Plus, I hear the hard parts are all done 😉
#rushtoharpersferry #WylieandWolfy #RetiredSledDog #TypeTwoFunClub #DogsThatHike #HiketheAT #at

Future trips on the AT will involve more typical LASH hiking logistics like flights, hostels and resupply stops, and wont include dogs. For now, I’d really just prefer to play in the woods with my dogs. Don’t worry though—I’m far too much of a completionist at heart to walk away for good.

Soo…will I finish the trail? Yes, I’ll be back to pick up the final +/- 1,000 miles of the AT, but after a good healthy break. I’m in no rush, now. I’ve been racing the clock of aging dogs.

Me? I’m 88 days away from ITI, my solo ski-ultra marathon across Alaska. Hiking IS training, of course, but now prep begins in earnest. Wy&Wo will ski train with me, obviously, but with a healthy dose of car naps while mom nabs extra mileage!

These dogs have hiked (most of the way) through ten states of the Appalachian Trail. They’ve earned their distance hiker retirement. Only fun, easy(-ier) trips starting next year. I love you, Poufy and Bubbles. I can’t believe you made it, while in the same time I never doubted you for a second 🤍

A roughly-chronological trek through 43 miles and 3.5 days on the AT and Maryland and West Virginia. I cannot believe #rushtoharpersferry is complete after 4 years of scheming, planning, spreadsheeting, recalibrating, and hiking our little hearts out.

We finished! I cried a lot. I drove 8 hours back north to New England. Will share More soon, but not tonight! Zzzzzzz.
#rushtoharpersferry

Stunning campsite and sunset after a 16 miler yesterday (left); and now awesome shelter with separate enclosed sleeping loft today (right). We beat the rain by 11 minutes! Grand finish is tomorrow morning #rushtoharpersferry

Cozy at camp. Tomorrow is our “big” day; wish us luck!
#rushtoHarpersFerry

Currently in recovery at Harpers Ferry Brewery. Hike starts tomorrow! #rushtoHarpersFerry

I haven’t been on it in 15 years, to be fair…but it was my “can’t miss” at the Minnesota State Fair for well over a decade. If the stars align and Im ever back in town for the GMGG, you better believe I’ll pony up for the Zipper! My cousin runs the apple barn now, so the odds aren’t zero.

Does it tell you anything about me when I share that this was my favorite amusement park ride?! 😂

We call them rock skis here! 😂Typically theyre just your oldest cruddiest pair, yes. These are ‘new’ rock skis (recently downgraded) because I got a nice new pair that replaces them for ITI 2026. So now I have both classic rock skis (my oldest pair) and backcountry rock skis (these)

These bad boys are waxless fishscale in the kick zone, which is the only reason I’ll attempt things like this. Just don’t ask to see the status of the tips and tails—nordic skis shouldn’t require epoxy filler to seal up gouges to their base 😂

Sunny Stroeer said the exact same thing 😂

Big-time Tongue 😂 (this pic is from the day we got Wolfy, just an hour or two before I picked her up at the airport cargo facility!)

😘

A little more footage and explanation: I have an old sled dog and a fake sled dog, so much of what we do is not typical mushing/skijor “best practice”. We’re just out to have fun together and enable the dogs to train with me for ITI (though they stay home for the actual race itself!)

It was not skiiable by any normal standards, but we made it work!