Survival is a Creative Act

Posted on December 5, 2025 by sheraaaa

*For today’s walk I listened to music. It’s a simply wonderful combination: walking and song.*

I want you to have an experience with these posts; there are links to songs, videos, other websites, and many various adventures. So here is your invitation to leave the tab open and return to find the link to the podcast or watch the movie. Take a walk and play the song. Think some thoughts and make some notes, or just leave space to let them emerge as the morning or afternoon unfolds. You may need an hour, or two…sometimes you might need a week for your brain to untangle and release. At least that’s how I work. You do you.

Today’s song is Frank Sinatra Jr’s Black Night. If you liked that one, you also might like The Ocean by Richard Hawley, The Rip by Portishead, or Empire Ants by The Gorillaz. The crescendo of each song echoes somewhere deep inside. You know how I wrote about using sound vibrations earlier this year to help kill the cancer? I think that’s what these songs do too. They vibrate something vital inside me, and the result is elation and joy. I hope for you too.

Today I want to talk about creativity as a force for survival.

When my neck started spasming last year, the aspen trees in the glaciated gorges of Steens Mountain had just started to turn gold. I was leading a trail maintenance trip for National Public Lands Day, and I knew something was very wrong. I was due to fly out the very next day to start a 400-mile thru-hike of the Pinhoti Trail, which I would connect to the Benton MacKaye Trail, turn east, and hike to its terminus at Springer Mountain (also the start of the Appalachian Trail). I planned to bookend the hike with a visit to Pinhoti Fest before I started walking, and finish with the Benton MacKaye Trail Association’s Annual Meeting and Hike Fest at Unicoi Lodge in Helen, Georgia. I intended to make further connections with the founders and stewards of both trail organizations to explore how I could add my expertise to their trails with my long-distance trail consulting business. This was a working hike, but also my vacation. Where do I stop and my job begin? I’ve never really known, having always (or most of the time) worked within a passion.

That beautiful fall day changed everything. Once my neck started to spasm on the last evening of the trip, the jolts continued to shock me, racing from my brain, down my spine. I had no clue what was going on, and quickly said an early goodnight to my volunteers as tears streamed down my face. I thought rest and lying down might ease the bewildering condition, but no. My neck spasmed about every five minutes during the long, late-September night. I cried with fear and pain, hoping the others couldn’t hear the extent of my anguish. Something was very wrong.

I avoided facing the truth even after I managed to make the five-hour drive back to Bend and directly to an urgent care. An exam showed nothing of concern, so we blamed the spasms on a few nights of a poor pillow. I could still hike, right? Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Hurricane Helen had just hit land, tearing up the communities, towns, trails, and mountains where I had planned to hike. I rebooked my flight for a few days hence to see how my neck and the storms would play out.

This wasn’t supposed to happen, to my body or the inland communities along the Appalachians, but one thing was clear: much of the region I was planning to hike in was devastated. On the bright side, the Alabama portion of the Pinhoti Trail was spared, but it seemed in poor taste to frolic down the trail when people were suffering just a short distance away in Georgia.

The east coast hike wasn’t going to happen, so I fixated on the Oregon Coast Trail. This 413-mile hike was close to home, had many towns (meaning I could find an easy out if my neck continued to give me grief), and I had already planned to be away from work for a month, so I threw myself into last-minute planning to walk a month along the sea.

I planned to travel to and from the trail all using public transportation; it would be a cool experiment! Since my passion is my work, I started to turn this trip into another opportunity to evaluate the resources and infrastructure of the trail to see how I could improve it from a hiker’s perspective. I decided to start my hike a week out from that urgent care visit, which would give me time to get a few sessions of acupuncture and massage, and push past the pain in my neck to keep going and hike anyway. I’ve done it before, hiked through fresh and recent injuries, that is.

The day before I started my October groundtruthing hike of the Blue Mountains Trail in 2020, I walked out of the house barefoot, and a stray nail sticking up from the door frame tore a fourth-inch chunk out of the sole of my foot. The flapper was deep enough that I had ripped through a significant portion of skin and callus. I panicked, immediately cleaned out the wound, put some antibiotic ointment on it, and elevated my foot until Kirk came home from work. I shook as I showed him the wound, but slowly convinced myself and him that I could keep it cleaned and protected as I hiked for a month solo on a difficult backcountry route in north eastern Oregon. And I went, and I was fine. So I’d be fine this time too, right?

