Most couples look forward to putting their up feet in retirement. Not Ken and Marcia Powers. The pair have become the first people to hike non-stop across the United States on a 4,900-mile trail through national parks and forests.
Mr and Mrs Powers, aged 60 and 58, began in freezing snowstorms in Delaware, saw the first signs of spring in Ohio, braved quicksand in Utah and blinding sandstorms in the Nevada desert before reaching Point Reyes on the Pacific coast, in their native California, at the weekend.
Mrs Powers, a former flute teacher, who got through ten pairs of shoes and lost more than a stone in weight during the journey, said: “We feel great. We’re done. We are a little bit sad that a great adventure is over. It was fantastic. We actually think that the human body is made to do long-distance hiking, so we think this was a perfectly natural thing to do.”
But anyone hoping to repeat their 231-day feat should study the military-style planning operation mounted by the Powers. They analyzed weather patterns and maps for months, mailed charts and other supplies to post offices ahead of them on the route, and had gallons of water buried at strategic points 25 miles apart in the deserts of Utah and Nevada.
The trail was officially opened in 2000. It took the pair through 13 states, 14 national parks and 16 national forests, at an average of 22 miles a day. It has been accomplished before but never in a single calendar year, taking into account the changing seasonal conditions. The Powers allowed themselves only four rest days.
There were hardships along the way: their water bottles froze in Maryland in February, they tempted fate by crossing a river in Colorado on an ice bridge created by an avalanche, and in Nevada they had to use all their gear to weigh down the tent to stop it blowing away.
When an insect buzzed into Marcia’s ear, Ken could not tempt it out with a flashlight or flush it out with water and had to pour in olive oil to kill it. It was five days before she reached a doctor who could remove the bug from her ear.
Mr Powers, a former computer engineer, who lost nearly three stone, said that their 30-year marriage grew stronger as a result of spending so much time alone together. He said: “When we are out in the desert and there is nobody else to talk to for long periods of time, you have got to be able to rely on each other.”
The challenge of traversing the US dwarfs the walk from Land’s End to John o’Groats, which is 870 miles by road and about 1,300 miles taking in as many national paths as possible.
The Powers recorded their daily adventures on their website, http://www.gottawalk.com/. Mrs Powers said: “We met people that we would never meet in our sphere of daily living at home. We also got to see America up close. We got to touch it with our feet and hands, smell its scents and hear its wildlife. It’s an amazing country.”
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