The Pacific Crest Trail lay covered under thigh-high drifts.Īt 10:01 pm that night chatter lit up the internet. Washington’s Cascades were getting hammered. Yesterday, the drifts reached over our knees. We knew we had to set out soon and climb higher into the storm. How could we both have forgotten? Blazer: “What do you want for your birthday?” Frodo didn’t hesitate, her breath starkly visible. Blazer piped up, “Happy Birthday, Frodo.” We were taken aback. A dim light penetrated the pine and spruce thicket. We were so focused on the cold, focused on not getting lost, and focused on surviving.įlecks of snow dusted Blazer’s brows, white fluff blotting jet-black, as she pulled her watch cap down tight. In all that time, I’d never forgotten her birthday. Frodo and I had been married thirty years. I was right behind her, and behind me was my wife “Frodo.” We made the same tight-looped circles, shaking fat flakes from bent shoulders and packs. Three days ago, with one hundred miles left, she’d sworn, “I’ll crawl to Canada if I have to.” Now forty miles separated her from the border.Īt least Blazer wasn’t alone. She’d gone through four other pairs, wearing the knobbed soles flat, hiking 2,600 miles since the Mexican border. The Alaskan Gulf, like a pitching machine, hurled once-in-a-generation storms at Washington’s Cascades. This was the second blizzard in three days. The striking twenty-five-year-old couldn’t feel her toes. It was October 2, and after five months hiking, now this-numb, in pre-dawn gloom, in eight inches of fresh snow. Over and over, she vainly tried to keep warm. INTRODUCTION FROM JOURNEYS NORTH- FRODO'S BIRTHDAYīlazer stomped a figure-eight path in snow. Barney Scout Mann invites readers into his trail family to experience a journey in gossebump-inducing detail." Zach Davis, Editor-in-Chief of The Trek " Journeys North is a master class in storytelling. Journeys North is a story of grit, compassion, and the relationships people forge when they strive toward a common goal. A third hiker asked Sandy, "What do you want for your birthday?" She didn't hesitate, her breath starkly visible, 'I want to get out of today alive." they'd hiked 2,600 miles, had only fifty miles to go, and were in knee-deep snow, a white-out blizzard. The Introduction begins with Mann forgetting Sandy's birthday. Only a third of all the hikers who set out on the trail that year would finish. They face a once-in-a-generation drought and early severe winter storms that test their will in this bare-knuckled adventure. This ensemble story unfolds as these half-dozen hikers-including Barney and his wife, Sandy-trod north, forming relationships and revealing their deepest secrets and aspirations. In Journeys North, legendary trail angel, thru hiker, and outdoor advocate Barney Scout Mann spins a compelling tale of six hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2007 as they walk from Mexico to Canada. A fantastic book!" Heather Anderson, 2019 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.
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