Kilroy Was Here: Meghan McCarthy Discusses her Incredible Appalachian Title, The Long Hike

Dudes.

Duuuuuuuuudes.

Look, Meghan McCarthy and me? We came up around the same time. When she was publishing Steal Back the Mona Lisa in 2006 I was just out of my MLIS baby shoes, trying my hand on being a children’s librarian. Fact is, we have a history. She’d come to my Kidlit Drink Nights when Cheryl Klein and I held them in the late 2000s in NYC. I, in turn, loved what she was doing with nonfiction. Unlike a lot of folks, Meghan never went for the obvious subject matter. Charles Atlas. Those weird raptors building homes on the outskirts of Central Park. Balto… but not as you know him. The War of the friggin’ Worlds! Nobody does nonfiction like Meghan, and best of all? She not only makes her books interesting but entirely fact-based. No fake dialogue. No delving into her subjects’ heads to say what they felt about a particular moment in time without sourcing her material.

And googly eyes. Lots and lots of googly eyes.

Problem is, I haven’t seen a Meghan McCarthy title in a while. Last time we checked in with her was for that jaw-dropping book Action: How Movies Began in 2022. It’s been four years since I interviewed her about that title and four years is far far too long for my McCarthy fix. Happily, she has a new book out this year. And it’s a doozy.

The Long Hike: The True Story of the First Appalachian Thru-Hike (out June 16th) isn’t just a biography. Isn’t just a consideration of how nature and mental health have an intrinsic connection. Isn’t, for that matter, just about the Appalachian Trail. This is the kind of book my Blueberry Award seeks out every year. It’s about how an appreciation of nature goes far beyond just “oh, hey, those trees are pretty”. It delves, DELVES I TELLS YA, into something essential and interesting regarding human nature.

And by gum, I’m talking to Meghan McCarthy about it today:

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Betsy Bird: Meghan! Boy, it’s good to get a chance to talk to you again and lob questions in your general direction. You’ve always been one of the premiere nonfiction picture book creators (a.k.a. someone who does interesting books on interesting topics that are actually is interesting to kids). Your latest book is a deep dive into the first Appalachian thru-hike (that we know of) by one Earl Shaffer. Where did you first hear of Earl and what drew you to his story? 

Meghan McCarthy: I became an avid hiker during the pandemic. Being in nature helped me stay sane and grounded. As I was hiking, I thought: It would be great to do a book with a lot of tree paintings in it. At the time, my cousin’s son and his now-fiancé were doing a thru-hike of the AT and posting videos as they went along. They’re now hiking the Continental Divide Trail. Below is a short clip of their current location.

Also, my father, right after he retired from social work, rode his bike from Rhode Island to Maine and then section-hiked the last “100-Mile Wilderness” after reading the book A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. This last 100 miles is as described—once one enters, there’s no turning back. A rescue could take 24 hours or longer due to its remoteness. Therefore, I was well aware of life on the AT. I wondered who started the whole thing so I began searching for the “OG,” as the kids would say, of the AT thru-hike.

BB: Well, and I feel like the timing of this book is particularly good right now. We’re seeing this increased attention on the national parks, and just last year we saw a lot of buzz around Kate Messner’s hike-adjacent middle grade novel The Trouble With Heroes. Now you’ve touched on not just the idea of hiking long distances but the reasoning behind why you might want to try it yourself. You mention in your Author’s Note the hiking you’ve done. What draws you to it? What does it do for you?

Meghan: I live on the outskirts of NYC. There’s no shortage of noise, pollution, rats, potholes, and garbage blowing around like tumbleweed. Hiking is escapism – for me, it’s an attempt to go back to the days when vast parts of the country were wild and new, when there was an absence of cars idling, planes jetting overhead, and even of human life. I once walked a 7-mile trail and spotted zero people all day. There’s nothing better than starting off a hike with the sun blazing, a warm breeze rustling the tree branches, and the sound of water rumbling somewhere deep inside the forest, beckoning me to step into its wilderness. The other thing I love about hiking is the exercise. Hiking mountains, even small ones, is great cardio and provides a nice endorphins boost. I use exercise as a way to destress and clear my mind.

BB: I have this problem with your books where I’m enjoying the story and really into the writing, but occasionally you’ll distract me with the sheer detail and beauty of your art the whole time. Take this book, for example. There’s this seemingly casual spread of Earl just walking down a trail from North Carolina into Tennessee and you’ve taken such time and care and attention to the backdrop around him. The light and the foliage (the lichen on the trees, man, the lichen!) feels so palpable and real. Here are some examples of what I mean:

How did you go about making these landscapes? What were your visual sources?

