Jennifer Pharr Davis grew up in the North Carolina Mountains, where day hiking was part of her life with her parents and two older brothers. At age 21, she took on the entire Appalachian Trail (AT) as a solo female and fell in love with long-distance backpacking.

Since then, Jennifer has hiked the AT twice more, earning endurance records. In 2008, averaging 38 miles per day and completing the AT in 57 days, she became the fastest woman on record to hike that trail. And in 2011, she set the overall record, completing the AT in 46 days, averaging 46.9 miles per day. Even though this record has now been eclipsed, Jennifer remains the fastest woman on record to hike the AT-and the fastest mother to hike the AT.

By mid-2011, she had logged more than 11,000 miles of North American trails. In addition to the AT, those treks include the Pacific Crest Trail, Vermont's Long Trail, and the Colorado Trail. Traveling to six continents to exercise her hiking wanderlust, she cites Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, Peru's Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and Australia's 600-mile Bibbulmun Track among her international highlights.

The author's 2010 memoir, Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail<\i> (Beaufort Books), chronicles her 2005 and 2008 AT thru-hikes. She also authored Best Easy Day Hikes: Charlotte<\i> (FalconGuides, 2010) and articles for Trail Runner<\i> magazine and Away.com. She is a frequent contributor to Blue Ridge Outdoors<\i> magazine.