Greetings fellow hikers. My name is Tim McNicholl, and I am thrilled to join the Hike for Mental Health team as a contributing blogger on hiking and mental health. I live in Ames, Iowa with my wife and our two teenage sons. I am a professor of mathematics at Iowa State University where I have worked for the past 12 years.

I think I probably fell in love with backpacking and the idea of long-distance backpacking when I was about six years old. My family would sometimes spend weekends at a lodge in Shenandoah National Park. On our short hikes, we would encounter people carrying enormous packs who were following the same white blazes as us, but they had started in Georgia and were heading for Maine. My imagination was instantly captivated by the idea of carrying everything I needed on my back and walking through the mountains for such an extended period of time.

My first backpacking trip

I went on my first backing trip through my school at age 12. In 1986, at age 18, I hiked from Springer Mountain to Harper’s Ferry along the AT. In 1991, I returned to the trail and reached Katahdin that summer. I had ambitions to do more long-distance hikes, but career and eventually family building took priority. A few years ago, I reached a point in my professional and personal lives where I could start to do some longer hiking trips again. Re-entering the long-distance hiking world wasn’t always smooth, but it’s been a great learning experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

During prayer and meditation, I realized how amazingly blessed I am to be able to embark on long hikes at this point in my life; I was in pretty good health, I had the necessary time and the financial resources, and I had the gift of a very supportive family. However, I began to feel it was wrong that I should use all this good fortune solely for my own enjoyment. So I began to look around for ways I could use my hikes to raise money for charity.

I came across HIKE for Mental Health

I came across HIKE for Mental Health, and it just seemed to fit in many ways. I would not have to set up my own webpage and mechanisms for collecting donations. Most importantly, it was around this time that I learned mental health was an issue in my own family. In particular, in Fall 2023, I was diagnosed with autism and PTSD. I also became aware that in the post-covid world many of my students were contending with mental health challenges.

After completing my Long Trail hike this summer, I began looking for ways to contribute to Hike for Mental Health in the ‘off-season.’ When I saw there was an opportunity to chip in by blogging about science and mental health issues, I decided to take a chance. After an initial conversation with Leo Walker, I was gladdened to be taken on as a contributor.

So, that’s an introduction to who I am and what I will be doing. If you have particular topics you would like to see in these posts please let me know in the comments.

Happy hiking!