Meghan: Most of my visual sources were from photos I took of the trail. I hiked as many portions as possible and then painted from my photographs. I gave myself fun little missions, like wait until after a hard rain and then take photos of wet logs and fallen trees. I must have captured over fifty photos of wet logs with moss growing on them in just one day! Here’s a screen shot of what my photos folder looks like

A big reason why tree paintings were on my mind is because of one of my favorite landscape painters–Neil Welliver. My dad owns one of his out-of-print art books, which I loved looking at when I was little. I sort of “borrowed” it and it’s been on my shelf ever since. My work does not necessarily resemble Welliver’s, but his book sat on my desk as I painted. I flipped through it once in a while to keep myself inspired. My other inspiration were the hiking vlogs, which are definitely a popular thing for hikers to post. I binge watched hundreds upon hundreds of them. I tried my very best to capture the essence of what a thru-hike is like visually and those videos helped immensely.  I think I watched every single one of Taylor the Nahamsha Hiker’s AT videos. She’s one cool chick.

I gave myself some other homework assignments, such as to stand in a lake, to observe what the ripples look like… for a painting I never ended up doing!

BB: I know you must have tried a variety of different types of illustration over time, but I feel like you always return to acrylics in the end. What do acrylics lend your art that other mediums just can’t? 

Meghan: In art school, I tried everything– charcoal, watercolors, gouache, mixed media, oils, pastels, ink, photography, sculpture, wood carving, you name it. But I do always return to acrylics. My dad bought me my first set when I was a young teen and I have felt most comfortable using them ever since. I don’t like to completely plan out my art ahead of time. If you’re not going to plan it out then you’d better hope that 1) the medium allows for you to go over it again and again and 2) it dries fast. I like to surprise myself (and my editor and art director!). Knowing the end result ahead of time seems boring to me. Art making should be a process of exploration.

BB: For that matter, tell us a bit about your research process. You’ve a killer Bibliography at the end of this book, chock full of books, radio interviews, references to Earl’s diaries, videos, and articles. Where did you start when you wanted to know more about him? And how did you know where to look for sources?

Meghan: It was Earl’s diary, without question, that inspired my book. Since the book doesn’t have an overly dramatic story arc, his actual words are the key to portraying what his life was like on the trail. As with many of my nonfiction books, quoting the diary triggered some legal concerns. Permission to quote from his diary, I had been told, was necessary. I balked at this because of some past, unpleasant experiences. In regards to one of books, I was uncomfortably yelled at by family members. For another, I was twice threatened with legal action, which obviously caused enormous stress.

After dragging my feet on the AT project for quite some time, I finally got the courage to write to the Earl Shaffer Foundation. If they said “no” then I decided I’d cancel the project. To my surprise, the board of directors of the Shaffer Foundation, who are comprised of Earl’s relatives and friends, trail experts, and avid hikers, were super nice and agreed to help however they could. I definitely pestered them with questions! What I love about writing nonfiction is that each topic requires a very different approach to research. For some books, I contact museums but for this one, I didn’t need to—people who knew Earl could answer most of my questions!

As with any of my books, I obsessed over details like: What did Earl’s snake bite kit look like? So, I asked the board of directors. There were a lot of back-and-forth emails. No one seemed to know what his kit looked like until one person wrote, “My recollection of the snake bite kit (and this could be entirely my imagination, not memory) was that it was a little green, rubber-like, egg/tube container with impressions on it to resemble snake skin; ca. 1″x 1.25″ diameter and 3-4″long.” This is when e-bay becomes really useful. I poured through tons of auctions on 1940s snakebit kits until I spotted the below item. I got that ah-ha! moment. This is what makes research fun—it’s like an Easter egg hunt!

BB: This is a good example for my next question. You must have amassed a huge amount of info on Earl, but only a little of it could have made it into the book. Can you tell us some cool bit of information that you would have loved to have included but it simply didn’t fit into THE LONG HIKE for whatever the reason?

Meghan: Earl made a brief mention of a cartoon called Kilroy. I had to look this one up! During WW2 it became the graffiti “meme” of its day. This cartoon character appeared wherever in the world troops went – on walls, on ships, on airplanes, you name it. Earl said “You could make it in a second. It really was a specular thing when you think about it.” Obviously, as an artist, this really appeals to me.

The words “Kilroy was here!” with the accompanying nose-over-wall character, is now etched onto the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I also didn’t really get into how dedicated Earl was about documenting his hike with color photographs, which were uncommon in the 1940s. He was on a constant mission to pick up Kodachrome film. I guess he thought that B&W film wouldn’t visually do the experience justice.

BB: I have to ask it but do you ever think you might attempt the full Appalachian Trail hike yourself? And, if you do, how would you go about it? 

Meghan: I love hiking but have never camped in my adult life. I actually think I’d hate it! I get insomnia really easily and suspect that sleeping on the ground would set it off big-time. I tested the idea of hiking the last 100-Miles to an ex-military friend of mine and he replied, “Oh, I’m not doing that with you! I need a nice hotel room at the end of a long day.” Haha, I’m completely with him on that! All I know about thru-hiking is that planning is KEY. If a hiker has the wrong equipment, then the hike will be miserable, which I discovered firsthand!

