She’s the ultimate hiker — a whopping 30,000 miles since 2003

Published 1:30 am Sunday, October 6, 2019

Few can match the outdoor adventure resume of Heather “Anish” Anderson.

She made history by hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail in 60 days, 17 hours and 12 minutes — breaking the men’s record by four days.

Since 2003, Anderson’s hiked 30,000 miles. Since she replaces her hiking boots every 500 miles, that’s 60 pairs in 16 years.

Her treks include some of the nation’s longest and toughest trails:

The 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail (three times);

The 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail (three times);

The 750-mile Oregon Desert Trail (one time); and

The 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail (three times).

Last year, she completed the Appalachian Trail, The Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail all in one year — the first woman to do so. At nearly 8,000 miles, it’s known as the triple crown of hiking.

No wonder she was named National Geographic’s 2019 Adventurer of the Year.

Never content to rest, Anderson — “Anish” is her trail name, by the way — now intends to climb the 100 tallest peaks in Washington, from 14,417-foot Mount Rainier to 7,940-foot Three Fools Peak.

Oh, and somehow she also found time to write a book: “Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home.” True to form, she finished the book in just two months, which is light speed in the publishing world.

“Yup, I’m a very goal-oriented person,” she said.

Anderson, 38, who lives in the Seattle area, makes her living as a public speaker and author. She will share some of her insights on hiking and adventure during a talk Tuesday at the Marysville Opera House.

Kate Rogers, editor in chief at Seattle’s Mountaineers Books, which published Anderson’s book, faced unusual challenges in shepherding it through the editing process.

“She did write it very quickly,” Rogers said. Part of that was because Anderson wrote the book around the same time she was embarking on the “triple crown” hiking adventure.

“She turned a manuscript in and we rushed through editing,” Rogers said.

Final copy-editing was done while Anderson was hiking. Sometimes, that was a “zero mileage day” — a stop in town where she had access to a computer.

“A lot of times she was looking at things on her phone when she had a signal,” Rogers said.

Mountaineers staff monitored Anderson’s progress through her social media posts. In November, when they saw that Anderson had completed the final leg of the Continental Divide Trail to qualify for the triple crown of hiking, “a ripple of cheering went up and down the hallway here,” Rogers said.

Anderson hasn’t always been so athletic. Growing up in Michigan, “she was kind of a couch potato and reader,” Rogers said. It was in her early 20s that she went on her first hike. “That was the beginning of the transformation,” Rogers said.

When Anderson set a goal of completing her first major hike — the Appalachian Trail — she weighed 200 pounds. Although she lost 50 pounds training for the hike, “I still wasn’t in shape for the trail, but then nothing really gets you in shape for the trail,” Anderson said.

“It just sounded like a great adventure to me,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about backpacking. I said, ‘This is just like day hiking, except you sleep in the woods and it will just come together.’ That was part of the adventure. I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into.”

The thing that surprised her most on her long-distance hikes is the kindness of strangers — those who spotted her on a stop in a town near the trail and invited her home for dinner or gave her a lift to a grocery store for supplies.

Anderson tried to lead a typical life — getting married and working a desk job. “She just wasn’t happy,” Rogers said. She left that all behind to spend as much time as possible hiking in the mountains.

“She just finds solace on the trail,” Rogers said. “That’s where she finds meaning in her life. She has an energetic spirit and is happiest when she’s on the move.”

Sharon Salyer:425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.

If you go

Heather “Anish” Anderson, National Geographic’s 2019 Adventurer of the Year, will talk about her hiking adventures at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Marysville Opera House, 1225 Third St. Marysville. Tickets are $5 at the door. More at 360-363-8400 or tinyurl.com/OutdoorMV