Nikki Bettis (far right) pulled off the unthinkable. Photo: 32 Feet Up
Hiking the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail is a monumental achievement for anyone. Now imagine doing it with 13 kids in tow – it sounds almost impossible. But that’s exactly what Nikki Bettis set out to do. In March 2023, she and 13 of her 15 children began their journey from Georgia, determined to conquer the iconic trail.
After going through a divorce and the closure of two businesses during the pandemic, Bettis saw her family drifting apart and decided a thru-hike was the remedy. Hiking the Appalachian Trail, a dream she’d had since childhood, seemed like the perfect way to reconnect. Seven months later, after hopping around sections of the route and experiencing the highs and lows of life on trail, the family completed the impossible and hiked the AT in its entirety.
The small army gained a following on the hike through their social media posts on their page titled “32 Feet Up” – representative of each foot of Bettis and her 15 children. (Two of the 15 children stayed at home and hiked sections with the family.)
More than a year since they completed the hike, Bettis says the positive, long-term effects on her children are undeniable. But how did they pull it off? At the time of the hike, Bettis was 46 and her children ranged from four to 23 years old. I called Bettis to reflect on the experience and explain how she orchestrated the seemingly impossible task.
I’m sure you get this question all the time. How do you respond when people ask, “How the hell did you do it?”
Just day to day. When we started, we didn’t know if we would make it. Our goal was to complete the trail, but we never set out to break records. We got out there for our own reasons and to unite the family again. There was a lot of focus put on my four-year-old as being the youngest hiker to ever do the AT and I think, had we done it with those intentions in mind, we would have never made it because you’re constantly striving to attain what people expect of you. We were just out there doing it for us. One of the well-known rules on trail is to never quit on a bad day. We’ve been through so much in our lives that we knew that every bad day will end and it’ll be different tomorrow as long as you go to bed with that attitude. You get up and you do it again until you’re 2,200 miles in.
All for vistas like this. Photo: 32 Feet Up
How long did it take you to plan the trip?
I started planning in June of 2022 and we left in March of 2023, so less than a year. I originally planned for 2025 thinking (my youngest child) could do the miles at that point. Then I got excited, we had some family issues, and life was kind of falling apart. So I was like, ‘Well, what if we just move it to 2024? She could probably go by that point.’ The more we actually got the specific gear to thru-hike, the more excited I got, until one day, I think it was towards the end of summer 2022, I looked at the kids and said, ‘Why not just leave in March?’ So 2025 turned into 2023.
What were some of your biggest concerns before starting? And were those concerns validated on the trail?
My biggest concern was the cold and safety around other hikers. I didn’t want to jeopardize my kids’ safety. But we had hiked and backpacked enough to know that most of the people out there are good people. With the cold, we were way overpacked. It wasn’t as much of an issue as I thought it would be. We realized there was a lot of excess in our packs, so we began to weed it out.
How much did it cost to hike with so many kids?
People on the internet say the cost is $1,000 a month for a single person. If you party the trail up, yeah, it’s going to be expensive. Some people go into the breweries, but we didn’t do that. We don’t eat out a lot anyway because there are so many of us. I have a child support budget of $2,400 a month and we came in under budget every month. I never added up the total cost, but I was able to save money on trail. It ranged between $1,800 and $2,200 a month for all 16 of us. That’s including the two kids that came and went because I paid for them to come see us. That also included the electricity at home, keeping the power on for one of the boys to stay and take care of the other dogs we have. The months that got expensive were when we needed new shoes. We all went through three sets of shoes because we changed about every 700 miles.
If the cold wasn’t a big challenge, what was the biggest challenge?
The point where we hit the end of Virginia. We consider Virginia home way more than North Carolina. I don’t think there’s a trail in the state that we haven’t hiked. We’ve hiked most of the southern part of the U.S., but not the north. So when we finished Virginia, there were a lot of unknowns. The kids were homesick. We realized we were leaving everything familiar and most of the people that could come out and see us would not be able to after that point. When we got to Harpers Ferry, which is considered the halfway point, a lot of the older kids wanted to go home. We all struggled and that was probably the lowest point that we encountered on trail. We all sat around one night and got to the root of it. Once we openly talked about our fears, addressed them, and rationalized and planned according to their fears, we picked up and kept hiking.
