Reason to hike the AT?

“Fayetteville (NC) Observer
March 19, 2004

McKissick's Trail Hike A Journey For Love

By Michael Wagner, Staff Writer

SOUTHERN PINES - Caroline McKissick was looking forward to the rock climbing trip that she and her fiance, Master Sgt. Kelly Hornbeck, had planned to take when he returned from Iraq.

Now McKissick is set to begin a different journey: a six-month trek from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail.

It is a trip she will make without Hornbeck. He died in January, several weeks before he was to return to Fort Carson, Colo., where he and McKissick lived.

"My daughter said we should do this for a cause. I said, 'That's a great idea. We'll do it for Kelly,'" McKissick said Wednesday morning as she packed the last piece of luggage into her truck. "I'd not have wanted to do this without him in my life."

Hornbeck's vehicle ran over a land mine in Samarra on Jan. 16. He died two days later. Hornbeck, who was with 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, was 36.

McKissick plans to walk the entire 2,174-mile trail, finishing some time this fall.

Her trek will raise money for the Fisher House, an organization that houses families of injured servicemen at veterans hospitals around the country.

She has already raised $30,000 in pledges.

A Web site is expected to be up soon to track her journey, and she hopes more contributions will come in as word of her walk spreads.

Piecing life together

Since Hornbeck's death, McKissick said she has been trying to piece her life back together. She moved back to Southern Pines, where she is from. She is trying to sell the house in Colorado. She's been riding her horses and painting, tending to her dogs, and working on her home - an old farm house in the rural horse country between Southern Pines and Vass.

She has had time to reflect, and she said she sees this hike as an opportunity to achieve a long-time goal.

"I've had this bug to do the Appalachian Trail for a while, and this was sort of perfect timing. My slate was pretty open," McKissick said. "I'd have been out there (in Colorado) with him anyway, and we'd have been doing something wonderful."

She will be joined by two people along the way: her friend Adam Rogers of Southern Pines and her 19-year-old daughter, Anna Grace. Her daughter plans to join them once she finishes her semester at Clemson University.

Although the aim is to raise money to honor her fiance's memory, McKissick said the trip will be a chance for her to heal.

She will survive off the gear and food stowed inside her 44-pound backpack. She has a stash of photographs of Hornbeck, many of them taken on their climbing trips in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Meeting in the aisles

McKissick and Hornbeck met while browsing in the aisles at the Fresh Market grocery store in Pinehurst two years ago. Hornbeck was stationed at Fort Bragg at the time and was living in Southern Pines.

The two clicked instantly, McKissick said. Both had a love of the outdoors, and whatever sport, activity or skill one of them didn't know, the other did.

"They are people who are bound to adventure," said Maureen Clark, a friend of McKissick's from Southern Pines.

Shortly after they met, Hornbeck was reassigned to Fort Carson. McKissick didn't hesitate to move. The mountains of Colorado offered a new landscape to explore.

"I knew we were meant for each other because he loved cross-country skiing," McKissick said. "How many people love to cross-country ski?"

In Colorado, Hornbeck taught her how to rock climb. She fell in love with it instantly, she said. The two climbed mountains in Colorado and cliffs of ice in Utah.

"We spent so much time together backpacking, hiking, rock climbing," she said. "He was a great outdoorsman. He taught me so much about the outdoors."

Friends say hiking the Appalachian Trail is the perfect way to honor someone whose passion was the outdoors.

"I don't think Caroline is a words person, she's an action person," Clark said. "To try and put it in words would be impossible. But this action is commensurate with how she's feeling. It's the perfect match for their relationship."

An adventure awaits

Although an experienced backpacker, McKissick is likely to face the outdoor adventure of her life on the trail, said Laura Gingerich of Southern Pines. Gingerich, with her two sons, became the first mother-son team to hike the entire trail in 2002.

"It seems like she's got what it takes," said Gingerich, who met with McKissick for several hours recently and briefed her on what to expect.

Making it through the first 21 days, she said, will be key. That's where everything that can go wrong will go wrong: Bitterly cold weather, gear that breaks down, "the rain and the snow and the wet that gets into your soul." She will also experience euphoria. The mental journey one makes on the trail is tremendous, Gingerich said.

"The trail is a place where you can get what I call mental housecleaning done," she said. "There's nothing blocking the truth when you're on the trail. Whatever you ask of yourself out there, the answer is there."

"It's a very unique place to heal," she said. "She'll do some crying out there."”

“My friend Rob & I met Caroline, Adam, & Caroline's daughter in the first week of early April, 2004 while hiking in the Smokey Mountains on our way up to Shuckstack Tower. They were on their way to a camp site not far from our destination and we had the opportunity to share their adventure. We were just in the Smokey's for 3 days and left to return to our families and jobs.

It is now July 10, 2004 and Rob and I had a conversation about our experience and marveling at the fact that Caroline and companions are still hiking the Appalachion Trail.”

“My friend Rob & I met Caroline, Adam, & Caroline's daughter in the first week of early April, 2004 while hiking in the Smokey Mountains on our way up to Shuckstack Tower. They were on their way to a camp site not far from our destination and we had the opportunity to share their adventure. We were just in the Smokey's for 3 days and left to return to our families and jobs.

It is now July 10, 2004 and Rob and I had a conversation about our experience and marveling at the fact that Caroline and companions are still hiking the Appalachion Trail.”

“does she have a trailname?”

“Wow, Caroline, i will pray for your journey into the wilderness. What you are doing is so inspiring. Good luck.”