After 14 hours of hugging, I was only able to total 3,459 hugs. This was 1,000 hugs more than the last attempt and there will be another attempt this year. Stay posted!

Below is Audrey Rose's experience at Hugfest 2010 - The hugs part begins at Part 2, so feel free to scroll down.

Part 1:
Audrey Rose wandered through the woods, the ferns curled in tight circles, ready to burst and stretch out their fragile tendrils, covering the damp brown floor, providing refuge from sun, predators, from life. Glacier lilies were already retreating making room for lupine and mules ears.

The earth was making its way into the creases and lines of Audrey Rose's soles, to stay there till summer's end. As she ascended rocky cliffs and trails, she heard a tiny mew. Looking back, she saw a fluffy kitten, pit-pattering down the trail. When Audrey Rose squatted down to greet it, the kitten darted behind one of the few pines still standing. It peered out from around the edge of the tree, regarding Audrey Rose warily. Audrey Rose decided to keep walking, since she had nothing to lure the kitten with. As she moved, she heard a faint padding behind her. Audrey Rose turned and the kitten darted away. She walked and the kitten followed.

"A little fluffy butt is what you are," said Audrey Rose to the cat. To her surprise, the kitten mewed a tiny cry of assent. The kitten followed Audrey Rose to the top of Mt. Zirkel, crouching down into the rocks so the wind wouldn't blow her away. For her braveness, Audrey Rose named her Maggie the Warrior. After taking in the emerald hills of the valley below and the vibrancy that only lasts for a blink, she headed down the trail with Maggie in tow. As they walked, Maggie followed, a little closer this time. Every hour, Audrey Rose would hear a small cry, Maggie letting her know she was still there.

Whey they got to town, Maggie became uncomfortable, warily dodging behind available bushes, until Audrey Rose sat down, her back to Maggie. Maggie slowly approached head down, all fluff and grey eyes until Audrey Rose felt a tiny body rub up against her. Audrey Rose moved her hand behind her back and felt the softness between her fingers. Maggie gradually approached around the front, slowly, ready to run. Finally she climbed up on Audrey Rose's leg and curled in her lap, letting Audrey Rose gently stroke her. The kitten vibrated with soft purrs, as if someone had made her happiness invisible, only available to those who came closest.

They sat together in silence, until the sun slipped away, then Audrey Rose picked her up and held her close to her heart, carrying her home.

From then on, Maggie followed Audrey Rose everywhere, almost a shadow of Audrey Rose’s youth; innocent and unafraid. At night, Maggie snuck out the same window Audrey Rose often escaped through and would bring Audrey Rose mice and birds to the closet they slept in.

Maggie grew and became surer of herself, darting off trails to capture a sunbeam, follow the shadows of an aspen leaf. One morning, Audrey Rose awoke and there was no body curled into hers, no weight across her feet. Maggie, who had been the guardian of her soles, was gone, as simply as that.

Lives pass through one another, sometimes too quickly. Audrey Rose's steps seemed emptier than before Maggie entered her life. The worlds she wandered were more silent. But the sun still rose and set and the aspen leaves still sounded like rain when the wind tickled them. Birds scavenged and foxes hunted, leaving Audrey Rose alone with her aloneness.

Audrey Rose lay in the blackness of her closet, letting sleep float by, a cloud in her mind and she felt herself reaching out, but nothing was there. She flipped through the calendar of her memory and realized it had been sixteen days since she had last been touched by animal, human or peace.

Audrey Rose needed an adventure, a journey to find like-minded spirits, a place where she could reconnect with who she was and feel a smile spread across her face and linger more than a moment.

Part 2:
The Teva Mountain games were about to start in Vail and people who pushed themselves, who moved within nature's waters, who unraveled the puzzle of sheer walls of rocks and fitted themselves into nature's design, would be there.

And so Audrey Rose put on her sparkly shirt and let some light filter into the web of her heart. Her skin felt the warmth of the sun blooming softly through the brush, caressing her bare toes while the smell of sage and pine and earth wove into her hair and sank into her skin. She felt flowers open within her and nectar seep through her veins.

Her journey to Vail was filled with deer, rabbits and hawks, until she came upon the town nestled in between the mountains. She made her bed on an open slope above the aspens with the sounds of lost pines creaking.

The morning emerged slowly, from black to indigo to pale and the sun began its climb, illuminating the river running through town.

Audrey Rose stripped off her clothes and sank into the cool waters, letting the light reflect off them both, a moment of quiet, a moment of uncertainty before she opened herself up to the world and stood facing them, asking for the most basic of human needs - touch.

As Audrey Rose shook out her hair and pulled her skirt back on, people began filling the space around her. Her friends, Kim and Andrea were setting up signs and cameras, tables and books to record lives that Audrey Rose would connect with only for a moment. She felt like she was at a dance, afraid no one would take her hand.

Her friends hugged her, their signatures the first of thousands to be recorded. Set-up began and Audrey Rose asked 'Can I hug you?' Someone said yes and then another. Some said no, caught in their own spaces of how the world should work.

