Elizabeth Thomas (born 1987) is a thru-hiking champion and former women's unassisted speed record holder for the 2,181-mile (3,510 km) Appalachian Trail.[1][2] She holds the hiking "Triple Crown," having completed the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail.[3][4] She is the pioneer of the Chinook Trail in Washington and the Wasatch Range in Utah.[5] She is Vice President of the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West, an ambassador for the American Hiking Society,[6] and an outdoors writer for Wirecutter, a New York Times publication.[7] She is also Editor-in-Chief of Treeline Review, a hiking gear publication.[8] As of 2018, she completed 20 long-distance wilderness hikes.[9]
Early life
Thomas was born in Sacramento, California and experienced a "typical suburban upbringing."[10] As a child she was "really drawn to nature, but [...] wasn’t really that active." However, a first-grade trip to a mile-long nature trail made a big impression on her, and from then on she attempted to get her parents to take her back to the trail on weekends. (Cascade Hiker Podcast, Ep. 127, 4:30) Thomas's mother was born and raised "in a Japan that--and even now--is not really for equality...not a great place to be a woman. Women didn't really do physical activity, they didn’t run or anything;" therefore, Thomas's "becoming physically active, becoming adventurous was a way [she] rebelled as a teenager."[10] Her first extended urban hike was in Los Angeles, during which she traversed a 180-mile route that connected 300 staircases.[9]
Education
Thomas attended Claremont McKenna College.[5] During her years there, she became involved in outdoors clubs with fellow students and met professors who were also enthusiastic about hiking. (Cascade Hiker Podcast, Ep. 127, 5:42) After graduating, she earned a Master's in Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.[6][11] In the process, Thomas received the Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship for her research on long-distance hiking trails, conservation, and trail town communities.[11]
Career
Thomas had never been backpacking as of 2007. A year later, the summer after her senior year of college,[12] she completed her first thru-hike, the Tahoe Rim Trail, solo in six days. At the time, she "had a lot of experience dayhiking solo and doing big peakbagging trips with <24 hour goals" and had "car camped" and led a five-day backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon, but had never "overnight-in-the-woods" hiked.[12] She later completed her first major thru-hike: the 2,181-mile (3,510 km) Appalachian Trail.[4] In 2010, Thomas completed the 3,100-mile (5,000 km) Continental Divide Trail.[4]
Thomas has worked with the American Hiking Society since 2010, when she attended Hike the Hill in Washington D.C., a national event that unifies trail organizations, agencies, and politicians to advance the American trail system.[13] In 2011, Thomas hiked the 2,181-mile Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine, in 80 days and 13 hours.[2] Her trek set a record for the fastest female thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.[9][12] The female record was broken by Heather “Anish” Anderson in 2015,[14] who simultaneously broke the male record held at the time by Matt Kirk.[15] In 2018, Karel Sabbe beat Anderson's record.[16]
In 2013, Thomas near-completed a thru-hike of all of Denver, Colorado's breweries.[17] In 2014, Thomas, Whitney La Ruffa, and Brian Boshart pioneered the approximately 290-mile Chinook Trail in Washington.[18] In 2015, Thomas trekked the Sierra High Route. In 2017, Thomas published her book, Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-hike.[19] In August 2019, Thomas was featured in Condé Nast Traveller's feature story 14 Globetrotters Redefining the Way We Travel.[1] In March 2020, Thomas will be the keynote speaker at the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference.[20]
Thomas leads groups on urban hikes of 11 American cities.[1] One of the tours is the eight-day Urban Brew Thru,[5] her thru-hike of every brewery in Denver, Colorado,[17] totaling 60 establishments,[5] the course charting in at 88 miles.[1] She also leads the six-week online course Thru-Hiking 101[21] for Backpacker Magazine[4] and speaks at "colleges, outdoor clubs, hiking clubs, [and] women's groups."[10]
Bibliography
Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-hike (2017)[6]
