(Gina and her Husband, March 2019, Amicalola Falls State Park, Day One of their AT thru-hike attempt, from her Instagram:@Ginabeana238)
When I created this blog, I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do with it. I started using this page as a resources for women, such as hiking clothing, hygiene advice and just having somewhere to verbalize my thoughts. I realized that I wanted to do more with it in early 2021.
Enter Gina. When she and I started talking and sharing a little bit of ourselves online I knew that I wanted to share her story. I knew that she had been through one of the worst experiences as a hiker and when she was ready, I would help her share her story.
After she completed her thru-hike in 2021, we decided that she would tell her story in her words. I could think of no other way to do it. Without divulging too much, as I want you to read her story in her words, Gina was witness to one of the greatest tragedies the Appalachian Trail would ever know.
Quoted from a Washington Post Article sited below, "James L. Jordan, 32, admitted that he fatally stabbed Ronald S. Sanchez Jr., 43, a 16-year Army veteran who spent three tours in Iraq as a combat engineer. Sanchez was attempting to hike the entire 2,192 mile length of the Appalachian Trail, and had set up camp in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest with three other people he met on the trail early on May 11, 2019. Jordan, known to trail hikers because of his erratic behavior, set up a campsite nearby, but acted “increasingly disturbed and unstable,” court records state, so Sanchez and the other three decided to pack up and leave.
As two of the campers tried to leave, Jordan confronted them with a machete, and they ran away, calling police in Wythe County. Jordan chased them, court records state, then returned to the campsite and approached Sanchez and a woman from Canada. The woman told the FBI she saw Jordan stab Sanchez, and she ran. Jordan caught her, stabbed her in the face, arms, legs and torso, but she survived. She hiked six miles into Smyth County and called 911(Jackman, 2021)."
Gina and her partner were the two hikers that managed to escape Jordans assault. Below is her story:
Who you are in 3 words?
Oh man, I find this really hard to do. hah. I guess my three words would be, tenacious, intuitive, careful.
Now tell me a little bit more.
I guess I'll start by elaborating a little on why I chose those three words and I think that will help explain the rest. I'm extremely stubborn when it comes to finishing things that I start and once a seed is planted in my mind, I know that I will do it. I have always been that way with college, grad school, marathons, training, and obviously the trail. It can be absolutely exhausting but it's just how I am. I tend to be extremely intuitive and it can be a double edge sword. I have a really hard time tuning the world out because of it but it also helps me in teaching. I am very careful - careful about the choices I make, careful with people's feelings, and careful with any changes that I make (to a fault).
I very much enjoy setting goals and working towards them. It has always given me a feeling of structure in my life when I have something that I am grinding towards. It's usually some type of physical pursuit ie running/lifting. This has led me down the road of half marathons and a few full ones, graduate school, and eventually the Appalachian Trail. I am a full-time high school history teacher. I began teaching right after I graduated with a masters in social studies education in 2014. I can't believe it's been eight years already.
The goals change but the overall love I have for working towards them doesn't. My husband and I married in 2016 and I love spending time with him. We tend to be homebodies (although you may not assume that given our track record the last few years) but we love being in the comfort of our own space. I also love home projects and all kinds of interior decorating. I love making over rooms. He probably doesn't love the projects I get myself into because they usually end up involving him. ; )
(Gina on race day, pictured with friend, 2014, from her Instagram:@Ginabeana238)
How did you discover the world of thru-hiking?
I don't think there was a 'moment' where I discovered thru-hiking. Truly, it is because of my husband, Jason. Years ago, he read the Orient Express about the blind gentleman that thru hiked the AT with his pup. It really lit a fire inside him to try and get into hiking.
A few years after we started dating and the world of Youtube vlogging exploded, he began watching different vloggers and decided that he wanted to complete an end to end hike because he knew or at least didn't think that thru hiking was in the cards between working full-time and getting married. etc.
I guess this was in 2015 and I would listen to him talk about the trail. We went on a few overnights near the water gap in 2015 and 2016 but you really don't get the experience of a thru hike when you're just out for a night. When he decided to do the Long Trail in 2017, I was debating on going with him for a few days and ended up staying. I fell in love with the culture of thru hiking and all things trail life while I was out there. We were surrounded by thru hikers at that time and I just loved the community and the entire subculture of it all.
(Gina and her husband on the Long Trial, from her Instagram:@Ginabeana238)
What is your experience with the outdoors?
My first experiences with being outside is really because of my dad. Hands down. He was the first to take me fishing when I was little and even let me play hooky from school here and there. I accidentally told my teacher one time and he got a stern talking to. I totally spilled the beans on that one. I was a total Jersey beach rat for a long time too and spent a ton of time down the shore.
