Adella Walker Johnna Walker Richard Walker Talia Walsh Darrah Wanderman Bridget Ward Colton Ward Annie Watson Makenna Watson Nathan Wesley Livia Wheeler Olivia Wiedower Lydia Wiley Jadyn Wilhite Aaron Williams JT HIKES THE CT Freshman JT Simmons hikes the 486-mile Colorado Trail in summer 2023. Freshman JT Simmons had been hiking throughout his childhood, but when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, he was completely invested. By the time he was a senior in high school he was thinking about hiking long distances, and that summer he decided to hike the 486-mile Colorado Trail, or the CT, between Denver and Durango, which classifies as a thru-hike. “He started planning for it about five months before he left and would tell me all about it,” freshman Eden Steil said. “I was excited that he was getting to do something that he’s always wanted to do.” Before Simmons tackled the trail, he only had three nights of backpacking under his belt. Taking on the CT was a task he was not sure if he would be able to finish, but he wanted to take on the challenge anyways. Simmons said he did not truly believe he would finish until he had 100 miles left. “He would often talk about how he wasn’t sure if he could do the hike or not,” Steil said. “I had hiked and backpacked with him multiple times and knew he was completely capable. If he didn’t finish it this past year, he probably would have tried again.” Simmons started on Jun. 18, 2023 and finished Jul. 18, hiking for exactly one month. He took six dispersed days off of those 31 days. Every four to nine days he would get close enough to a town where he could stay at a hostel, eat at a restaurant and restock on his food by calculating how many miles until the next town. His body was in a constant calorie deficit due to burning up to 8000 calories a day and his body only letting him eat up to 4000 calories per day. It took about a week for him to acclimate to the altitude and about two weeks for him to stop thinking about his physical pain. “It seems really complicated and scary but it really is just one day at a time,” Simmons said. “It’s very consistent. You wake up at dawn, make yourself breakfast, pack up all your stuff and walk until you have lunch, keep going, set up camp, eat, sleep and repeat the next day.” The most difficult part that he faced was the solitary nature of the hike. Although he would hike off and on with other hikers, he was alone for a vast majority of the time. The other hikers, however, motivated him to finish. “Thru hikers all have this camaraderie,” Simmons said. “We are all moving towards the same goals, doing the same things, we have the same struggles. You make friends really fast.” 206Freshman
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