170 Miles and $5500–Thanks for a Successful Hike-a-thon

This past August was a tough month here in the Northwest with heat, large wildfires, and the worst air quality I have ever experienced. I had to cancel several high mileage hikes that I had planned because of the dangerous air conditions. Not surprisingly, this was my lowest hike-a-thon ever when it came to total hiking miles. I always shoot for at least 200 miles. I was lucky to hit 170, with 56 of those miles coming in the last 3 days of the campaign! We finally had some cool and smoke free days again!

Most importantly however is that thanks to 73 of you, we raised $5500 for the Washington Trails Association. I was aiming for $6,000, but am still overwhelmingly happy with the money we raised. And what is really amazing is that unlike some of the other big fundraisers who were able to secure a couple of big donors and big corporate matching donations (which is great-power to them!)—we were more of a grass roots operation. So, once again, a big thanks to all of you!!!
Every single dollar of every single donation is appreciated! It will all be money well spent to build, maintain, and advocate for our incredible trails system. And now as wildfires continue to wreak havoc on many of our trails, the work of the Washington Trails Association is more important than ever.

Now, if you’re wondering who won the random drawings, here they are: Suzanne Gerber and Julie Penezic. Julie won the Osprey Atmos Backpack and Suzanne won the Oboz Footwear shoes. The backpack was generously donated by Browns Outdoors in Port Angeles. Please stop by their store in downtown PA and patronize this excellent family run outdoors gear company.

The shoes were generously donated by the Oboz Footwear Company, which I am proud to have once served as one of their ambassadors. I own an assortment of Oboz shoes and they provide comfort and performance for me on the trail. Definitely check them out and direct some of your footwear needs to them
I also want to thank Green Trails Maps, which I work for; for generously donating a handful of beautiful special series maps. If you want accuracy and a topnotch trail companion, Green Trails is a must for your backpack. I also want to thank my publisher, Mountaineers Books for generously donating several of my titles to the hiker-a-thon campaign as well as my latest release, Urban Trails Seattle. With its many in and close to the city hiking options, you’ll have lots of trails to explore when you can’t sneak far away or when your favorite high country trail is buried in snow.

Once again thanks to all of you who donated and supported my campaign. I love this event and I look forward to doing it all over again next August. I do hope you will consider donating to my cause again and perhaps next year we’ll beat that $6000 mark! Below are the hikes that I did during the hike-a-thon. Almost all of them will be written about in upcoming guidebooks, so I hope you will experience them sometime soon! Happy Hiking All!

Aug 1 Silver Lake and Twin Lakes 17.8 miles
Aug 4 Goat Mountain 10.2 miles
Aug 8 Vesper Peak 8.0 miles
Aug 10 Water Flume Line Trail 5.0 miles

Aug 10 Danville Georgetown Open Space Trails 7.4 miles

Aug 13 Shedroof Mountain 9.0 miles

Aug 13 Lakeshore Trail 8.2 miles

Aug 14 Frater Lake 1.8 miles

Aug 14 Mill Butte 4.5 miles

Aug 15 Henrys Ridge Trails 6.1 miles

Aug 15 Lake Sawyer Regional Park Trails 2.0 miles

Aug 16 Lime Kiln Trail 7.0 mi;es

Aug 16 Marten Creek 6.0 miles

Aug 17 Kulshan Trail 2.0 miles

Aug 18 Guemes Mountain 2.4 miles

Aug 23 Skagit Airport Trails 6.2 miles

Aug 24 Bear and Pinnacle Lake Trail 4.4 miles

Aug 25 Goat Island 1.7 miles

Aug 27 Chanterelle Trail 4.8 miles

Aug 29 Old Snowy via PCT and Bypass Trails

Aug 30 Coleman Weedpatch- PCT- Nannie Peak and Lookout 22.3 miles

Aug 31 PCT Tumac Mountain, Dumbbell Lak, Cramer Lake out Dog Lake 17.7 miles