Stevens.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: So picture this: you're on vacation in Thailand, you've got the finest hotels, the best meals, everything money can buy, and you're miserable.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Then a group of backpackers walks past.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: They haven't showered in weeks.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: They're carrying everything they need on their backs, and you think, I want to be them.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly where today's guest found herself.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Katie Spatera, known as Katie's fat, walked away from a toxic relationship and a life of luxury and started over on the trail.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: She hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail alone, then the Colorado Trail, then the Tahoe Rim Trail.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Some days were so hard she wanted to quit.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: But she never did.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: And along the way, she found trail families who made her feel anything but alone.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into it.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: So my guest today is Katie Spatera, also known as Katie Spat.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the show, Katie.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you're on today.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hi.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Excited to talk.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: We have talked a little bit just in general as we were preparing for the interview about your experience hiking the Colorado Trail and the Tahoe Rim Trail solo.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: So before we get into those details, take us back to the beginning.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: What first sparked this interest in long-distance hiking for one?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And what made you decide to do it alone?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna go pretty far back, but I when I grew up, I didn't necessarily grow up in the outdoors, especially in a city in Ohio.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: However, like we did go camping and tubing, things like that.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know, once I was in my mid-20s, and what really I think honestly got me out there was I was in a bad relationship.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I had met a partner and he was very well off.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say well off, I mean like a money.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we were able to travel the country and go all over the world.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: But whenever we traveled, it was always like we flew first class and we had a private driver when we would get to these countries.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean at one point he said, Well, if you could go somewhere, where would you want to go for 30 days?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I picked Thailand, and I picked Thailand because, you know, not only is there somewhere like Bangkok, but there's a beautiful coast there, there's jungle there.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, there'd be a lot of different sceneries that we could see.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I remember being there, and when we were in certain places, I kept seeing people that were actually backpacking, and they had these huge packs on them, and they looked like they hadn't showered in weeks.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept thinking, I want to be doing that, not what you know, I was currently how I was currently traveling that country.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, yeah.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So then, and you know, those people, not that they were necessarily going over mountain passes or any of that, but they were seeing the world in a very raw way compared to how I was getting to see it.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, like when you date someone that's well off, you know, at that time in my life, I'd say is probably around 25, so 12 years ago, I dropped a lot of what I was doing in my career.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I quit my jobs so that I could go travel with him.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But then what ended up happening was I became financially dependent on him.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when the relationship didn't work out, I didn't have a way out.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he kind of became controlling, I would say.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I would go and take my dog, and we would go find a park in the city areas of Columbus, but still a beautiful park with trails, and I go run.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really my escape from the relationship.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I ended up signing myself up for a race, and I think it was only like it was like 9.5 miles, but it was a race that was happening in the little mountains of West Virginia, and you could do it with your dog.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I knew I was gonna have to train and go there.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So then here I am with my dog and the first race it ever ran in the mountains of West Virginia, and it was awesome.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: After that, you know, I realized this relationship wasn't working out, but anytime I tried to escape that, I didn't have the financial means to have my own apartment in downtown because I was living off of his pay.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I did work part-time bartending at a place and a girl that I had become really close with, she told me one day, she called me and she's like, Hey, Katie, you know how you're trying to move out and leave Steve?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: She said, My sister lives in this house that my parents own, and it's in an urban area, but there's goats and chickens there.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your dog can run around freely, but you can also walk to this area, which we would call Bridge Park.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's definitely like an urban happening place.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, This is what it's gonna cost, blah, blah, blah.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So without me even ever looking at it, I was like, okay, she told me the date I could move in.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I found someone on the Facebook marketplace that would move my stuff within a certain area for really cheap.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew one day when the ex his name was Steve, when he was at work, I um had that guy come, put everything in the back of the truck, moved into this home that I'd never seen before.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that was that.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But then during that time period, you know, I really got to become who I wanted to be, and I had learned so much.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept listening to like audiobooks and podcasts about people that were hiking from Georgia to Maine, or, you know, like the northern part of Mexico to the southern part of Canada.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, wow, how are these people doing that?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I also had realized I was fascinated by the mountains, and I had truly really never been in them.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I started looking for seasonal work out west, and I ended up finding a job bartending at an upscale dude ranch that was just an hour outside of Jackson Hall.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: That wouldn't start in the winter.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So mind you, I'm gonna be in an area that gets so much snow.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, I'm pretty sure it was the most remote county in the lower 48 outside of places in Alaska.