A Thousand Miles Begins with One Step

As the sun warmed our faces, Thom and I walked with our two dachshunds, Buster and Josie, at a nearby park in almost giddy elation. It was our first walk sans heavy winter wear as Mother Nature rotated the season dial forward for us to enjoy an early taste of summer even before it was officially spring! For several days western Washington has enjoyed 80º and glorious sunshine. After numerous weeks of bitter cold, brutal snow, and ice not common to this region, I felt like I could walk forever.

I’d recently read and enjoyed A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson’s 1998 book about rediscovering America via hiking the Appalachian Trail after 12 years in Britain. It was later made into a 2015 movie starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte and Emma Thompson, which Bryson talks about in a four-minute video here.

​I also love Beth Jusino’s 2018 book, Walking to the End of the World, about her thousand-mile pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. Then I saw in the Seattle Times that Heather Anderson completed the Triple Crown of Hiking—the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail—8000 miles—in 2018 and that caught my attention. I’m looking forward to reading her new book, Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home. Now, with our dogs ambling along sunny park paths, my imagination took flight. I never wanted our outing to end. What if we …?

In reality my hiking and camping history is fairly meager and grim. My very first camping experience in a cabin was as a Girl Scout in Germany at Camp Lachenwald (Camp Laughing Forest). I was not laughing, however, when I was assigned the job of gathering dry wood for the campfire—in the pouring rain. I had not yet learned the difference between green wood and dry wood—and came back crying that all the wood was wet—and so was I!

My first tent camping experience was again with the Girl Scouts in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, when I was in the sixth grade. I came home covered in chigger bites. I lived either in the bathtub with baking soda or covered in calamine lotion for longer than I care to remember. That squelched my interest in camping.

Later in life, I did discover the joys of travel camping with a trailer. I have fond memories of trailer camping in the Smoky Mountains, the French countryside, and many places in the Pacific Northwest. During seminary I would do all my research at the library, then pack up the trailer, including my dachshunds, and camp on the Russian River in California to write my term papers.

Hiking has always gone hand in hand with my love of nature. Walks were frequent and usually with the goal of a special vista, unusual plants, or interesting animals. Yet I think my longest hike was still less than five miles and with a lovely picnic or rest included!

Here, I read this blog post at a local Open Mic night … it is 6 minutes long. Audience reaction was so nice –laughs!

The hiking books and our walks in the sunshine had rekindled my spirit and imagination for the outdoors. But I knew that the strenuous hiking and nights of either camping or staying at a park shelter with only an occasional refuge at a motel would be impossible for me. I wanted to create my own variation of the PCT! Since retirement Thom and I have been astounded by how many parks surround us. Countless parks passed by unnoticed as we commuted from Edmonds into Seattle for almost two decades! Truly a treasure trove! What if we created our very own PCT by walking our local parks one mile and one day at a time? A mile is about all our two 14-year-old dachshunds Josie and Buster can muster these days. We could get out to explore our local parks and make our walks a priority!

I shared the idea in a Facebook posting including a photo of us at Lynndale Park. A good friend, Rick, commented that he’s ridden his stationary bike from Seattle almost to San Diego—three miles a day. He jokingly said, perhaps we’d meet up sometime. I looked and San Diego is only 15 miles from the Mexican border (the PCT goes from the border with Mexico to the border with Canada). I decided we’d begin our PCT hike from the border with Mexico! I told Rick we will meet up somewhere along the route!

I think you are clear that we were not hiking the official PCT. However, wherever we are, we can add to our miles and enjoy our adventure as we travel and are inspired to walk with Mother Nature.