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6 days ago
Jessica Guo had only slept for two-and-a-half hours connected an overnight autobus erstwhile she arrived astatine nan Mexico-US separator adjacent Lordsburg, New Mexico, successful April. Out of nan model she saw a flat, shadeless landscape. First-day jitters had Guo questioning what she was doing there.
The erstwhile advisor had near firm America to effort thing nary female had completed: a single, continuous hike of nan Continental Divide Trail (CDT) and nan Great Divide Trail (GDT) successful 1 almanac year.
The uncommon linking up of nan 2 trails – which traverse New Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert, Colorado’s high-elevation passes, Old Faithful successful Yellowstone nationalist parkland successful Wyoming, nan alpine scenery of Montana and Glacier nationalist parkland and nan distant backcountry of Banff, Canada – captivated tens of thousands of viewers online arsenic Guo recorded and edited her regular journeys, while keeping a gait of astir 48km (30 miles) each day.
She completed nan epic, five-month-long trek successful September, becoming the first female hiker to do so – and decided to time off her six-figure occupation for bully to walk much clip helping others get connected trail.
“I didn’t commencement retired arsenic immoderate crazy endurance jock and I really deliberation of myself arsenic a normal person,” she said of nan 5,698km (3,541-mile) hike, which has been completed by only 3 men since 2005. “I was frightened astir sleeping extracurricular unsocial successful nan woods aliases hiking unsocial aliases successful nan acheronian erstwhile I first started backpacking astir a decade ago.”
Her short, narrated videos, which characteristic landscapes ranging from basking deserts to snowy peaks, were primitively meant for family, friends and different hikers. But it wasn’t agelong earlier a larger organization became invested successful them; she now counts astir 50,000 followers on her Instagram account. Guo documented her advancement each day, editing connected nan spell during easier sections of nan trail, and would matter nan files to her relative erstwhile she had compartment work truthful he could upload them connected her behalf.
Guo, who turned 30 connected nan trail, battled everything from swarms of mosquitoes and heavy mud and snowfall to rocky ridgelines and dense forests (spotting bears, caribou and 193 type of birds on nan way) arsenic she gained 179,450 meters (588,747ft) successful elevation – nan balanced of hiking Everest 20 times.
On 19 September, time 152, Guo reached nan extremity of her journey, posting an affectional video from nan distant Kakwa Lake successful nan Rocky Mountains successful British Columbia, Canada. “If there’s thing retired location that calls to you, I dream you listen,” she said. “Give yourself support to do nan thing.”
‘It’s difficult erstwhile you don’t spot group who look for illustration you’
Although Guo was raised successful a suburb extracurricular of Seattle, wherever she was regularly exposed to quality during hiking and camping trips pinch her family, it took galore years for her to springiness herself nan support to do thing extraordinary.
It was connected a pivotal travel to Panama aft precocious school, which she earned by trading Girl Scout cookies, that Guo learned of nan Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), which spans nan US separator pinch Mexico to nan Canadian separator and was made celebrated by Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir Wild. She liked nan thought of hiking done her location state, but was intimidated.
“I deliberation a batch of women thin to underestimate what they tin do, and consciousness for illustration we person to beryllium overly prepared,” she said. “I later realized you don’t person to consciousness for illustration you’re 100% fresh to spell aft it. We’re not really conditioned to deliberation that measurement arsenic women.”
The percent of women hiking and backpacking has been expanding complete nan years. In 2018, women represented one-third of thru-hikers – group who hike a long-distance way extremity to extremity successful 1 expedition – but 2024 Appalachian Trail (AT) and PCT surveys showed astir half of each long-distance thru-hikers identified arsenic women. Even so, Guo has encountered “benevolent sexism” – men underestimating her capabilities aliases acting arsenic protectors – some connected nan way and successful nan comments sections of her posts. A fewer group connected nan way seemed amazed that she was an Asian woman, and different Asian hikers person told Guo they person been mistaken for her.
“I dream we person much and much diverseness to nan constituent wherever you don’t person to remark connected it,” said Guo, who is nan girl of Chinese immigrants. “It’s difficult erstwhile you don’t spot group who look for illustration yourself doing nan things you want to beryllium doing.”
Guo yet made her 10-year dream of hiking nan PCT travel existent successful 2023. She picked up her way nickname, “Stitches”, aft a branch impaled her calf and she needed six stitches, and different incident involving a crisp stone wherever her knee received 3 stitches.
From post-trail slump backmost to nan trail
The joyousness of her accomplishment was short-lived arsenic she quickly knowledgeable post-trail slump and, later, a terrible objective slump aft returning to her day-to-day life arsenic a creation strategist and provider astatine a consulting firm. “You’ve conscionable been successful this spot wherever you’re getting dopamine each day, being extracurricular and tuned into quality and past coming backmost to activity and a 9-to-5 and being sedentary,” she said. “It’s a large shift.”
Her expert told Guo she needed to get backmost connected way to retrieve who she was.
Last year, she took aesculapian time off and hiked nan Colorado Trail (CT) successful astir a month. “That was really empowering because antecedently I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t moving outside. I wasn’t doing each nan things that support you live and well, but those are besides nan things I person to do erstwhile I’m connected trail,” she said. “I person to move forward, I person to eat, I person to sleep.”
Seeing nan advancement she made connected nan CT helped Guo heal from slump and find a caller dream. That’s erstwhile she came up pinch nan thought of linking nan CDT and GDT, but recovered location was virtually nary accusation disposable astir doing some hikes. She decided she would blaze her ain way and archive it truthful early hikers could travel her example.
Guo’s CDT and GDT hikes were mostly solitary, which gave her clip to deliberation and constitute astir her experiences, which included witnessing nan effects of ambiance alteration first-hand.
In 1 post, Guo wrote: “I did not commencement this hike intending to talk astir climate, but it is untenable, nan effect we are having. You whitethorn not spot it successful your homes because you move connected nan pat and cleanable caller h2o comes out. And I americium astatine nan root and I spot nan glaciers dwindling. I spot that location is expected to beryllium a glacier here, but location is nothing. And that scares me.”
She besides said astir nan existent threats to public lands and the roadless rule, which protects nan US’s backcountry recreation areas. “The full constituent of being retired location is to beryllium successful that isolated space,” she said, “and I deliberation it’s worthy preserving.”
When Guo saw nan extremity of nan GDT trail, she was overwhelmed pinch emotion and began to cry.
“I thought astir really I had walked on nan ridgeline of North America that is nan root of nan h2o nourishing truthful galore millions of group successful 2 countries, nurturing truthful galore millions of creatures and plants and ecosystems,” she said. “It was humbling, and reaching nan terminus nan adjacent day, I felt joy, relief, condolences and pride. It was bittersweet to cognize that nan extremity was here.”
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