Maine Teen Hikes Appalachian Trail While Graduating High School
After hiking Mt. Katahdin three years ago, she was inspired to make the 2,192-mile trek.
There's such a thing as a 'senior slide.' Then, there are those who use their final year of high school as a springboard to overachieving early stages of adult life. Somewhere in the middle is simply 'adulting.'
According to Central Maine.com, the only sliding Winslow, Maine's Kaylin Brown was involved in were (likely) a few steep hills.
As a high school senior at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, she hiked what many outdoors-folk only dream of, she hiked from Georgia to Maine.
How did she do it? The 18-year-old finished her coursework early so she could spend her senior year on the trail. Central Maine.com reported she completed her requirements at the end of her junior year. Back in August, she graduated. Brown was able to attend the ceremony.
Out on the trail, Brown kept followers updated via Instagram. Along the way, Kaylin felt she acquired a ton of life skills, telling Central Maine.com “I learned (about) not giving up,” she said. “Because it was hard a lot of the time, but I had to keep going. I feel like that might help with things in the future not hiking-related.”
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Reaching the summit was emotional after such a long journey. Brown told Central Maine.com “I got up to the sign and I just cried. ... A lot of people don’t understand. It was just amazing, kind of un-explainable.”