Stories in Life. On the Radio with Mark and Joe.
Mark and Joe interview people with stories that affirm your belief in the goodwill, courage, determination, commitment and vision of everyday people.
Our primary goal is that, through another person's story, you will find meaningful connection no matter your place in life. We intend that the stories we select will be inspiring and maybe help you laugh, cry, think or change your mind about something important in your life.
Stories in Life. On the Radio with Mark and Joe.
Walking from Mexico to Canada - A Perspective On What Matters Most in Life.
What happens when you strip away the complexities of modern life and spend five months walking 2,650 miles through some of America's most breathtaking landscapes? Mary and Jason Kosch did exactly that when they hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexican border to Canada, and their journey reveals profound insights about human capability, resilience, and the transformative power of simplicity.
The young couple from Bend, Oregon shares how a simple spark of inspiration from YouTube videos evolved into three years of planning before they finally hit the trail in April 2022. Their adventure carried them through five distinct sections—from the scorching deserts of Southern California to the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains, through the wildfire season of Northern California and Oregon, and finally to the challenging peaks of Washington. Along the way, they formed deep bonds with fellow hikers from over 30 countries, creating what they call "trail families" who supported each other through extreme challenges, including a harrowing night of 70-80 mph winds that collapsed their tent.
What stands out most from their experience is the beautiful simplicity that emerges when life is reduced to its essentials. "Normal life is way more stressful than getting up and just walking all day, eating, drinking water, and then sleeping," Mary and Jason reflect. This freedom from constant notifications, emails, and looming to-do lists allowed for a mental reset that has continued to influence their post-trail lives. They've structured their current lifestyle around access to trails and outdoor experiences, embracing a "simpler is better" philosophy after experiencing the freedom of carrying only what fits in their backpacks.
For anyone contemplating their own seemingly impossible adventure, Mary and Jason offer encouraging wisdom: "We're so capable of doing things that feel very unattainable. 2,650 miles seems like a ton, but absolutely people can do that." Their journey stands as powerful testament to what humans can accomplish with determination, proper planning, and the courage to take that first step. What adventure is calling you?
Welcome to Stories in Life. You're on the radio with Mark and Joe. We share stories that affirm your belief in the goodwill, courage, determination, commitment and vision of everyday people.
Mark Wolak:Our goal is that through another person's story you may find connection. No matter your place in life. The stories we select will be inspiring and maybe help you laugh, cry, think or change your mind about something important in your life.
Joe Boyle:Join us for this episode of Stories in Life.
Music:Thank you, I'm sorry. Guitar solo Follow, follow the sun which way the wind blows. When this day is done, breathe, breathe in the air. Set your intentions, dream with care. Tomorrow's a new day for everyone, a brand new moon, a brand new sun.
Mark Wolak:Today we welcome our guest who have hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile dirt path for hiking and horseback riding that runs from Mexico to Canada. It is known for its many remote locations, wild character and iconic landscapes. The trail crosses through 25 national forest units, 5 state parks, 6 national parks, 5 national monuments and 48 federal wilderness areas. It showcases the beauty of the desert, the Sierra Nevada's glaciated expanses, deep forests and the Cascade Range volcanic peaks. In total, this young couple walked 2,650 miles in five months and one day.
Joe Boyle:Today we welcome Mary and Jason Kosch, a married couple from Bend, Oregon, who hiked the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail from the US-Mexican border to the US-Canadian border. Hi, guys, and welcome to our podcast.
Jason Kosch:Hey, great to be here. Thanks for having us.
Mary Kosch:Thank you.
Joe Boyle:So how did this all come about? Could you explain how the original plan to hike the PCT came together?
Mary Kosch:Yeah, so it actually. It started on my end. I had just seen people like on YouTube videos and just heard about the trail and I was, I remember, watching these videos and I was in the trenches of just starting work after college. So it was just like the first few years out of college and I just really admired this adventure. I thought it looked amazing. There's just like so much freedom that comes along with it and it's just like a brand new concept. I never thought like people hike this long and I thought that would be incredible to do so. At the time, jason and I were just dating and I said, jason, would you be interested? And he said, of course, and that's kind of how it just started. And we yeah, the I feel like the dream just like grew organically throughout the years once we decided we wanted to do it.
Jason Kosch:Yeah, I think that was back in 2019. And we had just graduated college a few years beforehand, just started working. We had to pay off some college debt. So we said, hey, maybe this is a few years down the road, we can hike the PCT. So from 2019, until we eventually hiked in 2022.
Jason Kosch:We were just slowly planning watching YouTube videos, getting inspired, putting the pieces in place in our life to, in a few years, take six months off of work and hike the trail. And that's kind of how it happened. But it all started from a spark that Mary had and we were actually working together at an accounting firm and I think she pinged me on our team chats and said, hey, would you ever want to hike the PCT? And I think at the time I didn't even know that these long trails existed, but I had already fallen in the group and we both grew up in Minnesota, so I fell in love with the outdoors through the Boundary Waters canoe area up in northern Minnesota and the idea of spending four, five, six months out on a trail just sounded amazing. You know what a dream come true.
