October 18, 2024 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Carter Momsen-Hudson from Hillsborough, North Carolina, started walking on the Appalachian Trail not knowing if he could actually finish the 2,000 mile trek. The encounters he had along the way spawned a spiritual journey that would take him to a place that he would have never imagined.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Can we continue with our American stories up next. Carter
Mumson Hudson from Hillsboro, North Carolina started walking the Appalachian Trail,
not knowing if he could actually finish the two thousand
mile trek. His journey took several months and included scenic beauty,
(00:31):
encounters with the kindness of strangers, and one fairly serious injury.
The encounters he had along the way spawned a spiritual
journey that would take him to a place he would
have never imagined.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
My name is Carter McClain Momson Hudson. I'm twenty two
years old. I'm a resident of North Carolina. I just
completed the Appalachian Trail walk from Jordia to Maine.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Took me roughly four months.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I started in the middle of my college semester and
which would have been March first, and I finished July eighth.
The entire Appalachian Trail is two and ninety three miles
this year and often changes.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I walked about two thousand.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I am in college studying religion to become a preacher.
Into the outdoor world, especially biking and running and hiking
and climbing and boating. I had a good diverse childhood.
I was surrounded by people who had rural backgrounds and
(01:42):
a more difficult life. Right A lot of them went
to the army or became mechanics this kind of story.
Played a lot of basketball, played baseball, you know, just
regular high school stuff. Wasn't the best student, but managed
to make it to college, so that was a success.
The reason that I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail
(02:04):
was simply because it was there.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
There was no goal I had in mind.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I never would have wanted to do something like this
if the Appalachian Trail didn't exist. The idea from walking
from Georgia do Maain just sounds silly. But my college
had a program where I was offered credits, and I'm
really close with the man who runs the outdoor program.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
His name is Jim Harrison.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
He really inspired me by his stories and his involvement
in the community and how much the Appalachian Trail influenced
his life.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I mean, it was his mecca.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
He lives next to the Appalachian Trail. One thing that
I realized working in Appalachi at a local food market
was the people's reverence for the mountains and pride even
in their impoverished communities in Appalachia was something unique that
I never really seen, and I want to be a
part of that. And I thought one way I could
(02:58):
do that would be high the Appalachine Trail and seeing
the people in their natural habitat, and seeing the music
in its natural habitat, and just trying to understand a
little bit more where this love and pride of the
mountains came from. The way I got started on the
(03:20):
Appalachan Trail was emailing Jim email Jim.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
He said, all right, we're gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And then we started doing hikes and getting involved in
the mountains. The most interesting thing that we did probably
was a shakedown hike. So on the shakedown hike, that's
when you already have all your gear. You're ready to
go basically what you need if you need a backpack,
you need a sleeping bag, a tent, some stuff to
cook with, and some clothes and you can pretty much
(03:47):
hike the Applache and trail. Maybe a water bottle, you know,
if you don't want to get dehydrated. That's what I
walked those two thousand miles with. That's what it was
in preparing to walk twenty miles a day on the
Appalachan Trail. There is no preparation. The trail trains you.
There's no way that you will be able to walk
twenty miles a day in preparation in the Applelatchan Trail.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So on the trail you get in shape.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You start by walking twelve miles a day, and then
you walk fifteen miles a day.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You end up walking twenty miles a day. And I
had friends who would walk forty miles a day.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Your feet gets stronger, your joints, You roll your ankle
so many times that it becomes like a rubber band
and truly flexible. That's how you get ready to walk
all those miles. It's by actually walking on the Apple
Latchan Trail. And that's the problem with a lot of
people is they get hurt early on because they try
to walk too far in the beginning, because they hear
(04:41):
about all these people that are walking twenty miles and
those things. But in fact, you got to start slow
and eventually you'll be able to walk twenty miles. Your
feet are going to hurt the entire time, no matter what.
On March first, we drove down to Springer Mountain. In Georgia,
it was probably sixty five degrees. And in Georgia they
(05:03):
have this approach trail that's about eight miles long, and
you go up these steps, probably five hundred feet of
elevation on these steps that are built amongst this huge waterfall.
So it's a pretty epic beginning to your journey. In
the car ride down to Springer Mountain, I have felt
a way that I've never felt in my entire life.