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I took that job and I I talked them into letting me bring the dog and I would live in a cabin on this property.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it was at that job where I had met somebody that him and his brother had just recently done the Appalachian Trail.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And his brother had actually done all three of the major trails in America, being like the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide, and the Appalachian Trail.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was fascinated again.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just was like, man, I, you know, I really want to do this.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: But even though I had trail runned at Brand at this point and hiked a lot, I'd never really packed a backpack and stuff in the mountains.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, of course, at the end of the season, when I had this job was when COVID happened.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it was 2020.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And after that season ended, I ended up taking up a job that was in southern Utah, right in between the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And Marty, my friend, he was from Boston and he's like, you know, I think I would like to work down there too.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we both took a job at a restaurant that was down there and drove down there together.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden the country shuts down.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we were in the middle of an area where no one's passing through because of COVID.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the place we were working at didn't really know, like, should we stay open?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have the business we normally do, or do we close?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So they would give us two weeks on and then two weeks off.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And on the two weeks off, we could pack my car up, bring the dog, and we would just go explore southern Utah.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I got to go to Zion and do Angel's Landing before it became a huge thing and there were crowds.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't need a permit.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we just went there one day and hiked that hike.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Nowadays, like you can't do that anymore.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, eventually we both decided to make our way back to the East Coast and I asked him to Virginia and backpacked, and it was great.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, I ended up moving, I'm living in Columbus, bartending.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of got out of the outdoors for a little while, but eventually I was like, you know, I need to go do this again, but I need to go do it alone.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I knew I could drive to part of the Appalachian Trail that was in Virginia called the Triple Crown.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, what if I just drive down there?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can leave my car at a hostel and then take a shuttle a hundred miles to another section of the trail, and I'll walk back to the car.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: But still, like I don't really know what I'm doing, you know.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I decided that that was what I was gonna do.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I end up driving down there.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I found a hostel that was there, and I stayed there for one night, had breakfast there the next morning, and all these people that were actually hiking the entire AT were there, and I got to talk to them.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, I'm just gonna do a section.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I have a shuttle coming, and he'll drop me off at this area.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I did.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I'm leaving my car there at the hostel, and I get in the shuttle, I tell him where the drop-off point is, but the mountains, you know, it's a hundred-mile walk on trail, but I'm getting dropped off in a shuttle at a another area.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so through the mountains, that was a pretty big drive to just hire a shuttle to take you there.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember we were halfway to the drop-off point, and I was like, oh no.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I started panicking.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy was like, What?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I don't have any of my portable batteries.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this was the first time I was ever gonna embark on a hundred-mile section or anything like that.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I needed to have a way to charge my phone and use my maps, and my, you know, I'm sure even though I am in my like, you know, I'm probably 33 at the time, I still want to be able to call my parents or whatever.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But there was no way he was gonna take me back.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we stopped at a gas station and I picked up some portable batteries from a gas station and got to the drop-off point, tried to charge those in his vehicle, and then just started walking.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I really didn't know what I was doing.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so so often things start out that way.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: That you're you just feel this call to do something and you want to do it right then, as quick as possible, because your gut is telling you to do it, and you may not be as prepared as you should be or want to be, but you you just start and you and you deal with it from then.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I do want to say that been in similar relationships in the past, and everything that Steve did was by design, the isolation and the living his life with his money, it was all by design to give you no other choices or to make you feel like you had no other choices.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact that you You know, had I not even been in that relationship, I might have never had a desire to get into some of that stuff, too.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yes, and and to find that courage, you know, and the the bravery that it took to get out with all this uncertainty, that's pretty spectacular.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think it took about five or six days.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I start walking, whatever.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And again, there's people that are doing this entire trail because I think it was like around the end of May that I did it.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the bubble was almost moving through that area that would be on that blacking trail.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they are going so fast.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have these lights setups, and I'm trying to like keep up with them.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they've been hiking for a few months now.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I just dropped off and was gonna hike a hundred miles back to my car.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I did, I kept up with them.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember like on the fourth day, I kept seeing this one older lady, and she was also a bartender and she lived in Georgia.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this was her second time doing the trail.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Well, you know, you must be pretty fit.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're keeping up with all of us, you know.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking, I mean, literally by the fourth day, I my legs were so sore.