Joe Boyle:And you're with your girl too.
Jason Kosch:Yeah exactly.
Mary Kosch:I know that actually provided a like, a good sense of security to just having starting it with a partner and having that comfort of like. I'm very comfortable with Jason, obviously, and this is a new experience that we could do together and that just made the goal even more attainable. I felt like just to get out there together.
Joe Boyle:Was there anything you needed to do, mentally or physically, or both, to prepare for something like that?
Mary Kosch:I think you know we joke now because, looking back, you know we were I'll put it in quotes training for the PCT and we'd go to the gym and walk three miles on a treadmill and you know, in our eyes we were mentally and physically preparing ourselves. And you know, in our eyes we were mentally and physically preparing ourselves and you know, maybe it did help. But I think there's a lot like once you just get out there and start hiking, you're going to have the aches, the pains, the blisters for the first few hundred miles. That's, I think, a little bit inevitable, but you know there is. I think there is a lot of value in just like staying, being generally active before doing it.
Mary Kosch:But I think we more so focus for preparation on just nailing down the gear. So we just made sure we liked everything that we had in our packs, we liked the way we packed the packs. So we did a lot of like shake out, um, overnight camping trips, just to get that. You know, all all ironed out. But yeah, that's kind of how we prepared I guess physically, mentally, I would say.
Joe Boyle:So was the reality of the hike? Did it meet your expectations of what you thought it was going to be, or was it very different?
Jason Kosch:I'd say it more or less met our at least my expectations. You know, and I was going in thinking it would be an amazing experience and it was nothing less than that. It was from start to finish. You know the beautiful views and the people from all around the world it draws people from, you know, I don't know how many countries were had people hikers from, but I'd say at least 30, 40 different countries from all around the world, which is just really cool. All different ages too. We met people from who are 70 years old, from South Korea. We met people we hiked one of our best friends from the trails, from Australia, plenty of Germans. So it's just really cool meeting all the people.
Jason Kosch:So it's a mixture of the people and the just sweeping views and from you know the deserts of Southern California to the high Sierra, to Oregon, Washington, northern California, you know it's such a vast range of topography and landscape that you walk through and luckily, being on the West coast, the weather is generally speaking pretty nice in the summer. So it's like the appalachian trail, which is another one of the big scenic trails. They deal with a lot of humidity, mosquitoes, ticks, rain. On the west coast it's more or less blue skies, dry, it's windy, but you know it's, it's. It's a phenomenal trail and just an incredible experience. I'd say lived up to our, to my expectations at least if not exceeded.
Joe Boyle:Did you forge any friendships that you're still maintaining?
Mary Kosch:yeah, definitely yeah yeah, I think like, yeah, a huge draw and like, what makes hiking along, through hike like this, so appealing and so wonderful is just the community around. So so you really do like that. I felt like the first week on trail was like freshman year college vibes, where you're, you know, you're really excited to meet everyone, you're introducing yourself, everyone wants to be friends with everyone. It's just like a huge, like community that you just entered into and you all have the same goal which I think really unites everyone. That's, through hiking and all you know, generally like-minded but still come from all you know, all around the world.
Mary Kosch:So there is like a little bit of diversity there. But then right away I felt like, well, we met one, um, one woman who we like hiked most of the trail with and she's you know we still contact her all the time. She actually has already visited us once. We're hoping to get out there this winter to go visit her in Australia. So there is just, you do keep in contact with a lot of the people that you meet because they're, you know, they're all continuing to hike throughout their life after, after the trail, which is fun it's pretty, pretty busy though.
Joe Boyle:A lot of traffic, huh.
Jason Kosch:Yeah, so the permit season, if you're starting at the Mexican border, is between March 1st and May 31st and they allocate 50 permits per day between that period. So every day, generally speaking, if people are following their permit date, is 50 people are starting. So yes, you're seeing people, but you know over time everyone's pretty spread out. So it's a good blend of you know there's people around you don't feel super isolated or alone. But if you want to be hiking by yourself, you absolutely are able to do that. If you want to be hiking by yourself, you absolutely are able to do that. So it's a really nice blend of you know the community and the isolation and peace of being out in the wilderness.
Jason Kosch:And just one other point on the community aspect of it which I think is really fun aspect of the trail is what we'd call trail families is just natural groups of people who end up hiking together, camping together, and that might not be every day.
Jason Kosch:You're spending every mile with each other. But it's hey, at the beginning of the day let's maybe meet 12 and a half miles down the trail for lunch and then we'll camp 24 miles down the trail and then. So that's decided. So you're with the same group of people you know throughout, and then we're going to town together and they naturally what we call trail families are naturally formed and it's it's a really cool. Another cool aspect of the trail is it's it's you become so close so quickly, because I think it is a unique experience and, like Mary said, we all have one shared goal of making it to Canada before the end of the hiking season and it really just bonds people really quickly and really deeply. So, within you know, a few days of hiking with some people, it truly feels like you've known them for years and I think that's a unique thing about a long trail like this is just how close you can get so quickly, which is awesome.