(05:24):
It was sort of this curious anticipation was I think
in actuality, like I was really nervous because actually trying
to comprehend what it's going to be like to walk
two thousand miles. It doesn't work. If someone told us
you had to walk two thousand miles, you'd be like,
(05:45):
there's no way, dude, It'd be horrible. So I had
a really hard time actually conceptualizing what being on the
trail would be like. And I was actually most worried
about my mental state and if I could handle this
huge task in front of me. So that was kind
of the atmosphere on the way down to the Appalachin Trail.
There was I was with seven other young students who
(06:06):
were a part of this program at Emory Henry College.
It was winter, so it was gonna be really cold.
So we start hiking, right. We start hiking together.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
All of us. We get out the van, we pile
up the van.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
We take a picture at the beginning of the trail,
the approach trail, and we start hiking. We start hiking
up these steps, and within the first twenty minutes we
had to take a break because we were so tired.
Twenty minutes in the Applelachine trail, we had to take
a break. He might as well just call gym and
tell him to bring the van back, because if you
have to take a break twenty minutes in the Applachine trail,
(06:38):
there's no way you can walk two thousand miles. The
first day was very difficult mentally, our packs were too heavy.
We had no idea what we were doing. Nobody else
knew what they were doing. The people that gave us
a little orientation at the beginning on how to properly
(06:58):
be safe and hike on the apple Lashing trail and
not litter and those types of things had no faith
we were going to complete the Appalachean trail.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
You can see it.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
They were joking about all the people that were hunched
over carrying those big packs with pots and pains, and
just the amount of ignorance that started on the Appalachan
Trail really really was amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I mean, we had no idea what we were doing.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The sun was going down about six o'clock, then seven o'clock,
so we get to camp. Finally, we get to spring
the mountain first. We get to spring the mountain first,
and then we take a picture.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's just this.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Random rock on top of this hill. And then we
finally step on the Appalachian Trail. There's a shelter about
half a mile up the applache And trail, so we
finally get that adrenaline rush of hiking the Applachein trail
and then we have to stop and set up camp.
So we set up camp amongst all these other people
who have no idea what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
As well.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
My buddy can't find a rock to tap his ten in.
He's getting ancient, he's sweating. It's not looking good. You know,
we have four more months at least of this and
we can't even get our tent set up.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And you've been listening to Carter Mommison Hudson from Hillsboro,
North Carolina, sharing with us his story, his tale of
walking the Appalachian Trail. The reason I wanted to hike
the trail, he told us, is because it was there,
parophrasing Sir Edmund Hillary on why he climbed Mount Everest.
(08:34):
This isn't as epic but a challenge. Nevertheless, I don't
think most of us would attempt this, two thousand miles
in total, from Georgia to Maine. He wanted to understand
where the love and pride of the Appalachian Mountains came from,
and anyone who spent some time among the people who
(08:54):
inhabit the Appalachian Mountains understand that pride.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
There is no preparation.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
For this endeavor, he told us, The trail trains you.
You start by walking, and you keep walking, fifteen miles
a day, then twenty, and then more. The story of
hiking the Appalachian Trail, as told by Carter Momson Hudson
continues here an our American story, and we continue with
(09:36):
our American stories and with Carter Momson Hudson's story, a
religion major in college who decided to take a semester
and hike the Appalachian trail. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So we finally get our tent set up, and the
most interesting thing happens. We eat our food. We kind
of congregate in this small circle. We were told that
we have to journal on this on this trip. It's
a school program. There must be some sort of mandatory
activity on the on the journey. So we start journaling.
(10:20):
We start journaling about what we felt that day, what
we saw, what we were doing. Me and Jet, my
friend who I was hiking on the trail with, both
had the realization that the journaling saved you. The process
of journaling actually lets you contemplate the day and put
it into perspective. Everything seems so out of reach and
(10:44):
so difficult. But then the journaling grounded me that day,
the first day on the Appalachian Trail, like I've never
experienced in my life. The fact that we journal about
it every single day, and we had to journal about
it made me realize that I was having successful days.
(11:05):
I was tackling these small challenges every day, which made
me successful, which made me less anxious in the future
because I knew that I would be able to deal
with the challenges that came up every day in my
journey and goal of accomplishing the Appleachian Trail. It's not
(11:26):
fun hiking in the rain. Walking in the rain, your
boxers are soaked through. You know, you're kind of worried
about hypothermia because that's what everyone talks about. And then
you get to a shelter and you write it down,
and it's as if you controlled being wet and cold.
