Mud, Rocks, Blazes Quotes

“Thank you,” I said softly to my feet. “Thank you,” I repeated to my legs. I placed my hands on my heart. “Thank you, most of all.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“Through the process I discovered—to my absolute incredulity— that the deepest scars were not the ones inflicted by others. They were from the wounds I’d inflicted on myself. These cuts came each time I had told myself I failed. That I wasn’t good enough. That I was ugly, fat, worthless, incapable.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“The Pacific Crest Trail had prepared me, but it was the Appalachian Trail that finally cracked me open, allowing me to heal.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“The southern Appalachians were the mountains of my past, and now my present. The ones I would hold in my heart for all the days of my life.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“Then, last night under the moon, I’d moved from self-acceptance to self-love.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“The daylight following a full moon always seems warmer, softer. It vies for your love, lest you forsake it for the placid, blue ambiance of the night.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“I looked down at my knees, feet, and legs—overwhelmed by the many places they had taken me, over so many mountains, through rivers and dry canyons, into deep snow, and across jagged lava flows. I’d hurt them, healed them, pushed them . . . and yet they had always rallied. I felt awash with the blessing of having done what I’d done and to still be driving forward into new realms of self-exploration.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“The trail was my sanctuary, more so now than ever before. It was the only place I could feel whole, content, and connected to all that was beyond myself.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“I live here in these mountains now—finding myself yet again,”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“The trail provides,” I said, smiling as I recited the mantra of hikers everywhere.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“Perhaps the most appreciated part about the Appalachian Trail through Shenandoah National Park,”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“A nemophilist, I loved dwelling in the womb of the forest.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“Perhaps I’d been born that way, but my many miles on trail had made me more comfortable in nature than anywhere else. More comfortable in the presence of wild animals and trees than with people.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“I really wonder sometimes, how exactly I became this woman,” I said to the night. A woman who slept in the woods, ate to move, drank from wild waters, and crushed miles to clear her soul. A woman covered in dirt, with unshaven legs, and an authentic smile. A woman who was both feral and content.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“It takes a certain level of insanity to seek a record on a twothousand-mile-long trail.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“Pain and hardship are integral to any thru-hike, as they are to life in general. It is suffering that is a mindset.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“Do you remember ever having a bad day on that hike? “No.” Why not? “I was hiking with determination and passion for adventure.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“You’re stronger than you believe. Just do your best.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“everything was lit by pearly sunlight filtering through the high windows, like the woods at twilight.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“had to let go of my own expectations in order to find out what I was truly capable of doing.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“In the days behind me, I’d cried thinking my hike was over too many times to count. Yet always the magic of the mountains—whether crane, porcupine, moose, or river—had reassured me that all was not lost.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“All I can do is my best. Every day. One step, one blaze at a time.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“The river had not taken anything. Instead it had given me something great: hope.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“I walked over to the river, feeling like I should thank it for allowing me to live—and for providing me with answers, even though they weren’t the ones I’d wanted.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“I want to seek to be stronger, braver, and more courageous in everything from communicating to hiking. I can’t let the past define me, but to do so, I need to create a new present and future.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“If you’re not scared, you aren’t pushing yourself. If you’re not pushing yourself, you’re not going to expand your limits. You’d just be living in the realm of the safe and stagnate.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“When I made my way down the trail, I would be on my own: reliant on the boxes I had shipped to myself and purchases I would make along the way, able to accept only spontaneous kindness from strangers—trail magic.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“I inhaled, mindful only of the mountain, the fog, and my thoughts.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“In a short time, I was atop the mountain and realized I hadn’t met Destiny. Instead, I’d found Life. I was in love with the mountains—with living in nature.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail

“There was something I needed to learn out there on the rocky, rooty trail.”
― Heather Anish Anderson, Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail