Colorado Springs Gazette
Posted on: Tuesday, 9 August 2005, 09:00 CDT
It's 7 a.m. on a hazy Saturday morning in Woodland Park and Marcia Powers has one thing on her mind: a box of Pop-Tarts.
Well, maybe more than one thing. Add a cup of strong coffee from Starbucks and a tube of antifungal cream.
Marcia Powers and her husband, Ken, have stopped at Safeway to stock up on some of the supplies they have used up on their journey - - an impressive 2,845 miles on foot from Delaware.
They have another 2,200 miles or so to go on their quest to walk the American Discovery Trail, a route that stretches 5,057 miles from Delaware to California.
The couple, from Pleasanton, Calif., began walking west Feb. 27 and have spent nearly every day since walking across the country. During the five months before arriving in Woodland Park, the Powerses trudged through three seasons, nine states and the District of Columbia; they've crossed cornfields and river bottoms, deep forests and dried-up grasslands, front yards and city parks; they've traveled along tollways and across highway bridges.
Along the way, they've gorged on Pop-Tarts, indulged in Starbucks' coffee when they could find it, and rubbed Marcia's feet with antifungal cream -- her secret weapon against blisters.
The hikers, retirees in their 50s, are among a handful of people who have taken on the entire ADT, a route that offers a thru-hiking experience as it links traditional hiking trails, rail trails, canal towpaths and county roads into a coast-to-coast trail for hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders.
Some call it the "Route 66 of American Recreation." The Powerses call it an adventure.
Marcia was a teacher and dedicated trail runner, Ken a systems analyst and longtime Boy Scout leader. As a retirement celebration several years ago, they took a long-distance backpacking trip into the Sierra Nevada mountains to decide what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives.
"We figured out we wanted to do exactly what we were doing on that trip -- long-distance backpacking," Marcia says.
So they began walking farther and farther, putting thousands of miles on their feet. They hiked the John Muir Trail in 1998 and 1999 (212 miles); the Pacific Crest Trail in 2000 (2,658 miles); the Tahoe Rim Trail in 2001 (65 miles); the Continental Divide Trail in 2002 (3,100 miles) and the Appalachian Trail in 2003 (2,160 miles).
Then, in February, they began their longest route -- the ADT.
They started on a wet winter day in Cape Henlopen State Park, Del., where the cold water of the Atlantic Ocean washed over their Gore-Tex trail shoes. At the end of the day they'd walked 27 miles.
It was a routine that became familiar to the two lean hikers.
They entered Colorado on June 27, walking west from Syracuse, Kan., to Holly on the eastern plains. They walked into Woodland Park 11 days later.
Along the way, they recorded some of their best walking times -- June 27 was a 30-mile day; July 3, from Manzanola to North Avondale, they covered 33 miles.
The Powerses walk at a steady pace -- about 3 miles per hour, Ken says. And although they stop regularly for food and water breaks, they seldom linger on the trail or the road.
They're loyal to the trail and their true mileage. When they arrived in Woodland Park they met Dick Bratton of Green Mountain Falls, the Colorado coordinator for the ADT. Bratton drove them to his home for an overnight stay and dinner, and the next morning dropped them back at the spot where they left the trail.
Hiking the ADT requires a network of friends and people like Bratton who have a
connection to the trail. It also requires intense planning.
"I planned this trip for a year," Ken says. "We had to map out our route, plan food drops, places to stay and water drops."
The need for water has increased as the couple has moved west, and to prepare for an August trek through Utah, they visited last year, burying jugs of water and marking them with their GPS receiver.
After their stop at Safeway, the Powerses headed down the trail toward Colorado Springs (the trail backtracks occasionally to take advantage of existing trails). With their small packs and trail- running shoes, they could've been any couple out for a day hike.
"That's kind of how we think of this," Marcia says. "You don't want to continually remind yourself you've hiked 3,000 miles and you're a little more than halfway."
So they walk along, Zen-like, taking in their surroundings, ever watchful for the landmark that has come to mean the most to them: a Coke machine.
"We always watch for that. And we've found them in the most unusual places -- sometimes all by themselves, often by grain elevators," Ken says.
They also watch for spectacular sunsets and animal encounters that can make a day memorable. Marcia records the tiniest details of their adventures on their Web journal (www.gottawalk.com).
They learned to backpack in the Sierra Nevadas of California, and say they looked forward to Colorado for weeks while they trekked across the middle of the country.
On June 27, Marcia's journal read: "We walked into Colorado late this afternoon. For some reason it feels wonderfully strange to know we have walked to Colorado. I think it is because we identify Colorado as the West."
The Powerses are still in Colorado -- their last journal entry, on July 30, was written after they had walked 13.4 miles from Marble to Redstone.
If they can stick to Ken's detailed plan, they'll arrive in their home state in October.
After that, the couple is unsure about their next big adventure.
"But we do know this," Marcia says. "We gotta walk."
CONTACT THE WRITER: dacord@gazette.com
THOUGHTS FROM THE JOURNEY
Excerpts from the Powerses' American Discovery Trail journal
"Hiking reinforces hiking for me. I feel so good when I hike! I like that tired at the end of the day fatigue. I like sleeping so soundly the minute I am horizontal in my sleeping bag with the bonus of cheerful, vivid-colored dreams at high elevations." -- Nov. 29, 2004
"The Adventure has started and we aren't on the trail yet. Adventure can be serendipity, a fluke, not knowing what's around the corner and dealing with circumstances as they come. That, for me, is one of the main reasons for hiking." -- Feb. 10
"We walked through Eddyville to eat and pick up supplies. The food mart was very small without much for hiker food -- we bought THE last PopTart and THE last mac&cheese." -- May 8, Illinois
"There must be a hiker rule that says new shoes must wade through mud and water on the first day out. That has happened with all new shoes on this trip." -- June 6, Kansas Read more at www.gottawalk.com
TIPS FOR A TRIP
Wear a light pack -- about 25 pounds.
Don't waste water. Use only enough water to rehydrate your food. After eating, scrape the pot and bowls clean, add a small amount of water to rinse, and drink the rinse water.
Take your GPS and a map and compass.
The GPS relies on batteries -- and not being dropped or waterlogged.
Start preparing long before you leave.
Wear your backpack, and gradually increase your load weight, distance and pace.
Go for the calories. The Powerses consider PopTarts the perfect food. They provide lots of carbohydrates, have a pleasing texture and taste and come packaged. They're even good if they get crumbled.
Try the anti-fungal cream. Not for fungus, but to keep your feet dry and happy. Marcia swears by it.
Drink enough water. In preparation for long hauls through the canyonlands of Utah, the Powerses buried water on a driving trip a year ago.
SOURCE: www.gottawalk.com
ABOUT THE ROUTES
In Colorado, the American Discovery Trail's northern and southern routes join in Denver.
The northern route comes in through Nebraska and follows the Platte River Valley to south of Greeley, then through Fort Morgan and Julesburg.
The southern route enters the state from Kansas and heads west to Caon City.
In eastern Colorado, the southern route follows the Arkansas River, along the general route of the old Santa Fe Trail to La Junta and passing Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. It also goes through John Martin Reservoir and Lake Pueblo state parks.
From Pueblo, the trail follows U.S. Highway 50, then county roads through Portland to hook up with the Caon City River Walk. From Caon City, the trail follows Shelf Road to Cripple Creek, Colorado Highway 67 to Divide, the Ute Pass Trail to Woodland Park, Old Crystola Road to Crystola; then Highway 24 to Green Mountain Falls, Chipita Park Road to Wines of Colorado, and Ute Indian Trail down to Manitou Springs and Garden of the Gods. In Colorado Springs, it uses the Sinton Trail, the Pikes Peak Greenway and the New Santa Fe Trail through the Air Force Academy to Palmer Lake.
At Denver, at the confluence of Platte River and Bear Creek, the trail goes west on Bear Creek Trail to Morrison, then enters the Rockies.
For complete information about the trail's route, visit www.discoverytrail.org and purchase maps listed there.
NOW ON THE ADT
This year, six people are attempting to travel the entire length of the American Discovery Trail, according to Dick Bratton of Green Mountain Falls, the ADT's Colorado coordinator.
And when they reach the Colorado portion, they had better like walking at high altitudes.
"We have the high points on the trail," Bratton says. The trail, which often follows sidewalks and country roads in the Midwest, becomes more wild in Colorado, "crossing the Continental Divide three times here -- at Argentine Pass near Georgetown, 13,207 feet; at Georgia Pass, 11,585 feet; and Lake Ann Pass, at 12,580 feet," Bratton says.
"I think we offer the best experience because of the views. If you're coming in from the east and you've walked across Kansas, you meet the mountains and the trees for the first time on Shelf Road, which is spectacular."
The ADT is a coast-to-coast, nonmotorized trail. It stretches 6,800 miles across the country through 15 states. It splits into a northern and southern route in Ohio and joins back together in Colorado. The northern route distance (through Chicago) is 4,834 miles. The southern route distance (through St. Louis) is 5,057 miles.
The trail passes through 14 national parks and 16 national forests and connects five national scenic trails, 10 national historic trails, 23 national recreation trails, and many local and regional trails. It passes 10,000 points of historical, scenic, cultural or natural significance.
The route was first scouted on a 14-month expedition in 1990-91 by a three-member team recruited by the American Hiking Society and Backpacker magazine.
The ADT was named one of 16 Millennium Trails by the U.S. Department of Transportation and recommended by the National Park Service as the first of a new category of National Discovery Trails.
The trail is administered by the American Hiking Society.
A handful of hikers have completed the trail. Their times vary. Pete and Joyce Cottrell backpacked it in 18 months, with seven months off-trail waiting for snow to melt. Brian Stark ran it in seven months with a detour on a more direct route through Utah and Nevada. Bicycling would require five months; horseback riding at least a year. SOURCE: American Discovery Trail Society (www.discoverytrail.org)
CONTACT THE WRITER: dacord@gazette.comSource: The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
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