Jennifer Pharr Davis

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Jennifer Pharr Davis
Born (1983-05-25) May 25, 1983 (age 40)
Hendersonville, North Carolina
NationalityAmerican
Other names"Odyssa"
Occupation(s)Author, Speaker, Hiker, Founder and Owner of Blue Ridge Hiking Company (Asheville, NC)
Known forLong Distance Hiking

Jennifer Pharr Davis is a long distance hiker from the United States of America who serves on the President's Council for Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. She has been called "the Serena Williams of long distance hiking" by Baratunde Thurston (PBS America Outdoors) and is also an author, speaker, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and Ambassador for the American Hiking Society. [1] She has hiked over 14,000 miles on six different continents, including thru-hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail (three times), the Colorado Trail, the Long Trail in Vermont, the Bibbulmun Track in Australia, and numerous trails in Europe and South America (e.g., the Tour du Mont Blanc, West Highland Way, Laugavegur, GR 11 (Spain), GR 20, and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, Cotahuasi Canyon and the Inca Trail.

Pharr Davis lives in Asheville, North Carolina with her husband Brew, their daughter Charley, and son Gus. [2] She attended Hendersonville High School (North Carolina) and the Asheville School. [3] She first hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2005 after graduating from Samford University. [4] To prepare for her initial hike, she attended a class taught by Warren Doyle at the Appalachian Trail Institute. In 2008, she set the record for the fastest Appalachian Trail hike by a woman in 57 days and 8 hours at an average of 38 miles (61 km) per day. She had previously set the Long Trail trail record in 7 days and 15 hours in 2007. She also established the fastest known time on the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia in 2008. [4]

In 2011, Pharr Davis set the fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail completing it in 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes. In 2015, Scott Jurek finished 3 hours and 12 minutes faster. [4] [2] [5] New records have subsequently been set by Karl Meltzer, Joe McConaughy, and most recently Karel Sabbe.

Pharr Davis has written a number of books. She has written two guidebooks about hiking in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, and one about hiking near Asheville, North Carolina. She has also written two memoirs- 2010's Becoming Odyssa, about her 2005 Appalachian Trail thru-hike, [2] [6] and 2013's Called Again, about her record setting A.T. hike, both published by Beaufort Books. Jennifer has also written 2017's Families on Foot [7] and 2018's The Pursuit of Endurance [8] as well as 2019's "I Come From a Place" with celebrated watercolorist Alan Shuptrine, from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Brew Davis wrote about his wife's 2011 hike and how he provided support throughout it in his 2011 book 46 days: keeping up with Jennifer Pharr Davis on the Appalachian Trail.

As a member of the National Speakers Association, Pharr Davis has shared her trail lessons hundreds of times throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, including presentations to Fortune 500 companies, trade organizations, colleges and universities, K-12 schools, libraries, festivals, churches, and other non-profits. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and The Early Show on CBS. Her articles have appeared in print and online editions for the New York Times, Outside Magazine, Trail Runner, Backpacker, and Guideposts.

In 2008, Pharr Davis founded Blue Ridge Hiking Company, with the belief that "the trail is there for everyone at every phase of life" and with the goal of getting people outdoors on their own terms. The company leads half-day, full day and overnight trips in the Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding Asheville. [9]

Pharr Davis served as a board member for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, received a 2016 Laurel Wreath Award for athletic achievement from the Governor of North Carolina and was recognized as 2019 "Female Entrepreneur of the Year" by the Chamber of Commerce in Asheville, North Carolina. She was also named one of the 25 Most Adventurous Women of the Past 25 Years by Men's Journal, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine's Person of the Year in 2008 and her record-setting 2011 A.T. hike was named "Performance of the Year" by Ultrarunning Magazine.

In 2012, Pharr Davis hiked 600 miles on the Laugavegur Trail in Iceland and the GR 11 (Spain) across the Pyrenees in her second and third trimesters while pregnant with her daughter Charley. [10] While on an 18-month book tour, Pharr Davis and her husband Brew took Charley hiking in all 50 states before their daughter turned two. [11]

In 2017, she hiked the 1,175 mile Mountains to Sea Trail in partnership with the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail for the trail's 40th anniversary and completed the hike while still nursing her newborn Gus. [12] [13]

In recent years, Pharr Davis has hiked other long distance trails including the Pinhoti Trail, the Bartram Trail, the Foothills Trail, the Art Loeb Trail, and the Benton Mackaye Trail. She is also hiking the Continental Divide Trail in sections through the Rocky Mountains. [14] [15] [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appalachian Trail</span> Hiking trail going through fourteen US states

The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost 2,200 miles (3,540 km) between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy claims the Appalachian Trail to be the longest hiking-only trail in the world. More than three million people hike segments of the trail each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Crest Trail</span> Long-distance hiking and equestrian trail in the western US