I began running in 2010 as a way of staying in shape after I stopped playing soccer and that took me outside a lot as well. It was also the same year Jay and I began dating and he is a hunter so that was a whole other world I was introduced to. I know there are a lot of negative opinions about hunters but in my experience, if you're going to consume meat, the most ethical way is through harvesting your own. We always spent a ton of time outdoors even if it was just to clear our heads. Jay's dad was also the one who introduced him to fishing and hunting so that's carried into our lives in so many ways.
In 2019 you witnessed/experienced an event that shook you to your core. Can you tell me in your own words, what happened?
We had recently gotten into Virginia and out of the Grayson Highlands in early May. We ended up taking a 0 in Marion because of some foot pain Jay was experiencing. We got back on in the Thomas Rogers Recreation area and ended up hiking about 16 miles that day through the section where you cross 81 by the Exxon.
" It's weird what you remember from terrible days."
We stopped at the gas station to eat lunch and I vividly remember opening my food bag and a waft of beef jerky came out; I was instantly nauseated and hated myself for trying to have a healthy resupply on trail.
Anyway, after we left we had a few miles until camp and there were two tent sites very close to each other. We decided to stop at the first one because we saw Ron there. He seemed welcoming and we spent the evening having dinner and getting to know each other quite a bit. Kirby stopped by after and asked if she could stay because James Jordan was shortly behind her and she didn't want to camp alone.
We decided we were all going to wake up really early to get out of there together. Jordan did show up and the rest is really not worth rehashing. My plan to leave as a group of four failed miserably and we ended up being chased out of the tent site. We ran/hiked a few miles to the road crossing where the Quarter Way Inn was. I was frantically looking for it but that road is so dark and remote. I did have cell service and had been repeatedly calling the police but it's really hard to explain to cops where you are on trail. A cop showed up about a half hour later and we just waited at the road crossing with our headlamps turned off because we honestly didn't know where he (Jordan) had gone. The following days are a gigantic blur. I actually just found emails that some of our Youtube followers sent us and I don't even remember reading them.
How did that affect you and the rest of your hike?
Quite honestly, it sort of affected me on a surface level at first. I was initially in a state of total shock and disbelief because the entire reason we were on the trail in the first place was because when I decided to stay with Jason on the Long Trail in 2017, we had 50 miles left until the end and received a devastating phone call that his dad was killed in a motorcycle accident.
We had to be driven home in the middle of the night and to this day we've never been able to finish those 50 miles. It still eats at me. When we got home from Vermont, our entire world had basically imploded. Jason lost a parent. I lost my father-in-law. It was a mess. The following year was so hard and I came home one day from work, stood in the kitchen and said "Can you imagine if we thru-hiked?"
Jay looked at me and said, "Why the hell not?"
I thought he was out of his mind but two weeks later he had 6 months off of work and I was absolutely dumbfounded. I never in my wildest dreams imagined we would attempt a thru-hike. Not ever.
It was a tragedy that took us to the AT.
When I found out Ron was killed and Kirby had been attacked, I crumbled. After the initial upset, we got an overwhelming amount of support from family, friends at home, and the entire community. I had no idea that it was going to be an international news story so that really took me by surprise. It created a ton of adrenaline too. We took two weeks off the trail to regroup and stayed near Asheville with some friends for a while but I had such a fire under me to get back on trail and keep crushing miles.
So many people wanted us to come home or assumed we were going to but my attitude was very much, you're either going to encourage me or get out of my way. I was absolutely determined to make it to Katahdin, which is why it still kills me that we weren't able to finish it in one shot.
(Gina and Husband after returning to trail, 2019, From Instagram: @Ginabeana238)
In 2021, you returned to the Appalachian Trail to attempt to complete your thru-hike, how did the events in 2019 affect you on your thru-hike of the AT in 2021?
This is where our story is deeply affected by 2019 in a number of ways. We lost a chunk of time because of the attacks in 2019 and I was on a hard deadline. I needed to be back for the start of the 2019 school year. I called my HR department and my boss to explain the entire situation but it was really difficult to articulate what happened and how it affected us.
To make a long story short, it was either I stay on trail and finish or I quit my job. There were a few weeks where I contemplated leaving my job but our whole reason for thru-hiking was to move forward and quitting my job would have really set us back. In hindsight, it would have set us back further than I could have pictured in that moment. I would have lost health insurance and we really wouldn't have been able to financially do it.
I was 30 at the time and not in a place where I could really be jobless and with how unstable things have been the last two years, I know I made the right decision. We chose to get off trail and it hurt, a lot but it was the right thing to do. We were all there: mentally, physically, emotionally but time was just not in our favor.
I went back to work in September feeling pretty salty about the whole thing but decided to just really focus my energy into my students. One of our administrators knew what had happened and one day chatted me up about it. She was the one who encouraged me to ask for another unpaid leave of absence so we could finish. At that point I had just accepted that we would have to finish in smaller sections over the course of several years. I had zero plans of asking my job for additional time. They were really supportive of me the first time around so I felt like I had no place to ask again but here was an admin telling me that I should. Why not? So a few months later, I made my pitch and my superintendent was gracious enough to grant me the leave for May of 2020 only to be totally railroaded AGAIN by Covid. Sigh. We postponed until 2021. This is why I said I do not give up on the things I start.
