This week’s topic for the #NatureWritingChallenge really had me thinking! “Your most memorable encounter with a stranger on public lands” should have been easy because we meet new-to-us people ALL the time while out on public lands. It is inevitable that we run into people we don’t know, even when we are trying to escape people in general.
The problem is that I have already shared quite a few memorable stranger encounters with you in the last 3 years since starting this blog, I had to remember someone who I hadn’t told you about yet. You already know about Marcus, the well-known artist and philanthropist, from Do YOU Talk To Strangers? that I got a piggyback ride from in the Sand Lake Estruary in Oregon. Or the guy who stripped down to his underwear on top of the Kelso Dunes and started doing morning yoga next to me from Spring Break Road Trip Day 6: Ben, Joshua, Michael and Craigslist. And you can’t forget how Anne and I met Sally Edwards, the triathlon superstar and author, on the Pacific Crest Trail north of Hart’s Pass that I shared with you in The Definition of Courage. There are a lot of cool (and unique) people out enjoying our public lands!
It took me a little while and then I remembered there is someone I have been meaning to share with you here that more than one person has heard me talk about meeting in real life and it goes to show that you never know who you might meet on the trail and what a small world it really is. And to not be afraid to introduce yourself at the beginning of a conversation…
It was 3 summers ago and I was on my first trail work crew with the Pacific Crest Trail Association. We were on our second day north of Stevens Pass, somewhere close to Grizzly Peak. I remember it being a rather warm day and we had stopped for a break, maybe even lunch.
For some reason I can’t remember now, the rest of the crew was up ahead of me, maybe I had stayed back to finish clearing debris off the trail. For whatever reason, I was hiking by myself towards the guys probably a quarter-mile or so further up on the trail.
I saw the hiker up ahead walking towards me with an efficient gait and knew right away he was a long distance hiker. Tall and lanky, I could barely make out his pack on his shoulders, his trailrunners covered in Dirty Girls and his sunhat blocking most of his face, a white sunblock streaked nose the only thing distinguishable under its brim.
As he approached me I pulled over to the side of the trail, sure he was going to breeze by. I greeted him and was surprised when he stopped and struck up a conversation with me. I assumed that he may have already chatted with the rest of my crew and I would only be slowing him down further. Those thru hikers on our a mission.
He thanked me for my work and I asked him about his hike and his trail name which was Pathfinder. He was from the East Coast, out hiking just a section of the PCT although he has hiked the entire trail before. I had stories like his many times on my own PCT journey, an older gentleman out wandering the wilderness enjoying his later years.
But then, he asked me about the Pacific Northwest Trail, if I had heard of it. I had, I told him, and hoped to hike it one day more than the day hiking I was doing now. If you don’t know about this National Scenic Trail, it runs east-west from Glacier National Park to Cape Alava on the most northwest tip of Washington State. It is a more rugged and wild (AKA less people) version of the Pacific Crest Trail, seeing but a few hundred (or less) people completing it every year.
This began a conversation about the PNT and his hopes for it to become as well-known as the PCT. I told him that I knew Jeff Kish, its new executive director, and I had high hopes he would do a good job bringing the trail the attention it deserved. It was obvious that the hiker I was talking to had a great love for the PNT (and had hiked it) and he encouraged me to do the same. I assured him I would be, it was high on my list.
We had been chatting for at least a good ten minutes and I was sure he must want to get on his way so I introduced myself and told him it was nice to talk with him. We shook hands and he said he was Ron Strickland and it was nice to meet me, too.
Wait.
Ron Strickland?
Did he just say Ron Strickland?
Where do I know that name from?
As he left me and continued on his journey southbound, I realized that I had just been talking to Pathfinder, the founder of the Pacific Northwest Trail himself. In the flesh. I still shake my head about it to this day. Ron Strickland: American conservationist, long distance trail developer and author. Why hadn’t I introduced myself at the beginning and only asked him his trail name!
I soon met up with my crew and asked them if they knew who had just walked by. They had no idea! And maybe you have no idea either, so please read more about the Pacific Northwest Trail on their website here and Ron Strickland here!
P.S. After writing this, I remembered I did tell you briefly about meeting Jeff Garmire, “Legend”, on the trail in 2016 in my Have You Been To An ALDHA West Ruck Yet post. He was the guy who did the triple crown in one calendar year. I guess I’ll have to tell you more about that one in another story…
This post was written in one hour for the #naturewritingchallenge. Check out Twitter to learn more or see my other posts from the challenge here.
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