Elli Schneider grew up in Germany, spending Summers in the mountains. But it wasn’t until adopting her dog Otto, during a difficult lockdown, that she truly discovered trail magic. Otto is a stray who had been shot before being taken in by a shelter to spend his days in a cage. This is all Elli knows of his past, but their shared present on the trail is specia. Exploring, eating, sleeping and spending all day together helped form a bond that is preserved, Elli says, by ensuring she hikes her dog’s hike, prioritising Otto’s pace over her own.
Main image: An ultralight way of life on the Rob Roy Way | Credit: Elli Schneider
As Elli started venturing further on longer multi-day walks in order to spend more time outdoors with Otto, she “quickly started to get out of [her] anxiety”. Long-distance trails became her happy place, giving her the joy and purpose she’d been searching for. Her first solo long-distance hike was a coastal 250km section of the GR34 in Brittany in 2020. She’s come a long way since, hiking some of Europe and Britain’s best trails – including competing the TGO Challenge in 2024 – and getting the challenger t-shirt!
We talk to Elli about all things trail magic – and how she fits adult life in around her beloved long-distance walks.
TGO: How and when did you come to find joy outside?
Elli: I grew up a bit outdoorsy, my parents loved hiking and camping and we spent all our summer holidays hiking in the mountains. But as I grew a bit older and when I was in my twenties, I lost that interest a bit, maybe because I associated it with more of an older people activity.
I still liked day hiking and did my first multi-day hike in Scotland in 2010, but I didn’t go backpacking or wild camping and hiking just wasn’t a real part of my life. It was nice for a holiday but not something that I wanted to do regularly.
TGO: Could you recall an early, formative experience in the outdoors that led you to pursue long-distance walking?
Elli: My interest for long-distance hiking really started during Covid. I wasn’t doing great back then and struggled with anxiety and not feeling happy in my job back then. I tried different hobbies to keep me occupied and adopted Otto during that time too. Otto kind of helped me through this time. He had spent all of his life up until that point in a cage in a shelter and seemed eager to go out all the time.
He always wanted to go out and explore and so I started doing longer distances and eventually started to backpack and wild camp. It just seemed to be the perfect activity for him and by doing it and spending time outdoors, I quickly started to feel better too and get out of my anxiety. I soon realised that long-distance hiking was my happy place and gave me the joy and meaning that I had been searching for for quite some time.
TGO: What was your first multi-day walk? How do you look back on that trip now?
Elli: My first solo long-distance hike (my first time backpacking with a tent), was a 250km section of the GR 34, a coast walk in Brittany (France) in 2020. This hike really taught me how important it is to pack as light as possible. Even though I tried to only pack the essentials back then too, my pack was still too heavy for over 2 weeks of walking. That’s when I started to look online, watch gear videos and slowly got into the ultralight side of hiking.
TGO: You’ve walked many of the UKs most iconic trails now – what draws you to the trails you choose to walk?
Elli: Everytime I hike in the UK and meet other hikers, my trail bucket list is getting longer, so I sometimes find it hard to decide, just because there are so many interesting trails. Even though I have areas I really love returning too (like the western Highlands or the South West Coast Path), I also specifically go to areas where I haven’t been to before.
I really like variation, that’s always something that draws me to a trail the most. If I can have cute villages or historic sites but also more rugged nature, great views and vaste mountain or moorland spaces, that’s the ideal trail for me. I generally like more open spaces and nature, so I choose trails that feature that over trails that go near cities, suburbs or for example mainly through low-level farmland.
I like trails that are not too crowded and not too close to civilisation all the time so that it’s easy to wild camp, but a bit of infrastructure (like a campsite every now and then for a shower), shops for resupply and pubs/cafes here and there are a must too for me.
TGO: Can you recall any particular moments of trail magic that stand out to you?
Elli: On my JoGLE hike I struggled with finding a place to wild camp in Scotland. I was walking along a road for miles and the area next to the road was all fenced off. I met Andrew and after we talked for a bit he asked me where I would camp that night. I told him that I didn’t really know with all the area being fenced off. He and his wife lived just a few hundred metres away and they offered me to set up my tent in their garden. I gladly accepted and they even offered me to use their bathroom for a shower. One of the best showers I’ve ever had.
TGO: Can you tell us a bit about Otto and what it means to you to have him along for the journey?
Elli: Otto is a rescue (probably a Jack Russell Terrier/Dachshund Mix), I adopted him from a shelter in Croatia. I don’t know a lot about him, but before I adopted him, he had never lived with anyone. He was a stray dog and was shot at some point before he then lived in the shelter for almost 4 years. Having him with me for my hikes is very special because I feel like it’s a very ‘natural’ way to live for the both of us. Moving around, exploring, eating, sleeping and spending all day every day together really formed a special bond between us.
I think as a former stray dog he’s really enjoying to be out and about as much as possible. But that being said, it’s not always easy because imo hiking with a dog for longer distances means that you’re hiking your dogs hike and not really your own anymore. He doesn’t choose to go on a hike and while I know and see that he’s enjoying himself, it’s up to me to make sure he’s doing fine which means to adapt to his pace and to not overdo it for him.
TGO: May I ask how you make time for your epic adventures amid the obligations of everyday life?
Elli: Luckily I’m in a position where I’ve been able to create my life ‘around’ my hikes: I work as a freelance artist and teach art classes, mostly in winter where I usually don’t hike that much. By saving the money I earn and living a very simple life when I’m at home, I can then do hikes in spring, summer and autumn. And I now also earn money from YouTube from my videos to sustain my hikes. Not a lot, but hiking is very inexpensive (apart from travelling to and from hikes), so it works out ok and I’m just very happy to be able to live my dream and sustain my hikes with my videos.
TGO: How do you like spending your time outdoors when you don’t have time to overnight or multi-day hike?
Elli: I really like day hiking too, especially when I’m at home. Otto has to go for walks anyway of course, so I try to do little hikes as much as possible, even just in my local woodland. I also really like to just go outside and make a coffee or cook some food on a fire and enjoy nature.
TGO: When and why did you begin vlogging about your trail and what motivates you to keep up with the filming and editing schedule for your subscribers and followers?
Elli: I started to vlog when I started my JoGLE hike in 2023. I’ve always had a passion for photography and wanted to try something new and explore my creative side more. I also wanted to document my adventure for friends and family back home. My channel has grown quite a bit over the last year and I get a lot of positive feedback. I try to inspire other people (especially women) to go out and discover the outdoors by showing the beauty of the landscapes and the trails but I’m also showing the hard moments, things that go wrong or when I’m not feeling great. I just want to take people along for my hikes, so that they can ‘feel’ a bit of what I’m feeling and seeing on the trail. The kind feedback, encouragement and just overall the supporting community of like-minded people is what keeps me going.
TGO: Finally, I’m dying to hear – how was your Spine Race?
Elli: My Spine Race was beautiful (the weather and the views were incredible) but also very hard and draining. The deep snow made for very slow progress and as a result I then didn’t have a lot of time at the checkpoint for a real sleep. The second day was even harder with white-out conditions on the moors near Cowling and it was tough mentally. My body held up fine though, but in the end I retired in Malham because of the sleep deprivation. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and wasn’t myself anymore… would have been too risky to head up to Fountains Fell in the night feeling like that. But overall still a great experience and I’ve learned a lot.
You can follow the adventure @ellihikes on YouTube.