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I could I had no idea what I was doing.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless of the pain and the things I learned, yes, as soon as I was done with that, I knew immediately that I had to do a bigger trail.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was something that I loved.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I love being out there so much.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: What were the feelings that you were going through as you were hiking this, especially as you were hiking it alone in between the people that you met?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like you're accomplishing something so big, even though a lot of people don't look at living in the woods, you know, like that's a dirt bag or whatever it may be.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But compared to who I'd been in the past, I was so proud of that person.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And just I felt like I was accomplishing something.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I really actually liked being alone.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yes, yes.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now had you like had you always been comfortable doing things alone, or was this brand new for you?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think I was always comfortable doing stuff alone, but it's just I think the older you get, and especially when you're in your 30s, most women are like married and they're raising their family, and that just never ended up being the path for me.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like if this is the one thing that I'm getting joy out of, I've got to keep making that happen.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's definitely what got me into thinking about the Colorado Trail.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, even that same summer I did the hundred-mile section on the Appalachian Trail.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: My friend that lived in Wyoming and I ended up going out there and we decided to do the Teton Crest Trail together.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: However, great friend, we had done other trips together, but when you're backpacking with somebody for an excursion and say the whole trip's 40 to 50 miles, you don't always walk at the same pace as somebody else.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to kind of match that part up.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: But not only that, you realize when you're with someone else, like we have to carry food for two people, we have to have a tent for two people.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if someone's not doing things the way that you would expect them to, it can really not be an enjoyable experience.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even if back home, or you know, say we go get dinner together, we are great friends.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you're out on the trail and committed to something where it's just you two in the wilderness, I think it's just harder for you to enjoy yourself if you have certain expectations that that person isn't gonna meet.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And like you were saying that the the woman you met on the AT, how she was talking about how fit you were, even though you hadn't had a lot of this big hiking experience.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was nervous.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, these people have been out here for a long time.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta look like I know what I'm doing.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: But if your friend or any friend wasn't as prepared as you and they wanted to stop or they wanted to go a lot slower, there's a lot of compromise when you're doing something like this with another person as opposed to just being you.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I get that.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: So then from there, I guess after that, I was like, well, maybe next year I can try it if I save money.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I know I can't do the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail or the Colinal Divide, but maybe I could swing one-fourth of what those trails are, and that would be around 500 miles.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew I could probably get that done in under a month.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so I came across the Colorado Trail and I thought, this is perfect.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I could probably do that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: But what I knew too is what I had learned through the backpacking the prior summer to that trail is I'm gonna have to go lighter.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a very small female, 110 pounds.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm gonna carry a lot of food and water, which on this trail it's really dry, I knew that food and water were gonna take up most of the weight in the pad, but I was gonna have to figure out how to make everything lighter and have a completely different setup going into this.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not necessarily like a type A person.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people that you meet on these longer trails, they're organized.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: They have their meals planned and they they actually send grease supply boxes.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that wasn't gonna be what I did.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I'm gonna try to get to where it starts and then I'm gonna get to the end.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll stop in towns in between and get my food if I have to at a gas station, but I'll be able to get by that way, as opposed to sending things.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew if I got myself to the beginning of the trail, which I was like, hey, I can fly to Denver, literally take an Uber to where the trailhead is and walk to Durango.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's like at the end of the day, when it comes to these long trails, you're just walking.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody could walk.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of how slow or fast you're gonna be going.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I stayed one night in a hotel, and the next morning I woke up, got my Uber, and had him drop me off at the start of the Colorado Trail, and I started walking.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, how many miles is it again, the Colorado Trail, in total?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's like 487 in total.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got to remember too, like you can only carry food for about six days.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And most people, you really only want to carry food for about three or four because you're just putting more weight into the pack.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And on years where like Colorado doesn't have a high snow year on my maps and even on an app called Far Out that people use, a lot of the water sources end up being dried out.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So now not only are you carrying the food, but you have to have four liters of water on you.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And when I started the trail, I think it was oh, I want to say the end of July, and they were in a drought.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned the hard way that I was gonna have to like carry more water and be a lot more careful with filling up when I saw water and making that last.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think I don't know, there there are multiple things that I learned in the first week, but one of the hardest would be thunderstorms when you're at a high elevation.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And to this day, I still, if I go somewhere that highs has higher peaks, I really think I might have a little bit of PTSD from being caught in a thunderstorm at high elevation.