. By Deana Lancaster
Contributing Writer
IN the carly evening of the
Colorado Mountains the coyotes
began to circle Katherine Moore’s
. tent.

A storm, another in a series that had
arrived with the carly winter, had forced her
to set up camp for the night.

Now, she could hear the coyotes rumbling
and _yipping to cach other as they brushed
against the sides of her nylon shelter.

_ “They just kept talking to each other,”
says Moore, as she tells the story in her West
Van home. “It was like they were trying to
figure out what my tent was or something.”

She wasn’t afraid, but she didn’t want
them to start chewing on her tent so she let
off a short blast from the tiny air horn she
carried and listened as they ran away.

The memory is one of hundreds Moore
collected on a 3,100-mile (5,000 km) hike
from Canada to Mexico following the
Continental Divide.

She did almost all of it alone.

. It’s hard to believe when first meeting her
that such a trek would be possible. She’s 49
years old, stands 5’2” and after a couple of
weeks on the trail her body weight dropped
to less than 100 Ibs.

She plays with her waist-length hair as she
talks. Her words are quiet, well-chosen and
often hesitant.

“I'm not out there to conquer the wilder-
ness,” she says. “it’s abour feeling comfort-
able out there. When it works that’s where I
live and this is where | visit.

“I wish I bad better words for why I'm
there. It’s just what I am.”

The hike fasted five months — from June
15 to Nov. 8. It was not Moore’s first. In the
last six years, she’s also thru-hiked (finished
the entire trail in one wip) the Appalachian
Trail in the eastern U.S. and the Pacific Crest
Trail in the west. Together with the
Continental Divide they are known to long-
distance hikers as the Triple Crown.

More people have been in outer space
than have managed to thru-hike all three.

This latest hike was the hardest.

She began it ae Waterton Lakes in Alberta,
on the Canadian side of Glacier Nationa!
Park. At the border she’d arranged to meet
up with four other hikers so she would have
company through the most difficult: moun-
tain passes into Monsana. Buc the men in the
group were tall, aud their hiking stvle and
speed were faster chan hers.

After a week, they went on ahead and
Moore was alone again.

a fe ee

From Montana she travelled through
Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New
Mexico. Then she crossed the border and fin-
ished in Palomas, Mexico.

Some sections took her through bear
country. To keep them away she made as
much noise as she could, including a “bear
yell” she let rip every five minutes. She saw
tracks but never a bear.

She also carried pepper spray. Bur it was
not for use on animals. Just before she left on
the hike she got word of a couple that had
been murdered on the Appalachian Trail. It’s
Not uncommon, and alone, she is an easy tar-
get. She hides her tent away from the trail at
night.

But the worst part was when she had no
idea where she was.

The trail is not yet finished, so Moore
used an old guide book, maps and compass to
tind her way.

“I spent a let of time lost, every single
day.”

At times the guide book was so out-of-
date it was nearly useless and countless times
when she had to choose a direction she was
wrong. Signs which had been in place to
point hikers the right way were long gone —
used by ranchers for firewood, and the posts
that supported them for fences.

“I was over my head on this tail. Every
time I got lost the feelings came up just as
fast: I was scared ... sick. It never got better,
it seemed to get worse.” Rather than giving
her confidence two believe that she would
always find her way, getting lost over and
over again began to wear Moore down.

“I knew that I would get lost the next day
as well.” She figures she may have done up to
10 extra miles some days retracing her route.

But although it was difficult, Moore said
the trip was not a disappoinument.

“There is no such thing as failure. It’s not
real. 31's not food, it’s not warmth, it’s not
love, it’s not friends. It’s not real. You can’t
fail.”

Part of being our there for Moore is allow-
ing herself to make choices. To really listen to
herself. And to make mistakes.

In fact, she achieved her nwo major goals:
to stay alive, and to keep from being rescued.

She'd established an itu.erarv defore she
left. It allowed hee food (1 week's worth of
dried and cold vegetarian food provided for
her oy Capers in West Van) to be waiting for
her when she arrived in’ scheduled supply
towns.

UW she still hadn't arrived two days after she
was supposed to, her contact in West Van was
to send someone looking for her. Only once,
after being snowed in for two days, did she
nearly miss the deadline.

She travels light. With her ice axe, sleeping
bag, tent, a six day supply of food and wo
litres of water her pack weighs 37 Ibs. That's
nearly 40% of her body weight but she says
“that’s as light as I can get it.”

She won’t buy leather products (part of
her vegetarian philosophy); her hiking boots
are plastic, and cost her $20 at PayLess
Shoes. She went through four pair. Clothing
includes long underwear, a long-sleeved

WEST Van resident
Katherine Moore
holds one of her
low-budget hiking
boots which she
wore to complete a
five-monih hike
along the US

va Continental Divide

m in November. The
long-distance hike
was her third in an
American series of
trails known as the
Triple Crown. There

q have been more
people in space
than the number
that have finished
§ all three.

NEWS photo Paul &eGrath

shirt, three pairs of socks, shorts, a fleece
jacket and Gore-Tex pants and jacket. That’s
it. - Te

-.“Pm going through menopause,” she
adds witha grin. “In Colorado I welcomed
the hot flashes. They kept me warm.”

Her. friend (and her. contact when she’s
hiking) Lorne Rubinoff, is amazed by ner.

“She’s doing what she wants to do, it’s
inspirational,” he says. “It triggers a space
inside people, like they can do it too.”

For now, Moore is looking for work —
probably as a waitress — so she can start sav-
ing for her next hike.

“I'm thinking about Peru or maybe Nepal
... there’s a new trail in Arizona that’s not fin-
ished yet...”

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