After a week of treatments, I was convinced this Oregon Coast Trail thing was a go. Kirk and I decided to head up to Waldo Lake for the weekend in our camper so he could foilboard while I read in a chair in the sun. I still wasn’t 100 percent, but I had convinced myself I would heal on the hike, much like I had done on the Blue Mountains Trail. The morning we were set to leave, I was stretching when something twinged in my back and I instantly knew I wasn’t going hiking anywhere. All the progress I thought I had made was gone in that twinge. I didn’t tell the rest of my body, though, and I packed up my backpack and headed out for the weekend. Over the next two days, it was apparent that I was having trouble moving normally. Carrying much of anything caused more pain, and I finally voiced out loud that I wouldn’t be hiking the Oregon Coast Trail. I returned home in a slump. Two hikes had now been thwarted in the last week.

Now what?

It wasn’t until I was on a morning walk recently that last year’s hiking (or non-hiking) saga gained more shape. I headed out into the frosty morning with freshly charged earbuds in place and strolled along my normal route along the Deschutes River. That morning, I listened to Rich Roll’s podcast featuring author and fellow cancer navigator Suleika Jaouad, and I saw my decisions in the wake of my physical limitations in a new light.

Suleika has experienced survival as a creative act. I read her first book, Between Two Kingdoms, this year, shortly after my diagnosis, and quickly pre-ordered her second book, The Book of Alchemy. The more I learned about her story, the more I identified with her struggles. When I heard her leukemia returned for the third time before the launch of her new book, my heart just bled for her. For us.

Back to last October: when I realized that I would not be hiking the Oregon Coast Trail, I decided to go ahead and do it anyway, but from home. I decided to embark on a virtual journey and pretend that I was out plodding through the sand and feeling the rain sting my cheeks in groves of old-growth trees that rim the bluffs over the Pacific Ocean. I would virtually hike the Oregon Coast Trail.

Ever since I set foot on the Appalachian Trail back in 2002, I kept a daily journal. Those hand-written missives from the AT are lost, but from then on, I wrote and posted them online. From my hike during a break from grad school along the West Highland Way, to my thru-hike of the Colorado Trail and the culmination of my summer of leading trail crews, I chronicled the rain, sleet, and snow. The blisters, spider bites, and those few times I caught myself on fire from my beer-can stove. Yes, there were multiple times. Over the years, I shared my joys and struggles with a small group of loyal blog-readers, but more importantly, I found great joy in writing for the love of writing. I didn’t care if anyone else read about day 56 on the Pacific Crest Trail or day 5 on the Sunshine Coast Trail, I loved waking up in the early morning and capturing the feeling of the day before.

So when my body wouldn’t let me hike last fall, I decided to wake up early each morning, read the guidebook (shout out to Bonnie Henderson and her excellent resource), reference the FarOut app for real-time updates from other hikers, study the weather, decide how many miles to walk, where I would camp or find lodging, where I would eat, what interesting things I’d see during the day, and how I would navigate the many gaps in the trail. I wanted to turn this virtual hike into a visual journey as well, so I planned to create a story map that I would build on, publishing each new day on the story map as I would on an actual thru-hike. The Oregon Coast Trail is a logistical melange of hazards like high tides, which make certain sections undoable, or eroding cliffs from a perpetually stormy sea. I wanted to experience those hazards, even if remotely, and decide how I would proceed if I were actually there.

Story mapping had become another passion by this point, and over the past few years, I had been creating them professionally for other organizations. The medium harkened back to my college days where I dove into multi-media projects, combining images with prose, sounds, and even videos. And since my virtual hike was quickly becoming another work/passion project, I decided to add on elements from a second business I had started recently, called Intentional Hiking.

Yes, the title gives it away – with Intentional Hiking, I hosted several conversations a month about ways hikers could cultivate a deeper engagement with the world around them as they were out for a day hike, week-long backpacking trip, or a long thru-hike. I invited experts to talk about things like collecting data for Adventure Scientists, learning how to identify plants and animals to contribute to research projects on iNaturalist, or even how public land management agencies are integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge of indigenous peoples into federal planning processes. To apply this to the Oregon Coast Trail, I decided I would identify several aspects hikers (and I) could engage with as we walked. Those items were categorized and marked on the maps as: Fun Facts, Trail Stuff, Environment, Military History, Exploration History, Tribal Nations, Art and Culture, and Take Action. Each morning, I would wake at my usual 4am, spend the next 4-5 hours researching, writing, and adding on to my story map, and publish that day’s hike on my blog.

