When Gina Uribe started reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, she had no idea that she would initiate a family rite of passage. She had taken the book along to read on a family vacation in 2006, and her son, Matthew, asked her about it. They were both intrigued by the idea of walking from Georgia to Maine on a footpath through the mountains. An 18-year-old Eagle Scout, Matthew was looking for the next step and a new challenge. He announced he would thru-hike the Appalachian Trail the next year — and Gina told him she would help him.

Although Bryson’s book served as the catalyst for four members of the Uribe family to undertake long-distance hikes, it was not their introduction to the A.T. Gina recalls visiting the Smoky Mountains and climbing Charlies Bunion when she was a child. Her dad pointed out a sign showing that the trail they were on went all the way to Maine. “We had done just a tiny portion of a trail that kept going and going,” recalls Gina. She later took her own children, Matthew and Stevie, on hikes in the Smokies when the family was living in Florida.

To help Matthew prepare for his thru-hike attempt, mother and son met weekly to practice skills such as hanging a bear bag and pitching a tent. They researched equipment options and discussed what would work best. “I thought he wouldn’t make it very far on the Trail,” jokes Gina, “so I bought him the cheapest gear.”

But Matthew surprised his mother and completed his thru-hike in 2007. “I didn’t think it was going to be that hard. I thought it would be a nice little hike,” says Matthew with a laugh. But his first few weeks heading northbound quickly set him straight about the physical challenge he was undertaking. He took the Trail name “Sublime” due in part to a hat he wore from the rock band, but he later came to appreciate how fitting the word’s awe-inspiring connotation was for his time on the Trail. When he got to Maine, he recalls, “You feel like it’s your dessert and you earned it. You savor it. It’s the best tasting dessert you could ever have.”

From Son to Parents to Daughter

Having both lived vicariously through and learned from Matthew’s experience, Gina and husband Kenneth (Trail names: “No Eyed Deer” and “Ginken”) completed their northbound thru-hikes together in 2008. Hiking in an era before smartphone use was widespread, Gina remembers fondly the camaraderie and conversations with fellow hikers at overnight sites. “It was one of the last years when people got to shelters and talked. We talked equipment, we talked about food, we discussed where we were headed the next day,” she says. “We weren’t focused on our phones and posting updates on Facebook.”

Given that her parents and brother had all thru-hiked the A.T., it was only a matter of time before the last member of the Uribe family, daughter Stevie, undertook what had become a rite of passage. “We appreciated what the Trail experience had done for us, so we said to Stevie, ‘You’ve got to do this. Trust us. It will change your life for the better,’” says Matthew.

Her family members did not oversell how transformative a thru-hike could be. “Everything changed for me on the Trail. It changed my career path,” shares Stevie, who completed a thru-hike in 2013 after graduating from college. Stevie’s parents, who were critical care nurses, joined her in Damascus for Trail Days and responded expertly to a medical emergency that happened there. “My parents were superstars!” recalls Stevie. “I decided I wanted to become a nurse, and I had a few miles on the Trail to think about it!”

After summiting Katahdin, Stevie (Trail name: “Starfail”) signed up for prerequisite classes for nursing school. She later enrolled in the University of Colorado College of Nursing and obtained a Master of Science in Nursing degree.

“Hiking on the A.T. impacts you in so many ways. It makes you appreciate the small things, and the things we take for granted. The happiest I’ve been is when I’ve had only the absolute necessities with me,” Stevie says.

Supporting Sustainability

Appreciating the role that overnight sites play in creating community on the Trail, the Uribe family recently made a significant investment in the ATC’s project to make the sites more sustainable (see “Improving Nights in the Woods”). They recognize the challenges that overcrowding and overuse cause on the Trail, especially at shelters and campsites in the southern region. And it’s not just the humanmade structures that are experiencing wear and tear.

“There’s a lack of understanding of the fragility of the environment along the Trail. People tromp over everything,” says Gina. “The environment in its natural state can only tolerate so much before it reaches a breaking point.”

By making overnight sites more sustainable, adds Stevie, “we can maintain the perks of community while minimizing the impact on the surrounding environment.”

Having benefited from a transformative Trail experience, the Uribes are committed to ensuring that it will continue to inspire generations to come. “We’re strong believers in the Trail itself, and it’s an absolute honor to help protect it,” says Matthew.

Now that a grandchild has joined the Uribe family — Stevie’s son was born in April — there’s yet another generation who can experience the rite of passage by thru-hiking the A.T. Stevie predicts, laughing, that her son will be in the thru-hike class of 2045.