Caitlin Pristupa

Next Generation Advisory Council Member

How do you show gratitude to a trail that was your home for five months? How can you support the communities that generously welcome thru-hikers, section hikers, and day hikers? And how can you help protect the Appalachian Trail and its surrounding lands to ensure others can experience the trail for themselves for many years to come? These are all questions Caitlin Pristupa has asked herself since completing her thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2022.

For Caitlin, some of the answers lie in her professional life in water resources engineering, where she focuses on projects involving dams, landfills, and flood mapping. Inspired by the Appalachian Trail’s weaving along trailside communities, across infrastructure like North Carolina’s Fontana Dam, and through vast National Forests, Caitlin is dedicated to finding harmony between human-made infrastructure and the natural world. Outside of her professional work, Caitlin found further purpose by volunteering with the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, where she has contributed to trail maintenance and rerouting projects and connected with a passionate community of volunteers committed to maintaining and enhancing Georgia’s sections of the trail.

Caitlin is excited to continue exploring these post-trail reflections as a member of the NextGen Council. Deeply passionate about the stewardship and protection of the Appalachian Trail, she is eager to give back to the trail that gave her so much!