(11:46):
You took it and you put in your own words,
and you wrote it down. I think what happens on
the trail and why people who have depression and anxiety
and things see that go away when they're hiking the
up pleasant trail is oftentimes because you must deal with
the things that make you anxious and nervous and depressed.
(12:08):
You were constantly solving problems that make you confident in
your ability to handle whatever the world throws at you.
You get a blister, you take your shoes off, you
put some tape on it, and you keep on going.
You deal with the situations at hand. You were in
charge of everything that you did. Once you write it down,
and then when you write it down, you realize what
(12:30):
a lot of the anxiety and depression comes from is
about the future. When you get in your tent and
you write something down, it becomes about the past. One
of the first things my mentor and inspiration for hiking
the Appalachian Trail taught us was never boil water where
it can fall in your lap. One day, I was
(12:54):
walking to a shelter and it was a long day,
just hit one thousand miles and we get under the
beautiful shelter that has an awning and a picnic table
set up. Set up my boiling water to make some
ramen noodles, and I'm talking to this girl named Pixie.
She's a beast, this little eighteen year old gymnast who's
out there walked a thousand miles with us, and she's like, hey, man, hey, breakhouse,
(13:17):
your water's boiling. So I go to pick up my water.
But when I do that, I grab it by the top,
which you're not supposed to do. You're supposed to grab
it by the side. It's the two handles, and I
go to pick it up on by the top and
the water just splashes all over my left leg and arm.
So I end up having to go and I walk
(13:39):
three more days with it. There's these three huge puss
bars on my leg that I didn't know what to
do with, so I was just putting Neil Sporn on
it and wrapping it up in an eighth bandage. And
so we walked three days into Harper's Ferry, which is
the halfway point, take a week off, and then a
week later I go to get back on the trail.
So I'm walking about two miles into the trail in
(14:02):
Harper's Fury's is this nice paved gravel road that the
trail is.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I send Jim Harrison a picture.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I'm like, hey man, just let you know this what
my leg looks like. And it's a picture of this rough, red,
angry burned the side bigger than my hand. And Jim
Harrison says, hey, Carter, get off trail now. So I'm
super bummed out. He says he's gonna call me in
a minute. So I turn around start heading back to
(14:30):
Harper's Ferry. When I'm doing that, I get the call
and I'm dreading the call. You know, it's like, oh,
here he goes. He's gonna chew me out. He's gonna
tell me, hey man, this is the first thing that
we taught you, right, don't boil water work and fall
in your lap.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So I get to call.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I'm like, hey, Jim, what's up. He's like, hey, brother,
how you doing? Like not so good, Jim. And he
just talks to me and he gives me forgiveness and grace.
He's very patient with me. He's understanding. He's like, hey, man,
we don't want this thing to go septic. Then you're
out the woods and you don't know what you can get.
You'll get it dirty and we'll get effective. Then you're done.
(15:05):
You're never gonna be on the trail ever again. So
instead of Jim getting mad at me and being disappointed
and letting me down, he gave me some positive words
encourage me.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
He's like, go back in town for a week.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You'll be back out in a couple of days. About
seven days later, I'm back in the woods after the trail.
I'm at this place called Delaware Water Gap and they
have pie and a hot dog for two dollars and
fifty cents. And you know, I strike up a conversation
with this older guy. His name's Lightning. Come to find
(15:36):
out he's the head of the burn victim unit for Florida,
all of Florida, Like right on man, I actually have
this horrible burn on my leg. What should I do
about it? He's like, oh, man, I don't know. I
was more on the administrative side. He wasn't a doctor,
a nurse or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So kind of bummed.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So I leave and the two days later, I get
a call on my phone, some random number, and I
pick it up.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
He's like, breakout. I'm like, what's up, Lightning.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He's like, I called a nurse back home and she
said the best thing that you could do is put
cocoa butter on it. So I went to town, got
some cocoa butter, put that on my leg. After that,
I called Jim.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
He was relieved.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I was relieved, and he was like, now you're ready
to tackle the next thousand miles a little bit more
maturity and understanding in your headset. That was a good
well lesson learned.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I'm a religion major.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
One of the things that I thought was going to
be instrumental in my success on this journey was my
relationship with God.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I mean, you're in nature, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
It's hard for me to find an argument for God
not existing while walking on the Appleachic trail. I mean,
you're surrounded by the most delicate, beautiful wildflowers that you
will ever see in your entire life, and you're just
surrounded by growth. You're in nature. I mean, it's beautiful.
