Wren Calloway

Storyboard

Wren's run, frame by frame: 8 frames so far, and the stops still ahead with the plan. Every frame comes from a check in, a photo or a note posted on the day. On this Example the people, the photos and the words are made up.

1. 01 hr 0:00

   hr 0:00 Sat 5:30 AM Crew, Ash M.

   Davenport Gap, 5:30 in the fog

   Ash drove her up in the dark with the heater on and the radio off. June sent a photo of Dad asleep in his chair with the blanket over his knees. Wren touched the trail sign, said nothing, and went.

   Off from Davenport Gap in the fog.

2. EXAMPLE

   02 hr 0:18 Sat 5:48 AM Crew, Ash M.

   The car, packed like an aid station

   Ash laid the whole day out across the back seat before first light: the shoes for Newfound Gap, the socks in pairs, the headlamp with new batteries, the cooler. Every stop has a bag with the hour written on it in marker.

   Car packed like an aid station and ready before first light. Long day ahead.

3. EXAMPLE

   03 hr 1:09 Sat 6:39 AM 5.6 mi Wren

   Sunrise on the ridge

   The fog broke a little before six and the first light came in sideways along the crest. She sent this one herself. Ash read the note out loud in the car and did not say the word record.

   Sunrise on the ridge. Feeling good.

4. 04 hr 3:12

   hr 3:12 Sat 8:42 AM 15.2 mi Wren

   Tricorner Knob, the far end of nowhere

   The most remote shelter on the whole route. She filled both flasks at the spring, the way she and Dad did, and read the shelter name off the sign the way she reads it to him at night. Then the long climbs by Guyot, which she says she likes.

   Tricorner Knob. Filled both flasks. Climbing well.

5. 05 hr 6:13

   hr 6:13 Sat 11:44 AM 30.4 mi Crew, Ash M.

   Newfound Gap: shoes, socks, food, headlamp, out

   The first crew in thirty miles. Ash had the chair out and then put it away again. Ten minutes: new shoes, dry socks, a proper meal, the headlamp checked and packed. Nobody said the word. She was up the steps and gone while Ash was still logging the out time.

   Shoes and socks, big refuel, headlamp checked.

6. 06 hr 6:40

   hr 6:40 Sat 12:11 PM 31.5 mi Crew, Teo R.

   Indian Gap, a bottle swap

   Teo was waiting at the pullout with the bottles already cold. In and out in under a minute.

   Quick bottle swap.

7. 07 hr 7:40

   hr 7:40 Sat 1:10 PM 36 mi Crew, Teo R.

   Collins Gap, smiling

   Bottles and a gel bag from the truck. Teo says she was smiling, which he has learned to distrust a little after thirty six miles.

   Bottles and a gel bag. Smiling.

8. 08 hr 8:13

   hr 8:13 Sat 1:44 PM 37.8 mi Crew, Ash M.

   The top of the run

   Kuwohi, 6,643 feet, the highest point on the whole trail. Teo walked the night bag up the paved path: headlamp, batteries, a warm layer and the jacket she swore she would not need. Full resupply. This is the last crew for thirty two miles.

   From here the crew drives the long way round to the dam. June is warming up the car.

   Full resupply and night gear. Last crew for 32 miles.

9. 09 plan hr 14:30

   Still ahead Plan hr 14:30 Due about hr 14:55 70 mi

   Where the trail comes out

   Silers Bald, Thunderhead, Rocky Top, then down past the Shuckstack tower in the dark. June will drive Dad round to the north end of the dam when the live page says Wren is on the last ridge, and walk him out onto the walkway with a blanket and a thermos.

   There is a sign on the back seat. It says HOW WAS THE HIGH COUNTRY.

The story

Wren grew up in a company house below Fontana Dam, where the Appalachian Trail comes down out of the Smokies and walks straight across the top of the dam. Her father, Dale, worked the night shift in the powerhouse. On summer evenings he would take her up to the walkway and they would watch the thru hikers come off the mountain, filthy and grinning, and he would ask every one of them the same question: how was the high country?

The summer she started middle school he decided they should find out for themselves. They walked the Smokies north to south, shelter to shelter, Davenport Gap all the way home. He carried the stove and the bad jokes. She carried a notebook and wrote down the name of every shelter, every spring and every bald. On the last morning, coming down off Shuckstack, she saw the dam from above for the first time and started running. He let her go. She waited for him in the middle of the walkway, and when he caught up he said he had never once been passed on his own dam.

A few years ago Dale started losing words. Then names. Then the road home from Bryson City. The diagnosis had a long name and a short meaning. Now there are days he calls Wren by her mother's name, and days he asks where all the hikers went. The one place he never gets lost is the dam. He still knows every light on it.

Wren started running the trail again the spring he stopped driving. At first it was only to be alone up there. Then she found the old notebook in a box in his closet, and she started reading him the shelter names at night. Cosby Knob. Tricorner. Pecks Corner. Icewater Spring. He did not always know who she was. He always knew the next shelter.

That is why she is running it in one day, southbound, the way they walked it. Not to prove she is fast, though she is, and not only for the record, though she wants it badly. She wants to come down off Shuckstack while he can still stand on that walkway, run to him one more time, and hear him ask how the high country was. Her sister June is bringing him. He will not know what an FKT is. He will know it is Wren.

She respects Lea Mulligan's time and everything it took. She has run every section of the route in training, alone and with her crew. Her best day on the high crest came in a cold rain. Her worst came at Silers Bald, where she sat on a rock for a long time and called June to ask if Dad had eaten his supper. Then she stood up and kept going south. That is the whole plan.

Wren, her family, her crew and this story are made up for the Example. The route, the record and every time on it are real.

From the trail

Sat 6:39 AM

Sunrise on the ridge. Feeling good.

The attempt timeline

Every stop, and where the lead changed hands.

1. Davenport Gap 0 mi

   Off Sat 5:30 AM
2. Newfound Gap 30.4 mi

   In Sat 11:44 AM Out Sat 11:54 AM Plan Sat 11:37 AM
3. Indian Gap 31.5 mi

   In Sat 12:11 PM Out Sat 12:12 PM Plan Sat 11:56 AM
4. Collins Gap pullout 36 mi

   In Sat 1:10 PM Out Sat 1:12 PM Plan Sat 12:58 PM
5. Kuwohi (Clingmans Dome) 37.8 mi

   In Sat 1:44 PM Plan Sat 1:30 PM
6. Fontana Dam 70 mi

   Due about Sat 8:25 PM Plan Sat 8:00 PM