June 25, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Carter Momsen-Hudson, from Hillsborough, North Carolina, began walking the Appalachian Trail without knowing if he could finish the 2,000-mile trek. Along the way, the encounters he had sparked a spiritual journey that led him to a place he never could have imagined.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
It 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 de 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. I walked about two thousand.
(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.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I had a good diverse childhood.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I was surrounded by people who had rural backgrounds and
a more difficult life. Right A lot of them went
to the army or became mechanics this kind of a 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.
(02:00):
The reason that I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail
was simply because it was there. There was no goal
I had in mind. I never would have wanted to
do something like this if the Appalachian Trail didn't exist.
The idea from walking from Georgia to main just sounds silly.
But my college had a program where I was offered credits,
(02:22):
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. I mean, it was his mecca. 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
(02:51):
impoverished communities in Appalachia was something unique that I never
really seen, and I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And I thought one.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Way I could do that would be hiking the Applache
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
(03:18):
started on the Appalachian Trail was emailing Jim email Jim.
He said, all right, we're gonna do it, 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.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Basically what you need.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You need a backpack, you need a sleeping bag, a tent,
some stuff to cook with, and some clothes and you
can pretty much 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 Appalachean Trail. There is no preparation. The
(04:02):
trail trains you. There's no way that you will be
able to walk twenty miles a day in preparation in
the apple latch And trail.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
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. You end up walking
twenty miles a day. And I had friends who would
walk forty miles a day. Your feet gets stronger, your joints,
You roll your ankle so many times that it becomes
like a rubber band and truly flexible.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
That's how you get ready to walk all those miles.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
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 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,
(04:55):
we drove down to Springer Mountain in Georgia, it was
probably sixty five degrees. And in Georgia they 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
(05:17):
car ride down to Springer Mountain, I felt a way
that I've never felt in my entire life. It was
sort of this curious anticipation, 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.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
It doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
If someone told us you had to walk two thousand miles,
you'd be like, 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. That
was kind of the atmosphere on the way down to
(06:02):
the Appalachin Trail. There was I was with seven other
young students who 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, all of us. We get out the van,
we pile up the van. 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
(06:24):
the first twenty minutes we had to take a break
because we were so tired. Twenty minutes in the Apple
Platinum trail, we had to take a break. You might
as well just call Jim and telling them to bring
the van back, because if you have to take a
break twenty minutes in the Applachine trail, there's no way
you can walk two thousand miles. The first day was
(06:46):
very difficult mentally, our packs were too heavy.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
We had no idea what we were doing. Nobody else
knew what they were doing.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The people that gave us a little orientation at the
beginning on how to properly be safe and hike on
the Apple rush and trail and not litter and those
types of things had no faith that 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 Appalachin
Trail really really was amazing. I mean, we had no
idea what we were doing. The sun was going down
about six o'clock, then seven o'clock, so we get to camp. Finally,
(07:28):
we get to spring the mountain first. We get to
spring the mountain first, and then we take a picture.
It's just this 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
(07:49):
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 anxious, 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 (08:13):
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.
Paraphrasing 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. There is no
preparation for the 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
(09:17):
continues here on our American story, and we continue with
our American stories and with Carter Momson Hudson's story, a
(09:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
On this on this trip.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's a school program. There must be some sort of
mandatory activity on the on the journey.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So we start journaling.
Speaker 2 (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.
(11:04):
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
Apple Question 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 a thousand miles and we get under this
beautiful shelter that has an awning and a picnic table
set up.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Set up my boiling water.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Out there walked a thousand miles with.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Us, and she's like, hey, man, hey, break house, 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 sides, 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.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So I end up having to go and I walk
three more days with it.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
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
(14:01):
miles into the trail in Harper's Ferry's is this nice
paved gravel road that the trail is.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I send Jim Harrison a picture. I'm like, hey man,
just let you know this on my leg looks like
and it's a picture of this.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
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 Harper's Ferry. When I'm doing that, I get
the call and I'm dreading the call.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
You know, it's like, oh, here he goes. He's gonna
chew me out.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He's gonna tell me, hey man, this is the first
thing that we taught you, right, don't boil waterwere and
fall in your lap. So I get to call. 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
(14:57):
want this thing to go septic. Then you're out woods
and you don't know what you can get. You'll get
it dirty and we'll get effective.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Then you're done. You're never gonna be on.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
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. He's like, go
back in town for a week. 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
(15:28):
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 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.
(15:50):
He wasn't a doctor, a nurse or anything. So kind
of bummed. So I leave and then two days later,
I get a call on my phone, some random number, and.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
I pick it up. 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. He was relieved. 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. I'm
(16:27):
a religion major. One of the things that I thought
was going to be instrumental in my success on this
journey was my relationship with God. I mean, you're in nature,
it's beautiful. It's hard for me to find an argument
for God not existing. While walking on the Appalachic Trail,
I mean, you're surrounded by the most delicate, beautiful wildflowers
(16:47):
that you will ever see in your entire life, and
you're just surrounded by growth.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
You're in nature. I mean, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
One thing that I thought was going to be pretty
constant in my journey was I was gonna be talking
to God.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I was gonna be praying.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was gonna be growing 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.
(17:22):
I would say that actually I didn't accomplish that on
the outbatch of 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 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.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
But looking back.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Briefly after recently finishing the Apologic Trail, I realized that,
like I assumed that I was going to come out
of the Appalachian 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):
Had a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by John Ilfner, and a special thanks to Carter Mom's
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
(19:13):
utter joy or peace walking the trails 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
(19:33):
say about journaling and about anxiety and depression. As 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.
