The Toughest Terrain Might be in Your Mind: Rebecca Sperry, Socked In (encore)

I’ve got a special encore for you this week. Back in June of 2021, I talked to Rebecca Sperry, aka SockedInHikes on Instagram, as a result of the powerful story she was sharing on social media at the time about her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and desire to continue to hike (mostly solo) despite, and kind of because of, the mental and physical challenges she was facing as she fought for her life. Literally.

Pulling that two-parter back together into a single episode gave me a very justifiable reason to spend time reading through all of Rebecca’s blog posts from the past many months of her tracing.

For those who don’t know, a White Mountain Trace is an attempt to walk every mile of every trail in the White Mountain trail guide. A daunting lifetime goal, for sure, because with all the backtracking and spur trails, a Trace amounts to over 2000 miles of hiking.

And Rebecca is currently trying to complete the trace in just 15 months, which would make her the fastest female on record ever to do so.

It has been NUTS to follow her progress, even if you didn’t know that this is Rebecca’s third attempt at this fastest known time, because the first two attempts were stymied by COVID, and then a life threatening battle with breast cancer. Let that sink in for a minute.

Her amazing blog, Rebecca Sperry.com, has a meticulously documented recounting of her White Mountain Trace efforts. It’s hugely inspiring, but also often very raw, and so truthful, and a remarkable window into the soul of someone who spends many, many hours alone with themselves in nature.

Despite the powerfully difficult circumstances of Rebecca’s last few years, she has continued to persevere, putting one foot in front of the other (and a bazillion miles on her car), and sharing a peek into her internal landscape that wanders from inspirational to devastating to relatable, probably an unintended metaphor for some of the trails she’s been bushwhacking through over the past year.

Rebecca is just a few weeks away from either finishing and achieving her goal, or not. But regardless of the outcome, her words, whether here or in writing, will completely rock your soul. This conversation is from June, 2021, but I think it’s an even more powerful listen today, knowing all that Rebecca has undertaken and achieved since then. I know it’s a long one, but I promise, take a nice long walk or two and listen end to end, you won’t regret it.

When she writes a book about this experience - and she better freaking turn this into a book! - I’ll be first in the pre-order line, I can tell you that much. And I’m hoping to have Rebecca back on the pod very soon to talk about some of her last 15 months - but only if she wants to, because one thing is very clear by now, she is writing her own damn story, and none of us have any right to it unless she decides to share it.

Some links to share:

And SO MANY more here!:
https://www.guidesgonewild.com/podcast/rebecca-sperry-socked-in-hikes-you-are-capable-of-more