Interview with Will Kaufmann

Will Kaufman is a 20-year-old college student from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is completing a sectioned thru-hike this year, while also conducting a research project on the community of trail angels along the AT. During this section of his thru-hike, he was guiding for a summer camp. This interview took place in the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine.

What was your motivation for starting to hike the AT?

So I've been a part of the group behind me (the camp group he was in charge of)as a kid. So I did nine years going through the camp program. And that concluded with a backpacking trip when I was 17. We did this Maine section of the Appalachian Trail. One of my counselors when I was 13 or 14 at this camp had just come off his thru hike of the AT and 13 year old me thought he was the coolest thing in the world. His predominant thing was that he just done the trail and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. So that planted the seed and then I slowly figured out that I liked hiking. I did the Long Trail in Vermont three years ago to test it out and see if I liked it. I loved it so I figured out the way to make it work with school and clear the time and just got hiking. That's how I got into it. I started during my spring break. I did 120 miles, then got off trail. And then got back on trail once semester ended so definitely a bit of an unconventional thru-hike. I'm all over the place and chopping it up into sections. I'm sure the purists hate me but my opinions are that I’m walking 2198 miles this year and that’s a thru-hike. You could say what you want about the path and if you didn't take a day off trail you can you can say whatever you want to me. But yeah, a bit of an unconventional way to do it. But that's how it works with my schedule.

What has been your favorite part of hiking the AT?

Maine is my favorite state on the AT. I did get an incredible day over the Roan Highlands in Tennessee. Love that. But I'd say definitely my favorite part of every day is to come in to camp and see the people doing the trail. Partially because I like the physical and the mental challenge of it. Mostly because I enjoy the people out here. There's a special type of person and mentality that it takes to do the trail and it pulls from all different communities and places. You'll never find to have the same people doing it. Everybody has that same little weirdness or same little thing that pushes them to be out here and do this thing. Seeing people in that lens and meeting all the different types of people that have that special thing has been my favorite part so far.