Thru-hiking The Appalachian Trail with 15 Kids with Nikki Bettis

Wild Ideas Worth Living

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4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nikki Bettis turned a simple hike on the Appalachian Trail into an audacious plan to thru hike the entire trail with her fifteen kids, ranging in age from 4 to 21. As a single mom in rural Virginia facing financial and emotional strain, Nikki hoped the physical challenge and months spent outdoors together could help her family reconnect and find a way forward.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When I first heard about through hiker Nikki Bettis, I had a lot of questions.
0:04.8	Nikki is a single mom to 15 biological children, all from the same marriage.
0:11.0	In 2023, she and her kids were all living under one roof in rural Virginia, and they were struggling
0:16.9	financially and emotionally. The kids were fighting a lot, and the family couldn't afford a
0:22.0	vehicle or even basic resources like power and water. Nikki knew that something needed to change.
0:29.1	During this challenging period, she spent a lot of time on local trails to clear her mind.
0:35.3	One day, a small hike on the Appalachian Trail turned into a much wilder idea.
0:41.7	I was out hiking one day with one of my kids, and we happened to intersect with the AT.
0:46.5	And I was like, what if we just hiked? What if we all came out here, somehow got out to the trailheadhead and we didn't have to go home so I began to plan
0:56.4	I went home and asked my kids would you do it with me so I had some hell knows and then I had like let's go
1:02.5	and over a period of about six months or so I started prepping and really researching I loved to
1:09.4	research and once I did that, I was like,
1:12.0	I think we can do this. With that, Nikki decided to take all of her kids, ages 4 to 21, on the
1:19.8	Appalachian Trail. That's a lot of people, a lot of logistics, and a lot of miles. But in the
1:26.8	back of her mind,
1:27.9	Nikki hoped that pushing themselves physically and spending time together in nature
1:32.3	would help their family write a new chapter of their story.
1:36.9	Spoiler alert, she was right.
1:40.1	I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living,
1:43.8	an REI Co-op Studios production
1:46.4	presented by Capital One and the REI Co-Opt MasterCard.
1:51.1	A note before we start, there's a brief mention of domestic violence in this episode.
	...

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