Joe Boyle:Did you learn anything about yourself or each other that you didn't know ahead of time or that you appreciated as a result of this?
Mary Kosch:Yeah, I think we I mean no surprises from Jason but I think what we really learned is in what we reflected a lot of times when we were hiking is, like you know, okay, once we get done with through hiking, how do we want our life to be set up?
Mary Kosch:How do we envision, you know, our next future years? And I think we really appreciated having a very simple life out there where we carry everything in our packs. We have a shared goal, life is pretty simple and your brain feels pretty well rested and I think we really liked that, you know, simplicity. And we've kind of brought that to our life now and decided, okay, we want to prioritize living in a place that has access to trails, in the outdoors, so we can keep doing what we love to do out here, but just blending it in with the real world as well, and then just keeping our life. Our goal is simpler the better and just, you know, not getting too much into buying too many things, like we really liked the appeal of having everything in our packs and just having a simple life. So I feel like that's something that was a big lesson that we took into our lives after the trail, for sure we took into our lives after the trail for sure.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, that's a uh. That's, I think, part of uh human beings learning how to be in the wilderness and spending enough time away from general society to realize you don't need all the crap you're told that you need. Exactly, I am intrigued with um, with the decisions you made about packing, because my wife and I do a lot of sailing on Lake Superior. We've spent 30 years doing that and we spend a lot of time, you know, thinking about what we want to take on our trips. Our longest trip out has been 21 days.
Jason Kosch:Cool. Wow, that's awesome.
Mark Wolak:But for some segments of the lake you mentioned a device for picking up the internet. We actually appreciate not having access for days at a time because of how cleansing it is for your mind. If you're not distracted by that, Did you find that experience on the trail? Were you able to kind of step away, unplug and just be you in the wilderness?
Jason Kosch:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it happens so quickly that you almost just fully are immersed in the wilderness experience and society and the daily grind of normal life seems so distant almost instantly. And I think wilderness regardless of if you're in there for a day or five months, it has that power for all of us. If we can tap into it and spend more time in nature, we realize how soothing it really is and how quickly it can kind of you feel the power of the wilderness, the peace and the serenity of the wilderness in your life. And there's one of my favorite parts of the experience is being able to kind of step away. And it's not escapism, because we have this really difficult goal, tangible goal that we're working towards and we're working hard every day, but you're just taking a step back from the normal grind of society, which is, yeah, I loved that.
Joe Boyle:Putting one foot in front of the other anxiety, which is yeah.
Mary Kosch:I loved that, Putting one foot in front of the other, Exactly, and I think you know, waking up every morning in a tent not having the urge to look at your phone, looking at your emails texts, because you have no service and just having those days in between each town to just not even can't even text anyone. So there's just no looming to-do list in your brain, I felt. So you can only really think about walking, and what you're going to make for dinner is about the two things you think about.
Jason Kosch:No, it really brings you back to the basics of hey, where are we going to get water today? How much do I need to carry? And then, what am I going to eat today? The snacks. So put the snacks in your hip belt. How much do I need to carry? And then, what am I going to eat today? The snacks. So what put the snacks in your hip belt? Where are we going to stop for lunch? Where?
Mary Kosch:are we going to?
Jason Kosch:what am I going to eat for dinner, like it becomes? Where am I going to go to the bathroom at nature's house? Should I go now or in a mile? Yeah, it's very simple and you know, and I think that's an incredible change of pace again from just the normal life that we all live in and when there are so many things pulling us so many different directions, it's just so simple out there and now it's time for stories in life, art from heart, deep thoughts from the shallow end.
Joe Boyle:Each episode, we bring you a poem, a song or a reading, just for you.
Mark Wolak:Our art from the heart. Today is a comment on the joy of hiking. The joy of hiking is the sensation of wild places, the sights, smells, sounds and even tastes of the natural world. When we remove ourselves from concrete, plastic and steel and all those screens, we recalibrate our desire and ambitions to align with something deeper than ourselves.
Joe Boyle:That is the joy of hiking Sky above earth, below peace within. You need special shoes for hiking and a bit of a special soul as well. There's no Wi-Fi in the mountains, but you'll find no better connection.
Music:To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles gonna put the world away for a minute, pretend I don't live in it. Sunshine gonna wash my blues away. Had sweet love but I lost. She got too close so I thought. And now I'm lost in the world, trying to find me a better way, wishing I was deep, deep in the water somewhere, got the blue sky, breeze, and it don't seem fair. Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair.
