Carson City, Michigan (wood) – The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. certainly. But what about 2,200 miles across 14 states, and climbing and descending the equivalent of 16 Mount Everests?
Sound scary? Not for Betty Kellenberger. At 80 years old, she recently became the oldest woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. She is now recovering and reflecting on her latest adventure.
“You see amazing parts of our country, things you wouldn’t see otherwise,” Kellenberger said as she relaxed in her living room, sitting in a chair placed atop a large rug displaying a map of her trip. “So much wildlife. It’s just gorgeous.”
Kellenberger grew up on a farm in Howell, Michigan. She says she’s always been fascinated by the idea of a footpath that runs continuously more than 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine. It had always been a dream, but she says there was never a chance of sticking to the roughly six-month timeline.
“I always thought, ‘Oh, it would be so cool to hike the Appalachian Trail.’ Of course, I thought I would meet Daniel Boone, but that was always in the back of my mind,” she laughed.
No stranger to endurance, Kellenberger has amassed an extensive teaching career spanning more than four decades. She taught English and social studies primarily to seventh graders, as well as night classes for adults.
Throughout her life, Kellenberger has taken cross-country cycling trips and extended hiking trips in the Canadian Rockies and Peru. She said she had never been married, had no children, and no one had prevented her from taking a walk through more than a dozen states.
“As a result, no one hesitates to say, ‘We don’t think you should do this,'” Kellenberger said. “It makes it so much easier for me.”
One thing makes it more difficult: recovering from knee replacement surgery. Her doctor urged her to start simple.
“So I went to Harpers Ferry, aiming for the Shenandoahs — a fairly easy part of the trail — and started hiking,” Kellenberger explained. “And I could do it, with the knee replacement, everything. So I kept going.”
Kellenberger says she didn’t stress much about planning, preparing equipment or logistics. Without the ability to train for mountaineering in Michigan, she accepted the challenge of hiking her way into shape over months on the trail.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy estimates between 3,000 and 4,000 attempts to hike the entire trail each year. Less than 25% makes it the distance.
For Kellenberger, her first steps on the path began in 2024, a journey she describes as far from easy.
“You dream during the day,” she described with a smile. “You dream about food and you dream about what can I get out of this collection? What can make it lighter? Because every mountain must go up, and every mountain must come down.”
Suffering from dehydration, a concussion from a bad fall and Lyme disease, Kellenberger eventually reached the southern Virginia border before Mother Nature halted the progress completely, devastating the eastern United States with Hurricane Helen.
“Helen just destroyed that area of the south,” she recalled.
Kellenberger was able to change her northbound route until cold weather delayed her trip until the spring of 2025. While she was working in New England during the 2025 hiking season, Kellenberger said she began hearing rumblings that she would become the oldest woman to complete the trail.
The women’s age record previously belonged to Linda Vanderloop, who finished the course in 2024 at the age of 74. Kellenberger says she didn’t set out on the Appalachian Trail with the goal of becoming the oldest woman by hiking.
“You have to plant your feet, look at the view and then move forward with every step,” she explained. “You have to focus.”
More than 2,000 miles of walking have given her the opportunity to focus inward.
“You’re hiking alone, so you have your thoughts and you have time, and you have, you know, the presence of God and all those wonderful views, but the people you meet. They’re the shuttles. They’re the people who were hiking with you.”
The experience culminated in an emotional ending.
“So you’re a basket case. You have a lot of emotions because you’re excited to finish,” she recalled. “I was really looking forward to saying, ‘I’m done.’ But you also know you’re going to miss out big time. You won’t get what you have this way. This peace and serenity.”
Kellenberger highlighted Maine and New Hampshire as the most difficult but most beautiful stretches of the trail. One of her favorite memories from the trail involves seeing a full-grown adult deer in the backcountry of the Maine wilderness.
Now, having completed a difficult challenge, her next hurdle is returning to society.
“This life is a journey,” she said. “It may be a series of small journeys. Or perhaps all of life is a journey.” “The greater your effort, the greater your reward.”
Kellenberger now holds the title of the oldest woman to complete the entire route. She says this trip has left her in the best shape of her life, even after the knee replacement and all the bumps and bruises along the way. Next up for her: Hiking Iceland and maybe taking the North Country Trail.