Students and staff hiked 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail over spring break. Courtesy | Josi Cuddeback

For some, breakfast on the Appalachian Trail is just a spoonful of SPAM and a Snickers bar. 

During spring break, a group of eight students and three staff members hiked nearly 50 miles of the Appalachian trail in Tennessee over four days, averaging 12 miles per day. 

Joe Kellam, associate director of security and emergency management, led the trip through the inaugural Leadership: Hiking Appalachia course. They plan to offer the class again each semester. 

Juniors Josi Cuddeback, Christine Madigan, Brett Schaller, Caleb Green, and Luke Hollister reunited round an AJ’s Cafe table to tell the story of the Appalachian Trail. 

Before the weeklong hike, the students attended a one-credit leadership training course at Hayden Park for the first half of the semester. They learned how to build a fire, tie knots, set up a campsite, and safely hike in dangerous conditions. 

“At the last minute, you realize all the things that you probably should have been thinking about,” Schaller said. “There’s a million things that occur to you that you actually need when you’re on the trail.”

Schaller realized the day before leaving that he would need a pair of gloves in the frosty conditions. 

“I found one set of gloves in the entire store,” Schaller said. “They were white. I thought the gloves were a little bit fruity. Overall, I would characterize the last couple of days before as a bit frantic.” 

Cuddeback said she packed more than she needed to. On the trail, you only need a pair of paints and two shirts to rotate and, surprisingly, you don’t need deodorant, she said. 

“You literally cannot smell yourself when you’re on the trail. You just go nose-blind and you can’t smell anything bad, which is honestly a blessing,” Madigan said. 

Green, on the other hand, said he accidentally under-packed.

“I ended up bringing less than I should have,” Green said. “I only brought a few layers and, in hindsight, should have brought warmer clothes. I ended up being really lucky that I had brought a sweatshirt for the drive home that I was going to keep dry.”

The crew was hit by a cold snap during the trip, Cuddeback said; the air cooled and the atmosphere got hit by a spell of cold weather unexpectedly. Hollister remembered looking ahead at green, lush trees and shrubbery, and turning around to see snow falling behind him. 

On Thursday evening, after a full day of hiking, the group set up camp and prepared to wind down for the night with dinner. But Kellam discovered that 50 mph winds were forecasted for the night, and the campsite was surrounded by widowmakers — dead trees that had the potential to fall onto them in the winds. 

“We decided to hike out the remaining three-and-a-half miles in the dark with headlamps on back to our van,” Schaller said. “It was kind of an adventure all day. It was like a race against Mother Nature.”

Cuddeback said she felt a rush of adrenaline on the hike back. 

“Keep in mind we hadn’t been inside four walls for days at this point,” Cuddeback said. “It was this 

exciting feeling of, ‘Okay, we were expecting to still be in the wilderness for at least another whole day, but we’re about to get the van and hightail it home overnight.’” 

The group stopped at Waffle House close to midnight and devoured dozens of eggs, waffles, pancakes, bacon, and sausage in a matter of minutes. 

“To put it in perspective, on one of our more difficult days where we climbed out 5,000 feet of elevation in height, about 13 miles total, the calorie burn on Christine’s watch was 5,200. We were averaging about 50,000 steps per day,” Cuddeback said. 

One consistently reliable snack, according to Hollister, was G.O.R.P. — Good Ol’ Raisins and Peanuts. The term G.O.R.P. became an all-encompassing word for the crew, and the students would often joke around with phrases such as, “G.O.R.P. out!” 

“It’s like ‘I Am Groot,’” Green said. “It could mean anything.” 

The students assigned themselves and the staff members trail names. John Wilmer, a security officer and training coordinator who came with the group, was deemed “Skin Walker;” Rachel Marinko, director of student programming, the mom of the group; and Kellam, “Joe Mama.” 

“Joe was like this scary mom who would take care of us; you know he would kill for you,” Cuddeback said.

One morning, Kellam cracked open a can of frozen SPAM, skewered some, and roasted it over a fire. That, including a Snickers bar, summed up his breakfast, Hollister said. 

“Everyone was going so hard, just like athletes, but we were also pushing everyone else’s buttons,’ Cuddeback said. “It was kind of unparalleled. We were just screaming and laughing the entire time for 13 hours a day.” 

The students agreed that a certain bond was formed between the entire group after hiking the trail together. 

“Everyone on the trail became very close, like really good friends,” Green said. “We all had a lot of fun hanging out with each other. That led to a lot of fun inside jokes and trail shenanigans that went on. I still have trail-brain.” 

They each said they would hike the trail again in a heartbeat. 

“When I go out and try to do something fun, I always try to find the biggest grand giant experience ever,” Green said. “I really learned on the trail that you can take something really simple, like hiking every day, and find joy in the little things. Just having a hot cup of water and good people around you was incredible.”