The Mary Badass

I was as close to giving up on the North Country Trail as I have ever been on any of my 21,500 miles of backpacking, except for when I had three broken bones in my foot on the Pacific Northwest Trail. My foot was excruciatingly painful. Temperatures were in the nineties, made worse by a…

After my last blog about the wind, I have mixed feelings reporting that the wind has dissipated quite a bit. It still comes up during storms and threatens to blow my tent down, but unfortunately it’s lessened in these days when the temperatures are in the high 80s and 90s. Just now I would gladly…

For me, the incessant wind in North Dakota is a bit tiring. It reminds me of the wind in the great basin in Wyoming on the Continental Divide Trail where some hikers feel the wind is making them crazy and they end up screaming for it to stop. The wind certainly has given me something…

There are about 100 people who get a ping sent from my Garmin satellite device every night showing where I’m camped. Most of the time it says “on the north country trail” and the recipient can scroll in and see where I am. But every once in a while a message goes out that says…

As I’m sitting in town after my first 97 miles on the North Country Trail, during which I’ve cried more than I’ve cried on most of my 2000 mile hikes, I’ve been thinking a lot about keeping things in perspective. Yes, my foot hurts with every single step I take. It’s like walking with two…

People often ask me how I do these long distance hikes. My response is always the same. “One step at a time.” When I stand at the beginning of a 2000 mile hike, it would be overwhelming to think about the entire trip, especially if I figure that each step I take covers only about…

When I am adventuring, one of the questions I get asked most is, “Aren’t you afraid?” Now, two days into my next adventure, I can honestly say I believe the most dangerous part is behind me. Even though I hope to hike for four months, statistically I was in more danger during the two-day, 1257…

As I’m packing to go on my hike, I’m aware the preparations for this trip are a bit different than previous hikes. In addition to what I usually carry, I will be carrying close to a pound of medical supplies I need to take care of my foot and the donor site where the skin…

As I do one of my usual nighttime wake ups with my foot screaming in pain, I think about how grateful I am that even with this painful foot I feel able to start out on another adventure. In a few days I will start the North Country Trail, the only one of the eleven…

I will start by saying thanks to all of you who checked in on me because you hadn’t heard from me in a while. I’ve been in a bit of a writing desert, unable to push myself to do it, feeling whatever I had to say was mostly dribble. In part my difficulty was spurred…