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Q&A: Paying It Forward on the Appalachian Trail, with Youtuber Jessica Mills [1]

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Date: 2025-01-31

Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.

Jessica Mills set out on the Appalachian Trail in 2015 and, by the looks of her YouTube channel Homemade Wanderlust, she hasn’t slowed down much since. Mills has gone on to hike many of America’s longest trails, including the Pacific Crest Trail and the more than 3,000-mile long Continental Divide Trail. Her travels have brought her, on foot, to small towns all across America.

In this interview, we discuss the generosity she’s received from rural people along the way, what travel to small towns can teach us about ourselves, and what inspired her to set out in the first place.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Will Wright, The Daily Yonder: Let’s start by giving folks a sense of your background and where and how you grew up. What sparked your interest in hiking to this extent? Were you always outside as a kid?

Jessica Mills: I actually grew up until high school in West Palm Beach, Florida, but I would go visit a lot in North Carolina and in Alabama and more rural areas. But even as a kid in my little neighborhood, I was always outside. There are orange trees in everybody’s yard, and so I was always climbing orange trees, and we had canals down there, so I’d go fishing in the canals or looking for alligators and stuff like that. Even living in a more urban area, being outside was my thing. I just loved it. We didn’t have tablets and iPhones and all that stuff that the kids have now, and the only time I played Sega Genesis [a video game] was on a rainy day.

Jessica Mills’ YouTube Channel “Homemade Wanderlust” has taken viewers along her thru-hikes of the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and more. (Photo provided)

We would go on vacation a lot up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But the first time I remember learning about the Appalachian Trail, I was like five years old and we were on vacation and we went up to Newfound Gap and I saw the state line signs at North Carolina and Tennessee. And so I was like, “Oh my God, this is so cool that you can be in two states at one time.” Across the parking lot, there was another sign and I asked my mom what it said and she’s like, “Oh, that’s the Appalachian Trail, that’s where people walk from Georgia to Maine.” And it just sounded so adventurous to me, so intriguing. Like what? People walk from the state of Georgia all the way to Maine and live outside for days and days? My parents talked about how dangerous it was and that people had died doing it, and that just made it sound more exciting. My mom said one day when you get older you can do it, and I was like well let’s go walking down the trail a little ways. When you’re five, you don’t really have a sense of time and distance and whatever, but I remember trying to get her to walk far enough to where it would make sense to just say, “Well, now we’re so far, we might as well finish the trail.” We had probably done like a mile or something and we turned around and went back. But she said one day if this is something you really want to do, you can do it. That’s kind of where the seed was planted.

DY: Being on a trail like the Appalachian Trail means being in the woods, but it also means being in a lot of small towns and walking through them. I remember watching your videos and being amazed by just how many people gave you stuff and helped you out with what they call “trail magic.” Can you explain what that is?

JM: “Trail magic” is something that is given to a hiker by what we call “trail angels.” And it’s basically just a random act of kindness, typically by somebody who’s not backpacking the trail themselves. Basically it’s somebody who’s outside of the trail and they just are so drawn to people chasing their dreams and doing these long hikes that they want to help. So that could be somebody that gives you a ride or, typically, when people think of trail magic, you think of food, because that is one of the best things for a hiker. It’s more important than money if you’re on trail. Just being in the middle of the woods and then there’s a tent set up and people are passing out hamburgers, you know? It’s just so odd. You don’t experience things like that in normal life, but on the trail, especially the Appalachian Trail, it’s pretty common.

DY: And in terms of seeing small towns and rural America, I think there’s something to be said for the slowness of walking through it. I know that’s not feasible for a lot of people, but as you’ve done all these trails and seen and walked through more small towns across the country than most people, has that allowed you to learn anything about rural communities in ways you didn’t expect?

JM: Yeah, for sure. Especially on the Appalachian Trail, where these communities know that hikers are coming through, they really celebrate that. I mean the fact that there are people who will offer you a ride or offer you to stay at their house for free — just because? You don’t see that happening in the middle of Atlanta for example. I would say these smaller towns, they just have a more welcoming feel.

And on the Appalachian Trail, there’s so much culture and so much history. You could read little informational signs for days and days and days. It’s just incredible.

On the Pacific Crest Trail, too, you have a lot of people who are super kind and helpful, who just think it’s really cool that you’re doing what you’re doing and they like to be a part of it.

DY: With people being so kind to you as a stranger, what have you learned about generosity more generally? Has it changed your perspective on what it means to be generous?

JM: Yeah. I mean, as good as it felt to receive all of that help, it kind of put a sense of obligation in me to pay that forward. There’s no way I can pay them back for what they were able to do for me in that moment. As amazing as it is to receive that generosity, being on the giving end of it feels pretty good: doing the trail magic yourself, when you get to see hikers dragging in and then they see you and they light up. It sounds cliche, but it kind of restores your faith in humanity in some ways, that people are still willing to be so selfless.

This interview first appeared in Path Finders, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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[1] Url: https://dailyyonder.com/qa-paying-it-forward-on-the-appalachian-trail-with-youtuber-jessica-mills/2025/01/31/

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