About

Blue Ridge Hiking Company's Mission

Blue Ridge Hiking Company's mission is to make the wilderness accessible and enjoyable for everyone. We believe the trail is there for everyone at every phase of life and we welcome all hikers, regardless of their background or ability level.

We strive to provide safe on-trail experience with engaging, knowledgeable, and well-trained guides. We embrace and encourages diversity on the trail and we follow Leave No Trace principles.

All of Blue Ridge Hiking Company's guides are certified in Wilderness First Aid (or higher) and CPR.

Our Team

Lindsey Barr, Manager
Lindsey grew up in central North Carolina, where she developed a love for the outdoors (and earned her Girl Scout Gold Award). In 2012, she left her career in engineering behind to follow her dream of helping introduce others to the outdoors. When she isn't at work, she is exploring area trails and dreaming of her next adventure. In addition to hiking and backpacking, she enjoys trail running, cycling, rock climbing, paddling, fly fishing, knitting, and sewing. Lindsey serves on the Board of Directors of Outdoor Gear Builders of Western North Carolina, and was nominated for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce WomanUp 2020 Rising Star Award.

Eli Mills, Assistant Manager
Eli grew up in North Central Iowa where his love of outdoors grew from biking dusty gravel roads, digging in the family garden, paddling rafts down the Winnebago River, and visiting national parks. Upon earning his Bachelor's Degree, he moved to Asheville to work in wilderness therapy "just for the summer," but years later he still calls this place home. Eli enjoys many mountain sports including climbing, running, camping, and biking and sharing these with folks of all stripes.

Matt "Gnome" Dobson, Lead Guide
Having moved around the world pursuing other professional interests, Matt has decided Western North Carolina is the place for him and helping to expose others to our natural world is the perfect way to spend his time. Matt has over 12,000 trail miles on his legs, including thru-hikes of the Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide Trail, John Muir Trail, and Long Trail. He has a Plant Sciences degree from the University of Tennessee and has spent many of his hours in nature studying its science and history.

Carolyn Lewis
Carolyn grew up in Florida, camping as a kid and always loving the outdoors. After college, she followed this passion and got a job leading teenagers on remote canoeing expeditions. A few years ago, she left the gators behind and moved to these mountains to guide backpacking trips. Carolyn is hoping to share many "mindfulness moments" - and maybe some yoga! - on the trail with you. Her passions include her yoga practice, her pup named little bear, and her roller skates.

Traci Mohl
Traci grew up fostering a deep love for the outdoors while exploring the forests and creeks of eastern Pennsylvania. After college, she began guiding trips all over the east coast inlcuding canoeing, climbing, and hiking. Her favorite trails have a difersity of terrain and flora, and you better believe there's a vista or waterfall somewhere! When she's not hiking, you can find her climbing, paddling, reading a fantasy novel, or participating in combat demonstrations with her Viking-age historical reenactment society.

Meredith Prentice
This desert dog rolled up to the Blue Ridge Mountains after spending several years in the diverse ecosystems of the Colorado Plateau and Louisiana wetlands. She has a BS in Environmental Studies from Northern Arizona University and has participated in ecological research and native seed collection, working multiple seasons as a field botanist and crew leader. Her favorite pastimes include drawing, identifying plants, reading, exploring nature, and crawfish boils.

Juliet Ramirez
Juliet grew up in Louisiana, where her first outdoor experiences were fishing with her family and watching alligators pop up out of muddy water. After years of guiding whitewater trips in the Smoky Mountains, guiding backpacking trips in Yosemite, and working in wilderness therapy, she is happy to call Asheville home. She loves long hikes, and even more, to take time on trail to relax, swim, enjoy the view, and eat good food. When not hiking, she is baking sourdough, rock climbing, reading, and dancing.

Anne Read
Anne grew up in Maine, where she worked as a backpacking and canoeing instructor, leading trips in Maine and the White Mountains. She moved to Asheville in 2017 and came to love the area and its outdoor opportunities. Anne worked as a raft guide on the French Broad River, and enjoys leading wilderness trips with people of all ages. In March 2020, she hiked 220 miles of the Appalachian Trail, postponing the thru hike due to trail closures. Anne loves cooking, rafting, climbing, and reading on her porch.

