RSTD 338

This class will be an experiential exploration, hiking the Appalachian Trail, comparing and contrasting the experience of walking through the wilderness with traditional pilgrimages, and communicating with others who are themselves not in the class but hiking the trail for their own reasons. Class members will learn, through reading, journal writing, and interpersonal communication, how pilgrim backpackers experience communitas in relation to both persons and their environment. We will spend about two weeks hiking in Tennessee and Virginia. We will participate in a festival in Damascus, Virginia called, “Trail Days,” a celebration of the AT. Finally we will hike up to Mount Rogers, the highest mountain in Virginia, and end the hike.