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Date
Time
Age: 4th through 12th grade
Disciplines: Culture, Art, History, Science
Title: Wandering the Appalachian Trail Through Time and Space
Join Nika (Early Bird), John (Megapod), and Rob (Gazer) for a wild and varied adventure on the A.T. through the lenses of cosmic place, history, art, and physical and perceived time. Through storytelling and engaging visual content we hope to transport viewers to places and moments that are full of impermanence, wonder, and vastness.
Presenters/Bios:
Nika “Early Bird” Meyers is an artist, outdoor educator and thru-hiker who grew up in the hills of Vermont nestled among fresh produce and hardwoods just a few miles from the AT. Inspired by curiosity, she has celebrated place as a backcountry caretaker, taught the wonders of the natural world, worked on trail crews, followed migratory birds to Costa Rica, and has hiked over 10,000+ miles across the United States connecting communities, landscapes and ecosystems. Now the process of making art transports her to places and moments that are full of magic, change, wild silliness, and demanding challenge. Her most recent wandering on the AT was setting the Unsupported Female Fastest Known Time on the Long Trail where time and space were experienced very differently than ever before. (LT 2012 and 2019, PCT 2014, CDT 2016, AT 2018)
John “Megapod” Hansen is the Principal of Barnard Academy, a small PreK to Grade 6 public school located about six miles from the closest AT crossing. He is also a founding member of the Pemi Valley Search and Rescue Team in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Megapod’s thru-hike wandering on the AT took place in 1988, when personal cell phones, GPS devices and light-weight hiking gear did not exist.
Rob “Gazer” Hanson teaches sixth grade at the Woodstock Elementary School, co-directs the Horizons Observatory, and has thru-hiked the Long Trail (2016) and John Muir Trail (2018). Living within two miles of the A.T., Rob loves roaming, running, and serving as an “angel” on the trail. He has also worked closely with the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park over the past 20 years introducing a host of young adults to the culture and beauty of Vermont’s mountains and rivers. Rob’s wanderings will provide a perspective of the trail from a cosmic sense of place.