Not a bad way to spend your summer. Photo: 32 Feet Up
What was your high point?
Each of the kids will answer that differently. But my personal moment was Franconia Ridge and the (White Mountains). It was a powerful day. The Whites were so foreboding to us. Everybody told us the kids wouldn’t make it, that it was dangerous. The day we got to Franconia Ridge, there were no clouds up there. A lot of hikers don’t get views up there, but it was sunny for us. We had the views and walked along the ridge line, all the kids were single file, and we made it. That was the epitome of the entire hike because I knew if we could get to that point, we were going to (be able to finish the entire trail).
Would you recommend a thru-hike to other families?
What I tell other people is to find what their family thrives on. What do you do to come together as a family? Go do that. For some it’s kayaking. For some it’s backpacking. If you put away the screens and get back to the basics of who you are as a family unit and each person individually, it makes a world of difference.
There are some critical comments online, namely about your impact on the trail, disruption for other hikers, pulling the kids away from schooling for a year, etc. Do you hear that criticism and, if so, how do you deal with it?
I’ve gotten better at it. I don’t take criticism well. I’m very sensitive and a people pleaser. In the beginning, when I first put a post out on one of the bigger AT Facebook pages, there was a lot of criticism, just awful, awful stuff. We backpacked all the time before we did this, but I didn’t expect that kind of reaction from the public. So I didn’t think we would be well received at all when we first started. But once we got out on trail, the actual hikers that were out there hiking were nothing like what’s on the internet. The people out there hiking, actually doing the miles, are a whole different breed compared to what exists on the internet. But I got better at taking (the criticism) too. You’re so busy hiking and doing daily life that you really don’t think about it. I got to a point where I didn’t review the comments. I ignored it and it was really peaceful.
You’ve said the hike helped reforge your family bond. Now that you’ve had more time to reflect on the hike, have there been other lasting effects?
Absolutely. My kids grew in ways that they would have never grown otherwise. I love hearing the kids talk about it. It (instilled) leadership and responsibility – everything a parent wants to see develop in their kid that you’re constantly aspiring to teach them. By the end of the hike, each had evolved into their responsibilities. I didn’t start out saying, ‘You do this, you do that.’ We figured out what each kid was good at because they enjoy it. The 19-year-old who stayed home took on resupply. We had leaders, someone in the back to make sure everybody was corralled and on track, a crew that gathered firewood at night. You don’t have to tell them to do it. You can see that growth in them and the maturity that you’re not going to get at home.
What’s the status of the family now? Are things back to normal like they were pre-hike?
We’ve come a long way. Before we left, we were isolated. There were not a lot of extracurricular activities due to finances and where we were in life. It’s given them such ambition and goals. We have five that are in rugby now. Two went back to get jobs in the fields that they wanted, working with animals. Things have improved, I’ll say that much. With the older ones, there’s not a huge desire to thru-hike again, but they loved what was on trail so much that they’re willing to do it.
Bettis and her family mostly enjoyed good weather during the hike. Photo: 32 Feet Up
You’ve mentioned hiking the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) in 2026. Is that still the plan?
Yeah. We’ll do the Mountains to Sea Trail (North Carolina) in April. Then our goal is to do the Oregon Coast Trail in September. So that will be two shorter thru-hikes next year. Then we’ll do the CDT in 2026
How many of the 15 kids will join you on those hikes?
We’re still going round and round about that. In fact, the CDT got put off because my 23-year-old is pregnant. Our plan was to do the CDT in 2025, but she’s due in February and she wants to go so bad. She said if we could hold off, she’ll hike it with her baby in 2026 because that’ll make the baby about a year old or so. She loves being on trail as much as I do. So the goal is to be able to take the baby in 2026.
Will you change the name of the group now that there is an addition to the family?
We joke about that. But no, it’ll be the original 32 feet plus two more. But as far as next year with those shorter hikes, I don’t want the kids to quit their jobs. So there will probably be three fewer kids for those two hikes. But for the CDT, we’ll all go again.