Athletes readied for competition as an elderly woman said, 'Well, this isn't the way to start the morning. I don't know where my husband is.'

As Audrey Rose collected hugs, smiles and love, Kim and Andrea became her support, keeping her strong and recording memories for times when she might forget how beautiful the world could be.

All day people gave of themselves to a stranger in a sparkly skirt. The Vail Daily supported her, the radio stations interviewed her. There were beautiful men whose bodies pressed against hers and women who did the same. There were hugs Audrey Rose could lean into and breathe for a moment, shoulders that cupped her head.

Two women held her close, held as a mother would, as Audrey Rose's mother might have if she were still alive. They held her without letting go, until Audrey Rose felt her body relax for a time.

A man offered to feed her, walk her and put her on his mantle. The hugs came in all different sizes and squeezes. Some picked her up and twirled her around, there was strength in some, fear in others. Some were gentle and some filled her with tingles.

Some people avoided eye contact, not sure if something was being sold and all the while the numbers began to add up. "You're the hugs lady, we've been looking for you." People were seeking out hugs. One couple stopped and before the man would hug Audrey Rose, he turned to his wife and said, "I have to hug you first."

Children gave freely, pressing up against Audrey Rose and looking up into her eyes as if there might be an answer to something there. "We teach our children not to hug strangers," said one woman. Others passed their babies over for hugs. Puppies didn't know they couldn't hug strangers, they hugged and kissed freely.
A boy in a wheelchair let Audrey Rose hug him and another woman joined her. People stopped and stared straight-faced when Audrey Rose requested a hug before their faces lit up, smiled and said 'of course.'

Tens turned to hundreds and hundreds turned into a thousand and more. The journey was exhausting and energizing at the same time. When Audrey Rose felt like she couldn't stand, when her feet felt like cement, a word or a bite of food pushed her on.

"You're doing a good thing, reminding people this is okay."

Clouds filtered across the sky covering and uncovering. Bodies of all ages, colors and grace entered into Audrey Rose's embrace. Her insides felt full, as if at any moment she might shatter into a million pieces of glass reflecting back all she had taken in.

"You've been practicing," joked a man as he hugged her.

"I thought you were only hugging men," said a woman who gladly accepted a hug. Audrey Rose had been accused of target hugging, so renewed her effort to make sure women felt as included as men.

"Now I'm ready for a hug. I was in a hurry before. Now I can enjoy it."

"I'm so sorry, I wanted to hug you earlier, but my hands were full."

So many people took a chance on a girl who wasn't really giving hugs, but was in need of hugs, and for that moment, no matter who they were in their every day lives, they were a perfect human being, sharing love.

"Oooh, that was a big squeezy hug."

During the day, a man came and helped recruit hugs. Another one came that night carried the free hugs sign and encouraged people to hug Audrey Rose, to bring her a little closer to the record for most hugs in 24 hours. People were excited that Vail might break the record and Audrey Rose wanted to make it happen, as much for them, for the generosity of spirit they had shared with her, as for herself.  The record didn't belong to Audrey Rose; it belonged to every person that had participated.

As the evening went on, the hugs grew tighter and the air changed from sweat, dirt and sports to perfume, cologne and spirits. Julian Marley filled the night with his father's songs, bringing a sway to people's steps. Andrea made a sign, asking for help and 4,000 more hugs and the back-up dancers took up the sign and held it in the air for a while.

"I thought you were just popular," said a woman who watched Audrey Rose hugging throughout the day, before Audrey Rose was able to include her in a hug. A couple of girls came and danced and twirled and hugged, wanting to be part of a hugging record, stealing hugs that came by, making the embrace their own.

"You have to know when to open your heart and when to project your heart," said a man as he held Audrey Rose.

"I'm going for the dirtiest hug," said one, "I'm going for the creepiest hug," said another, but none of the hugs felt dirty or creepy, they just felt like two bodies sharing touch.

A lean black woman with a yellow flower in her hair picked Audrey Rose up and tried to run away with her, before Audrey Rose was able to escape back to the safety of hugs.

After the band finished, the crowd started to filter home. Rain was illuminated by the gas lamps and Audrey Rose, Andrea and Kim felt the day slipping away from them. At 10:00, there were still 4,228 hugs floating in the universe, awaiting Audrey Rose’s next attempt.

At Kim and Andrea’s hotel room the girls laughed and giggled and felt the day rush through them. Audrey Rose knew words couldn’t thank them enough. As the lights were turned off, Audrey Rose lay on the floor. Her body shook and shuddered.

The next day, Audrey Rose returned to Steamboat Springs, to silence, but the silence was no longer empty.

As Audrey Rose sat on her rock, with the hawks flying high above, the Man in the Mountain approached.

He was small, wrinkled, slowly being consumed again by the earth.

"So, Audrey Rose, did the hugs renew your faith in the world?"
"They did," she responded.
"And did it renew your faith in yourself?"