Trail Magic!

Flew out to meet Ryan on the trail this week. I flew into Sacramento and I just love these artsy columns in their baggage claim area. Ryan's birthday was this week, so I totally embarrassed him by greeting him with balloons and a birthday cake. But of course he did enjoy the cake and the other PCT hikers enjoyed it also.

As a birthday treat, Ryan got to "slackpack" for the days that I came to visit. This means that I would drop him off at the trailhead and he would hike with only a day pack. Then I would pick him up at another trail head later in the day and take him back to a motel with soft beds and hot showers!
A pretty sweet deal for a thru-hiker. Ryan would still put in a 10-12 hour day of hiking and while he was doing that, I did some touristy things in the area, visiting local ghost towns and happening upon a summer festival in the town of Graeagle, CA.
I would also do trail magic for some other hikers on the PCT while waiting for Ryan to show up at the trailheads. I made sure that I had a cooler of cold sodas and lots of candy bars and fresh fruit.

Ryan was also able to catch up on his own blogging. We always have to get a room with wifi. The other plus of "slackpacking" is that Ryan gets to eat real food and doesn't have to whip up his trail food on his homemade soda can stove. We had dinner at the Polka Dot last night. You know you are in California when the local Burger stand has fried green beans as an option. And they have avocado as a choice to put on your burger.

Don't forget to check out Ryan's blog detailing his hiking adventures,

http://www.anotherlongwalk.com

And remember that we will be raising money for the Washington Trails Association with hike-a-thon in August. Be sure to check us out on the WTA website

http://www.wta.org/hikeathon

http://www.gifttool.com/athon/MyFundraisingPage?ID=1468&AID=1098&PID=149244

I hope to hike at least 40 miles on my own at home, on my layovers at work and while joining Ryan on the PCT. If you don’t want to donate via credit card on the website, checks can be made out to WTA and sent to me at the address below. Thanks so much for any help you can provide!

Amanda Arkebauer, PO Box 16131, Seattle, WA 98116

Earth Day

Ryan and I signed up to do trail work with the WTA (Washington Trail Association) for Earth Day this year. This was my first time ever doing anything like this!! I don't even do yard work, don't have a yard. :-) Gardening....nope. So wielding a shovel and/or an adz would be a new experience for me. I do the hike-a-thon for the WTA every August to raise money to help out the trails in Washington State, but I have never actually gotten my hands dirty doing the work. So Earth Day seemed like the perfect time to get outside and give back!


My Hike-A-Thon Page

We signed up to do work on the Skookum Flats Trail near Greenwater, WA. This trail is used by mountain bikers and hikers.


Skookum Flats Trail

We drove up early in the morning in order to be at the trailhead by 8:30 am. On the way through Greenwater, WA we saw an Elk by the side of the road. This is common in places like Yellowstone, but I am not used to seeing Elk wandering around in Washington!

My first job on the Skookum Flats Trail was to clear it of storm debris and reduce the grade in a section very near the trailhead.


Then I went to another area to clear a place where a tree had fallen. The day before, guys with chainsaws had come through and broken up the tree into pieces, but we still had to reroute the trail around a huge rootball.



I dug out beautybark...sawed off part of a root and worked on tread... I have many before and after photos here...We had a great day doing trail work and we will definitely be back out here again in the future!



On the way home away from Greenwater I took this photo of a lovely Trillium.

urban trails

Hike-a-thon 2008 updates! I have lost 4 pounds! and
I have currently hiked 43 miles for hike-a-thon. This past week, I have been flying in and out of Seattle, so my hiking has been limited to urban trails. The Longfellow Creek Trail in West Seattle, the Foothills Rail to Trail in Orting, WA





and a couple of miles on the Burke-Gilman Trail out near Lake City, WA (Ryan did the whole trail for Hike-a-thon in 2004
Ryan's Adventures 2004) On the Burke-Gilman Trail, as a walker, you are definitely in the minority--lots of bicycles!





And in St. Petersburg, FL I was able to hike for 5 miles on The Pinellas Trail. Ryan did the entire trail in November 2006 while we were visiting my Dad in Florida. The only elevation you get is when there is an overpass over the busy highways.



