Aaron carried my pack to the road and waited with me until Roger arrived. I had connected with Roger through the North Country trail angel page and was looking forward to meeting him in person. When Roger and his wife, April, arrived, he loaded my pack into his truck and handed me some cold orange…

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By the time I reached the two campsites at Hernando De Soto Lake in Itasca State Park, I was limping, but I still didn’t know how badly I was hurting. After pushing through some of the worst blow downs I’ve ever done, I came to a few miles of better trail, There were still some…

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Not long after leaving the lake, I entered Lake Itasca State Park. This is known as a beautiful park, hosting the headwaters of the Mississippi River. I had been told the trail had been cleared and was looking forward to hiking there. Even though my foot was hurting, I still had hopes of making it…

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After I left Jan and Jim, I was happy to see that my body felt better. My foot wasn’t screaming in pain and hiking was finally feeling pleasurable. Unfortunately that only lasted a day and a half. By the middle of my second day out, my foot was again starting to hurt. I remembered my…

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I learned a long time ago that making assumptions can cause a lot of erroneous thinking. I also knew the importance of checking my facts, yet as I was walking in an area with quite a few blow downs, I was thinking this trail is too long for the number of people they have to…

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I was surprised to feel self doubt as I pedaled the last miles of the long road walk. The next section of trail consisted of about 190 miles of hiking before I hit the next town. This would take me close to two weeks of hiking. Luckily, a trail angel named Ellen agreed to hold…

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