Methuen nurse seeks solace on Appalachian Trail

Aug. 21—The soles of Nicole Hamel's feet hurt and her faithful rescue dog Keiko sometimes wakes her in the middle of the night.

But there are few places she'd rather be than trekking the Appalachian Trail.

The trail takes and gives, is both trying and a source of relief. A place to be in nature and the moment, and contemplate the future.

If all goes well, the 29-year-old nurse from Methuen will summit Mt. Katahdin, Maine, by month's end.

It will be a final push, 5,268 feet up sheer granite to finish her 2,190-mile journey.

Her six-month hike benefits two Lawrence recovery houses, Women's View and Pegasus House, both part of the Women's Psychological Center.

Hamel and her mom have volunteered at a third Psychological Center program, the Daybreak Shelter. There they have cooked and served meals, and have raised funds for the shelter.

Her mom, Penny, is a board member for the Psychological Center.

Nicole is a seasoned traveler and sure-footed hiker having danced since early childhood. After she graduated from Central Catholic High School in Lawrence in 2011 she traveled the world, volunteering and performing in the Up with People program.

Nicole grew up hiking with her family in New Hampshire in the Presidential Range where they own a home.

It was there, in Lincoln, on a Thursday afternoon, July 28, where Hamel got off the trail for a phone interview and to visit with her mom.

Earlier, a half hour before sunrise, at 5, she and her border collie Keiko awakened and logged 7.5 trail miles. That's about a third of the 20 miles a day they have averaged since stepping off in March at Springer Mountain in Georgia.

An exception was the four-state challenge they conquered. They scrambled over 43 miles in 24 hours, charging from the Virginia and West Virginia border through Maryland and into Pennsylvania.

Keiko earned flying colors, trotting beside Hamel in her hard-soled Roka trail sneakers, socks, shorts and T-shirt.

"He has unlimited energy," she said.

Hamel has long wanted to hike the Appalachian.

Each year some 3,000 people attempt it and about 25% finish, taking 5 to 7 months on average, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

The oldest person to hike the whole length was 83 years old, and the youngest, 4, according to trail literature.

Hamel has seen old and young, families and lone travelers along the way.

She has seen bear and deer and lots of smaller critters.

She has seen breath-taking mountains, rivers and valleys.

She has traded trail humor, played question-and-answer games and shared dreams from the night before with her trail family: three guys between the ages of 27 and 31.

They have been hiking together, on and off, since spring when they met on the trail's early miles.

She cried when she first saw the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

This is Hamel's second Appalachian attempt. The first was soon scuttled.

She had thought it an ideal time in her life to take to the trail — mid-March 2020.

She had just worked 3-1/2 years in a heart unit at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington after having graduated in 2016 from UMass Lowell with a nursing degree.

In 2020 she sold her car and got rid of many of her possessions. She was ready for the adventure.

A day after she started the epic hike, 11 miles in, at a shelter packed with people, an email arrived from trail administrators telling hikers about the pandemic and to leave the trail.

Hamel returned home and worked at a COVID-19 field hospital in Worcester at the DCU Center.

Later, she became a traveling nurse, answering the pandemic's desperate call for help.

The caregiving was emotionally draining, as she was often forced to triage — to choose who among the needful patients to help at a given moment.

She worked with very sick, older people at times, and some of them died.

It left her disappointed and bereft.

"The feeling you can't be a good nurse because you have so many patients to take care of," she said.

Now, on the trail, she thinks about the future and how she can be a nurse and not burn out.

She owns land in Shelburne, New Hampshire with a driveway to park her Dodge camper van and might build a home.

The trail provides oceans of time for thinking.

Her biggest fear is getting injured and not being able to continue the Appalachian trek.

She's happy her hike is benefiting the Lawrence programs helping women in recovery find their balance and reclaim their lives.

Her traveling nurse duties took her to Alburquerque, New Mexico where she cared for COVID patients and women and men with liver problems from excessive drinking.

Hamel loves what the Lawrence recovery centers are doing to support their residents, and thinks about the women on their journeys to better tomorrows.

While off the trail in Lincoln she satisfied a craving for food other than the steady trail diet of rice, cereal, nuts and water, filtrated, from trailside streams.

She splurged at a food truck on a massive bowl of poutine and Mexican corn.

Still, the trek wasn't far from her mind.

She was eager to see the responses of her trail family hiking the beautiful and majestic Presidential Range mountains and the Pemigewasset Wilderness.

The trail gives and takes. She is tired but in a good way.

"I feel good tired," she said.