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So even though I thought when I started the trail I would make it to Breckenridge before I actually got off, and that would be the first place that I take a shower, do my laundry, resupply my food, it actually ended up being a town called Bailey.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because I had met someone on the first day.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was actually a pilot.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So he had never done something like this before, but he had done the Camino in Europe, and this was his first time doing something similar, but kind of not.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he had not even he had never even set up his tent before.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it just so happened we had the exact same tent.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: We were the same age.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: So on the first day when I saw him, I asked him, Hey, what's your name?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: you know, and we became friends immediately.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that night we decided to camp together, and I showed him how to put up his tent, and he explained to me he was a pilot.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And for two weeks, we really became hiking buddies during that trip, and it was lovely.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: But on the day four of the entire hike, I was not hiking with him.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was quite a bit ahead of him, and I had started going up a path, and it was a burnt area, so all the trees had no limbs on them, and the sky got really dark.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: I could hear thunder in the distance, and I'm like, man, this is sort of scary because I'm going up for the next few miles and the weather's getting worse and worse and worse.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept hearing ahead of time the one thing people said about the Colorado Trail was from 12 to 4, there are afternoon thunderstorms.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you're not at a higher elevation or not above tree line.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I never really knew what that meant.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've never experienced that, and neither had he.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: He was from Texas.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hiking ahead of him.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: The weather's getting worse.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know what?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna turn around and go back down and find him.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so we join up.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I think we'll be okay.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And again, he's a pilot.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we keep going and going.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, I mean, it starts to drizzle.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: But then we were hearing thunder and the lightning was there immediately.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he looks back at me and says, Katie, we need to get off this mountain.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh no.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so we start running sideways.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: We get off trail.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it was a burnt section.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So there, even if there were tree coverage, there's no limbs on any of the trees because a fire had gone through there.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it we literally, we didn't have our rain gear on the outside of our packs.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Neither has done this before.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we just take cover on an area that was sloped.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And on both sides of us, there's small rivers swarming as it's storm and lightnings.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Petey, give me your tracking calls.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I give him, he tosses them as far as he can.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we just stay there while we get soaking wet.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally looked back at him at one point, and it looked like lightning was less than six feet from him.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And those rivers can rise quick, especially on a burn scar.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was but sure had dropped.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it probably went from being in the 70s now down to the low 40s, and we're soaked.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to wait until this thunderstorm passes before we can do anything.
• 23:31
  unknown: Absolutely.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we were not prepared.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the first.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: After that storm cast, I went as fast as I could back to the last parking lot I had seen, which was seven miles before that, in a town that's very remote.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I put my thumb out to hitchhike because there was no cell phone service there.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the only person that went by at first was a UPS driver.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to pick you up.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I had looked like I'd been through hell and look because I was sobbing.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm covered in rain.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I had been shivering for I don't know how long.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And finally I climbed a little hill where I was able to get a little bit of reception.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And on one of the Facebook pages to the Colorado Trail, I posted about what had just happened.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we are.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And a trail angel, two trail angels shortly after came through and gave us a ride into the closest town, which had been Bailey.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy said, I cannot believe you guys were out on that pass during that storm.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You should see what the town looks like.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when we went to the town, I mean, there were down trees.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was nuts.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew moving forward after that had happened, I was never going to climb a mountain pass when a thunderstorm's coming through.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and yeah, if you're if you're a novice climber or hiker, you you hear what you're supposed to do, but then you think, oh, I can handle it.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then you you learn.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: And luckily, luckily you got back down.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: And thank goodness for those trail angels, they make all the difference in the world.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, super, super scary.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: So for people who aren't familiar with the Colorado Trail, can you take us through the general path?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: I know start in Denver, end in Durango, you go through Brecken Ridge.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Are there any other major cities that you hike through?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's like I said, it was it's a 487 miles and Denver's here, Durango's here.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it goes southwest through the state, through the Rocky Mountains.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on one second.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: I have something that has all the statistics on it, and one of them is it's like it's you did this trail because the elevation changes every day.