“The green tunnel of the Appalachian Trail has been calling to me for quite some time. Just the thought of walking more than 2000 miles— one step at a time—made my blood pump. The allure of the legends and the passion spilled from ex-ATers’ blogs pulled me closer and closer to the trail. I wanted to experience them all. I wanted to see if my body and my mind were up to the challenge.”

Mei “Click” Shen was born and raised in Beijing, China. At her young age, she loved to roam outside near her school, always looking for beautiful flowers and interesting insects while other kids were taking an after lunch nap. In 1990, she immigrated to USA after getting her Ph.D. in Astronomy from Nanjing University in China. Later she studied Atmospheric Physics and Photochemistry in the University of California, at Los Angeles. Life shipped her to the US east coast for another 6 years where she worked as a software engineer. After her family moved back to California in year 2000, she found love in hiking, backpacking, or just immerse in nature. After she took her family backpacking on John Muir Trail in year 2010, the seed of long distance thru-hike had planted in her heart. In 2019, she hiked the Appalachian Trail alone, as a test of herself in preparation of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. You can contact her by e-mail: clickhike2019@gmail.com