At one time the youngest girl to through-hike the Appalachian Trail, Dresden resident Maddy Kallin continues to stay active as a member of Lincoln Academy’s cross country and indoor and outdoor track teams. (Dylan Burmeister photo)
Born in Newcastle, Maddy Kallin calls Dresden her home. With 17 years full of hiking, running, and traveling, Kallin’s life could hardly be called stationary.
Kallin went to Dresden Elementary School and attended Brunswick Middle School beginning in sixth grade. After attending Brunswick High School for her freshman and sophomore years, Kallin transferred to Lincoln Academy for junior year. She switched schools for more opportunities pertaining to cross country, and because LA is much closer to home.
“Brunswick stopped making sense for me,” she said.
Kallin was the president of Brunswick’s civil rights team and worked with SafeBAE, an organization aimed at preventing sexual assault and gender-based discrimination in schools. At LA, she is involved in Model United Nations, The Eagle’s Talon, the wind ensemble, indoor and outdoor track, and cross country.
A lifelong constant in Kallin’s life has been her passion for backpacking and hiking, a continuation of a family legacy of love for the outdoors. Her parents through-hiked the Appalachian Trail right after finishing college, and on the trail they met a couple who was hiking the trail with children.
“My parents didn’t realize they could do that with kids,” said Kallin. “They were like, ‘we want to do this with our kids someday.”
When Kallin was younger, the family completed numerous shorter hikes and backpacking trips, mostly in Maine. When she was 10, the family biked across France.
The longest hiking trip she has done was when she through-hiked the Appalachian Trail with her parents and brother at the age of 7. For a few years she was the youngest girl to have completed the trail, although she no longer holds the title.
The hike had a profound impact on her childhood.
“It’s a huge part of who I am,” Kallin said. “It defined my love for backpacking and the outdoors, which is just a big part of my personality. It was such a unique experience and it taught me a lot about how to keep going even when it’s hard.”
Adding to the unique experience were the friendships Kallin made on the trail.
“It was really interesting to see the way that these 20-year-old hikers would interact with me, a 7-year-old,” she said. “They treated me as an equal. They didn’t act like they were talking to a little kid.”
The outdoors continues to be a dominant part of Kallin’s life. In 2020, she finished her first backpacking trip without any adults. Kallin hiked for three days with a friend, two days with her brother, and two days solo in Maine’s Hundred-Mile Wilderness. Since then, she’s completed many shorter hikes and backpacking trips, fitting them in around school, work, and sports.
Kallin began running through the Dresden Elementary School’s running club and ran her first race when she was in fourth grade. She joined the Brunswick Middle School’s track team in sixth grade and the cross country team two years later.
“Track wasn’t a big part of my life until I joined cross country and was like ‘oh my gosh, this is such an awesome sport,’” she said.
Kallin ran for Brunswick’s cross country and track teams, and when she transferred to LA, she joined the cross country and track programs there. She was a part of the KVAC championship team in cross country and outdoor track and the state championship 4×800 team in indoor track.
“It’s a more focused and driven scene here,” said Kallin. “I feel like there’s a lot of people at Lincoln who are pushing themselves to work hard … and the team environment at LA is just unmatched. I really think that no matter where I could’ve gone before Lincoln, it’s such a positive, encouraging, and fun environment with healthy competition that is difficult to find elsewhere.”
She attributes much of this to LA’s head cross country and track coach, Garrett Martin.
“He’s incredible and gives so much to our program, and I think people recognize that and so they try to give as much back as they can,” Kallin said.
Running isn’t the only sport that Kallin partakes in. Her love of ultimate Frisbee comes from her family.
“Both my parents started playing in college, but they’re still playing now, and my brother plays in college,” said Kallin. “I was around Frisbee a lot when I was young, and once I started playing I fell in love with the sport.”
Kallin started playing Frisbee around the age of 7 with a program in Portland. When she started school at Brunswick, she joined the middle school team at Greely Middle School because Brunswick didn’t have a team.
As Frisbee isn’t a sport sanctioned by the Maine Principals’ Association, all high school level teams are clubs. Today, she plays for Cumberland Ultimate in the spring and plays competitively in the summer as well. Her summer team is a youth club team run by Maine Ultimate, but some of their league games are against adult teams.
In late June 2022, Kallin was playing Frisbee when another player collided with her and she broke her ankle.
“When they told me it was broken, I just screamed,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had just started my summer training for cross country, I was full swing into Frisbee, and I was really excited about nationals and then all of a sudden I couldn’t walk.
“I kind of lost it for a bit,” Kallin added. “It was really tough.”
What helped her most, she said, was continuing to attend practices and games.
“My team was really great about helping me feel like I was still a part of the team and making a difference, and that’s another thing I love about Frisbee. The community is so supportive no matter where you go,” Kallin said.
Her recovery took months. She got surgery a week after breaking her ankle, then spent three weeks in a cast and four weeks with an ankle boot. After that, she had to wear an ankle brace all the time for several more weeks.
“It was difficult going into the cross country season knowing that I wasn’t going to get better than I had been before (the injury),” said Kallin. “I was having a tough time after one race, and one of our coaches, Jack DeAngelis, told me “think about it this way. When I met you, you couldn’t run for more than 30 seconds, and you just ran a 5K.’ That to me just helped me take a step back and see the big picture.
“I’m proud of how well I was able to recover and keep running, and now I’m going to nationals for Frisbee next month. Now I’m a year out and better than ever,” Kallin said.
She hopes to keep running and hiking, and would like to play Frisbee in college. Outside of these interests, she wants to make a difference in the world.
“I know that’s a broad thing,” Kallin said, “but I want to be able to look back on my life and not only be able to be like ‘wow, I was an interesting person and did cool things’ but I want to be able to make an impact on people’s lives, even if it’s on the small scale.”
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