How hiking 5,700km solo across America put life into perspective for young consultant
Jessica Guo became the first woman to hike a continuous route linking the Continental Divide Trail with the Great Divide Trail
It was the dead of night, four days into a journey to trek 5,699 kilometres (3,541 miles) across America alone, when hiker Jessica Guo realised a mountain lion was following her.
She first saw its glowing eyes close to the only water source for dozens of kilometres – one she would have liked to use to refill her supplies.
She had nowhere to hide.
“What you’re supposed to do when you see a mountain lion is talk to them very directly and aggressively. You want to back away, facing them and keep talking,” says Guo, who is now back home in Seattle, in the US state of Washington.
For two hours, she spoke nonstop to the cat as it followed her through the woods, before it eventually turned away. She deliberately walked at night again the next day, to ensure fear did not win.
That resilience is how Guo became the first woman to hike a continuous route linking the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) in the United States with the Great Divide Trail (GDT) in Canada, following the spine of the Rockies from the Mexican border to remote Kakwa Lake in British Columbia.