We put a lot of 'life' on hold for the trail. We didn't get a dog, we didn't buy a house, we didn't change jobs or spend money or really do much of anything because we knew we wanted to hike. We just never thought it would consume more than six months.
"When you plan a thru-hike, six months is a LONG time."
(Gina and her husband's return to trail, April 2021, From Instagram: @Ginabeana238)
When that turns into controlling more than two years of life, it starts to feel burdensome in some regards. About a month into being back on trail, I really realized how different things felt. We were no longer 'thru-hikers' we weren't apart of the class of 2021. Every time I met a thru-hiker, I felt this insane imposter syndrome as if I didn't belong there anymore and my time had passed.
I wasn't expecting to feel that way and it really persisted throughout the entire second half. Starting in Georgia and working your way through each state really bonds you with your class even if you don't know them well, there is still a common goal. I felt so disconnected from that and it really ate at me. I also experienced terrible homesickness by the time we were in Vermont. It would come in waves but I just felt this desire to be in the safety of my own space and I think a lot of that has to do with how completely out of control everything was that night in 2019.
I wanted to be in town much more, which I know isn't unusual by the time you get up north but I just didn't feel the same. I mentally battled with myself every day once we got into the Whites. It was so hard. So, so hard. I cried a lot and I felt some resentment over the fact that we were STILL out there and still not done yet.
"Thru hiking is incredible but something that is so taxing needs to have an end point."
We were beyond mentally fried during the second half from all of it. I just often found myself wishing we could have had a 'normal' experience without so many damn interruptions. I would do it again and again. I feel like our second half made me feel so vulnerable. The weather, the terrain, the mud all made me feel like the trail was trying to hurt me or at least push me to the absolute edge and stay there for days on end.
I vlogged a lot but I didn't always share what I'm sharing here because I never wanted to sound like I was ungrateful to have the chance to go back out. It was truly a gift to be able to finish our hike but a very heavy and burdensome gift. We carried a lot with us to Katahdin and it made it hard to relate to other people on trail. I am so happy we never quit or left or gave up even when my mind felt like it couldn't take it anymore. We just pushed and pushed.
"I know a lot of people say smiles over miles and I think there is a time and place for your hike to feel light and free and then there are times where you have to suffer. It is all a part of it."
(Gina and her husband at the Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail, 2021, Mount Katahdin, Maine)
Any other thoughts on the trail in general .
I'm still figuring out all the ways in which the trail will change us. It was the hardest and most grueling thing I've ever done and the second half kicked me in the teeth much more than the first. But when you see that sign. It is something that can only be experienced.
I could have never done it without Jay because I wouldn't have wanted to. We definitely didn't see our first few years of marriage including the loss of a parent, a thru hike and two attempted assault charges but here we are. I think the trail sinks into you even when you hate it, it still calls to you for some twisted reason only long distance hikers can understand. This is really the first time I'm sitting down and letting myself write about it in any depth. The last 4-5 months since getting home have been so crazy that I haven't focused on it much but I still think about it every day.
Now that you have finished the AT, how do you feel in general?
"I felt at such peace when we finished and first came home."
This year of teaching though has been incredibly chaotic because of Covid. I thought it was going to be normal since the kids are back in school but it's turned out to be worse than last year. I'm trying my best to take the endurance of the trail and transfer it over to school. Otherwise, I still can't believe that we did finish it. After everything that happened, I look at pictures and don't believe it's us. I think part of me never thought it would happen. I was always scared that something else was going to send us home but it didn't and I'm so thankful for that.
If you could share one bit of knowledge, advice with the world, what would it be?
Don't be afraid to ask for something; so as long as you are being respectful and not entitled. I didn't expect, earn, or deserve a leave of absence but I was given an incredible gift not once, but twice but I had to ask. I was honest and upfront but completely ready to be told 'no'. So many people tell me they could never have time off from their job and my situation was really tragic and different so I don't know what my job would have said otherwise.
"That was the hand we were dealt and I did everything I possibly could to heal from it."
I want to give. HUGE thank you to Gina for telling her story. I cannot image the roller coaster of emotions that she and her husband experienced from 2019 to today. The pain, the horror, and everything in between. Her story is one of trials and triumphs. Gina and her husband have since adopted a dog, Rip. Gina is still navigating the world of teaching during a global pandemic.
If you are interested in viewing Gina and her husband's vlogs from the Appalachian Trail their YouTube is : www.youtube.com/c/ItsWhoWeAre
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Sources
Jackman,T. 2021 "Man who fatally stabbed hiker on Appalachian Trail found not guilty by reason of insanity."That Washington Post. 4th April, 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/04/24/trail-killer-sentenced/