APRIL 2026: Unsupported

My first book, Unsupported: A Story of Moving Fast and Letting Go. Setting a Speed Record in the Adirondack Mountains, has been released! It was such a moving day when the boxes of books were delivered and I opened and held the book for the first time. I'm looking forward to coming to iRun LOCAL on Thursday, April 16th at 6pm to share the story with you all!

In this blog post, Im highlighting two items I used on the unsupported thru-hike that you can find at iRunLOCAL: Goodr Sunglasses and Tailwind Nutrition.

Tailwind excerpt from Day 1:

In the darkness of the lean-to, I close my eyes, exhaling slowly and hoping for sleep to come. But while Katie peacefully snores, I quietly toss and turn. An hour passes and Im still awake. Maybe its the lean-to, maybe its too hard. No, Ive slept in lean-tos hundreds of times and never had this issue. Maybe its trying to sleep on a pack and half a ground pad, dang ultralight gear. As softly as I can, I tiptoe out of the wooden structure with my sleeping bag and find a flattish place on the earth to lie down. I look up into the canopy of pine trees. Stars shine between gaps in the needles. My legs are jittery; I want to move. It doesnt feel like Ive hiked twenty miles today. It doesnt feel like Ive hiked at all.

Whats going on? Do I just have adrenaline? Is it because my body has been in rest mode the last week, tapering, and now Im in go mode? My body stirs for another hour, and I wiggle out of my sleeping bag to pee yet again. I squat and watch the clear fluid flow into tiny rivers over the compact earth, adjusting my feet so they dont get splashed. I marvel at the amount of pee; its a lot, like I had caffeine or something. But I havent had any since my morning coffee. Oh wait, the Tailwind. I remember Katie telling me there are caffeinated flavors. I didnt read the packet when I added it to my water bottle.

Shit, I mutter and shift my bare feet again.

Besides a few strategic sips of coffee on mornings when I need help to get things moving, I dont usually consume caffeine, so Im wired. I glance at my watch; its 1 a.m. I doubt Ill get any sleep tonight.

An hour later, at 2 a.m., after peeing for the third time, I consider waking Katie up two hours early to hit the trail but decide against it. She needs her sleep. And even if I cant sleep, at least Im resting my body.

In addition to our hiking agreements, Katie and I came up with four rules surrounding self-care:

1. Take care of your feet.
2. Eat 3,000 calories a day (even if you arent hungry).
3. Drink five to six liters of water a day.
4. Sleep six hours (or at least be off your feet and out of your socks).

An owl hoots from far away. A jumping mouse springs across the forest floor, rattling the fallen leaves and sounding far bigger than it actually is. The stars rotate above me. Find a constellation, I tell myself.

The first night in the woods was always the hardest for my wilderness therapy students. In the pitch-black darkness of a six-million-acre wilderness, their minds often spiraled. Its too dark. Its too quiet. I cant be here. This is too hard.

Ten years ago, under these same stars, one of my students was struggling to sleep. In the wee hours, she told me, I was raped at a camp in the woods. Her perpetrator had been a family friend, and shed never told her parents. That night, another instructor and I sat with her, quietly adding sticks to the fire while the other students slept. The best we could do was to make sure she knew she wasnt alone in the darkness.

After a long silence, she peered up and asked, How many constellations do you know?

Not many, I admitted. But let's see if we can find Orions Belt.

Together, we searched through the oval-shaped beech and star-shaped maple leaves for three perfectly aligned stars. But our view was too limited, so we settled on making our own constellations. A dragon, a flower, an old woman kept us company throughout the dark night.

Find a constellation, make a constellation. Youre off your feet and your body is resting.

In the indigo shade of 3 a.m., I find a flower in the few stars visible to me and my mind begins to relax. My body follows suit.

Be here. Be now.

Morning will come.

Goodr Sunglasses excerpt from Day 5:

Katie and I wiggle into our sleeping bags, and before we go to sleep, Katie pulls out her iPhone. I lean in next to her and we look over our photos from the day, a little ritual we started while holing up in Slant Rock Lean-to during the storm.

Look at that one! Katie laughs. We look like rock stars.

On Lower Wolfjaw, both wearing our Goodr sunglasses, we pose for our summit selfie with our hands on our hips and chins tilted upward.

Well, we are, I say. Look at what weve done.

We didnt let the humidity stop us on day one, I made it through day two with no sleep, Katie kept going on day three after bruising her knee, we survived the Great Range storm on day four, and we decided to keep going on day fiveeven despite knowing we wouldnt finish in time to beat the men. We have been kissed by rain and sun, we have been tested under pressure, and through it all, we have taken care of each other.

We are badass.

Bethany Adams is a writer, mountain athlete and experiential educator. She is the first woman to achieve 100 Fastest Known Times (FKTs). Her stories of endurance and healing through nature have been published in Trail Runner and Outside magazines and in the short story collection Blood Sweat Tears (Rugged Outdoorswoman Publishing, 2024) and first book Unsupported (Rugged Outdoorswoman Publishing, 2026). Adams is a proud community ambassador for SheJumps, a non-profit organization that works to provide more women and girls access to the outdoors. Also a member of Team VJ Shoes USA and can be found at @bethany.climbs on Instagram.

46Climbs

A certain percentage of proceeds from Unsupported will be donated to 46Climbs, an organization that raises awareness around suicide through physical movement and mountain climbing. In 2020, the hike that Rhodes and Adams embarked on and later made history with, was dedicated to 46Climbs. Mental health struggles and suicide touch every family, its part of Unsupporteds mission to offer light on a subject that is often kept in the darkness.

https://46climbs.com/

Praise for Unsupported:

Adams is perseverance personified.

-Amanda K. Jaros, Author of In My Boots: A Memoir of Five Million Steps along the Appalachian Trail

Order book at (Books will be available for purchase at the event):

https://www.ruggedoutdoorswoman.com