The Mary Badass

In some ways I was relieved to find out my foot was broken and I had to get off the Pacific Northwest Trail. If I hadn’t done the MRI and had just gone with the x-ray results, I would have kept hiking on that painful foot. I hadn’t been enjoying myself for much of the…

When I was at Corinna’s I realized I was missing the small digital recorder I carry with me when I hike. Rather than keeping a written journal, I speak into the recorder during the day. Besides providing a record of my trip, it helps me remember what I want to later blog about. I am…

After confirming that I had at least one broken foot, I planed to stay at the church in Havillah for a few days. Since I often find that transitions to be difficult, I wanted to give myself time to make this very unexpected one. Sometimes I feel anxiety before I leave one place to go…

I’ve talked often of hiking one’s own hike. When I was driving up to Glacier in June, I stopped to see Barb, my friend and CDT Trail Angel, who lives in Helena, Montana. She talked about hiking the hike you’ve been given. I thought of that a lot as I was hiking, and I’m definitely…

While I was giving my foot a much needed rest in Republic, Sarah, also known as Mighty Mouse, who had started with me in Glacier National Park, caught up to me. I had not seen her since my first resupply in Polebridge, even though we had tried many times to reconnect. We were both looking…

Since I had been living by my beliefs that there was plenty to go around for everyone, I’ve been having some wonderful interactions with people. Orient was no exception. While I enjoyed getting to know some of the members of the Seventh Day Adventist community, I was thrilled to get to know Corinna. Corinna has…

The hike from Northport to Orient was one of the easiest I ‘ve done on the PNT and yet it wasn’t easy for me. My feet were still hurting and I was trying to make big miles. I was pushing myself because I had a package at a store in Orient. I wanted to be…

When I arrived in Metaline Falls it was extremely hot. I was surprised to see a sprinkler hose set up near a bench in town with a sign saying to use it to cool down. I was tempted to spray myself, but instead I ducked into the air conditioned ice cream shop. I bought a…

I had been going at a pretty steady clip for a number of days. I did a long day out of Bonners Ferry with over 7000 feet of climbing. The following day I did the infamous lions head bushwhack after hiking 7 miles in the morning. Instead of taking a slow day following the bushwhack,…

I still had about a mile and a half of route finding to do the following morning. I made the mistake of heading in the direction I had seen Fig go the evening before rather than backtracking to where I had last seen some semblance of a path. As a result, I spent an unpleasant…