Trail Magic
Earlier this year, police apprehended a woman distributing LSD and mushrooms on North America’s Appalachian Trail. It wasn’t a huge bust, and so it barely made a ripple in the news. However, it made its way onto our radar, and when it did, we thought, ‘How the hell do you sell LSD and mushrooms in the woods?’ And also, ‘Who the hell buying LSD and mushrooms in the woods?’ And also, also, ‘Are trail runners buying LSD and mushrooms in the woods?’ We needed answers, which meant we absolutely had to talk to this psychedelic dispensing hiker for the issue of POSSESSED you’re currently reading.
Saying Jane (not her real name) was tough to track down would be an understatement. But we found her, and, as luck would have it, she didn’t want to talk to us. However, after long and a tedious campaign of begging and badgering, we eventually got Jane on the phone and had a very enlightening discussion about bears, blind hikers, skinny-dipping, and a queer phenomenon called ‘Trail Magic’ in the Appalachians Mountains.
Hi, Jane!
Hello.
Are you there? Can you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you.
This is Jason from POSSESSED magazine. I’ve been messaging you last few days about doing an interview.
Okay.
So, just to refresh your memory, POSSESSED is a trail running magazine, and this interview is for our psychedelic issue, which is all about trail running, the great outdoors, mushrooms, LSD, etc.
Uh-huh.
And I saw your story about getting busted and thought it’d be cool to chat. I understand if you’re feeling a little nervous, but I promise we won’t reveal your identity.
Okay.
So, I guess we should start by talking about psychedelics in the hiking community and in the Appalachians. Is it a big thing?
For some… I mean, there are definitely plenty of people who are using, for sure. But I think a lot more people are using for PTSD, and they don’t know where else to go except for the trail. And they come back over and over again. I call them repeat offenders on the trail, you know, they just go from one trail to another, or stay here on the east coast… But, yeah, I would say a good percentage of the hiking community do mushrooms and LSD.
When you say they keep returning to the trail, do you mean they get hooked on hiking or are they coming back to get high?
Oh, hooked on hiking, for sure. Once you’ve done a thru-hike… Almost everyone who completes a thru-hike will do another hike on some other trail or come back and do the same one again.
I don’t know too much about the Appalachian Trail. I read Bill Bryson’s book [A Walk in the Woods] years ago... How long does it take to walk it?
Approximately six months, but for those of us who don’t want it to end, it will take a little bit longer, y’know? I mean, when I was getting close to completion, I definitely slowed down and took a lot more side trails, which helped me enjoy it that much more. I didn’t want it to end; I didn’t want to go back to Florida. I was a real estate agent in Florida.
No way.
Yeah. And I decided to give that up to be an artist on the Appalachian Trail.
How did you initially get from Florida to the Appalachian Trail? Did you just go on a hiking holiday and get hooked?
Pretty much. When I first looked up hiking, I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon and do all these big hikes, but I was in Florida, and the logistics and cost of hiking in the Grand Canyon was a lot, and in some of those places you need to have permits etcetera. But the Appalachian Trail was at my back door—it was right there—and it was a lot cheaper to get to and to do. And, with all the towns close together, you can carry less food, you know? Like, every three days you can go to town for food, so you don’t need to carry so much.
So, when did psychedelics get involved?
Well, I guess it was… I started coming to the trail in 2016 and I thru-hiked in 2018, and I started a mural painting tour in 2019, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. So, the first time would have been 2016, the first time I came out to the trail… I was kind of a loner at that point. I didn’t have a trail name [trail names are monikers used by the hardcore trail community], and I didn’t really know the trail community just yet. I was learning how to hike. I did what we call a ‘LASH’—a Long-Ass Section Hike—in my first year, which was 600 miles, and then in my second year, I did 900 miles—
Wow.
Yeah, and then I decided I didn’t want to do it in sections. I wanted to thru-hike—
Do the whole thing in one go.
Yeah, so I did that in 2018. That first year, I ran out of money. That was the biggest setback. I loved the hiking, though, and by the time I got home to Florida, that was it—I loved it. I loved the mountains, everything. Florida is flat, and I’d never really gotten the chance to see mountains like that before, and I was in love with it, so… yeah.
That’s awesome. Do see a lot of trail runners up there?
Yes, and I always wonder how the fuck they can run, because walking is hard enough with a 40-pound pack. I know they’re carrying a lot less when they’re trail running, but still, it’s kinda treacherous, you know what I mean? I’d fall on my face for sure [laughs].
Are the trail runners taking mushrooms or LSD?
Hello.
“Most people are smoking weed on the trail, and if they’re smoking weed, they’ll probably do some LSD and mushrooms, but for the most part you’ll find smokers over hardcore partiers.“