Music:Sunrise, there's a fire in the sky. Never been so happy, never felt so high, and I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise. Wrote a note, said be back in a minute. Bought a boat and I sailed off and I don't think anybody's gonna miss me anyway. Mind on a permanent vacation. The ocean is my only medication, wishing my condition ain't ever gonna go away, cause now I'm deep, deep in the water somewhere, got the blue sky, breeze, blowing wind through my hair. Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair. Sunrise, there's a fire in the sky. Never been so happy, happy. Never felt so high, and I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise, this champagne show washing over me. It's a sweet, sweet life, living by the salt. You see, one day you can be as lost as me. Change your geography, maybe you might be Knee deep in the water somewhere. Got the blue sky, breeze blowing wind through my hair. Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair.
Joe Boyle:Sunrise there's a fire in the sky. So what are the biggest challenges or adversity that you have to deal with? On a daily basis, or any or unique things that you didn't realize you'd have to deal with.
Mary Kosch:That's like you know each section. So you know the PCT split out into five sections and each section brings a different set of diversity, different challenges. The desert you're kind of battling like that's the first section. It's the aches and pains, the sandy conditions getting into your shoes. I had a ton of blisters.
Mary Kosch:Um, luckily it wasn't too hot for us because we started early April so that's a pretty good time, but it was hot and exposed. So you're like getting you know used to that. Then you get through and you're in the Sierra and then it's snow mountain passes. You really feel like you're really out there in the mountains and so that's when you really start like really getting your trail family together. And you're just like timing the passes, because there's snow on those passes and if you're hitting it too late in the day you're going to start post-holing. So you're good, you'll. You know, if you walk on snow and you're, if it's all melted and you take one step, your whole whole leg goes through. So that's kind of a big risk and you can get injured from that. So it's navigating, kind of the weather conditions, um, through the Sierra and then as the trail, then you leave the snow and all of a sudden you're in Northern California and it's hot and smoky, and so that's another, just like, oh, this is kind of uncomfortable.
Jason Kosch:Okay, yes, we actually yeah, so it which is a a which is a bummer nowadays it seems like most, through hiking classes, have to deal with fires at some point. We got relatively lucky that the first fires really didn't start start popping up until mid-july. Where we were already, we were at Crater Lake in Oregon when the first fires kind of started around us and we had to skip a few miles due to trail closures. But it is. It's something that you have to deal with now pretty much every year. It's just a matter of when and where are the fires going to happen, and typically it's Northern California, oregon and Washington every year that are dealing with either fires and trail closures, smoke from distant fires or just the fear of the fires are going to be, you know, popping up and people are safe. I don't think there's a huge risk of actually you know the fire getting you. I don't think there's a huge risk of actually you know the fire getting you. But the PCTA the organization that kind of oversees the PCT is pretty good at closing the trail and keeping hikers safe and, if need be, getting people evacuated. So yeah, it's like what Mary was saying.
Jason Kosch:Each section kind of has its own challenges like what Mary was saying. Each section kind of has its own challenges and you know, northern California it was actually Northern California and Oregon it was a hot spell for two weeks where it was 90 plus and you still got to get up and hike all day, and some of those it's challenging because you don't want to hike 30 miles in the heat, you just want to, you know, sit on a pontoon boat and not hike. But you know, at the end of the day you just kind of put your head down and one foot in front of the other, like you said, and keep moving forward and, generally speaking, you're out there in this beautiful country doing this incredible experience. So, even these downs that I'm talking about, I think we were pretty well aware of how lucky we were to be out there. So, generally speaking, you kind of just take it head on and keep trucking forward.
Mark Wolak:So, mary, you mentioned three of the five sections. What's section four and five?
Mary Kosch:Yeah, so then, um, four, section four is oregon, so the whole oregon state. So then, and that was, yeah, like jason said, it's generally flat, so you can crush miles and just keep hiking all day. The days are long, you can just keep going. But it is pretty mosquito-y. Um, I feel like there's some bad sections in there with just like we have the mosquito nets on our head and, yeah, a lot of type 2 fun there. And then hot it was. It was pretty hot.
Mary Kosch:And then you get into Washington, that's section five, and then you're kind of back. Washington's pretty. There's quite a bit of climbing there. So it was a nice final celebration of going up and over a lot of mountain passes in Washington. But we had really nice weather. It can be crummy and if you get there too late it can be pretty rainy and can even snow on you, but luckily we had absolutely beautiful weather. I think the only thing we ran into was at we couldn't finish the last 60 miles of the trail because there was a wildfire in that section. So that was, you know, sad to hike all this way and then come 60 miles short of tagging the terminus. But you know, it was still a good ending, but the smoke was just, the fires were were really bad at that time better you didn't burn up.
Mark Wolak:It's better that you know the story, right, yeah?
Mary Kosch:exactly, yeah, so just this last fall actually. So our friend that we were mentioning, who lives in Australia, who hiked with us, she came back to the states and we finished that last section together and had a week out on trail again. So that was great. It was just back to through hiking together, so we were able to finish it off.