By the second week, my creative act had become a bit oppressive, given the sheer amount of time it was taking me to create each day’s exploration. The added weight of my painful body didn’t make things much easier. After my morning creation, my days were filled with appointments. They ranged from sessions with a physical therapist, massage therapist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, and my primary care doctor, with little result. I could barely move.

I kept going because that’s what I do. I finished the project on October 31 to reflect when I would have finished in real time. I remember my neck and back were feeling a hair better…in fact, everything was feeling a tad better, that is, until I slipped and fell on a wet floor while shopping on November 1. It was the kind of fall that you knew would be bad on the way down. As my feet flew out from under me, I had long enough to notice the “caution wet floor” sign by my right leg, and also know I was in trouble. I landed hard on my right glute, whiplashed my head, and passed out.

I will tell you the rest of the story another time, but needless to say, my troubles were only getting worse, and I was still about two months out from my cancer diagnosis. Life sucked, but it sucked less when I could focus on things like the virtual Oregon Coast Trail by ignoring my pain as much as I could to do something that brought joy.

I want to say many more things about how the creative act is survival. Many of you have seen it play out in real time through my blog this year, so stay tuned as I unpack more layers of pain and being so that I can continue to not just survive, but thrive through my creativity.

Slueika was in remission for 10 years before her cancer started growing again. The road ahead seems so long that I think the only thing that can get me through this is exploring what it means to be alive, creatively. And what a gift to the world that Slueika and her husband and musician Jon Baptist are giving to the world by doing the same.

Check out American Symphony on Netflix if you want to learn more about these two, they take my breath away.

Portugal Prep

Posted on July 29, 2025 by sheraaaa

Kirk and I took a day hike up to the base of 3 Finger Jack last weekend. It may look extreme, but this point is only 2ish miles from the trailhead! The worst part was driving up the washboarded dirt road, which was much harder on my neck than the hike.

I mentioned my intention to hike some of the Camino de Santiago thru Portugal in one of my last posts, and now, buoyed by all the good health news, I’m making it happen…and all of a sudden, the trip is soon, very soon (like September soon!)

I’ll be writing here daily while I walk, and now my time is filled with logistics like:

Whats up with the whole luggage transport system? Since my back/neck/shoulders still can’t support a pack I’ll be paying to have my roller carry-on bag transported each day. There are several companies that offer the service, and you only need to book 48 hours in advance, so that leaves room for serendipity…especially important because I don’t know how many miles per day my body will tolerate yet.
How do I book hostels, hotels, or auberges? Fortunately, many of these lodging options leave half their beds open for first-come walkers….In the day and age of cell phones and reservations, that is amazing, and again leaves some time for the hike to evolve as I see how the miles are feeling. I do have the first three nights booked, though.
Visa? Not needed
Money? Debit and credit cards will work, although I’ve had to check the international fees for both…since my trip is relatively short, just a few weeks, it sounds like getting cash from ATMs along the way will be an advisable way to go
Gear? I’m experimenting with a few different lumbar packs to carry things like a raincoat, umbrella, snacks, and water…I used the Gossamer Gear Piku this past weekend on a day hike, and loved how light it was, although the larger capacity (nine liters) means I can still put too much weight in it, like I did for a walk around town this week 😬. I have a Mountainsmith lumbar pack on order to try, although it comes off the shelf much heavier at 1.56 lbs vs the Piku at 8.9 oz.
Blogging? I thought I would bring my Surface tablet with keyboard to write at cafes along the way, but on my hike around town, it seemed heavy in the pack…I could just type on my phone like I do on regular backcountry hikes…we’ll see. I’ll take some more hikes with it and decide later.
Language? I’ve been taking some Portuguese lessons on Duolingo, but a big portion of the way will be in Spain (about 100 miles vs 70ish in Portugal), and I don’t have time to get good at two languages. Anyway, I hear English is pretty prevalent, and I can always rely on Google translate.
Sleeping? Since I’ll be in a bed each night and can transport whatever fits in my roller carry-on, I’m planning to bring my 40-degree feathered friends quilt, an inflatable pillow, and a silk liner for the beds. I hear i will need to be alert for bed bugs, so I am getting versed I need what to look for.
Food? It will be quite an urban experience, so I’ll have cafes and restaurants all along the way. I will also probably take advantage of grocery stores and hostel kitchens to buy and make my own meals…as for eating restrictions, I’m going to be a bit looser with my diet and eat what is fresh and authentic…I want to immerse myself in the experience, and if that means an occasional glass of wine or pastry with lunch, so be it!
Navigation? I bought the Wise Pilgrim guidebook and app, and I also made my own data book in miles vs kilometers, and have the route uploaded onto Caltopo, which I’ll use on my phone too.