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like climbing Mount Everest so many times.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I looked it up on my phone too.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: It says the Colorado Trail's total elevation gain is equal to climbing Mount Everest about three times.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically 3.1 times from sea level.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, each like the highest point, it's 1300 and something feet.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: But remember, the highest peaks in the United States are 14,000 feet.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: So every day you're climbing a lot and going down a lot.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I'm from Ohio.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize what it meant to be at that elevation day in and day out.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Even though you do you do acclimate after a while, but I'm sure those probably the first week at the end of the day.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I assumed that staying at a hotel for one night in Denver would be okay because I think Denver's around 7,000 feet.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, well, I have to stay in a hotel for one night.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I, you know, the first week of the trail, it I think it's not too bad.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get up to like 13 something until like day four or whatever, depending on how fast you're going.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it does give you some time.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: But in that first week, I did notice I had headaches constantly.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was something that I picked up on elevation.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I figured that because one time I had flown to Denver, took a shuttle to Breckenridge, and then skied immediately.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it went from sea level to whatever 13,000 something feet.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I got really sick when I did that.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I so I assumed if I did it slower, it'd be better.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I I was fine, but I definitely had headaches for sure.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know this podcast is about being alone.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: But like whenever, you know, I did this trail and the Tahoe Run trail.
• 27:38
  unknown: Yeah.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the times I've been out there, I always end up meeting people.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So even though I'm hiking alone, I'm never actually alone at night or anything like that.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: And which is weird, right?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I assumed I would be alone a lot more than I was.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: It seems to me with all the people that I've talked to over the last, it's almost been a year now that I've been doing this podcast, that so many people who travel solo.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like you seek connection and you find connection more when you are traveling alone.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's not that I want to be alone.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to talk to anybody.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that, like you said, I want to do this.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm called to do this.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody, you know, in my immediate orbit is doing this.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to do it by myself.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean I don't want to meet people.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think other people are doing the same thing.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so you go out of your comfort zone more and you meet people and especially hikers.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's something about the hiking community that they're always, seems like they're always friendly, always wanting to say hello and you know, spark a conversation.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, I think I think those two things can live, do live together very well.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Solo travel and meeting people everywhere you go.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the best things about it.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: I really, you know, it's funny because, like I said, I work at a sports bar and restaurant.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: And before I left, a lot of people that are my regulars that come in were so worried, I can't believe you're gonna go do that.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're like a young female, and what if someone's gonna, you know, are you bringing a gun?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone would ask me, are you bringing a gun?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm not bringing a gun out there.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll, you know, after I finished a few of these trails, what I say to those like people that are worried, I go, listen, if you're to walk down the street from your home to this restaurant, you are more likely to have someone rob you.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think in that scenario, I go, what cereal myrrh, whatever, is climbing a 13,000 foot peak to do that.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, exactly.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Really, I I I never felt unsafe.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're doing a trail that's that long, you're seeing a lot of the same people that you immediately become friends.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we would form a trail family, it was like, okay, I'll see you at this river at lunchtime.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then, hey, where are you guys camping tonight?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, I also would say along with that, when now moving forward, especially after the experience with the thunderstorms on day four, what I learned is if I were linked up with other people, now we can all make those decisions together before doing that.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think more heads are better than one when you're going through tough things like that.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also a safety check as far as hey, didn't Katie say she was gonna spend the night here and then she's not here.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: Should we be concerned?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe she has she's had some issues, and vice versa.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a that's a little double check for everybody's safety, I think.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Could be like someone's fallen or someone's gotten hurt or lost or something like that.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great idea.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I forgot to you asked me like the towns that it went through.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the neat things about that trail is like I said, the first major town, or not major town, but bigger area is um Breckenridge.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: But then it goes through like Lake City, Salida.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but I'd say about every four or five days you can find yourself hitchhiking into a decent town, stay the night.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And something I didn't realize was that there are hostels all throughout this trail in Colorado.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And at the beginning, I was fully expecting that every few days I'd end up staying at a hotel.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: But out there in the summertime, you know, a hotel is$250 for the night in some of these places.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: And at a hostel, you know, you can get a bed for$50 a night.