Joe Boyle:Other than like blisters and stuff? Did either of you have any kind of injuries or witness somebody maybe that was injured?
Jason Kosch:Yeah, I dealt with a minor, I think just tendinitis in my shin. Luckily, generally speaking, every four to five days you'll go into a town, do a resupply, you can stay at a hotel or an Airbnb or camp in town and what we call zeros is a full day off trail in town. So when I was dealing with some tendonitis in my shin it was at the very end of the desert section right before we went into the high Sierra and, like Mary was saying, the high Sierra is a ton of elevation gain and loss every day. So I was really trying to not go into that section with an injury. So we spent three days in a town right at the end of the desert and I was just icing elevate ice elevate and luckily my pain kind of went away and I didn't deal with it the rest of the trail. So were pretty lucky all things considered, based on on injuries. But there are plenty of people who either have to take time off or end their through hike due to injuries and they could be stress, fractures, shin splints, um.
Mary Kosch:Achilles, achilles issues.
Jason Kosch:You know, luckily we we started the trail doing around 15 miles, and then a day, and then slowly worked our way up and took plenty of zeros in town. So I think we just gave our bodies enough time to adapt and we were lucky enough to, you know, finish the trail with no major injuries. So how?
Joe Boyle:long did it actually take you? How long were you on the the whole trip?
Jason Kosch:yep, yeah, five months in one day. So we started on april 9th of 2022 and we finished september 10th, so just over five months and you're still married, yeah and happy as can be.
Jason Kosch:Yeah, yeah people always say. People always say you know, oh my gosh, you guys are married. I can't believe you guys did that together. But, like I was saying, what is there to be stressed about? That Normal life is way more stressful than getting up and just walking all day walking, eating, drinking water and then sleeping. So life's pretty simple out there and it was a phenomenal experience to share it with Mary.
Joe Boyle:You may have already answered this question, but did days run into days, you know, like pretty much the same, or was it like a sporting event where you remembered all the details?
Jason Kosch:Good, question yeah that's a good.
Mary Kosch:You know. I think there's some days that start blending together. But I love how our phones tell us one year ago or three years ago today and we get all these like memories that pop up. And whenever I see a photo from any day on the PCT, I can vividly remember that moment that I took the photo. So you know, maybe during it, and especially during some of the hot sections and the smoky sections, maybe they were feeling like the days were blending together. But for the most part, looking back, I feel like I can distinctly remember, oh, what campsite we camped at that night, who was with us? You know details like that. What do you think, chase?
Jason Kosch:Yeah, no, no, I agree it was fun. So every day I would take a video of just kind of take my phone and say hey, it's 1131 on day 74 and just give a 30 to 45 second recap of what we've done so far that day, where we are, who we're with and I did it every single day. We were on trail. So that's really fun to go back and kind of. And as soon as you watch the video you're taken right back to how you were feeling on that climb, the heat, the whatever you were feeling. It brings you right back.
Jason Kosch:I was so happy to do that.
Joe Boyle:It's really fun.
Mary Kosch:It's fun to watch those videos, the evolution of Jason too, with the beard, and it's just. We look worse and worse, but we felt like we looked great.
Mark Wolak:One of the things I want you to reflect on, and if there's a story here, share it. One of the things I want you to reflect on, and if there's a story here, share it. I think one of the things, when you're a couple and you go out and do things that require just being outside and being challenged by nature, that you can watch how each other handle adversity.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, I'm curious is there a story or is there a moment when you both looked at each other and laughed about the adversity, or you found some commonality or some joy in it?
Mary Kosch:That's a good question.
Jason Kosch:I think the first thing that comes to mind is when you're in the High Sierra, there's Mount Whitney, which is the highest point in the lower 48. It's right off the PCT but most thru-hikers go take a day and go summit Mount Whitney In the morning. We did it, it was. We started hiking around 2, 3 am. It was beautiful skies. You could see the stars, it was lovely. By the time we were half a mile mile from the summit, a storm had rolled in. It was 30, 40 mile an hour, winds kind of sleeting. It was really cold. It was not super enjoyable and I think we, you know, you look at each other and it's kind of one of those like this is living this. We, you know, you look at each other and it's kind of one of those like this is living, this is, you know, it's like brutal, but you know this is why we're out here. This is so fun, such a unique shared experience, and I think looking back at something like that just brings so much joy.
Mary Kosch:That was a funny. Climbing up there was funny too, because it was us two and then our friend rage, from australia. She had never experienced the feeling of her hands not working because they're so cold. Like she had no idea why her hands weren't working like so we're hiking up there and we have a mile left to the summit. Like jason said, we're in the storm and she's like full-on panicking because her hands don't work anymore. She has no idea how to warm them up. And Jason's telling her to shove her hands in her pants and she's like, why, why would I do that? And she's learning like all these like cold weather strategies and she's like, thank god I'm with a bunch of Minnesotans. This is the best thing that could happen for me. Yeah, a storm like that will bond you for sure.
