Step by step: Hiking the Appalachian Trail and finding love along the way

Very few people can say they completed thru-hiking the 2,181-mile-long Appalachian Trail. Even fewer people can say they met the person they would spend the rest of their life with while hiking it.

Jane Mosakowski, now a Mountain Brook Junior High School gym teacher, and Jason Mosakowski, project manager for a design and construction contractor, first met April 6, 2006, when they were one week into their five-and-a-half-month-long hike from Georgia to Maine. 

Jane, known as Jangles on the trail, was doing the hike as a fundraiser for a nonprofit called Challenge Point. 

Jason, known as Mouse on the trail, was taking a work leave from a job in Birmingham to complete the hike. 

“There’s about 3,000 people that try it, and by the time you get to Maine, they say around 10 to 15 percent of people complete it in one season, which is called thru-hiking,” Jane Mosakowski said. The rest of people either complete it in chunks over the course of years or have to drop out of the thru-hike. 

Jane Mosakowski said she played a lot of sports growing up, so a challenge wasn’t anything new to her. She first heard about thru-hiking from some guides when she was in high school and went on her first backpacking trip in Colorado.

“I was like, ‘Why would anyone want to spend four to six months in the woods and hike some trails? That is crazy. But at the same time, that is fascinating,’” she said.

Years passed and she lived in Nashville, where she started her own lawn care business, in addition to working as a backpacking guide for Challenge Point, a teambuilding backpacking group. When she was given the opportunity to thru-hike it for the nonprofit, she said, “Let’s try it,” and let her family run her company for several months. 

“I heard about it, I was in my early 20s, it’s for a good cause,” she said. “I think I’m in that season of my life where I should try it, and I think I could make it.”

Even though she has always been very athletic, she trained several months before her start at Springer Mountain in Georgia by hiking long portions of trails with a heavy backpack. 

Jason Mosakowski said he had previously completed several long backpacking trips at different times in his life, just none as long as the hike that had always been one of his dreams: the Appalachian Trail. 

Almost every summer growing up, he worked at a summer camp and spent a lot of time outdoors. He was also in Scouts for most of his childhood. Because of his work schedule during college, he was unable to hike it until he graduated and was granted a leave from his construction job. 

“When I had time in the weekends or weeknights, I would do mountain biking or running or things like that just to train some for the trail, maybe short hikes here or there,” he said.

The “adventure and a love for the outdoors” is what drew Jason Mosakowski to the trail, and is ultimately what bonded him to the “trail family” he came to know along the way. Jane Mosakowski said she, Jason and a group of about 10 other hikers they met became close because of similar interests and hiking speeds. During the hike, Jane and Jason Mosakowski were just friends.

“We had people in our trail family from Connecticut, Boston, Texas, California, kind of from all over. You just meet an amazing group of people from really all over, all walks of life, and you are on the same mission: to get to the end of the trail together,” Jane Mosakowski said, adding that they still keep up with them to this day.

 Jason Mosakowski said he and Jane didn’t always hike together, but they hiked at similar paces — finishing about 15 or 16 miles a day — and often ended up running into each other along the way, which is how they got to know each other really well. 

“The biggest thing about the Appalachian Trail that stood out to me was just the community behind it, and it definitely exceeded my expectations. The trail itself is challenging, and it’s a lot of elevation: a lot of up, down, straight up, straight down,” Jane Mosakowski said. “Definitely it was one of those trails that would be hard to complete without having the support and the community along the way.”

Though there were several hard days during the hike, she said she never thought about quitting. Even during a period of time in Pennsylvania where it rained for about 24 days straight, she learned to rely on mental resilience and on “all the people she met along the way.”

“It’s something that’s not just for 20-years-somethings. There’s kids that are high school age out there and college, 30s, 40s, 50s, all the way up to retired age that were hiking the trail,” Jane Mosakowski said. “What’s great about it is no one cares about your history, it doesn’t matter your status as far as your job or where you’re from.” 

Both she and Jason Mosakowski had family and friends ship them “resupplies” along the way, like packages of foods they could pick up every three to five days. Both agreed coordinating those shipments was one of the more difficult of the trip. Sometimes, they were able to resupply themselves at the stores along the way. Jane Mosakowski said more people do that nowadays than shipping because thru-hiking has gained much more popularity over the years, so more towns are prepared for the hikers and what they need. 

Hiking from Georgia to Maine, Jason Mosakowski said, allows you to see a lot of America, especially the small towns that people don’t usually stop in. They were filled with interesting and kind people, he said, many of which acted as “trail angels” and gave hikers supplies, encouragement and support.

“Before I left, I obviously didn’t know if I could complete it or not. … But I felt like if I was able to take off on this journey and complete it, I would be miles ahead in life and with friends and with the experience of this than I would be if I never tried it,” Jason Mosakowski said, “and that was very, very true.”

Jason and Jane Mosakowski both vividly remember what it was like getting to the end of the trail on Sept. 8, 2006, and how surreal it felt to boulder and mountain climb the last two miles on Mount Katahdin.

“It was just this bittersweet moment for us, so happy and proud, and we can’t believe we’ve done it … This has become your lifestyle, you wake up, you eat, you pack your stuff up, you move on to the next place, you take breaks along the way, you enjoy each other’s company, you hike some more, you eat some more. Your feet hurt, your body hurts, and you go through all the different emotions you can feel, and then you get to the end, and in that moment, you’re so proud,” Jane Mosakowski said. She remembers them crying atop the mountain, so sad to leave each other and so proud to be done with the hike.

When Jane and Jason Mosakowski sat next to each other around a fire later that night, they made a promise to keep seeing each other, even though the hike was over. They started dating that year, and she eventually moved to Birmingham, where he lived. Hiking the trail, she said, made her also realize she wanted a career change, so she started coaching and teaching physical education in Mountain Brook. 

They got engaged a few years later and then married in 2010, both times on trails. “The rest is history,” Jane Mosakowski said.

For people considering hiking the Appalachian Trail, she encourages them to take the time and do it.

“I think it would be an experience you wouldn’t regret whether you were out there for a week or out there for a month or hike the whole thing. It’s a great experience,” she said.

She added it’s important people do their research and talk to people who have hiked it and have suggestions. Thru-hiking is “an extremely humbling experience,” she said, and a lot of things have to go right for people to be healthy and injury-free and able to complete the long journey. Focus on what is in your control, she said, like mental preparedness, a good attitude and some training up front.

Jason Mosakowski said to remember that there will be days that are definitely tough, “but every time you put one foot in front of the other and make it toward Maine, it is well worth it.”

“You have to hike it with an open mind and be grateful for the opportunity and take your time as you do it. Enjoy the experience, enjoy the moments as you do it, enjoy those who are around you… Do the best you can, and take it literally one step at a time,” Jane Mosakowski said.

Jason and Jane Mosakowski still hike together whenever they can. One day, they hope to take some time to accomplish their dream of hiking the Continental Divide Trail.