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: But not only that, you get to meet other people that are out traveling Colorado.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of them were from, you know, other countries.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the unique things about doing that trail.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: I got to experience staying in hostels, even in my 30s, and meet a lot of other people doing similar like-minded things.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that was cool because I didn't know that that even existed.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: It makes it affordable and the community building is invaluable.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you hear, especially, yeah, like you said, you pass some people on the trail or they pass you, and then you catch up and you hear what other, you know, what may be going on further down the trail, and you can get an idea of, you know, if there are any issues that you could expect in the next couple of days.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really cool.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: When you've been hiking, like you hiked part of the AT after this relationship ended, you did the Colorado Trail.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like you uh may have gotten some closure through that relationship that you were in by doing this kind of solo expedition?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Gives you a lot of time to think.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, because that relationship was such a long time ago.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: But that relationship is what got me into the outdoors and discovering that something like these trails existed.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I look back, that's 10 years ago.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so since then, no, but definitely, like I said, I feel like a more empowering human now, as opposed to who I was during that time in my life.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have the feeling that you have of that empowerment when you're on the trail and doing this big thing, these big things solo?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like you take that home with you?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: That feeling of empowerment.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I it's one of those things that even when things, you know, when you're on the trail, it's not all rainbows and butterflies.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And by pictures, it might look that way, but the reality isn't that.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: The highs are really high and the lows are really, really low.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: So even after something's super hard, but you did it, again, you feel like you accomplished something.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so this year I was like, you know, I can't, I'm not gonna take off another month to do a trail quite that like the Colorado Trail, but maybe I could do something smaller.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I did the Tahoe Rim Trail.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I again, I'm not type A.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: I just was like, well, what trails are there where I can fly to a major airport, shuttle to where it's gonna start, start walking, and get back, you know?
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: So wherever I started, I was gonna end.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: But on day two of the Tahoe Rim Trail, I literally kept saying to myself, you know, last year I loved the trail.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I, by the end of it, I had a trail family, and I had been alone for two days.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: So by the end of day two, I just hated it for some reason.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't gotten myself in the shape that I should have been.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something I didn't mention.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: My dog died two weeks before I had been planning to go do the Tahoe Rim Trail.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I got my dog when I was 21 years old.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be 37 in a few months.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that was something deeply hard.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's still hard for me.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: And people kept saying, well, maybe this isn't the right time to go do it.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then other people who really knew me were like, no, this is a perfect time for her to go do that.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: She needs to go let her brain be freed and think about the grief and you know what it was going through.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hundred percent.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, by day two, I thought I was gonna quit.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I never have said that before on a trail.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I called my mom when I had cell phone service.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm gonna effing quit.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was so upset.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was hard.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: And what I didn't realize was that they were in such a drought that there was no water.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're dehydrated and you're saving your water, and on the first day I did 13 miles, on the second day, no matter what, I had to hike at least 17 miles to get to the next water source.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it just plays a toll on your body, you know?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't enjoying it.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: But luckily, I, you know, I I stuck to it.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So day three starts, and I started seeing other people and meeting some other people that were doing the same thing I was doing, made friends, and it ended up being like the best experience ever, even though the day before I was gonna quit.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they always say, like, don't quit on a tough day.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, like think about it, maybe go to a town.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, don't quit when it's hard.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it did, it turned around, and I ended up absolutely loving the Tahoe Rim Trail.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I met a lot of really great people, even though I went alone.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: I've done I've done a couple of races like um a marathon where I broke my ankle.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: I did a uh I know and I didn't realize I broke it.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: I kept running on the dang thing.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then I did a half iron man where I panicked in in the swim part, which is the very first of the three legs.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: And both everyone says the swimming's the hardest card, though.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I was never a strong swimmer, and so it was it was terrible.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: And both of those races were so bad.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I finished, but I finished in like twice the amount of time that I planned to do it.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: But it was those two that I remember over all of them because I I did it anyway.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: I stuck with it and I learned so much more than had it been easy.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's so great.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's not in the moment, but in retrospect, because you do see what you're made of when you when you go through the hard things, and you can do hard things, you know?