One thing that I thought was going to be pretty
constant in my journey was I was gonna be talking God.
I was gonna be praying. I was gonna be growing
(17:03):
in my faith, becoming closer with God. I started walking,
you know, I started walking on the trail, and I
kept waiting for those big moments of joy and feelings
of peace and bathing in the presence of God right
being present with the Holy Spirit. I would say that
(17:23):
actually I didn't accomplish that on the outbatch trail. I
didn't fully grow with my relationship with God. I wasn't in.
I didn't depend on God when I was cold and
wet and hungry or thirsty. I didn't pray to God
(17:44):
as if I needed God.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I still thought of myself as like the ruler of
my ship. So that was kind of a disappointment on
the trail. I thought I was going to come back
with sort of a dialogue with God. But looking back
briefly after recently finishing the apologic trail. I realized that,
(18:07):
like I assumed that I was going to come out
of the Appalachan Trail with my final relationship with God,
with how I was going to interact with God for
the rest of my life because I was immersed in nature,
because I thought I was gonna have to depend on
Him to keep me safe. But in reality, I think
(18:28):
that journey's never going to end right. That's going to
be a constant battle throughout my entire life. My life
journey is trying to create a relationship with God. And
I'm almost relieved that I didn't close that part of
my life. I'm still going to be searching for new
ways to being God's presence.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I had a terrific job on the editing, production and
storytelling by John Ilfner, and a special thanks to Carter
Mom's in Hudson from Hillsboro, North Carolina for sharing his
story with us. And it's not a terribly exciting story
in the sense that there were near death experiences or
even experienced some utter joy or peace walking the trails
(19:15):
and having this out of body God experience that didn't happen,
and that doesn't happen often when we try to find
God in these ways. God tends to find us more
often than not. And what was most interesting is just
how he kept at it, how he persevered, and what
he had to say about journaling and about anxiety and depression.
(19:37):
Is always thinking about the future or worrying about your present.
But here it was the task in front of you
every day, the preparation for the next day, and all
of the problems that had to be solved in the moment,
believing himself of the ordinary burdens of day to day life.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
The story of.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Carter Momson Hudson his search to get closer to God,
to find a deeper meaning on the walk along the trail,
and he found it in his own way. His story
here on our American Stories
Can we continue with our American stories up next. Carter
Mumson Hudson from Hillsboro, North Carolina started walking the Appalachian Trail,
not knowing if he could actually finish the two thousand
mile trek. His journey took several months and included scenic beauty,
(00:31):
encounters with the kindness of strangers, and one fairly serious injury.
The encounters he had along the way spawned a spiritual
journey that would take him to a place he would
have never imagined.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
My name is Carter McClain Momson Hudson. I'm twenty two
years old. I'm a resident of North Carolina. I just
completed the Appalachian Trail walk from Jordia to Maine.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Took me roughly four months.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I started in the middle of my college semester and
which would have been March first, and I finished July eighth.
The entire Appalachian Trail is two and ninety three miles
this year and often changes.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I walked about two thousand.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I am in college studying religion to become a preacher.
Into the outdoor world, especially biking and running and hiking
and climbing and boating. I had a good diverse childhood.
I was surrounded by people who had rural backgrounds and
(01:42):
a more difficult life. Right A lot of them went
to the army or became mechanics this kind of story.
Played a lot of basketball, played baseball, you know, just
regular high school stuff. Wasn't the best student, but managed
to make it to college, so that was a success.
The reason that I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail
(02:04):
was simply because it was there.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
There was no goal I had in mind.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I never would have wanted to do something like this
if the Appalachian Trail didn't exist. The idea from walking
from Georgia do Maain just sounds silly. But my college
had a program where I was offered credits, and I'm
really close with the man who runs the outdoor program.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
His name is Jim Harrison.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
He really inspired me by his stories and his involvement
in the community and how much the Appalachian Trail influenced
his life.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I mean, it was his mecca.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
He lives next to the Appalachian Trail. One thing that
I realized working in Appalachi at a local food market
was the people's reverence for the mountains and pride even
in their impoverished communities in Appalachia was something unique that
I never really seen, and I want to be a
part of that. And I thought one way I could
(02:58):
do that would be high the Appalachine Trail and seeing
the people in their natural habitat, and seeing the music
in its natural habitat, and just trying to understand a
little bit more where this love and pride of the
mountains came from. The way I got started on the
(03:20):
Appalachan Trail was emailing Jim email Jim.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
He said, all right, we're gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And then we started doing hikes and getting involved in
the mountains. The most interesting thing that we did probably
was a shakedown hike. So on the shakedown hike, that's
when you already have all your gear. You're ready to
go basically what you need if you need a backpack,
you need a sleeping bag, a tent, some stuff to
cook with, and some clothes and you can pretty much
(03:47):
hike the Applache and trail. Maybe a water bottle, you know,
if you don't want to get dehydrated. That's what I
walked those two thousand miles with. That's what it was
in preparing to walk twenty miles a day on the
Appalachan Trail. There is no preparation. The trail trains you.
