Here's a lot of the questions that we've answered a few times over the past year or so. Hopefully this page will have some of the answers to your questions too.

When are you leaving?
Planning on June 15, 2001.

When are you coming back?
Hopefully not until around October 15th, but if we run out of $$, this date may move up.

Where will you be staying?
We're going for a 5:2 or 4:3 ratio average on sleeping on the ground vs. sleeping in a bed. We'll be on trails and generally far away from towns for much of the trip, so we'll be tenting it during those times. When we're in cities we'll probably try to stay in hotels to recover. We also have some family in Breckinridge, CO and Astoria, OR who we'll stay with for a couple days.

What did you guys do to practice for the hiking?
We've done a couple multi-day hikes on the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota and many day hikes in the Black Hills, Yellowstone NP, Tetons, Rocky Mountain NP, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Constitution, etc. We're definitely not the most experienced hikers in the world. We hope to learn a little bit along the way.

What are you doing to get in shape?
Well, as I write this... not much except the usual active lifestyle we both maintain. Come April and May, we will be hitting the Stairmaster and the weights pretty hard to build up a little strength and endurance. Take a look at our current fitness level according to StairMaster.

Will you be carrying a cell-phone?
Yes, but for the majority of the time it will be a worthless piece of high-tech gadgetry. Once we leave Washington, and head north, the mobile phone coverage decreases dramatically. I think we might get a little coverage in Anchorage, but that's about it.

There are a lot of bears in Alaska. Will you be carrying a gun?
No. We'll be hiking with enough stuff that I don't need the extra pounds of a big ole hunk of steel. Besides, a handgun would be out of the question - can't cross into Canada with one of those. A rifle would be cumbersome... and a bit threatening to fellow hikers. This is after all, NOT a hunting trip. Our protection from wild animals will consist of 2 cans of UDAP anti-bear pepper spray. Check out www.udap.com for a nice picture of the founder of the company - just after he was mauled by a grizzly.... and a pepper spray company is born.

Are you going to be doing any fishing?
Yes, quite a bit we hope. We've had a lot of fun fishing for trout in hidden mountain streams in the past, and plan to do a lot of it on this trip. We've both got collapsable fishing poles that will be on our packs. We'll also get out in the ocean on a charter at least once for some halibut and salmon fishing.

Who's taking care of your house while you're gone?
Julie's brother, Mike, will be living in our house all summer and destroying it no doubt - just kidding Mike! He'll also be feeding our cat I hope.

How in the world did you guys get this much vacation. You must have been saving it for years.
Ahhhh. In a perfect world, this would all be a big ol' paid vacation. No such luck for either of us. We will both be taking a leave of absence, sabatical, or whatever you want to call it. Regardless of the name, it means we're not going to work and not getting paid either.

Are you guys quitting your jobs?
No, see above.

Why are you guys doing this?
Over the past years we've come to realize that too often people squirrel away all their money for retirement and talk of how great retirement will be only to be too tired to enjoy it at that age or just not make it to retirement at all. I can't remember where I read it but there's a dismal description of the waiting game people play in life: In school you can't wait for college, in college you can't wait to graduate, when you have a job you can't wait to retire, and when you retire all you have left to wait for is death. In each stage, you come to realize the stage before wasn't so bad after all. What are you waiting for?

How did you guys decide on 2001 to do this?
We dreamed this little trip up in the fall of '97. We didn't have any money at the time, so '98 and '99 were out as we were trying to accumulate a little money for a house. 2000 was reserved for Matt's attempt at qualifying for the Olympic Trials in the high jump (failed attempt I (Matt) might add). So 2001 was the first opportunity to do it.

What do you do about showering on your multi-day hikes?
Quite simply we don't. When you think about it, it's not all that necessary since it's not like we'll be running into anybody else that doesn't smell at least as bad as us. We do try to find a stream to fill our cooking pots with water and at least wash our hair and rinse off every other day or so.

Where do you go to the bathroom (#2) in the woods?
On some of the more established trails there are pits with a wood box over them with a hole in top. Otherwise you dig a hole.

How do you get from the end of the trail back to your car?
You either go out and back, or stick to loop trails. We're also going on a few hikes that have shuttle services for hikers that need to get back to their car. A lot of people just hitchhike. We're not planning on doing that.

Will you be carrying a GPS?
Yes, GPS and Compass.

Will you be able to post pictures on your website while you are away?
I think so. We don't want to spend the summer updating our webpage, so I can't see doing this more than a few times during the trip. But I think we have come up with a way to make it possible. We experimented and you can check out the results.