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: I um a few years ago, I got into the trail running and I've done a trail marathon, a couple 50k trail races.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I'm trained for the races, I kind of put backpacking on the back burner.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's either I'm doing one or the other.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: But again, they're both just hard.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: They are, they are, but you know, it's it's I think the preparation is like 90% physical, but then the actual race or the hike or the trek is 90% mental at that point.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's mental.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody's listening right now and they're wanting to do a long distance hike and they're wanting to do it alone, but they're afraid to take that first step.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: What advice would you give them?
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: To go for it.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, nowadays you can watch a YouTube video and see what someone's setup is very easily that can help you with gear.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I know like so many people say, well, the gear is really expensive.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is expensive.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like I probably spent$2,500 on the gear that I had on the Colorado trail, but it'll last for hundreds of miles and it's worth it.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, like I said earlier, it's it's just walking.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're putting one foot in front of the other.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if that means you go slow, then you go slow.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: The week after the first week, it's gonna be a lot easier than it was on day one.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then even after that, get easier.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: And even when things are hard, it still changes you and helps you gain like a different perspective.
• 39:39
  unknown: Yeah.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: So no matter what, I think it's good for the mind, body, and soul.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: Just to go for it.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: So what's on the horizon for you?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have another trail in mind for the future?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, eventually, I would love to do one of the three major trails in America, like I said, the PCT, the AT, or the Connell Divide.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if I can afford to do those quite yet because they take four or five months.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: So next year I'm thinking about maybe trying to do a trail that's in a different country.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Costa Rica has created this trail that you can do, and it would take only a couple weeks, but um, something makes me think it's called the Camino de Costa Rica.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're like calling it something of that nature.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the difference with this one is you don't stay in a tent.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: So ahead of time, you have to plan it.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And there are families that live there, and the locals will host you.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, fantastic.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they'll have a room for you, feed you, and you plan your route, and then you know, stay with different host families.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's definitely something I'm thinking about doing next year.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually I'll do a bigger trail.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: So you mentioned final question, you mentioned way back in the beginning that you were never necessarily a solo person doing a lot of things alone, even though you started this hiking solo.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think solitude is something you're comfortable with because of because of who you are, or is it something that you learn to appreciate through these experiences that you've had?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, growing up, I was never someone who would have done something alone, or even in my early 20s.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: But now, just because of my situation and that I've never been married and don't have kids, I think that if someone doesn't want to go do something because they're scared to do it alone, then that doesn't matter.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, you should just go do that thing, even if you can't find someone that wants to do it with you.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: And people don't realize how safe it actually ends up being.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, no, I don't think solitude was ever who I was before, but through these experiences, it's allowed me to welcome that into what I want to do in the future, you know, way more and feel okay about that.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because I always feel stronger after doing these things.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always been, you know, doing them alone and I meet people.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're never really alone if you don't want to be.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that's whether you are hiking or if you're going to a brand new city and you go and sit at the bar of a restaurant and have dinner there, there are people to the left, to the right.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're never really alone if you don't want to be.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's always people around that you can talk to and connect with.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the really cool thing.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: The last two days of the Colorado Trail when I knew I was getting close to finishing it, because I had met so many people and had a trail family out there and camped with these people, the last two days I decided that I let them go ahead of me.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I slept in on the one day and I gave it enough space so that I knew I would actually finish alone.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to myself, you know, you came here to do this alone, but you've met so many people.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I forced myself to really be alone the last two days before I finished it because I actually hadn't experienced too much solitude.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I made myself do that because, you know, like you said, when you go a lot of places, you know, a lot of times you really aren't alone and you meet people, and that's what it's about.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: What a beautiful plan.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you intentionally did that at the end.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that you you started solo, you ended solo.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: What a great way to wrap that up.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: Katie, it's been such a pleasure.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: I admire you so much for the things that you have done, the way you approach it.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate your time today coming onto the show.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for having me.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: That was Katie's bet.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: And what a conversation.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: What stays with me is that her story didn't start with a perfect plan.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: It started with a moment of honesty.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't the life I want.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: Everything else, the Appalachian Trail, the Colorado Trail, the Tahoe Rim Trail, came one step at a time, literally.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you're sitting on a someday adventure, take this as your sign.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be ready, you just have to start.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you may be surprised by who shows up along the way.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: If you love this episode, share it with a friend who's been dreaming of the trail and leave a rating or review so more solo travelers can find the show.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Teresa Stevens, and until next time, keep roaming alone.