Lauren Smucker
Lauren has been exploring Appalachia for over 30 years. Originally a Pennsylvania native, she moved to Western North Carolina after leading trail building crews with Americorps. After hiking Vermont’s Long Trail in 2017, she went on to thru hike the Appalachian Trail the following year. Lauren enjoys creating sculptures, growing food, and identifying flora & fauna in the mountains she calls home.

Melissa Watkins
Melissa grew up in Florida where she spent many hours watching wildlife and guiding kayak tours. She has also guided many backpacking, canoeing, and rafting trips in western North Carolina and loves nothing more than sharing the outdoors with new friends. A former college professor, she is an educator at heart. When not at work, she loves to paddle, bake, teach her young son about the outdoors, and bask in the sunshine.

Brew Davis, Guest Guide
Brew is Jen's husband and grew up in Nashville so he's required by law to be a part-time singer/songwriter. He's also a former History/English teacher and knows enough about both subjects to be dangerous but not helpful. He's hiked with Jen all over the US and Europe and has completed varying pain-levels of ultra marathons from 50Ks to 100 milers and the infamous Pitchell 100K in Western NC. He helps Jen on the speaking and writing side of things, but loves working in the shop and guiding hikes whenever the boss (read, wife) lets him.

Bev MacDowell, Guest Guide
Backpack with a contemporary! Bev has been a hiking and backpacking leader for adults and youth for more than 10 years. She is an AT Trail Maintainer for the Max Patch section, she has completed Educator Outward Bound, and recently hiked 200 miles of the Spanish Camino del Santiago. She feels most alive when she is active in the forest; it is so empowering! It brings her great joy to introduce others to the wonder of outdoor life in Western NC.

Leah "Eagle Eye" LaRocco, Guest Guide
Leah received her certification as a Southern Appalachian Naturalist from Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, and loves exploring nature on the trail whenever she gets a chance. Growing up in the northeast, she developed a passion for the outdoors by camping and hiking in Vermont. When away from work, you can find her adventuring in places like the Smokies, Rocky Mountains, Yosemite, Tetons, Scotland's West Highland Way, and the Appalachian Trail.

Heidi "Picasso" Nisbett, Guest Guide
Heidi grew up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is proud to call North Carolina home. After graduating from Winthrop University with a BFA in Painting and Printmaking, she found herself falling in love with hiking and the outdoors. She thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2018 and kept a detailed sketchbook of watercolor paintings to document her travels. She has since hiked a number of shorter trails and enjoys finding new ways to incorporate her creative practice into hiking.

Carly Moree, Virtual Coach
Carly provides coaching and workshops centered around helping others step into their full abilities on trail through hiking, backpacking, and running. She was the third woman to attempt the Fastest Known Time on the Pacific Crest Trail. She has run the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim, and hiked both the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail. She is a published author with leading outdoor industry brands including REI and Larabar and she is the co-author of Pacific Crest Trials with The Trek. Carly is an outdoor consultant, author, writer, endurance athlete, and owner of BURLY. She lives in Golden, Colorado.

Company History

About Jennifer

Blue Ridge Hiking Company was founded in 2008 by Jennifer Pharr Davis, a renowned backpacker and leading voice in the outdoor industry. Jennifer grew up in these mountains but didn't backpack until she walked the entire 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail at age 21. As she crossed a solitary ridge at sunset, she realized for the first time in her life that she was a part of nature, not merely an outside observer of it. That moment made her feel beautiful, capable and wild, and she vowed then and there to help others experience "that" feeling.

At age 24, Jennifer founded Blue Ridge Hiking Company to help everyone- especially women- experience the joy and wonder of spending time in the woods. Twelve years later, Jennifer has been named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, one of Men's Journal's 25 Most Adventurous Women of the Past 25 Years, and the Asheville Area Chamber's 2019 Female Entrepeneur of the Year. She has grown as an author and speaker, and in 2020 she played a key role in the IMAX film Into America's Wild, narrated by Morgan Freeman.

During that time, Blue Ridge Hiking Company has grown from a one woman operation to a small business with a dozen guides, a shop in downtown Asheville, a bunkhouse in the Appalachian Trail hamlet of Hot Springs, and a small fleet of vehicles, and has been recognized coast to coast- from the LA Times, to the Washington Post and New York Times as a key cog in Asheville's burgeoning tourist industry. More importantly, BRHC has helped thousands of people experience the transformatative power of walking through and with nature.

Today, the company guides in Pisgah National Forest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mount Mitchell State Park, Dupont State Forest, on the Appalachian Trail, and more!