Talk 8 at State Episode 8: Getting Outside with Abby Hepp Transcript

Eliza Barsanti: Welcome to the department of Health and Exercise Studies’ Talk 8 at State Podcast with your host, Eliza Barsanti!

EB: A couple weeks into the Fall 2020 semester, Covid-19 precautions caused NC State to put all classes online. This switch caused a lot of change in the lives of NC State students, forcing them to step out of their typical day-to-day routines in favor of something different. Abby Hepp ‘23 took this as an opportunity to go on the adventure of a lifetime-hiking, camping, and climbing her way across the United States! Today, we sit down with her to talk about her cross-country road trip, along with advice and NC State resources that students can use to get outside and craft their own adventures.

EB: Okay, so today we are sitting down with Abby Hepp. Abby, would you like to introduce yourself to the podcast?

Abby Hepp: Hi my name is Abby Hepp, I am majoring in Communication Media at NC State and I'm currently a sophomore.

EB: Awesome! So we're going to get right into it! Today we're going to be talking about some of your adventures that you've been going on in the past few years and using to inspire other people as well, so let's start with- how did you become involved in outdoor activities and adventuring initially?

AH: First of all, thank you for having me and initially will growing up, I would say my family was moderately active and you know I kind of had the typical playing outside with the neighbors childhood. My dad also worked at the US National Whitewater Center from the time I was six to about 14 in Charlotte so I was just kind of naturally surrounded by an outdoorsy community throughout my childhood. But I would say that going to camp when I was 13 is really what made me fall in love with the outdoors. As an older teenager I attended adventure tracks, which is an awesome outdoor leadership and education camp where you typically spend about three or four weeks with 20 or so other students and about six instructors and you get to backpack rock climbing mountain bike kayak stuff like that, and you sleep in a tent every night you're there. I went on two of those trips. One was in Northern California and the other one was in Alaska and I can't even put into words how much those trips impacted me as a person and gave me some of my most treasured friendships so that's kind of how I fell in love with that.

EB: Oh, my gosh that is so cool! So you definitely kind of had this internal drive to you know get adventuring that's so neat.

AH: Or at least I was encouraged, yeah.

EB: That’s so unique. So moving on to the next question, how have you been able to stay involved in these things - in outdoor adventuring and activities - after moving away from home, moving away from that environment, and into your new home of NC State?

AH: Well, the number one thing that I do is just try to get outside in any way that I can, even if it's just walking around campus for an hour or so on a nice day that's really important to me. Freshman year I went on a backpacking trip to the Grayson Highlands and a beach camping trip with the NC State Adventure Club. But since the pandemic started I haven't really done a whole lot on campus to be honest. I have looked a bit into NC State’s Outdoor Leadership minor program which I know has a lot of awesome classes, but I haven't completely committed to them yet.

EB: Yeah, the Outdoor Leadership Minor’s awesome. We had Scott Schneider, who is a professor in the minor, come on to the podcast a few weeks back and he has so much information on it, so if anyone listening is interested in the outdoor leadership minor, you should check out that episode of the podcast. But that's awesome! I think also getting outside in any way you can is just, you know, it's good for everything! It's good for physical health, it's good for mental health, it's amazing. So, moving on from that, when classes shifted to online delivery this semester you saw a unique opportunity to step out of your normal routine and have the adventure of a lifetime, so can you tell us a little bit about this experience?

AH: Yeah, of course, so when my roommate Jessie Richards and I heard classes were going to be completely online, we realized that traveling and being able to, you know, get outside would be probably more rewarding for us than staying in Raleigh. And we decided that we could safely go on a cross country trip, with just the two of us and kind of started planning and it turned out to be the best semester actually. It was both a really cool and kind of daunting experience to plan it all out and decide for ourselves what exactly we wanted to do and see. So, a very independent experience for me. But we went through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and then Colorado, which is where we stayed for about a week to be able to really hike around and do some camping. Hiking in Crested Butte and around Rocky Mountain National Park was probably the highlight of that trip, for me. Originally we were going to turn around and come home after that, but then we decided to go all the way to the Grand Canyon because, why not? And that was amazing as well, because we got to hike on the Bright Angel Trail in the Canyon. As well as to stay in a yurt near Flagstaff which was very unforeseen but a very cool part of the adventure that kind of randomly fell into our laps. Also getting to see the stars in the Grand Canyon was a really incredible opportunity. And then from there, we went all the way to Tucson, Arizona. And then we stayed with the family friend and then came all the way back, which is a 30 hour drive back to Western North Carolina where Jesse lives. But yeah, with everything the pandemic has impacted negatively, I will say that a completely online semester did present such a good opportunity to really enjoy the outdoors and to see the country from that perspective, and we were gone for about three weeks so yeah it was a really cool experience. And we were able to stay on top of our classwork too, which was great.