There's no way that you will be able to walk
twenty miles a day in preparation in the Applelatchan Trail.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So on the trail you get in shape.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You start by walking twelve miles a day, and then
you walk fifteen miles a day.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You end up walking twenty miles a day. And I
had friends who would walk forty miles a day.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Your feet gets stronger, your joints, You roll your ankle
so many times that it becomes like a rubber band
and truly flexible. That's how you get ready to walk
all those miles. It's by actually walking on the Apple
Latchan Trail. And that's the problem with a lot of
people is they get hurt early on because they try
to walk too far in the beginning, because they hear
(04:41):
about all these people that are walking twenty miles and
those things. But in fact, you got to start slow
and eventually you'll be able to walk twenty miles. Your
feet are going to hurt the entire time, no matter what.
On March first, we drove down to Springer Mountain. In Georgia,
it was probably sixty five degrees. And in Georgia they
(05:03):
have this approach trail that's about eight miles long, and
you go up these steps, probably five hundred feet of
elevation on these steps that are built amongst this huge waterfall.
So it's a pretty epic beginning to your journey. In
the car ride down to Springer Mountain, I have felt
a way that I've never felt in my entire life.
(05:24):
It was sort of this curious anticipation was I think
in actuality, like I was really nervous because actually trying
to comprehend what it's going to be like to walk
two thousand miles. It doesn't work. If someone told us
you had to walk two thousand miles, you'd be like,
(05:45):
there's no way, dude, It'd be horrible. So I had
a really hard time actually conceptualizing what being on the
trail would be like. And I was actually most worried
about my mental state and if I could handle this
huge task in front of me. So that was kind
of the atmosphere on the way down to the Appalachin Trail.
There was I was with seven other young students who
(06:06):
were a part of this program at Emory Henry College.
It was winter, so it was gonna be really cold.
So we start hiking, right. We start hiking together.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
All of us. We get out the van, we pile
up the van.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
We take a picture at the beginning of the trail,
the approach trail, and we start hiking. We start hiking
up these steps, and within the first twenty minutes we
had to take a break because we were so tired.
Twenty minutes in the Applelachine trail, we had to take
a break. He might as well just call gym and
tell him to bring the van back, because if you
have to take a break twenty minutes in the Applachine trail,
(06:38):
there's no way you can walk two thousand miles. The
first day was very difficult mentally, our packs were too heavy.
We had no idea what we were doing. Nobody else
knew what they were doing. The people that gave us
a little orientation at the beginning on how to properly
(06:58):
be safe and hike on the apple Lashing trail and
not litter and those types of things had no faith
we were going to complete the Appalachean trail.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
You can see it.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
They were joking about all the people that were hunched
over carrying those big packs with pots and pains, and
just the amount of ignorance that started on the Appalachan
Trail really really was amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I mean, we had no idea what we were doing.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The sun was going down about six o'clock, then seven o'clock,
so we get to camp. Finally, we get to spring
the mountain first. We get to spring the mountain first,
and then we take a picture.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's just this.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Random rock on top of this hill. And then we
finally step on the Appalachian Trail. There's a shelter about
half a mile up the applache And trail, so we
finally get that adrenaline rush of hiking the Applachein trail
and then we have to stop and set up camp.
So we set up camp amongst all these other people
who have no idea what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
As well.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
My buddy can't find a rock to tap his ten in.
He's getting ancient, he's sweating. It's not looking good. You know,
we have four more months at least of this and
we can't even get our tent set up.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And you've been listening to Carter Mommison Hudson from Hillsboro,
North Carolina, sharing with us his story, his tale of
walking the Appalachian Trail. The reason I wanted to hike
the trail, he told us, is because it was there,
parophrasing Sir Edmund Hillary on why he climbed Mount Everest.
