Walking Home from the LT

This article appears in the 2024 Fall Long Trail News and was written by Chloe Miller, GMC’s Communications Manager and Long Trail News editor.

After hiking the Long Trail north from Massachusetts this summer, 33-year-old Nemo Latourelle joyfully reached the Journey’s End monument at the Canadian border. Like most thru-hikers, she was tired, but also proud of the 272 miles she had walked.

Unlike most thru-hikers, however, Nemo didn’t hitch a ride home to a shower and hot meal. No, she turned around and walked home to Saranac Lake, New York.

Nemo headed south on the LT to the junction of the North Country National Scenic Trail at the Sucker Brook Trail in the Joseph Battell Wilderness. It’s about 160 miles west on the North Country Trail from that junction to the Northville-Placid Trail at West Canada Lake. Then she walked 65 miles north to Saranac Lake, her home since 2022.

Nemo is no stranger to long miles, having thru-hiked the AT in 2022. Walking home was her way to honor turning 30 after three years of sobriety. “Catching the hiking bug really changed my life,” she says.

After finishing the AT, Nemo moved into a homeless shelter in Saranac Lake, and enrolled in community college. She hiked the Northville-Placid Trail on her vacation last summer. In November she moved into her first apartment, and worked hard so she could take time off this summer to hike the LT. That let her experience the portion of the LT north of Maine Junction, where the AT goes eastward from the LT toward New Hampshire. She had missed that part of the LT on her AT thru-hike.

“I honestly don’t plan too much,” Nemo said of her approach to piecing the three trails together. “I figured out the trails I wanted, and how they connect, and only cared about how I was getting to a trail. I know the trail always provides, and I don’t have time to worry about things that aren’t in the moment.”

Each trail has its own character, challenges, and highlights. After turning south on the LT this summer, Nemo slipped on her ascent of Mount Mansfield, receiving a nasty gash on her shin. She had to leave the trail for a few days to heal. But the kindness of the Vermont trail community came to the rescue.

“Grace [Mansfield caretaker] gave me a spot to heal my leg, and I’ve gotten to know both Shannon and Izzy [Mansfield caretakers] on my northbound and southbound journeys,” Nemo said. “I’m really going to miss this place and people. If I didn’t have college to go back to, I’d apply to be a crew member yesterday.”

The North Country Trail starts 4,800 miles west in North Dakota. It traverses 70 miles of Vermont from the New York border to its eastern terminus at Maine Junction, including 24 miles of the Long Trail.

From the Crown Point Bridge at the New York border, the NCT route eastward through Vermont follows a mix of roads and the Trail Around Middlebury network, then follows the short Sucker Brook Trail to the LT, and then the LT south to Maine Junction. GMC crews are cutting a new route in East Middlebury, part of a plan to move the NCT off roads as much as possible.

For now, the newly extended portion of the NCT comes with navigational challenges. Nemo found signage to be scarce, and some water sources marked in the FarOut hiker app required bushwhacking off roads to reach. “I think people should know that if they are going to hike the NCT, some sections are 40 miles of road walking with stealth camping in parking lots, so plan accordingly,” she said.

After a few hiking days shortened by waiting out rainstorms at trail shelters, Nemo hitched a ride to the NCT-NPT junction for her final few days hiking home in mid-August with friends. She was running out of time, and the prospect of hiking on high-speed roads was unnerving. “I love hiking, but at the same time I was ready to be done with the amount of rain and injury I’ve dealt with this summer,” she said.

Nemo spent two and a half months on foot this summer. “It was super awesome walking up to my house, and overwhelming to complete this journey,” she recalled. “I haven’t really had a home to come home to since I was in high school. I felt super proud of everything I have accomplished since I completed the Appalachian Trail.”

Classes started in late August. Nemo aims to finish a wilderness leadership associate’s degree before transferring to a bachelor’s program, planning to work in wilderness education with other young people who have struggled with addiction. “Being in the backcountry is so rewarding, and I know it can help save so many people if given the chance,” she concluded.