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie 100 to 150 miles east of the U.S. Pacific coast. The trail's southern terminus is next to the Mexico–United States border, just south of Campo, California, and its northern terminus is on the Canada–US border, upon which it continues unofficially to the Windy Joe Trail within Manning Park in British Columbia; it passes through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continental Divide Trail</span> Long-distance scenic trail in the western United States

The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail is a United States National Scenic Trail with a length measured by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition of 3,028 miles (4,873 km) between the U.S. border with Chihuahua, Mexico and the border with Alberta, Canada. Frequent route changes and a large number of alternate routes result in an actual hiking distance of 2,700 miles (4,300 km) to 3,150 miles (5,070 km). The CDT follows the Continental Divide of the Americas along the Rocky Mountains and traverses five U.S. states — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. In Montana near the Canadian border the trail crosses Triple Divide Pass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Ridge Parkway</span> Scenic parkway in the United States

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America's longest linear park, runs for 469 miles (755 km) through 29 counties in Virginia and North Carolina, linking Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It runs mostly along the spine of the Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. Its southern terminus is at U.S. Route 441 (US 441) on the boundary between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, from which it travels north to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The roadway continues through Shenandoah as Skyline Drive, a similar scenic road which is managed by a different National Park Service unit. Both Skyline Drive and the Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway are part of Virginia State Route 48 (SR 48), though this designation is not signed.

Asheville School is a private, coeducational, university-preparatory boarding school in Asheville, North Carolina founded in 1900. The campus sits on 300 acres (120 ha) amid the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains and currently enrolls 295 students in grades nine through twelve. The campus was named by Architectural Digest magazine in 2018 as the most beautiful private school campus in North Carolina. In 2015, the school was ranked the seventh best boarding school in the U.S. by independent education organization TheBestSchools.org.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grandma Gatewood</span> American hiker (1887–1973)

Emma Rowena (Caldwell) Gatewood, known as Grandma Gatewood,, was an American ultra-light hiking pioneer. After a difficult life as a farm wife, mother of eleven children, and survivor of domestic violence, she became famous as the first solo female thru-hiker of the 2,168-mile (3,489 km) Appalachian Trail (A.T.) in 1955 at the age of 67. She subsequently became the first person to hike the A.T. three times, after completing a second thru-hike two years later, followed by a section-hike in 1964. In the meantime, she hiked 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Oregon Trail in 1959. In her later years, she continued to travel and hike, and worked on a section of what would become the Buckeye Trail. The media coverage surrounding her feats was credited for generating interest in maintaining the A.T. and in hiking generally. Among many other honors, she was posthumously inducted into the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long Path</span> Hiking trail from George Washington Bridge to Mohawk River valley in upstate New York

The Long Path is a 357-mile (575 km) long-distance hiking trail beginning in New York City, at the West 175th Street subway station near the George Washington Bridge and ending at Altamont, New York, in the Albany area. While not yet a continuous trail, relying on road walks in some areas, it nevertheless takes in many of the popular hiking attractions west of the Hudson River, such as the New Jersey Palisades, Harriman State Park, the Shawangunk Ridge and the Catskill Mountains. It offers hikers a diversity of environments to pass through, from suburbia and sea-level salt marshes along the Hudson to wilderness and boreal forest on Catskill summits 4,000 feet (1,220 m) in elevation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pisgah National Forest</span> National forest in North Carolina

Pisgah National Forest is a National Forest in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. It is administered by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. The Pisgah National Forest is completely contained within the state of North Carolina. The forest is managed together with the other three North Carolina National Forests from common headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina. There are local ranger district offices located in Pisgah Forest, Mars Hill, and Nebo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thru-hiking</span> Style of hiking

Thru-hiking, or through-hiking, is the act of hiking an established long-distance trail end-to-end continuously.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail spans 14 U.S. states over its roughly 2,200 miles (3,500 km): Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The southern end is at Springer Mountain, Georgia, and it follows the ridgeline of the Appalachian Mountains, crossing many of its highest peaks and running almost continuously through wilderness before reaching the northern end at Mount Katahdin, Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Oglethorpe</span> Mountain in Georgia, United States

Mount Oglethorpe is a mountain located in Pickens County, Georgia, United States. The southernmost peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the mountain has an elevation of 3,288 feet (1,002 m), making it the highest point in Pickens County, and the Atlanta Metropolitan Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrews Bald</span>

Andrews Bald is a mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains, located in the southeastern United States. It has an elevation of 5,920 feet (1,800 m) above sea level, making it the highest grassy bald in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The mountain is one of two grassy balds maintained in the range by the National Park Service. The other is Gregory Bald, in the western Smokies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Loeb Trail</span> Long-distance hiking trail in the United States