(08:34):
This isn't as epic but a challenge. Nevertheless, I don't
think most of us would attempt this, two thousand miles
in total, from Georgia to Maine. He wanted to understand
where the love and pride of the Appalachian Mountains came from,
and anyone who spent some time among the people who
(08:54):
inhabit the Appalachian Mountains understand that pride.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
There is no preparation.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
For this endeavor, he told us, The trail trains you.
You start by walking, and you keep walking, fifteen miles
a day, then twenty, and then more. The story of
hiking the Appalachian Trail, as told by Carter Momson Hudson
continues here an our American story, and we continue with
(09:36):
our American stories and with Carter Momson Hudson's story, a
religion major in college who decided to take a semester
and hike the Appalachian trail. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So we finally get our tent set up, and the
most interesting thing happens. We eat our food. We kind
of congregate in this small circle. We were told that
we have to journal on this on this trip. It's
a school program. There must be some sort of mandatory
activity on the on the journey. So we start journaling.
(10:20):
We start journaling about what we felt that day, what
we saw, what we were doing. Me and Jet, my
friend who I was hiking on the trail with, both
had the realization that the journaling saved you. The process
of journaling actually lets you contemplate the day and put
it into perspective. Everything seems so out of reach and
(10:44):
so difficult. But then the journaling grounded me that day,
the first day on the Appalachian Trail, like I've never
experienced in my life. The fact that we journal about
it every single day, and we had to journal about
it made me realize that I was having successful days.
(11:05):
I was tackling these small challenges every day, which made
me successful, which made me less anxious in the future
because I knew that I would be able to deal
with the challenges that came up every day in my
journey and goal of accomplishing the Appleachian Trail. It's not
(11:26):
fun hiking in the rain. Walking in the rain, your
boxers are soaked through. You know, you're kind of worried
about hypothermia because that's what everyone talks about. And then
you get to a shelter and you write it down,
and it's as if you controlled being wet and cold.
(11:46):
You took it and you put in your own words,
and you wrote it down. I think what happens on
the trail and why people who have depression and anxiety
and things see that go away when they're hiking the
up pleasant trail is oftentimes because you must deal with
the things that make you anxious and nervous and depressed.
(12:08):
You were constantly solving problems that make you confident in
your ability to handle whatever the world throws at you.
You get a blister, you take your shoes off, you
put some tape on it, and you keep on going.
You deal with the situations at hand. You were in
charge of everything that you did. Once you write it down,
and then when you write it down, you realize what
(12:30):
a lot of the anxiety and depression comes from is
about the future. When you get in your tent and
you write something down, it becomes about the past. One
of the first things my mentor and inspiration for hiking
the Appalachian Trail taught us was never boil water where
it can fall in your lap. One day, I was
(12:54):
walking to a shelter and it was a long day,
just hit one thousand miles and we get under the
beautiful shelter that has an awning and a picnic table
set up. Set up my boiling water to make some
ramen noodles, and I'm talking to this girl named Pixie.
She's a beast, this little eighteen year old gymnast who's
out there walked a thousand miles with us, and she's like, hey, man, hey, breakhouse,
(13:17):
your water's boiling. So I go to pick up my water.
But when I do that, I grab it by the top,
which you're not supposed to do. You're supposed to grab
it by the side. It's the two handles, and I
go to pick it up on by the top and
the water just splashes all over my left leg and arm.
So I end up having to go and I walk
(13:39):
three more days with it. There's these three huge puss
bars on my leg that I didn't know what to
do with, so I was just putting Neil Sporn on
it and wrapping it up in an eighth bandage. And
so we walked three days into Harper's Ferry, which is
the halfway point, take a week off, and then a
week later I go to get back on the trail.
So I'm walking about two miles into the trail in
(14:02):
Harper's Fury's is this nice paved gravel road that the
trail is.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I send Jim Harrison a picture.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I'm like, hey man, just let you know this what
my leg looks like. And it's a picture of this rough, red,
angry burned the side bigger than my hand. And Jim
Harrison says, hey, Carter, get off trail now. So I'm
super bummed out. He says he's gonna call me in
a minute. So I turn around start heading back to
(14:30):
Harper's Ferry. When I'm doing that, I get the call
and I'm dreading the call. You know, it's like, oh,
here he goes. He's gonna chew me out. He's gonna
tell me, hey man, this is the first thing that
we taught you, right, don't boil water work and fall
in your lap.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So I get to call.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I'm like, hey, Jim, what's up. He's like, hey, brother,
how you doing? Like not so good, Jim. And he
just talks to me and he gives me forgiveness and grace.
