I’m Ellie, aka Sparky, I am 30 and from the great state of Vermont. I'm hiking the Pacific Crest Trail southbound during the 2021 summer/fall. I enjoy spicy food, the Constitution, and a good sunrise. My puppy Champ is the uncontested best boy in the world. Someday I want to be governor, but what I do between now and then is anybody’s guess.Past hikes include: Long Trail (2010), Appalachian Trail (2014), West Highland Way (2015), Te Araroa (2015-2016), Laugavegur (2017), Tahoe Rim Trail (2018).
Posts
We Done Did It
We finished the Colorado Trail yesterday! 487 miles in 21 days.After leaving Lake City we had one tough day with a bunch of climbs and then
Goodbye PCT, Hello Colorado Trail!
A lot has changed since I last posted, including the trail I’m hiking! I restarted at Sonora Pass as planned the day after my last post. Between
Ore-Gone But Not Forgotten: Skipping Around Fires and my 50 Mile Day
Well, that's depressing. I just calculated how many miles I've actually hiked versus how many I have had to skip (below). While I knew the general
One State Down, On to Oregon!
I’m currently writing from Stevenson, WA, the town right at the Oregon/Washington border. It’s been an eventful few weeks since I last posted.
Views and Bugs: Northern Washington in a Nutshell
Here we are nearly two weeks into this grand adventure, and it already feels like too much has happened to recap! I'm currently taking my first zero
The Challenges Have Begun, The Trail has not
Now, I knew that wildfires and learning how to avoid them would be a significant piece of coming out here, but I didn’t think it would be a major source of stress and concern before I even started.
Allow Me to (Re)Introduce Myself
TLDR; I’m hiking because I’m sad my mom died and a medium told me to go to the woods to find myself.Skeptical? Fair enough, I would be rolling my
Hiking Scotland’s West Highland Way
And you thought the AT was only a meager 2189.2 miles? Well, yes and no. There are actually thousands more miles of the Appalachian-Caledonian
The Home Stretch
I made it!I’ve sat down to try to write this post half a dozen times now, and I don’t know what to say, I did it! It was awesome. I miss it
Family, Fun, and 400 Miles to go!
Hello! I'm currently at mile 1786.6 on the trail, I came off for the weekend to do a Dirty Girl Mud Run with all the ladies in my family.Team