 NCT hiked to date by JHY in red |
I've officially decided to attempt to wind up my 17-year quest to hike the entire North Country National Scenic Trail in 2010. It's time.
To date I have walked 3518 miles, with an estimated 878 to go. The next hike will be the Minnesota Arrowhead's northern leg. We've been planning this hike since 2004, but we've always tried for August. Since the 1999 blowdown the trail has been closed each year by that time due to the fire danger.
This time we will take our chances with the ice! Four of us, Lyle Bialk, Ed Morse, Marie Altenau and I will begin around May 9 from Judge Magney State Park and hike to Fernberg Road, east of Ely.
Tentative plans are that I will finish Minnesota this summer and also do some additional sections in Michigan. On the map above, the parts I have completed are in red, and the blue is the planned May adventure. In 2010 I'll finish New York and Ohio, and then walk the final steps in Michigan.
|
Plans are always up for grabs. I've been hesitant to declare what would happen with my quest too far in advance. But I want to reach this goal more than I've wanted most things in my life. And I want to finish with enough energy left to actually write that second book.
See Only a Few Miles But O So Good for my last NCT hike that counted toward my quest
See The Essential Adirondacks for a short article about last summer's hike in the Adirondacks (was my monthly newspaper column)
See Triple Play in the ADKs for a longer article about last summer's hike in the Adirondacks
A journal of a North Dakota hike is available on Xanga, but posts there don't have permalinks. If anyone would like to read it you can go to Sharkbytes on Xanga, then in the bottom left corner choose July 28, 2007 and click GO. This will take you to the preparations for that hike and then you can work through the hike with the "previous" and "next" choices in the bottom right of the page. Xanga's awkwardness is one reason I left!
And a few pictures from that North Dakota hike are at Memories of a North Dakota Hike
5 comments:
I am looking forward to book #2. Good luck.
GrumpyGord
Thanks Gord. But you don't sound grumpy. Should I ask you to pass a verification check?
Can't be grumpy this week end. Youngest grand daughter turned two and we had a wild party until 7:30 with fudge ripple ice cream and chocolate cake. Wild time.
Joan, I'm very excited to read this post. I've been following your hiking exploits for a few years now and it's wonderful to hear your wrapping up such a great project!
Now that the Pacific Northwest Trail is officially part of the National Scenic Trail system you'll have to hike that and then upon completion hike the ND/MT bits in between to become a Sea2Sea hiker!
How nice, Gordy! Ice cream with fudge ripples is pretty darn wild!
Sam- Wow... thanks for the encouragement. As you know from the message boards, I'm getting good planning input from the Northern contingent of folks. There are so many places I want to finish hiking after the NCT it's not funny! Probably will first finish the FLT and the BT.
Post a Comment