Loretta Visser Completes The Appalachian Trail

Originally published in the Lowell Ledger 10.4.23 

Loretta Visser is a MYTHical Hiker and a True Adventurer

With Lowell having the National Headquarters of the North Country Trail ensconced on Main Street, one almost feels guilty writing about the Appalachian Trail (AT). Our focus today is not to compare and contrast these two trails, but to celebrate the fact that Loretta Visser has recently completed hiking the entire length of the AT.

Loretta Visser celebrates on a mountain top in Maine.

We should start off with some fun facts about the AT. The most current listing of the mileage from the genesis of the trail at Springer Mountain in Georgia to the end of the trail at Mount Katahdin in Maine is 2,1987.4 miles according to Appalachian Trail Conservancy website. The AT winds its way through fourteen states and has a low point of just 124 feet above sea level to an impressive elevation of 6,643 feet at its highest point. Thankfully encounters with bears are very uncommon, but you need to watch out for a few varieties of rattlesnakes that can be found as far north as New Hampshire. The more common natural irritants on the trail are ticks, black flies, mosquitoes, and the rodents who live in the shelters scattered up and down the trail.

Loretta Visser loves the outdoors and started hiking when she was ten years old, but she is neither a Thru Hiker nor a Yo-yo. Thru hikers complete the AT in one season and Yo-yos are people who somewhat unbelievably go from one end to the other and then retrace their steps. Loretta completed the AT by hiking it in sections over many seasons, known as a Multi-Year Thru Hiker (MYTH) in AT parlance.  

“I was inspired to walk the AT from an article I read in a magazine,” Loretta told us. “I didn’t intend on hiking the whole thing in sections. In 2005 I started planning a thru hike in 2011. That didn’t happen because life threw me some curve balls, so I planned to hike it in sections until it was completed.”

In her effort to hike the entire AT, she was joined by Dawn Swaney on every trip but one. Dawn’s son Justin and Loretta’s son Anthony joined them the year they graduated from high school. Toni Block and Barb Craiser also hiked with her over the years. She started her effort in 2000 by hiking for a week in Vermont. Allowing just one week actually meant she spent two days driving back and forth and just five days hiking. She switched to two weeks the next year and never went back to a shorter format. Loretta celebrated turning 50 by devoting six weeks to the AT. She initially planned to complete her efforts in 2022 with a five week push, but her hiking partner had some health issues which cut their time short. Over the seasons, Loretta has hiked with a single partner and as many as five people at a time. 

Loretta confirmed what we read about the challenges from animals and insects along the trail. She did report that once a couple of hunters told her how to look for bears, she has seen a lot more of them than your average AT hiker. On one nine mile section in Georgia she spotted a total of 13 bears in trees. She once stepped off the trail to go to the bathroom and ended up next to a baby bear that was so little and cute, she almost wanted to pick it up. She also saw a bear coming down a tree right next to the trail. That being said, bears were not a factor when we asked her to name the three worst moments of her hiking the AT.

“Broken gear,” was at the top of Loretta’s list. “And getting over 150 chigger bites. [I remember] sitting in the middle of the trail crying because the ticks were so bad in Pennsylvania.”

Enough of the downside, because the positive aspects of such an undertaking far outweigh the negative or she would never have completed the AT. We ask her to narrow down her favorite things to three and she answered with, “Sleeping under the stars. Trail magic when you least expect it and meeting Roy Kaye [who lives in North Carolina] in 2011 on the trail and becoming good friends.”

If you read about long distance trail hikers or watch movies or documentaries about them, you will hear about “trail magic”. The term sometimes involves other humans, but it can reference finding something that you need the most when you least expect it. It is also a reference to when someone might provide you with something that really makes your day and they expect nothing in return. Think of those great moments when someone does something unexpected and needed – the kind of thing that restores your faith in humankind. That is Trail Magic. Because of her deep Christian faith, Loretta also calls such things God moments.

One such God moment occurred involving someone she met on the trail named “Hopper”. Hopper was a 79 year old man who would drive to a trail head close to a shelter, hike to the shelter, stay the night and hike back to his car – “hopping” his way along the AT. Loretta and her hiking partners got to know Hopper over the years and one night at a shelter, she said, “Wouldn’t it be great if Hopper showed up?” Five minutes later he did.

Her other favorite God moment was a little more serious. Her hiking friend Roy Kaye was not feeling 100% and thankfully they met up with an ER doctor who was hiking. He examined Roy, told him to get some medical attention and basically saved his life. Trail magic, indeed. 

Should you decide to head off in search of some Trail Magic of your own, Loretta’s first piece of advice is, “I would tell anyone who wants to hike to be flexible. Things do not always go as planned.” Once you have practiced your flexibility muscles and attitude, the most important piece of gear for such an undertaking would be your footwear.

“The most crucial piece of gear is my foot wear. I started out the first few years having issues until someone gave me this advice,” Loretta recalled. “Buy different inserts and go to the store and try on multiple shoes and boots until you put on the one that makes you say ‘these are it’. Then look at the price and save until you can afford them.”

If hiking part of the AT holds any appeal to you, but you are not ready to Thru Hike or even become a MYTH hiker, Loretta claims the very best place to hike is the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The park does not allow any hunting at all so there is plenty of wildlife to see. She also said the 100 miles of the AT in the park includes three well appointed campgrounds that would allow newbie hikers to get a good taste of hiking the AT without feeling overwhelmed by isolation or wilderness.

Having completed her MYTHical hike of the AT does not mean Loretta will be hanging up her hiking boots any time soon. When we spoke to her, she was preparing an overnight hike with her 12 year old grandson Kyle. She started sharing her love of sleeping under the stars in nature with him when he was just three.

Settings like this are what kept Loretta Visser coming back to the AT