Mark Wolak:That story is exactly what I wanted to hear from you guys, so thank you.
Mary Kosch:I actually have another one too. That's, you know, we didn't have a lot of bad weather out on trail, but there was one night that we talk about all the time and we rewatched the video many times a year. So it's the. It was the third night on the trail, so we're really fresh into this and we hear, like throughout talking to people throughout the day, we hear that the wind is going to be really bad that night. We're thinking, okay, so we should try to find like a good campsite where we can, like you know, we're protected, generally protected from the wind as much as possible. We're hiking. Well, we're really like in the desert. It's pretty open, so we're like traversing this ridge line for a long time. We find a spot that we think is, like you know, decent and actually, like, looking back, it was like a decent spot, but the winds were crazy that night Like, I think, 70 or 80 mile per hour winds.
Jason Kosch:I thought it was 70, which is very, very windy Wow.
Mary Kosch:Yeah, so.
Jason Kosch:The forecast was saying 40 mile an hour winds, which is also very windy, but we thought, hey, you, you know we can hunker down and and it'll be fine yeah, yeah, so, okay.
Mary Kosch:So it's so windy. We eat dinner, it's just us two. We get into the tent and it starts. I think it was raining at that point, or no it's just really yeah the clouds were coming in, jason basically zips up his sleeping bag.
Mary Kosch:He's like all right, see you on the other side. And goes into his little cocoon of a sleeping bag. Meanwhile, you know, the wind starts really going and then it's raining, turns to sleet and then our whole like tent starts. It collapses, like on my side, but it's inside, it was all good. So it's collapsed on my side and there's just like it's pouring rain and I mean they said the low was 40 degrees but real feel it was freezing.
Mary Kosch:So I'm in my tent. It's only and it's the worst feeling too, when you look at your time, it's only 10 PM. I'm thinking this is going to be the longest night ever. So I get out of the tent, I get out of everything. I'm trying to restake the tent. Meanwhile the wind is so loud I can't even get a hold of Jason in the tent because we can't even hear each other. But I'm in the tent fixing it, getting really wet, and then I'm thinking this is really dumb. I'm now getting really wet outside the tent and I should be in my sleeping bag staying as dry as possible.
Mary Kosch:Take Jason's strategy of just going in his little cocoon. So I stick the tent. I'm thinking, oh my gosh, okay, now I'm really wet. So now I start taking off like my jacket and I just had my base layer top on and then I lay in the tent. It collapses again. There's just like all this rain coming in and I'm thinking, okay, I think it's just survival mode. Now I'm taking Jason's approach. I'm in the cocoon and like I don't know if I slept. I maybe slept five minutes that night. I was up all night just like in my brain, just trying to think like survive the night, that's all I'm thinking. So then we wake up. I'm like thank God, it's 6am, this is the best news ever. But you know we're pulling out all my clothes. My tennis shoes are frozen, everything's just like rock solid through the storm. And you know we laugh about it now. But Jason was like yeah, I slept pretty well.
Jason Kosch:But I will. I'll add to that story which is a compliment to Mary, I think despite having probably the worst night of your life, at least worst night's sleep, you woke up the next morning and she had a smile on her face, a great attitude, and maybe she was just happy that she survived and made it through the night attitude, and maybe she was just happy that she survived and made it through the night. But she had a smile on her face and kind of, you know, again, keep trucking along. And the nice thing about again being in Southern California, this storm that came through. It came and went very quickly, so it was sunny by 10 am. We were able to stop, dry everything out. So it wasn't a uh, problematic thing long term, uh, but it was a, it was a night to remember. So, on what would that be?
Mary Kosch:april 12th, every year, we uh recount the story and look at our videos yeah, I, I like, I'm extra appreciative with my dry bed, my nice you know nice bedroom that I sleep on in April 12th that's the last day.
Mark Wolak:That's a great. That's a great story. Yeah, gale force winds are 35 to 40 miles an hour, so you were twice that it probably was a hurricane.
Jason Kosch:It was close. Just in our area there were a number of people who we all carried like a Garmin emergency device where you could contact, you know, get out in case of emergency, and multiple people had to click their emergency device and bring help in that night because similar issues Tents were breaking, you know, people were getting wet and it was. It was dangerously windy and wet out there, so it was. I remember we woke up and said I hope that's our worst night we have out here and luckily it was.
Joe Boyle:So did you ever contemplate quitting at any time?
Mary Kosch:No, yeah, never, no, never it was. Yeah. I felt like every single week was was great. It was great being out there, we, I did not have any desire to get off trail and just like leaving the community would be so sad, because you felt so well connected to everyone that, yeah, I never felt like I wanted to get off.
Jason Kosch:Something we reflect on all the time that I think is really unique about a trail like this is you make not many times in life do you make tangible progress every day towards your goal that you can. It's tangible. You can see the progress you've made and you have that out there and I think that keeps you going. And once you're out there and you have your mindset on making it to Canada and so even despite some days are really hot or whatever it may be never did we think I want to be done. Maybe I want to be in town eating a hot meal and have a shower, but never I want to be done, which is really cool.
