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Episode-1846- Jessica Mills on Light Weight Back Packing and Rebooting in Nature

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A Long Walk that Ended In Triumph!

A Long Walk that Ended In Triumph!

Jessica “Dixie” Mills competed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in the summer of 2015. She grew up in Opelika, AL helping take care of her much younger siblings and much older grandparents.

After graduating from Auburn University with a degree in Biosystems Engineering and minor in Agronomy and Soils, she began a career with NRCS as an Ag Engineer. After a couple years, (what she thought was) a big opportunity was presented to work with Halliburton in Colorado.

After a year and a half of being a prisoner of a big corporation, she decided to reboot. While hiking the AT, she decided upon a fresh new start. Upon completing the hike, she started her own small business and several smaller ventures for a much happier, self-controlled life.

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Comments

Episode-1846- Jessica Mills on Light Weight Back Packing and Rebooting in Nature — 15 Comments

  2. Great interview, awesome and inspiring story. I’ve wanted to hike the AT for a better part of my life, somehow I’ve always found reasons to evade it. Now at 38 I’m realizing that…well, I’m 38, why haven’t I hiked the AT? I need to get this back on my goal list.

    I hope there are a couple follow up interviews with Jessica:
    1) Preparing your body and backpack for long distance hikes
    2) Logistics and lessons learned for long distance hikes.

    The question we all want to know after the knife podcast: Jessica, what knife (or knives) did you carry during your hike(s)????

    • ….so I just got through the entire podcast and apparently you’ve already answered my question #1 above in your e-book and the knife you carry is listed on your website. Excellent.

    • NotoriousAPP: I had the great pleasure of meeting and hickin with Dixie on the Trail last year. To address your first proposed interview topic, it was my experience that not much can prepare you physically for the Trail. It’s a different kind of excercise that I don’t think can be simulated in a gym. I observed no correlation between those who made it to Katahdin and those who’d prepared physically in the weeks/months before v. those who, like myself (and, it turns out, Dixie), had effectively zero overnight hiking experience prior to embarking (and the only regular exercise I’ve ever done in my life was in the Navy, and come Trail time I’d been out longer than was in). Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that nearly anyone can do it, regardless of age or even disability (The 72-yo hikin with her daughter I also met, along with Fig, 70-something, on his 4th or 5th thru-hike, Bionic Woman, the first amputee to complete a thru-hike, and Mr. Magoo, legally blind). For what it’s worth, I’ll be 37 in October, so you and I are in pretty much the same boat, at least with respect to age, and I survived 😉 Cliché it may be, but it’s mind over matter

  3. Just wanted to say, I really, really enjoyed this interview. Really has me thinking…

  5. I feel the title was a bit misleading…
    as ultralight gear was not discussed. I would like to hear what gear worked for Jessica and what gear did not. Also what ultralight alternatives to “traditional” gear she used.

    Enjoyed the show as always.

  6. Great interview. As a long time AT section hiker I am totally jealous of Jessica’s Katahdin summit picture!

  7. Dimphotog, if you check out Jessica’s YouTube channel she does a bag dump video and covers every single item she used On the trail.

  9. You mentioned teardrop trailers again and though I really liked them once, the better choice now is a converted Sprinter van. It has more space, will last longer, gets better mileage, and has more uses and will hold it’s value better than a car with a teardrop trailer. I’m going to get one and turn it into a mobile office for my business with the benefit of being a camper on the weekends.

    • I would love to listen to a show on converted vans. These Sprinters look awesome. I would however not put Sprinters in the same end user category as teardrop trailers, the trailers are much much less expensive than a converted Sprinter van. While the Sprinter van is ideal there are many which would never be able to pony up the funds for one of those, their next best option may be a tear drop trailer.

  10. There is hope for us yet after all! A 30 year old, who survived her education and still says something as profound as ” we ARE in the Zombie apocalypse now with all these people walking around with no light in their eyes…” (and i’m paraphrasing of course). What an observation. Never even thought of it like that, but it’s completely true.

    way to go Jessica!

  11. Very very very cool.You Rock Dixie. Love it hope to definitely hear more of you everywhere.

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