(19:55):
The story of 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.
It 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 de 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. I walked about two thousand.
(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.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I had a good diverse childhood.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I was surrounded by people who had rural backgrounds and
a more difficult life. Right A lot of them went
to the army or became mechanics this kind of a 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.
(02:00):
The reason that I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail
was simply because it was there. There was no goal
I had in mind. I never would have wanted to
do something like this if the Appalachian Trail didn't exist.
The idea from walking from Georgia to main just sounds silly.
But my college had a program where I was offered credits,
(02:22):
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. I mean, it was his mecca. 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
(02:51):
impoverished communities in Appalachia was something unique that I never
really seen, and I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And I thought one.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Way I could do that would be hiking the Applache
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
(03:18):
started on the Appalachian Trail was emailing Jim email Jim.
He said, all right, we're gonna do it, 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.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Basically what you need.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You need a backpack, you need a sleeping bag, a tent,
some stuff to cook with, and some clothes and you
can pretty much 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 Appalachean Trail. There is no preparation. The
(04:02):
trail trains you. There's no way that you will be
able to walk twenty miles a day in preparation in
the apple latch And trail.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
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. You end up walking
twenty miles a day. And I had friends who would
walk forty miles a day. Your feet gets stronger, your joints,
You roll your ankle so many times that it becomes
like a rubber band and truly flexible.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
That's how you get ready to walk all those miles.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
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 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,
(04:55):
we drove down to Springer Mountain in Georgia, it was
probably sixty five degrees. And in Georgia they 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
(05:17):
car ride down to Springer Mountain, I felt a way
that I've never felt in my entire life. It was
sort of this curious anticipation, 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.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
It doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
If someone told us you had to walk two thousand miles,
you'd be like, 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. That
was kind of the atmosphere on the way down to
(06:02):
the Appalachin Trail. There was I was with seven other
young students who 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, all of us. We get out the van,
we pile up the van. 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
(06:24):
the first twenty minutes we had to take a break
because we were so tired. Twenty minutes in the Apple
Platinum trail, we had to take a break. You might
as well just call Jim and telling them to bring
the van back, because if you have to take a
break twenty minutes in the Applachine trail, there's no way
you can walk two thousand miles. The first day was
(06:46):
very difficult mentally, our packs were too heavy.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
We had no idea what we were doing. Nobody else
knew what they were doing.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The people that gave us a little orientation at the
beginning on how to properly be safe and hike on
the Apple rush and trail and not litter and those
types of things had no faith that 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 Appalachin
Trail really really was amazing. I mean, we had no
idea what we were doing. The sun was going down
about six o'clock, then seven o'clock, so we get to camp. Finally,
(07:28):
we get to spring the mountain first. We get to
spring the mountain first, and then we take a picture.
It's just this 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
(07:49):
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 anxious, 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 (08:13):
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.
Paraphrasing 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. There is no
preparation for the 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
(09:17):
continues here on our American story, and we continue with
our American stories and with Carter Momson Hudson's story, a
(09:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
On this on this trip.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's a school program. There must be some sort of
mandatory activity on the on the journey.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So we start journaling.
Speaker 2 (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.
(11:04):
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
Apple Question 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 a thousand miles and we get under this
beautiful shelter that has an awning and a picnic table
set up.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Set up my boiling water.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Out there walked a thousand miles with.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Us, and she's like, hey, man, hey, break house, 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 sides, 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.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So I end up having to go and I walk
three more days with it.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
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
(14:01):
miles into the trail in Harper's Ferry's is this nice
paved gravel road that the trail is.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I send Jim Harrison a picture. I'm like, hey man,
just let you know this on my leg looks like
and it's a picture of this.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
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 Harper's Ferry. When I'm doing that, I get
the call and I'm dreading the call.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
You know, it's like, oh, here he goes. He's gonna
chew me out.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He's gonna tell me, hey man, this is the first
thing that we taught you, right, don't boil waterwere and
fall in your lap. So I get to call. 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
(14:57):
want this thing to go septic. Then you're out woods
and you don't know what you can get. You'll get
it dirty and we'll get effective.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Then you're done. You're never gonna be on.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
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. He's like, go
back in town for a week. 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
(15:28):
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 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.
(15:50):
He wasn't a doctor, a nurse or anything. So kind
of bummed. So I leave and then two days later,
I get a call on my phone, some random number, and.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
I pick it up. 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. He was relieved. 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. I'm
(16:27):
a religion major. One of the things that I thought
was going to be instrumental in my success on this
journey was my relationship with God. I mean, you're in nature,
it's beautiful. It's hard for me to find an argument
for God not existing. While walking on the Appalachic Trail,
I mean, you're surrounded by the most delicate, beautiful wildflowers
(16:47):
that you will ever see in your entire life, and
you're just surrounded by growth.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
You're in nature. I mean, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
One thing that I thought was going to be pretty
constant in my journey was I was gonna be talking
to God.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I was gonna be praying.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was gonna be growing 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.
(17:22):
I would say that actually I didn't accomplish that on
the outbatch of 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 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.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
But looking back.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Briefly after recently finishing the Apologic Trail, I realized that,
like I assumed that I was going to come out
of the Appalachian 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):
Had a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by John Ilfner, and a special thanks to Carter Mom's
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
(19:13):
utter joy or peace walking the trails 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
(19:33):
say about journaling and about anxiety and depression. As 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.
(19:55):
The story of 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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