He's very patient with me. He's understanding. He's like, hey, man,
we don't want this thing to go septic. Then you're
out the woods and you don't know what you can get.
You'll get it dirty and we'll get effective. Then you're done.
(15:05):
You're never gonna be on the trail ever again. So
instead of Jim getting mad at me and being disappointed
and letting me down, he gave me some positive words
encourage me.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
He's like, go back in town for a week.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
You'll be back out in a couple of days. About
seven days later, I'm back in the woods after the trail.
I'm at this place called Delaware Water Gap and they
have pie and a hot dog for two dollars and
fifty cents. And you know, I strike up a conversation
with this older guy. His name's Lightning. Come to find
(15:36):
out he's the head of the burn victim unit for Florida,
all of Florida, Like right on man, I actually have
this horrible burn on my leg. What should I do
about it? He's like, oh, man, I don't know. I
was more on the administrative side. He wasn't a doctor,
a nurse or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So kind of bummed.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So I leave and the two days later, I get
a call on my phone, some random number, and I
pick it up.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
He's like, breakout. I'm like, what's up, Lightning.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He's like, I called a nurse back home and she
said the best thing that you could do is put
cocoa butter on it. So I went to town, got
some cocoa butter, put that on my leg. After that,
I called Jim.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
He was relieved.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I was relieved, and he was like, now you're ready
to tackle the next thousand miles a little bit more
maturity and understanding in your headset. That was a good
well lesson learned.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I'm a religion major.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
One of the things that I thought was going to
be instrumental in my success on this journey was my
relationship with God.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I mean, you're in nature, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
It's hard for me to find an argument for God
not existing while walking on the Appleachic trail. I mean,
you're surrounded by the most delicate, beautiful wildflowers that you
will ever see in your entire life, and you're just
surrounded by growth. You're in nature. I mean, it's beautiful.
One thing that I thought was going to be pretty
constant in my journey was I was gonna be talking God.
I was gonna be praying. I was gonna be growing
(17:03):
in my faith, becoming closer with God. I started walking,
you know, I started walking on the trail, and I
kept waiting for those big moments of joy and feelings
of peace and bathing in the presence of God right
being present with the Holy Spirit. I would say that
(17:23):
actually I didn't accomplish that on the outbatch trail. I
didn't fully grow with my relationship with God. I wasn't in.
I didn't depend on God when I was cold and
wet and hungry or thirsty. I didn't pray to God
(17:44):
as if I needed God.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I still thought of myself as like the ruler of
my ship. So that was kind of a disappointment on
the trail. I thought I was going to come back
with sort of a dialogue with God. But looking back
briefly after recently finishing the apologic trail. I realized that,
(18:07):
like I assumed that I was going to come out
of the Appalachan Trail with my final relationship with God,
with how I was going to interact with God for
the rest of my life because I was immersed in nature,
because I thought I was gonna have to depend on
Him to keep me safe. But in reality, I think
(18:28):
that journey's never going to end right. That's going to
be a constant battle throughout my entire life. My life
journey is trying to create a relationship with God. And
I'm almost relieved that I didn't close that part of
my life. I'm still going to be searching for new
ways to being God's presence.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I had a terrific job on the editing, production and
storytelling by John Ilfner, and a special thanks to Carter
Mom's in Hudson from Hillsboro, North Carolina for sharing his
story with us. And it's not a terribly exciting story
in the sense that there were near death experiences or
even experienced some utter joy or peace walking the trails
(19:15):
and having this out of body God experience that didn't happen,
and that doesn't happen often when we try to find
God in these ways. God tends to find us more
often than not. And what was most interesting is just
how he kept at it, how he persevered, and what
he had to say about journaling and about anxiety and depression.
(19:37):
Is always thinking about the future or worrying about your present.
But here it was the task in front of you
every day, the preparation for the next day, and all
of the problems that had to be solved in the moment,
believing himself of the ordinary burdens of day to day life.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
The story of.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Carter Momson Hudson his search to get closer to God,
to find a deeper meaning on the walk along the trail,
and he found it in his own way. His story
here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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