EB: That’s so amazing, Abby.

AH: It was so fun.

EB: I haven't heard about anyone doing something like that with their online semester, and so that's so incredible and super unique. So you touched on this for a second, but obviously you know, given that what caused us to go online was Covid-19. Obviously this was a big concern while you were on the road, so what were some of the precautions that you guys took to stay safe?

AH: Yeah so, of course, in short, we did plan a few stops with family friends in Oklahoma City, Colorado, and Tucson that we knew we're being very Covid safe. And we're so grateful to those friends that allowed us to stay with them. We planned the trip so that if we had a live Zoom or test or something where we really needed to absolutely have wifi we planted those stops accordingly during the week, but other than that we made sure to only grocery shop a few times, and of course, wearing masks. And then hiking and camping are very naturally socially distanced activities so that was awesome.

EB: Yeah I think that's one of the big benefits at this point in time, of being involved and being comfortable in outdoor activities is they lend themselves really well to following CDC regulations and being safe. There are things that you can still do to keep your mental peace and stay active but also be safe, so that's awesome. Okay so to do a little bit of a turn away from the big adventure, you worked as a camp counselor last summer and are planning on returning to that role, so what was that, like and how did you use your outdoor experiences and expertise in that capacity?

AH: Yeah! Well, first of all I love camp, so I worked at Camp Pinnacle, which was the camp that I went to as a kid. And it's the same owners of Adventure Treks as well, those trips that I went on, when I was a teenager. I absolutely loved being a camp counselor and I got to be the stand up paddle boarding instructor all summer, which was great, no complaints there! Camp is really so special to me because I had the opportunity to mentor so many kids and show them how much fun it is to get outside and appreciate time away from their phones. Camp is this awesome environment where everyone has their best and silliest selves, you know, counselors included, and I think that comes out because it's a safe space to take risks as well as build a very tight knit community. My favorite thing to tell my campers, especially my 14 year olds, was to embrace challenges, because the uncomfortable moments are really where you grow as a human. I think we especially talked about this on overnight backpacking trips, because you know backpacking can suck but it's so rewarding overall, and I know it's where I've had some of my deepest and most fulfilling conversations, but yeah being a counselor was such a fulfilling experience and I'm so excited to go back to Camp Pinnacle in the summer.

EB: Wow, that sounds super gratifying. And also it's like an opportunity for you to share those experiences and that knowledge that you've gained, you know, over the course of your childhood and your life now. That's incredible.

AH: So cool to be able to give back and kind of feel like you're in that same position of people who impacted you, you know yeah such a positive way.

EB: Definitely so I think going off of that, what advice would you give to someone who wants to get outside more or plan their own adventures, like the ones that you've taken?

AH: Great question. I would just say to make sure you do some research and make sure you have a fair amount of information on a trail or campsite and make sure you're dressed because that's super important to be prepared for conditions and stuff but other than that, I would just encourage everyone to try it. I feel like a lot of the time we kind of, say, oh I would love to see this view or go on this hike at some point. So I would just say to really try to make time for it and make it happen, even just a weekend camping trip, or like walking around a local trail is so refreshing to take. And I know that you can rent tents and other gear from NC State's Well Rec Center I believe. Um, I would also say to anybody to have backup campsites because we had a night, where we had all three of our backup campsites full in Colorado so that was an interesting situation but we were fine.

EB: Oh my gosh, those are all great pieces of advice! I mean, I feel like I’m more equipped to maybe try out some of my own outdoor adventures.

AH: You totally should.

EB: Yeah definitely. So um we're going to close it out with a fun question. What's one of your favorite outdoor adventure memories from the past few years.

AH: This is such a fun question, but such a hard one.

EB: Yeah I bet for you, for sure.

AH: It's a hard question, but I would say, I mean I would have to say it's a tie between ice climbing in Alaska which was just incredible and surreal and beautiful and then summiting Mount Shasta, which is a Fourteener in Northern California. And that was probably one of the coolest and hardest things- Actually that was definitely the hardest thing i've ever done. But those were both on Adventure Treks trips, when I was 15 and 16 and they were pretty pretty surreal, pretty important to me, but yeah I’m very grateful for the experiences that I've had because I've been pretty fortunate to have those.

EB: Those are amazing! An outdoor adventure and queen! We love to see it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today Abby, and sharing your insights and your expertise and your memories! Thanks.

AH: Thank you so much for having me this has been great.

EB: Yeah, absolutely. EB: For more information on the Outdoor Leadership minor that Abby discussed in this episode, visit hes.dasa.ncsu.edu. And, to see the adventures that NC State students are taking on through their coursework, check out the outdoor leadership minor’s Instagram @outdoorncstate. Stay healthy, stay active, and go pack!