The Art Loeb Trail is a 30.1-mile (48.4 km) hiking trail located in Pisgah National Forest in Western North Carolina. The northern terminus is at the Daniel Boone Boy Scout Camp in Haywood County, while the trail's southern terminus is located near the Davidson River Campground, near Brevard, in Transylvania County. Along the way, the trail traverses several significant peaks, including Black Balsam Knob (6,214 ft), Tennent Mountain (6040 ft) and Pilot Mountain (5095 ft). The trail also passes the base of Cold Mountain, made famous by the novel and film. Cold mountain is a must for any art loeb thru hiker/runner and only adds around 700ft in elevation. National Geographic Adventure listed the trail as one of the thirty best North American hikes. They praised the views offered on the high Appalachian Balds, the challenging climbs, and the trail's diverse landscape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richland Balsam</span> Mountain in North Carolina

Richland Balsam is a mountain in the Great Balsam Mountains in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Rising to an elevation of 6,410 feet (1,950 m), it is the highest mountain in the Great Balsam range, is among the 20 highest summits in the Appalachian range, and is the ninth highest peak in the Eastern United States. The Blue Ridge Parkway reaches an elevation of 6,053 feet (1,845 m)—the parkway's highest point—as it passes over Richland Balsam's southwestern slope. The Jackson County-Haywood County line crosses the mountain's summit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triple Crown of Hiking</span> Three major U.S. long-distance hiking trails

The Triple Crown of Hiking informally refers to the three major U.S. long-distance hiking trails:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lakeview Drive</span> U.S. Road with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Lakeview Drive is a 6.5-mile-long (10.5 km) road in North Carolina, split in two segments, located along the north shore of Fontana Lake, wholly within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The scenic road, which was never completed, features an unused road tunnel and connects to various hiking and horse riding trails in the area.

Warren Doyle is a hiker and supporter of the Appalachian Trail. He holds the informal record for the hiking the entire Appalachian Trail the most times. From 1974 to 2017, he organized and led 10 groups up the entire Appalachian Trail. He is the founder of two organizations dedicated to the trail: the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association, and the Appalachian Trail Institute. He remains the Director of Appalachian Trail Institute.

Elizabeth Thomas is a thru-hiking champion and former women's unassisted speed record holder for the 2,181-mile (3,510 km) Appalachian Trail. She holds the hiking "Triple Crown," having completed the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. She is the pioneer of the Chinook Trail in Washington and the Wasatch Range in Utah. She is Vice President of the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West, an ambassador for the American Hiking Society, and an outdoors writer for Wirecutter, a New York Times publication. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Treeline Review, a hiking gear publication. As of 2018, she completed 20 long-distance wilderness hikes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Hilton</span> Convicted American serial killer

Gary Michael Hilton, known as The National Forest Serial Killer, is an American serial killer responsible for four known homicides between 2007 and 2008 committed in three states, all of which occurred within the premises of national forests. Sentenced to death in Florida and to life imprisonment in Georgia and North Carolina, Hilton remains a suspect in several other killings, including that of Judy Smith.

Jennifer Mabus is an American YouTuber and hiker. She spent 173 days thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail solo in 2018, filming every day of the journey, and posting vlogs to her YouTube channel covering every day of the journey as she hiked. She competed collegiately in cheerleading for the Nevada Wolf Pack.

References

  1. ↑ Mulvihill, Keith (23 July 2011). "Speed Hiker Thrives on Natural Rhythms of the Appalachian Trail". The New York Times . Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 Horan, Jack (2 August 2011). "One step at a time for 46 days, 2,181 miles". The Charlotte Observer . Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Notable Alumni - Asheville School".
  4. 1 2 3 Collins, Jeffrey. "Woman sets Appalachian Trail fastest-hike record". Associated Press . Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  5. ↑ "Woman hikes Appalachian in 46 days". United Press International . Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  6. ↑ Thomson, Candus. "Woman breaks Appalachian Trail speed record". BaltimoreSun.com. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  7. ↑ Lowenstein, Corey (2014). "Whether a day hike or a trek across the state, 'Families on Foot' authors can get you there". newsobserver. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  8. ↑ "Appalachian Trail thru-hiking season gets a boost by Jennifer Pharr Davis". Citizen Times. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  9. ↑ "Blue Ridge Hiking Company"
  10. ↑ "Record breaker Jennifer Pharr Davis on hiking while pregnant". MyNorthwest.com. 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  11. ↑ LaRocco, Leah (2018-05-30). "Pushing Through Self-Imposed Limits: The Question That Fueled Record-Setter Jennifer Pharr Davis To Endure On The Appalachian Trail". Women You Should Know®. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  12. ↑ "AHS Ambassador, Jennifer Pharr Davis, Reflects on her Mountains-to-Sea Trail Thru Hike". American Hiking Society. 2018-01-16. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  13. ↑ "Asheville thru-hiker bags 1,175-mile trek across Mountains-to-Sea Trail". Citizen Times. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  14. ↑ "Adventurers of the Year: The Hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis" Archived 2014-04-25 at the Wayback Machine retrieved April 30, 2014
  15. ↑ Clemmons, Anna Katherine, ESPN.com "Pharr Davis Thrives on Trail," retrieved July 2, 2013
  16. ↑ Gordon, Jacob, "Jennifer Pharr Davis: 2012 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year," retrieved May 10, 2014
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