Senior Maya Schwehm, daughter of Chip and Katherine Schwehm of Boothbay and of the Boothbay Region High School Class of 2015 Top 10 seniors, is currently hiking the Appalachian Trail.

“She wanted an experience before she went to college,” her father Chip Schwehm said.

The Appalachian Trail is a 2,000-plus mile long hiking footpath that runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The path winds through 14 states and the average thru-hiker takes approximately 5-7 months to complete the trail, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy website.

According to her father, Schwehm attended Chewonki for a semester school where one of her role models was a young woman who was planning on hiking the Himalayan mountains.

“I think she was a big influence of Maya's decision,” Schwehm said. “She realized she could do something like that. Plus being at Chewonki, which focuses on the environment, really opened up her eyes.”

Schwehm worked hard and planned for over a year to make the trip, saving money and completing her classes early so she could go.

“It takes a few thousand (dollars) to hike the trail, because you need to resupply a lot. She needed to buy gear, there are travel expenses to get there, and buying food on the way,” Chip Schwehm said.

Schwehm's hard worked paid off, and after graduating early in January 2015, she headed off to live her dream.

She has currently completed about one-third of the trail.

“We are very proud of her,” Chip Schwehm said. “We were totally supportive of her going. A little concerned, but supportive.”

In the fall, Schwehm will be studying human ecology at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. She's undecided on what career field she wants to enter, according to her father.

Schwehm was a member of several sports teams, including track, cross-country and Nordic skiing. She was a member of the outing club and math teams, and was a peer tutor.