Their first date was a backpacking trip, so after three decades of marriage, hiking across the United States may not be such a stretch for Jerry Bowerman and Karen Clark.
The Sebastopol couple is on a 5,057-mile odyssey, walking across the country on the American Discovery Trail through through cities, forests, mountains and deserts in 15 states, from Delaware to California. They blog almost daily about their travels at www.trailjournals.com/KarenandJerry.
At a time of life when a motorhome would seem a more likely choice for the journey, the couple said their enthusiasm for hiking has endured - along with their knees.
"When you retire, you don't have to sit back in a warm chair and say it's the end of your life. You can actually do stuff," said Bowerman, 62, who in January ended a 31-year career as a landscape contractor. "It takes you out of your everyday comfort zone. It's challenging, but rewarding."
"It keeps you young," said Clark, 61, a retired nurse with the Sonoma County Public Health department.
They began Feb. 25 on the eastern shores of Delaware, in the wind and snow of late winter. As of Wednesday, they had logged more than 279 miles and were preparing to hike across a third state, West Virginia.
The first question everyone asks about their transcontinental trek is, "How long will it take?"
"It depends on how fast we move," Clark said by phone last week, on a rest day in the historic town of Harper's Ferry, W. Va.. "Some days will be faster, some days will be slower, and some days we'll stay and appreciate."
They don't have a pat answer because it's more about enjoying the journey than sticking to a game plan. They're hiking for their own pleasure and to meet people.
Their highest daily mileage so far has been 16.8 miles.
They know they won't be able to finish this year, because by the time they get to the Rockies snow will be a factor. Tornado season in Kansas could also be daunting.
They plan to return home for the holidays, then resume where they left off early next year.
"We say we'll move at a comfortable and fun pace," Clark said. "When weather or fatigue or something else stops us, we'll stop."
At the same time, they are trying to raise awareness about the American Discovery Trail and efforts to make it part of a new category of long-distance trails.
Supporters say Congressional action would help fully mark the trail. More than 98 percent of it is on public land, but it also runs through, or near, the major metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C.
One of the couple's stops was in the nation's capitol to urge Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey to co-sponsor the bill. They believe the Petaluma Democrat's support is appropriate because the cross-country trail ends in her district, at Point Reyes National Seashore.
Described as the nation's first coast-to-coast, non-motorized trail, only about 20 people have completed the entire route over the past couple decades, since it was first scouted. Usually, one or two people walk it each year.
"This year seems to be a little more active. We currently have three groups on the trail – another couple and a young man and his dog," said Krista Lenzmeier, director of the American Discovery Trail Society.
The couple read a newspaper article about the trail 10 years ago, and Clark told her husband she really wanted to hike it.
They have shared a love of hiking since that first three-day trip in 1978, and while raising three kids often took them along on their outings.
To make sure they were prepared for the American Discovery Trail, in 2007 they hiked the John Muir Trail, which goes from Yosemite Valley to the top of Mt. Whitney. They finished in 24 days and decided they wanted more.
Since embarking on their big adventure more than a month ago, the couple has faced swollen rivers, flooded campgrounds, blisters, mosquitoes, briar patches and the polluted waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which they followed more than 100 miles.
But they're not exactly roughing it. They stay at inns and motels some nights, and eat at lunch counters and restaurants when not camping.
Despite some hardships, "the trail has a real reputation for people who do hike it," Clark said. "They discover the warmth and generosity of their fellow Americans."
Curious folks want to strike up conversations, and the itinerant pair have had people put them up for the night and offer to let them sleep in the barn and eat in their homes.
The couple looks at the trek as their ultimate vacation, seeing the world. "The allure is listening to other people's stories," Clark said.
"Someone said we are &‘retired vagabonds,'" Bowerman said. "You're doing something new, walking down a road you never walked down before. At the end of the day, you're in a place totally different than the day before."
If nothing else, they are high-tech nomads, equipped with cell phone, camera, GPS, mapping software, a turn-by-turn guide of the trail and a "netbook" for Internet access.
Their backpacks weigh about 30 pounds, including sleeping bags, cooking gear, clothes, freeze-dried dinners and water.
Before they left, a room in their daughter's home in Santa Rosa was set up as a sort of a base camp, with enough meals to feed them for the year. They coordinate regular shipments of those supplies to post offices and motels along the route.
Signs of age are relatively few. They say they tire more easily and their feet move a little more slowly.
"Every day there's a new ache or pain, the next morning it seems to be gone. You wake and do what you have to do," said Bowerman.
"We've never said we can't go any further, we're too tired, it hurts. We are really happy doing this," Clark said.
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