MEMPHIS FIT
A Journey of a Lifetime on the Appalachian Trail
By Kelsey J. Lawrence Photo by Tindall Stephens
While most of us were holed up in our houses or staying close to home this summer, Dr. Barbara Geater, 55, took this year as an opportunity to realize a dream she had tucked away long ago. The idea to hike the full length of the Appalachian Trail was born during the summers she spent camping and hiking with her family around that area when she was younger. “I put the idea away,” she remembers. ”I had not even thought about it for probably 30 years.” In the time since, Barbara went to med school and opened her own successful family medical practice serving the community in South Memphis. Work was enough to keep her busy and focused, until she took a trip with her friend to hike a small section of the trail in 2017. “That’s when I sort of rekindled the thought that I had when I was younger to do it. So, I just started planning in that direction.” Barbara had to consider all the people who count on her as she made her plans for the 2,190-mile hike. She approached a group of 12 doctors, identifying one in each specialty, who she could trust to help her staff of nurse practitioners should they be unable to reach her on the trail. “I thought some people would go, ‘Are you crazy?’” she recalls. “I didn’t get that. Everyone was so positive.” With the support of her patients, staff, friends, and family, Barbara and a friend hit the trail with a friend on May 4, 2020. As their journey unfolded, they faced freezing nights and a steep learning curve for how much to carry and the logistics of resupplying. And it didn’t take long for the two to realize that they hike at very different speeds. “She likes to hike 30 to 40 miles per day, and I’m more of a 15- to 25-mile person,” Barbara explains. She laughs, “My friend took two weeks off in the middle and still finished four weeks before me.”
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While Barbara found herself solo, hikers on the Appalachian Trail aren’t always necessarily alone. They camp and swap
