Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Daut
Hi Carolyn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
In the spring of 2021, I set out on an adventure. I was alone, shouldering a backpack with five days of supplies and starting on one of the most famous footpaths in the world. As I turned thirty that April, I started my thru-hike of the 2193.1-mile Appalachian Trail. Every day, I would hike 15-25 miles and chronicle my adventure through watercolor sketches of daily life on the trail. Through rainy shelters, sweeping views, food, flowers, and towns along the way, this sketchbook captures both the extraordinary and mundane aspects of long-distance hiking. I started the hike insecure as a hiker and an artist, but I shed those doubts step by step. I found a confidence that was buried.
I became strong and fast, not just physically but mentally as well. My project creating art on the trail started as a hobby but grew into something more than that the further I made it to my final summit. After finishing the trial, I turned the art I had created on the trial into a book titled Paint, Sweat, and Tears: 150 Days on the Appalachian Trail. When I think about what I’ve accomplished and how it was to be out there, I feel it in my chest like I’m about to laugh or cry. It is almost painful, and it is hot to the touch. I hope I carry this feeling with me forever. I think that is what makes this experience unique. It was the experience of a lifetime, but not one that I had and left behind on that final summit. This journey will affect the trajectory of my life, rippling out in new and unforeseeable ways. I changed the moment I walked over that bridge in Harpers Ferry. Exactly how I continue to change is still in the wild for me to discover.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
I can’t summarize what hiking the Appalachian Trail was like for me. The feelings are either too massive and all-encompassing or too bland and miniscule. But I want to try. Hiking the Appalachian Trail feels like the space surrounding an open summit, with wind whistling through the grass. Hiking the Appalachian Trail is the electric zing of every nerve and muscle in tension not to startle a bear staring out from the underbrush. Hiking the Appalachian Trail is spreading warmth as the sun breaks through rain clouds, just for a second. Hiking the Appalachian Trail is packing and unpacking the same bag the same way, every night and every morning. Hiking the Appalachian Trail tastes like instant coffee and hot chocolate at a picnic table with friends. Hiking the Appalachian Trail feels like the hot shower at the end of a long week, the cold mist of a waterfall, the crunch of leaves, and the heat of a fading sunset. Hiking the Appalachian Trail is sublime, and it is monotonous. It is terrifying, and it is awe-inspiring. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever done. It is the most challenging thing I have ever done. Hiking the Appalachian Trail is a thousand tiny moments, good and bad, that, when strung together, make something more than the sum of its parts.
Thanks for sharing that. Can you tell us more about your work next?
I am a certified Interior Designer. This is a career that I am very passionate about. I went to school for Interior Architecture and have worked professionally for the last ten years. I love being a designer and am a passionate advocate for the profession.
Interior design is often misunderstood. What certified interior designers can execute is more similar to architecture than decorating, which has become associated with this title. In modern practice, interior designers act as specialists within the larger architectural team. As an interior designer, I have the education and expertise to produce entire sets of construction documents, work with contractors and clients, review electrical and mechanical drawings, space plan entire buildings to meet international building code standards, and more. The selection of materials, furniture, and finishes is also under a designer’s scope, representing a very small portion of the work. Interior design is more than pillows and paint. We live, work, play, learn, and heal in the interior spaces of buildings.
I am very proud of my work, and one of my specialties is visual representation, sketching, and rendering. I discovered watercolor sketching in college, and since then, I have taken my sketchbook and watercolor set everywhere. It’s been ten years since I discovered watercolor as a medium, and every day since then, I have carried a sketchbook with me, recording everyday scenes, sunsets, mountains, coffee shops, breweries, and everywhere in between.
When I set out to hike the Appalachian Trail, I knew I wanted to bring my sketchbook along for the ride. What I didn’t expect was to have what I’ve always considered a hobby blossom into something more than that. Sketching every day, often under adverse conditions like the constant rainstorms of the A.T., made me more creative, wise, and happier to immerse myself in the page. More than just a travelogue, this intimate portrait tells a story of self-discovery and perseverance through a five-month backpacking adventure’s physical and mental challenges.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Taking those first steps, alone on the Appalachian Trail, with just what I could carry on my back to sustain me, may have been the most significant risk I have taken. Five months of solo backpacking through the most rugged terrain in America tested every part of me: grit, optimism, determination, persistence, and ambition.
Pricing:
- Paint, Sweat and Tears: 150 Days on the Appalachian Trail: $28.95
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.carolyndaut.com
- Instagram: @careyoutside