Joe Boyle:It's a mindset and attitude that you just Totally.
Mark Wolak:I hear persistence and I hear achieving your goal. You know you're determined, Totally.
Joe Boyle:Do you have any other major hikes planned like this?
Mary Kosch:Well, so this trip, the PCT, inspired us, you know, when we were out there thinking okay what else should we do?
Mary Kosch:And an adventure that sounded fun, that you know we talked about, is something that would be a little bit more. Choose your own adventure. So on the PCT, you know you're following the same trail, everyone's doing the same miles, but what else could we do? That's a little bit more, you know open-ended. And so this fall we've thought of, or we have planned, a four-week Boundary Waters trip. So we're gonna gonna and that's that's a fun. Choose your own adventure, because you could really hit any lake you want to do. So we're gonna do that and bring um our australian shepherd for his first canoe trip. So it should bring a lot of, a lot of good stories. So it's just kind of sparked that um. But no, you know, we'd love to do more trails.
Jason Kosch:And nothing planned. Yeah, since finishing, I think something we fell in love with is just being out on trails, spending a number of hours out there. So since we finished we've kind of gotten into trail running. So we try and spend, you know, I don't know three, four or five days a week. You still get out on the trails, maybe not backpacking, but you're getting out there and spending kind of big days out in the mountains on the trails. So it definitely furthered our love for being on single track trail and moving with our feet, which has been really fun.
Joe Boyle:Will you do any hiking when you visit your friend in Australia?
Mary Kosch:Yeah, she wants to. So, yeah, she's talked about, you know, all of the trails that she likes to go to the backpacking trips she wants to take us. So we're trying to do an extended trip so that she can show us around. Yeah, because she's really talked it up.
Joe Boyle:Yeah, because she's really talked it up. If you could give some advice to somebody who's contemplating doing like the PCT or a similar, what would it be?
Jason Kosch:If you're even considering it, I highly highly recommend take the chance and go do it. Not a single person have I ever talked to that regretted their decision to go. Even if you don't finish, even if you have to get off for whatever reason, nobody regrets giving it a shot and going out there and doing it. It sounds like this daunting 2,650 mile but at the end of the day it's walking. You know, it's something that most of us have the ability to do, the privilege to be able to do, and it's not as scary or intimidating as it may seem when you first look at it. We met people 70 years old. We met people all different shapes, sizes, athletic ability. At the end of the day, if you've got grit and determination and you want to do it, I would just highly highly recommend give it a shot. Go do it. You won't regret it.
Mary Kosch:Yeah.
Mark Wolak:What are the best resources for learning prior to your travel? What would you tell listeners to go and check it out.
Mary Kosch:I think YouTube is like the best source to find Just you get like such a good vision of what it's all about. I mean, there's so many people that have blogged their entire trail, all the trails you know the Continental Divide and the AT as well and just have documented it all. They'll talk through their gear, their food strategies. I mean there's so much content out there that I feel like we really we had certain people that we like to watch their videos and you know, and now I'm sure Instagram, I feel like, has gotten huge and I think that's good. Social media in general has made the trail very popular, which I think is a is a good thing, cause I think it just brings more people outdoors and challenging themselves. So I feel like those, those resources have been a huge help, or just were a huge help for us, and we basically took a lot of the information that we learned there and then applied it and it seemed to work, work well.
Joe Boyle:Great. Were you able to listen to music or news or anything like that along the way? Listen to music or news or anything?
Mary Kosch:like that along the way.
Jason Kosch:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah typically in town we would download podcasts, audio books, music and kind of different times throughout the day. It's very common People will toss in, you know, a single AirPod or a headphone and listen while hiking. I mean you're spending 14 hours a day hiking and listen while hiking I mean you're spending 14 hours a day hiking.
Jason Kosch:You might as well, you know, listen to something for whatever. You've got a lot of time to do it, so there's plenty of time of. I liked in the mornings to not listen to anything and kind of just enjoy that time, but then there's plenty of times throughout the day where I'm listening to audiobook, podcast or music one, one of our favorite things to do.
Mary Kosch:We called it happy hour on trail. So Jason and I would pack, we'd pour a. You know, we'd get a box wine in town and then pour some of it into a just a plastic water bottle and then right around five o'clock on trail we had a happy hour pot or happy hour playlist on spotify and you can link up two sets of airpods to one phone. So he had his airpods and I had my airpods in listening to the same music and we'd sip on our wine hike and it was a fun little listening to the same music while walking with each other. It was fun.
Joe Boyle:What kind of music were you listening to?
Mary Kosch:Some oldies. It was a playlist from our wedding.
Jason Kosch:It was our post-wedding cocktail hour playlist Bob Marley, zach Brown Band Band. Just kind of feel good happy music. Um, yes, yeah, those are always, yeah, summer music. Those are always a fun memories. Okay, you just have so much time out there to fill and to keep you busy. So the small things that make the day exciting, you know, mean a lot.