The month is half over and I have made great strides towards my goals for hike-a-thon. Don't forget to get all pledges in to me by the 1st of September! Letterboxers, be sure to snail mail me your address so you can get the Word of Mouth LTC! To make things easier, you can donate directly on the WTA website, just click on the following link:

Amanda's WTA Hike-a-thon Fundraising Page

Plans for Hike-a-thon 2008

It's that time of year again and I am getting excited about the WTA Hike-a-thon 2008. This year the group at WTA has created an individual webpage for me to keep track of my pledges which is really terrific. It lets you guys donate your money directly to WTA with your credit card. Of course, I will still have the blog for updates on my hiking mileage etc. And you can still send pledges to me, I will be collecting cash and checks to turn in at the end of August.
My WTA Hike-a-thon Fundraising Page


My sister is going to come to visit Seattle and we have a camping trip planned to the Olympic Peninsula, always one of my favorite places to hike. I also want to challenge myself to use more public transportation to get to hiking trails this year! I know I said last year that carless hiking was not for me, but with the price of gas in Seattle creeping towards the $5 a gallon mark, I think I might need to rethink that attitude. And it is certainly possible to take the city bus to hiking areas around urban Seattle. That will be a bit of a challenge and should add some local color to my adventures this year.

On the WTA website, I listed my goals as raising $1,000 and hiking 50 miles. I accomplished both of these goals last year so I am pretty confident that I can do it again this year, despite economic troubles and my couch potato tendencies. I hope I can count on everyone who contributed last year and I hope that we can convince some new folks to help out this year for a successful August hike-a-thon. And no car troubles and no black eyes. :-)

-Amanda from Seattle

Books available for Pledges!

I will be happy to give a book to everyone who pledges money for the WTA hike-a-thon. I am weeding out my library and getting rid of all my John Sandford and Nevada Barr books this year.


All my John Sandford books are from the Prey series:

http://www.johnsandford.org/index-books.html

The titles that I have available are:
Night Prey, Mind Prey, Secret Prey, Certain Prey, Easy Prey, Chosen Prey, Naked Prey, Hidden Prey, and Broken Prey.



All of my Nevada Barr books are from her Anna Pigeon series:

http://www.nevadabarr.com/

The titles I have available are:
Superior Death, Firestorm, Blind Descent, Deep South, Blood Lure, Flashback, and High Country.

Gearing up for Hikeathon 2007!

Thanks to everyone who supported me last year for the Washington Trails Association hike-a-thon. I raised over $1000 for Washington Trails! This year I want to try and at least match that again. For those of you who don’t live in Washington State, we had a lot of storm damage last fall to our wilderness areas. Statewide the damage estimates top $70 million and are expected to grow as the high country snow melts and more instances of damage and wash-outs are uncovered. Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks were hit very badly. Many roads, bridges and trails have been washed away and damage from trees down has closed access to many trails this summer. Instead of participating in Hike-a-thon this year, my boyfriend Ryan is actually getting his hands dirty and volunteering for WTA repairing trails. For two weeks in August, he will be working to repair sections of the Pacific Crest Trail in the Cascades Mountains. I have a day job, so I will be hiking on my days off for Hike-a-thon 2007 and collecting pledges to support Washington Trails. All the dollars pledged go directly to protecting and maintaining trails here in Washington State. They really need your help this year more than ever!


I am seeking pledges for my hiking. You can pledge a flat donation, such as $50 or an amount per mile, such as $1 per mile. Any contributions over $35 will be eligible for Washington Trails Association Membership. (With membership you receive a Washington Trails Magazine) This is a great little magazine and has many interesting articles on the trails in Washington and also general articles on topics such as backpacking with children and reviewing camping gear etc. All donations are tax deductible. And every little bit helps! Last year I had pledges as low as 10 cents per mile or a flat $5. It all adds up.

Last year pledges of $10 or more got VHS and DVD movies that were set in Washington State. This year I am pruning my book collection. Specifically, I have books from two of my favorite authors, John Sandford and Nevada Barr, to give away to each person who pledges money for WTA. I plan to give out the books randomly, but if you are looking for a specific title from one of these authors, let me know when you pledge! I will have a blog up on the internet detailing my hiking and pledges.

http://samanark.blogspot.com


I will need to collect all money from my pledges by September 3, 2007. Checks can be made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association)

Thanks,
Amanda Arkebauer
206-579-7094