For the last two months Dawn Averitt, a leading activist in AIDS treatment issues, has hoisted a 50-pound pack and joined the approximately 1,500 others who step onto the white-blazed path of the Appalachian Trail.
While other hikers face the daily struggle of climbing peaks and facing the 2,160-foot long hike, Averitt adds the extra burden of the daily struggle of living with AIDS.
Averitt spoke candidly with students, presenting herself as a picture of health, hope and humor, yesterday at the Tucker Foundation.
Although most hikers begin their Appalachian Trail trek in Georgia and head North, Averitt and her party began at Mount Katxhadin in Maine and are heading south -- homeward bound for Averitt, a Georgia native.
She and her brothers talked about thru-hiking the trail since they were children.
In addition to hiking equipment, Averitt also carries along a substantial drug regiment, taking 28 medications a day in order to keep her immune system healthy.
The 15 mile-a-day hike had to be carefully planned to accommodate mail drops every seven to 10 days to pick up medications.
"I get up in the morning and shove in four chalk sized pills ... and think 'everyone doesn't do this,'" she told students. "Other people get up shove a Powerbar into their mouths."
When Averitt rolled her ankle early in the hike and spent 16 days on crutches in an aircast, the hikers' schedule was significantly set back.
Despite the delay, Averitt and her fellow hikers, have kept pace with other hikers, most averaging about 15 miles a day on the trail. "It was the ankle and not the AIDS that set us back," Averitt told The Dartmouth in an interview following her speech.
Although Averitt says her trail name "Amazing Grace" was coined to make light of her clumsiness, it is also a tribute to her attitude of embracing life.
When she was diagnosed with AIDS, her T-cell count was 74. Now it soars to 700, up to par with a healthy immune system -- an occurrence unprecedented so far in AIDS treatments.
Averitt said she sees many parallels between difficulties of life on the trail and life with AIDS.
She said she hoists a heavy pack onto her back and thinks she can't walk another 15 miles, never mind 2,000. Like living with AIDS, it is a daily, sometimes monotonous journey.
Averitt downplayed her own hardships, saying that everyone has their own battles to fight.
Averitt was diagnosed HIV positive in 1988, at the age of 19.
After her 1994 AIDS diagnosis she disclosed her status and began talking about her experiences publicly.
She worked for a grassroots organization before creating her own program focused on women who are HIV positive.She merged her organization with Project Inform, a program based in California. WISE, Women's Information Service and Exchange, became their women's program in 1997.
"At 19, I had to learn to live like I had six months left and at the same time, going to live forever ... [how to] live for the moment and plan for the future," she said.
One of her goals is combating the stigma associated with AIDS and HIV.
Averitt said health care facilities were places where she often came up against the stigma when she had to disclose information about her status.
She said sometimes doctors ask, 'How did that happen?' Becoming more cynical in her responses, she said she once answered "a mosquito bite," to end the intrusive and insensitive line of questioning.
"Fear fuels denial," she said. "People want you to tell them why you're different," in order to assure themselves that they are safe from getting the disease.
Averitt says she rarely, if ever, tells exactly how she contracted the virus. She usually states that she was infected by non-sensual heterosexual contact -- she was raped seven weeks prior to her diagnosis in Spain.
She does not like to focus on how she became infected, because although she can pinpoint it more than most people, it is usually difficult to determine the actually cause of infection.
She also does not like to separate herself from others living with HIV.
"I can't stand the word victim, I've never met someone who deserves [to contract HIV]," she said.
Averitt emphasized "it only takes once," and that all people are at risk. She said more information must be spread in all communities, particularly among women, whose numbers of infected cases continue to increase.
Averitt and her trailmates hope to reach Georgia by Thanksgiving, in time for World AIDS Day in December.
The hike is sponsored by Shaman Botanicals, an organization dedicated to AIDS treatment and research, and founded by former Dartmouth Outing Club President Lisa Conte '81.