Mary Kosch:I think like I think another big takeaway from the whole, you know, adventure and experience is just like we're so capable of doing things that feel very unattainable and we're humans can, just aren't we're able to do that. 2650 miles seems like a ton and being out in the wilderness for five months seems like oh my gosh. So many people say I can't do that. 2,650 miles seems like a ton and being out in the wilderness for five months seems like oh my gosh. So many people say I could never do that. But absolutely people can do that and it's so um, it's so attainable.
Mary Kosch:And I felt like we've brought that to our everyday life of just like dreams feel really big and like feel like they're not attainable. But that's usually what excites us and makes us want to do it. Because, you know, even when I'm on a long run and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, this is going on forever, I'm like there was never a mile on the PCT that we could never hike or get through. So I feel like there's just a lot of parallels that you see in life, that you're like, well, I got through it on the PCT so you can get through it in real life, which I think is like a huge takeaway.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, thank you for that. You know we're doing a genealogy, one I mentioned earlier. People don't realize that it wasn't that many years ago people would walk that far. Yeah, to get from the East Coast to the West Coast and they didn't own a horse and they couldn't afford the train. They probably walked.
Jason Kosch:Yeah. I mean throughout our human evolution, moving on our feet long distances is what we do best, so it's truly in our DNA to do it and yeah, it was a experience of a lifetime to be out there and yeah, our bodies adapt pretty quickly and you kind of surprise yourself on what you're capable of if you just keep moving forward, stay determined and one foot in front of the other you must have come back in pretty darn good shape yeah, yeah, I felt like, yeah, we were in good shape.
Mary Kosch:I mean, we were eating the crappiest processed food the whole thing, but it felt actually amazing because your body's just using up every single calorie as energy. So I felt like our feet were very strong, our legs were strong and it felt like we could stand or walk forever.
Joe Boyle:What an impressive young couple. You know, what I'm amazed about is that these two people planned well in advance, did a lot of good research and made a commitment for five months roughly to go out and walk nature and they were able to do it together and they trusted each other and it was all very impressive to me the way they talked about it, the way they kind of relived it through their stories. Um, and hopefully it'll inspire some of our listeners to that.
Mark Wolak:If they're on the fence to take on, something like this gives them the uh, the push to go for it yeah, you know if there's a thing, and looking in the rearview mirror, I really have no regrets for any of the adventures I took in my lifetime.
Joe Boyle:No, you never go do something and then say man, I wish I would have never done that.
Mark Wolak:But you know, isn't it interesting? Here's a young couple that said we're going to save up enough money. We're going to do all the research that's needed. We're going to do this and we're not going to quit.
Joe Boyle:Right and take each day for whatever it's going to give us. Yeah.
Mark Wolak:Well, thanks for bringing us that story, joe. I really enjoyed it. It was a really great offering for our listeners, yep.
Joe Boyle:That was a good one. You're always looking at our stats. Could you share some of those?
Mark Wolak:Yeah, we've met an exciting marker along our journey here, joe. We're 25 plus episodes out over the last two years. We've got over 2,500 downloads, 40 countries. We're on six continents and just about 400 towns and cities all over the world. What are some of the surprises like where? Some of the surprises for me most of our cities are around water. We have listeners on both coasts of the United States, for example, but also the Netherlands, canada, the UK, greece, spain, australia and many of the little towns around the lakes, so it's a wonderful group of listeners all over.
Joe Boyle:Well, I hope we reach some of the friends of these guys, the hikers, because you know they go everywhere.
Mark Wolak:Yeah, and for any of you listeners out there, don't be afraid to support our show. We're happy to take support from you if you like what we're doing.
Joe Boyle:And we love all your feedback, so keep it coming. Yeah, thank you. The music from this hiking episode were Follow the Sun by Xavier Rudd from the album Spirit Bird from 2012. We also had Knee Deep from the Zac Brown Band featuring the late great Jimmy Buffett from 2011. And we wrap things up with Three Little Birds by Bob Marley and the Wailers from the Exodus album from 1977. Don't worry about a thing.
Music:Cause every little thing gonna be alright. Say me don't worry About a thing, cause every little thing Gonna be alright. Rise up this morning, smile with the rising sun. Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep. Bye, this is the end of the show, cause every little thing Gonna be alright. Rise up this morning, smile with the rising sun. Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep, singing sweet songs Of melodies, pure and true Singing this is my message to you. Singing don't worry About a thing. Every little thing Gonna be alright. Singing don't worry about a thing. Every little thing is going to be all right. Don't worry. Singing don't worry about a thing. I won't worry. Every little thing is going to be all right. Don't worry about a thing. Don't worry about a thing. Every little thing is going to be all right. I won't worry. Don't worry about a thing. Every little thing is going to be all right. Don't worry about a thing.