I learned the hard way that attempting to hike parts of the AT can be quite dangerous. To score great reference photos, I drove to New Hampshire, with the aim of hiking the Presidential Traverse. The traverse goes over all the mountains named after presidents – Mount Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, and Pierce.  Right after I hiked over Mount Jefferson, my IT band got so painful and tight that I began to severely limp. My once fast pace dwindled to that of an eighty-year-old right out from hip surgery. I realized that I wouldn’t get down before dark, so… I gave up and sat down to watch the sun set, which was beautiful.

Then, the darkness came. I thought, Will I be was stuck on the side of Mount Washington? This video gives you a small glimpse of the evening and sunset part of the hike.

As I hiked down, in the dark, I completely panicked. I watched as my phone went from 20% battery life…to 10%… to 5%… to 2%. I shut the phone off when it hit 1%, in case I had to call a park ranger or 911.  In the back of my mind, I kept thinking of the story of a retired AirForce nurse. She was hiking the 100-Mile Wilderness in Maine. She went off-trail to go to the bathroom and never made it back. It took two years to discover her body. The last text message to her husband read “Lost since yesterday. Off-trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do, please. XOX.” Those texts were sadly never delivered.

I took two tiny flashlights with me, for emergencies, but the first one died quickly and the second one kept shutting off! Some nutty trail runner, with a headlamp, had been way up the mountain – I could see his flashlight moving through the darkness, winding right and then left as it followed the cairns, high above the tree-line.  “Serial killer!” is the first thing that my mind concocted. I’m not afraid of animals. I’m afraid of people. I think he knew that I’d be frightened of some strange guy, suddenly appearing out of the darkness, late at night, so he yelled out “Hello there! Are you okay?” He was such a nice guy and said that he’d send help, if needed. He then told me of a shortcut at the end, which insanely involved shimmying on a fallen tree, across a raging river, in complete darkness. By then, both flashlights were dead. I turned on my phone, that had 1% battery life left, to use its flashlight, as I grabbed onto the large, fallen tree. My feet got absolutely soaked and the roar of the river was deafening. By some miracle, I made it out of the woods around 1 a.m., with a ton of knee pain and two minor ankle sprains. The problem was that I was not wearing hiking shoes. I was wearing super thin 70s inspired track sneakers. This is a perfect example of why the right equipment is essential!

Even with that said, I do want to hike the last 100-Mile Wilderness in Maine. I’m not giving up! The plan was to do it this summer. I stupidly asked that this hiking plan of mine be written into the author flap because… I was afraid that I’d chicken out! I wanted to force myself to do it, to see what I’m capable of. Unfortunately, I have a displaced toe fracture that isn’t healing. I also got rear-ended on the highway (a lovely hit and run) and am having a lot of post-concussion symptoms, such as headaches and balance issues (I’m really not making excuses!). Both of those things don’t make hiking possible at the moment, which makes me really sad. However, I still have hope that I can recover by early summer and get in shape to do the hike. And as to your question of a thru-hike – I suppose that I should never say never!

BB: GEEZ! I’m still stuck on the whole story of crossing a river in the pitch black with a phone operating at 1%! I’m almost afraid to ask this, but what’s next for you after this? What kinds of projects are you working on?

Meghan: I’ve signed up a book with a new editor at Beach Lane. The project has been moving in different directions, so I really appreciate the editor being so laid back about it, and allowing me to go where I think it will work best. For now, the book is focusing on the way artists work but will also have some art prompts along the way. This topic will be a complete departure for me. We shall see what happens. I’m not at all certain on what the end result will look like!

I haven’t signed the contract yet but I think I can say this – I’m FINALLY going to do a graphic novel! I’ve been trying to sell something for over a decade! This will hopefully be a nonfiction series and will contain short stories (I’m signed up for two) that will touch on various, fascinating parts of history. The first book will be called Fake News. I got the rights back to my picture book Aliens Are Coming! so I’m going to do an expanded, graphic novel story on that. Here’s a sample finish I created for the pitch.

This book will contain other fun and wacky stories that kids may not have heard before. One example is during the mid 1800s, when P.T. Barnum declared that he had found a real mermaid. The newspapers ran with it, complete with images of half women/half fish illustrations. The second book will be called Dangerous Lives. Oh, I have so many great stories for that one! I’d love to talk about the early days of medicine and also discuss the hobo kids who rode and lived on trains during the great depression. I’m fascinated by dangerous staircases from hundreds of years ago and also how the wealthy accidentally poisoned themselves by installing green arsenic wallpaper. They also put plaster of Paris in their bread, to make it look whiter. I could go on and on about all the ideas I have. Obviously, I’ve been brainstorming this topic for a long, long time! I’m excited for the opportunity to try something new!

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Considering how long I’ve been waiting for a Meghan McCarthy graphic novel, this is all the best of possible news to me.

HUGE thanks to Meghan for taking the time to not only answer my questions AT LENGTH, but to also provide these incredible images as well. The Long Hike: The True Story of the First Appalachian Thru-Hike is out June 16th and is an incredible true story that will get your kids hyped to explore some trails of their own.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2026, Interviews