Morganton resident completes thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail

Her trail name was Caroline Sunshine, and if you sit and listen to Morganton’s Caroline Duncan tell the story of her thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, you’ll quickly discover why that moniker is so appropriate.

When Caroline talks about her 2,193-mile trek across 14 states from Georgia to Maine, she describes not just an exceptionally challenging physical journey but also an odyssey of the heart, of the spirit, of the soul.

And the entire story is permeated with a sense of possibility and of positivity. Time after time she says, “I had to do this, and I knew I was going to do it. Not going all the way was simply not an option.”

“Sunshine” seems the perfect fit.

A LOVE FOR THE GREAT OUTDOORS

When she comes into the offices of The Paper for an interview on a bitterly cold late January afternoon, Caroline seems the epitome of fitness — petite and yet lean and strong.

Her cheeks red from the cold, her eyes sparkling with an inner joy, she looks as if she just stepped off a page of the latest L.L. Bean catalog.

Decades ago, while a student at UNC-Chapel Hill in the late 1980s, she fell in love with windsurfing and mountain biking — in the days when mountain biking was pretty basic.

“There were no shocks, no fancy equipment. You just went out on the trail and rode,” she remembers.

Caroline became so enamored with mountain biking that she went on the racing circuit, basically competing against 50 or so other women in events all over the country.

“I had full sponsors, so my equipment and gear were paid for,” she said. “I never really made any money, but I didn’t lose any money either.”

Her time at Chapel Hill awakened her to another love also. During her sophomore year she spent time at the Outward Bound School at the base of Table Rock Mountain in Burke County.

The young woman who had grown up in Charleston, S.C., learned the basics of hiking, backpacking, and camping — skills that allowed her to more completely enjoy — and feel safe in — the Great Outdoors.

She also became familiar with the mountains and foothills of Western North Carolina, knowledge that would serve her well when she and her husband, Scott, moved to Morganton in 1995.

Living here allowed Caroline to nurture her love for all things outdoors as she hiked and camped in the Linville Gorge Wilderness, the Pisgah National Forest, the Roan Highlands, and just about any place in the region where trails go winding.

Asked what she loves about being outside and in the woods, her reply is a quick one:

“I love all of it,” she answered. “No matter how many times you have done a trail, it is never, ever the same from one time to the next. The light is different. The sky is different. The clouds are different. The wildlife you see is different.”

And always, she added, “The outdoors are comfortable and welcoming.”

THE DECISION AND PREPARATION

Caroline can’t name the precise date when the idea of a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail first took root in her mind.

During her years at Chapel Hill she worked part-time at a small business called The Trail Shop. There she heard talk of the AT and of the glories of the mountains in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

More recently, friends with whom she enjoyed trail running completed the journey which takes most hikers around six months.

The seed was planted. The flower grew. And in the autumn of 2023 with the full support of her husband, she decided she would begin the hike in the spring of 2024.

“I didn’t tell many people,” she remembered, “but in my heart, I was committed.”

In the six months between making the decision and beginning the journey, Caroline did not specifically train for the hike and its challenges. “I simply stayed consistently active,” she said.

“I was doing something four or five days a week, mountain biking, hiking,” she continued. “The longest hike I did was a backpacking trip of around 70 miles.”

“There are oodles of information on the internet and on YouTube about hiking the trail, about equipment, about clothing,” she continued. “I did purchase the best rain gear I could find. But I really learned that the trail will tell me what will work and what doesn’t.

“The most important thing to prepare,” she went on, “is attitude. Adopting and believing the fact that ‘I can do this.’”

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Although the Appalachian Trail officially begins at Springer Mountain in Georgia, a lack of parking at that location prompts most hikers to actually begin the trek at Amicola Falls State Park and hike the 8.5 miles from there north to Springer.

This is what Caroline and her husband did on Sunday, April 6, 2024, preparing dinner and then camping at Springer that night. On Monday morning, the couple said goodbye, with Caroline heading north and Scott returning south.

As Caroline began her journey north, she decided that for the first two weeks she would hike no more than 8 to 10 miles per day, giving her body time to adjust to the rigors of daily hiking and of supporting a 35-pound pack.

“You have to listen to your body,” she said. “You have to let it adapt. My only goal as I set out was to get to Maine before the snow started to fall up there.”

By heading north in early April in the forests of northeast Georgia, Caroline was basically following the advancing spring north as she walked through the Peach State, then North Carolina and Tennessee.

The result? The trail was often lined with wildflowers, thousands and thousands of wildflowers of every color and description. Each day, she said, brought new vistas, new landscapes, encounters with different wildlife, and meeting different people.

Caroline never felt threatened by wildlife, not by the enormous moose in the wilderness of Maine nor by the large black bear who rumbled by her tent one night when the moon was full, and the shadow of the large animal passed over her tent.

She also never felt threatened by any of the people she encountered, even though she was, in her words, “a petite woman adventuring solo.” Along the way, she encountered dozens of other women who were also doing the trail solo, which she found to be both “reassuring and joyful.”

Thru-hikers of the trail make up a supportive and caring community, Caroline said, but it is a community that is constantly shifting as hikers travel at different speeds, as some leave the trail for a break, and others take a day or two of rest on the trail.

CHALLENGES

The journey north was not without its challenges, particularly those posed by weather.

In the Virginia mountains, she encountered sleet, which turned the trail into an icy, slippery pathway.

Later she encountered days of driving rain. “It was raining so hard it was basically coming in sideways,” she remembered. Yet, it was her cheery response to that rain which prompted her trail companions to bless her with the nickname, “Sunshine.”

As the trail led into the Northeast, the physical challenges grew greater.

The terrain of the Pennsylvania mountains was exceptionally rocky, necessitating careful placement of each step under the threat of a sprained or broken ankle.

New Hampshire, and summiting Mount Washington, were especially difficult.

“New Hampshire tried to hurt my feelings,” she remembered. “The cold, the rain, the towering rock formations that required constant scrambling with that heavy pack on my back.”

The worst days, Caroline said, were those “when the temperature was 35 to 40 degrees, and it was raining. No matter how good your gear, you get wet, and you get cold and you feel like you’ll never warm up again.”

Another challenge thru-hikers face: near constant hunger.

“You’re burning so many calories that your body simply can’t keep up,” Caroline said. “I learned that at every town where I got off the trail, to eat like there was no tomorrow. I’d eat half a pint of ice cream at one time. Two big burgers. An entire pizza.”

Through all of those challenges, however, Caroline kept one thought foremost in her mind: “I’m going to Maine!”

VICTORY

The final leg of the AT through Maine is considered by many to be the toughest, most physically challenging stretch of the entire route, with perilous stream crossings and a host of technical climbs.

Indeed, the final approach to the summit of Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminus of the trail, is considered to be among the more difficult stretches of the more than 2,000-mile trek.

Caroline faced that final climb on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, the last full day of summer and not quite six months after her odyssey began in Georgia. The snow began to fly in Maine just two weeks later.

“The last day was hard, very hard,” Caroline said. “The trail to the summit of Mt. Katahdin is very technical, very rocky, lots of huge boulders. I was tired, but I was also so very, very excited.”

A photograph made by a fellow hiker captures Caroline on that day. She stands atop the Mt. Katahdin sign, her arms stretched out in victory, a wide smile upon her face.

“No one thru-hikes the AT without being a changed person,” she reflects. “You feel proud, but you also feel humbled. It is such an experience, such a wonderful, joyful, amazing experience.”

Well put, Caroline Sunshine.