MIDDLEBURG - Former Middleburg High volleyball coach Carrie Prewitt was a bit busy this summer and was out of the loop when the Middleburg High girls' volleyball team won the Class 5A championship; the first for the Bronco program.
"I took care of my mom, came home, worked out a little, retired from teaching and started hiking the Appalachian Trail on March 27," said Prewitt, who coached at Middleburg for nearly 30 years with a handful of Final Four appearances, but no state titles. "I returned last week and I'm honored that this team gave me a state champion ring. Coach Meredith Forkum was a player for me and an assistant coach for seven years. I'm grateful that they thought of me to get a ring."
Prewitt's disappearance, of sorts, was a 2,197-mile jaunt that took her through 14 states and the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest 16 times.
"The international trail goes from Florida to Maine, but we started the trail in Springer Mountain in Georgia," said Prewitt, noting the trail's northern start is at Mt. Katahdin (5,270 feet), Maine and ends at Springer Mountain (3,780 feet), but she did the south to north trek. "We averaged about 8-12 hours of climbing per day with the crossing of West Virginia taking us one day to complete. Between 15-18 miles per day was my sweet point; about as much as I was comfortable with."
Prewitt noted that she did most of the trail as a group with her brother joining her and a German woman, nicknamed Phoenix, attempting a record for the course.
"There was one team going opposite us (north to south) that we passed along the way that was going for the record," said Prewitt. "His was a supported run with a team along the way keeping him nourished, clothed and responsive to the weather. My group had tents, food, water and us."
To keep the journey light, hikers affixed nicknames to each other.
"Sort of like our call signs," said Prewitt, known as Caboose with her brother the TinMan and others like Susan One, 575, 9 Lives, Zipper and Phoenix. "I was Caboose because I was in the back doing my YouTube updates while my brother had two knee braces on for his bad knees."
On the trek, which took 171 days, Prewitt noted she had just 13 "zeroes" along the way which are no movement days.
"Those were days to get a hotel, clean up a bit, refill our food and water supplies," said Prewitt. "Four of those days were for a celebration in Damascus, Virginia which was kind of a festival for the hikers with vendors and a nice celebration."
In one 20-day stretch, Prewitt felt the tinge of over-pushing her body on the trails.
"We went 20 days straight with no zeroes and I remember making a mental note that I'm not doing that again," said Prewitt. "You may make some progress, but the body can only do so much and it will catch up to you if you don't let it recover."
In one 30-day span, Prewitt pushed the group with no zeroes to give Phoenix a shot at the summit record.
"We pushed 30 days with no zeroes because she was close," said Prewitt.
As far as her climbing experiences up and down mountains up the east coast, Prewitt said no climb was more than 7,000 feet of climbing but that one climb in New Hampshire, Mt. Moosilauke pushed her limits with two miles of climbing took nearly two hours to finish.
"It is the second steepest mile on the Appalachian Trail," said Prewitt. "It climbs over 2,000 feet in 1.7 miles with one section nearly steep as a wall with wooden steps along the way. The descent was as hard as the ascent. Above the treelines were the toughest parts of the hiking."
Along the way, Prewitt, embarked on her venture while starting a Marathon High fitness class while still teaching at Middleburg (retired June 2023), but turned a bit more workout advanced when she had to leave Middleburg to take care of her mother.
"When I was taking care of her in her last days, I was working out every day," said Prewitt, who also became adept at her YouTube fitness challenges and documentation of an impressive weight loss and strengthening transformation. "I did something every day and when I got back here, I started lifting weights and concentrating on what fitness I would need to complete the climb; legs, core, endurance."
Prewitt completed the trail with a few sightings of wildlife but no direct interactions.
"We saw a few bears, but they stayed away," said Prewitt, who carried snacks like Snickers, Hot Dogs, Fluffernutters, bacon and some pizza at the food stops. "We had a lot of river crossings so we had to put sandals on to keep our feet dry."
Prewitt recollected that, along the way, her mental preparation for such an adventure took hold a few times.
"There was no part where I was hesitant to continue," said Prewitt. "There were a couple of hard days; mainly at the north end when we approached Mt. Washington (6,288 feet) and Mt. Madison (5,367 feet) which had a lot of rock climbing and rebard climbs. The two hours in New Hampshire was the toughest part of the trail but the final climb to Katahdin made the whole summer worthwhile. It was breathtaking."