Koenig Swaps Harvard for Hiking Appalachians

While many students in their junior years focus on academic and career plans, one Currier House resident is following the tradition of Henry David Thoreau by taking this semester off for some self-reflection and immersion in nature.

Robert M. Koenig ’06-’07. an Earth and Planetary Sciences concentrator from North Carolina, will spend the next five months hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT).

“It’s such a departure from everyday academics,” Koenig said. “It’s a break away from the success-failure attitude that can be prevalent at school sometimes. Hiking the trail isn’t about success or failure. It’s about your experience out there.”

Koenig and his brother, Pace, set out in Springer Mountain in Georgia yesterday and they plan to finish the 2,174-mile trail at Katahdin Mountain in Maine in July.

Koenig, who decided to embark on the trip last June and has been planning it since September, said that the entire trail usually takes about six months to hike, with most people averaging 15 miles a day.

Koenig and his brother are both carrying four to five days’ worth of food, sleeping bags, medical kits, an ultra-light tarp for camping, and some winter clothes and gear, in packs weighing between 22 and 27 pounds.

“The trail passes through a number of towns...So we’ll be able to resupply in town,” said Koenig, who spent this past summer researching glaciers in Alaska. “We’ll be able to go into grocery stores and pack five days of food.”

An estimated 3 to 4 million people hike part of the AT each year, but only a small number, dubbed the “2,000-milers,” actually complete the trail. Only about 8,000 people are on record as having completed the AT since 1936, according to the AT Conference website.

For Koenig, who has backpacked with the First-Year Outdoor Program and the Outing Club, the trip will represent an extended opportunity for self-reflection away from school and the academic fast track.

“It’s certainly unusual for students to think of taking a semester off without something that translates very directly into specific academic or career interests,” said Martin R. West, a Social Policy and Government tutor in Currier House who advised Koenig. “I think there is sort of an expected time frame toward completion at Harvard that students are hesitant to deviate from.”

Koenig said he is looking forward to a prolonged break from his routine.

“I’ve always had a semester of classes and a semester of exams to look forward to. It’s always been what’s next. I realized I needed to step outside of that bound a little bit,” Koenig said. “Harvard students are really motivated. It can be really beneficial to see how that motivation flourishes in other environments.”

Koenig says he also looks forward to devoting time to things other than hiking.

“I’ve got a few projects. I’m definitely taking a journal, writing a fair amount, writing for the sake of reflection as opposed to for the sake of a core class,” he said. He will also bring a small guitar and books for pleasure reading.

Koenig will also get a look at the extreme economic poverty of many Appalachian communities.

The experience will “remind us we are incredibly fortunate. We’re lucky to have the opportunity to hike, let alone the opportunity to be educated,” Koenig said.

He estimates that he will spend around $2,000 during the trip.

“The rule of thumb is a dollar a mile, for food,” said Koenig. “This will be saying goodbye to my savings account for quite some time.”

In preparation for the possible dangers and physical exertion of the hike, Koenig trained in the Wilderness First Responder course, and has been running and doing other cardiovascular exercises.

He has adopted a strategy of “eating lots, trying to put on weight that we will ultimately lose,” he said.

“It’s a fantastic excuse to eat absolutely whatever we want. That’s been a real luxury,” he added.

According to Koenig, “being willing to take a rest day” is important, as is “not letting weariness or exhaustion morph into some serious calamity that can knock us off the hike.”

The large numbers of hikers on the AT provide help in case of emergencies, as well as a sense of community.

“People who hike the AT come up with trail names. Robert will probably not be known by Robert by the end of the trip,” said Lucas T. Laursen ’05, president of the Mountaineering Club. “It’s just a trail thing. People will sign on bulletin boards...They all get to know each other along the trail.”

Koenig said that, based on this experience, other trails may be in his hiking future.

“There’s definitely a romance to the big three trails: The Appalachian mountains, the Pacific Crest trail out in California, and the Continental Divide trail [in] the Rocky Mountains,” said Koenig. “That air of romance will always have an appeal to it.”

Another student, Andrew J. Bestwick ’07 of Adams House, plans to take next spring semester off to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which extends from the Mexican border up to Canada.

“I’m sure I’ll be asking [Robert] plenty of questions,” Bestwick said. “I imagine he’ll have tons of stories when he gets back.”

—Staff writer Tina Wang can be reached at tinawang@fas.harvard.edu.