A Trail Runs Through: My Life

Somewhere between 1978 and 1980 on a trail in the Columbia River Gorge:

When I was a teenager, my family used to go hiking on Sabbath afternoons, with the Gorge and it's myriad waterfalls being a favorite place. On one such afternoon, mom brought up the subject of the Pacific Crest Trail. As she explained how she had read about a great long trail extending from one border of our country to the other, a dream was set in motion in my juvenile mind. What wonders could be seen, what freedom to be able to hike for days on end! I looked around the trail we were on, trying to imagine what that would be like, and it seemed glorious.

Jump ahead to 1996:
More than twenty years passed by, the dream always in the back of my mind, but remaining just that; a dream. I never really expected to be able to take half a year off to go traipsing about in the woods, and life has a way of getting in the way of childhood dreams. After high school, my mind turned to college, jobs, and marriage. And running through this period of my life was a disease called Anorexia Nervosa. I would live with this from the age of 16 until the age of 33. After three hospitalizations in a ten year period, I was done. I came to the point of deciding not to go into the hospital again, I would either get well, or I would die.

Camping at Tehachapi Loop, 1988 - 101 lbs.

Part of my treatment included the requirement of writing down my bucket list of things I wanted to accomplish before I died. First and formost on my list was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in it's entirety. And that was the only item on that list that I remember. But to accomplish this dream, I had to be physically fit. What to do! My husband, Mark, and I sat down and came up with a plan to hike the trail in 1999, knowing that during the training for this trail, I had to be eating enough to be able to keep up my strength and endurance. With my dream finally looming on the horizon, I made the decision to get well and be strong enough to make my dream come true.


1999:
Well, here we are, physically fit and ready to take on the trail. Bring it on! Oh wait, does the whole trail have to be going uphill? Maybe we should have started at the Northern Terminus and had it all downhill! What? We don't need snow gaiters for the desert?? Perhaps we should have left our chairs and gun home (Not an exaggeration, we did bring those). We would learn a lot about light weight backpacking and thruhiking, but by the time we had our weights figured out, we were totally exhausted and ended our little escapade at mile 800 -Woods Creek. This short venture into the thruhiking world would remain an indelible memory in our lives - trail names received, Pocahontas and The Joker, our first introduction to Trail Magic, Ziggy and The Bear at Anza, and the whole culture that is the trail community. And though I wouldn't want to hike the PCT again for 7 years (it took that long to recover), the longing for being a part of that community grabbed hold of my heart and I could think of nothing else that I wanted to do more.

2007:
"Mark, let's thru hike the PCT again." I mean, I have the best job ever, great pay, in a semi management position, can chose my own hours, and I love the business trips. What an excellent time to quit and thruhike the trail! So began a period of thoughtful consideration over the next 3 years. Conclusion: the PCT in 2013. We would meet people through our blog who would become great friends and the planning for the trip was quite fun. Who knew calculating each mile in preparation for our food drops would actually be relaxing?

2013:
Drum roll please! We hit the trail in mid April! But something just wasn't right. Our hiking styles were not compatible anymore, and Mark (now Legasorus) was definately out of energy more often than not. Add to that the fact that we had to keep leaving the trail to fly back home to rearrange our finances and simply put, we ran out of steam again. God was surely watching out for us though, little did we know that Mark was headed for heart trouble and had he made it to the High Sierras, the probability was high that he wouldn't have made it out alive.  You can view the story here: http://thirdtimesthecharmpct.blogspot.com/2014/02/good-luck-to-class-of-2014.html

 

Present Day:
Now I'm facing another opportunity to finally achieve my long time dream and I plan to take it on with both hands (and feet), and with my whole heart and mind. This is do or die time, I either make it or I don't. One thing I do know is that I am going into this adventure for the third time, and I plan to make the most of it. Come and join me as I give it one last shot, it should be a hoot!

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