There will be other questions that come up as I’m putting this trip together, and I’ll probably post once or twice more to share that with you. I’ll also post my gear list and anything else you might find interesting. Have other questions? Leave a note in the comments!

I see this as the first of many Camino-style hikes I plan to take since my body is different now, and as I’ve mentioned to some of you, I see developing these type of hiking opportunities for the less-able bodied or people who simply want to eat good food and sleep in beds as a potential pivot for my business once I’m able to start working again. Exciting!

*Testing out the Gossamer Gear Piku lumbar pack.*

Cancer Update June 12

Posted on June 12, 2025 by sheraaaa

The only constant is change.

I grew up listening to this song by the Scorpions, and it still brings a pang of longing and sadness, and is it hope? And I didn’t know the full undercurrents of the song at the time, but its wistful tone certainly resonated with me.

And I have been facing so much change recently, it’s hard to get my bearings. Especially in the month or so since the news of my promising scans…it seems I’m on the verge of seeing a life for myself again, but of course I’ve still been living a life…but you know what I mean. I’ve had to live in the present for the past six months, so much so that looking beyond the next week or few weeks just didn’t seem possible. But all this word salad is to say the only constant is change and I’m grateful that I’ve had such a secure base of loved ones that have provided enough stability that I can weather the winds of change with a bit of grace. It’s like I’m a blade of grass, blowing in the wind. Sometimes the wind is whipping me around, bending me almost to the ground and roughing me up, but you all keep me grounded, set in place, so that the wind can try and rip me up, but it can’t. My roots are too deep.

Woo, can you tell it’s 3am and I’m back in my early morning writing phase? 😄

I’m sure you are all eager to hear about the big birthday party bash…it was fabulous! I think almost 50 people came out to Amber’s place in Corvallis. People brought flowers and snacks, fresh strawberries from nearby farms, and so much joy. It was such a lovely gathering….even though something got to me. It might have been a bad sandwich, or the heat, or some pain I’ve been having in my left shoulder, but I vomited several times on Saturday and it aggravated my throat enough that I lost my voice, and it left me with barely a whisper. Really, it left me mostly listening to everyone around me chatting about adventures past, present, and future. And so much serendipity happened! Dr. Grant, a hiker I had met at the Cascade Ruck last year came, and just happened to be heading down to hike the Bigfoot Trail, and wouldn’t you know it, Fireweed, who is on the Bigfoot Trail board and was planning on giving her a ride to the trail was also up for the party and the two met for the first time. Dr. Grant even got a ride down from the party on Sunday to start hiking the trail. And Anne, Amber’s wife, connected with my good friend Sage when I remembered they were both from the same very small northern Californian town…so small that of course their paths had crossed many years ago when both lived there, yet they were meeting at the party, of all places, years later.

The magic of people, good people, is a big part of what is keeping me going. Such kind and generous people. Sue, a volunteer that I’ve had on a couple of ONDA volunteer trips, came as she lived in Corvallis, and wrote to me later and said “I knew no one, except you, when I showed up. Yet— I knew immediately this is “our community”. You, your life, your work, brings out the good in people —- just like the mountains, the rivers, the oceans, as we traverse this earthly landscape.” That is just everything. My heart is full.

So yes, I was sick and it lingered the next day, but we ate bagels and drank coffee in the shade of Amber and Anne’s giant sequoia tree in her yard, playing “move with the shade” as the morning sun shifted in the hot day.

Nemo and Pouch (my PCT 2006 besties) won the award for having traveled the farthest…from upstate NY! Just for the weekend!

*We called ourselves “Team Primary” in the North Cascades on the PCT because we were in blue, yellow, and red rain jackets half the time.*

There were so many people I hadn’t seen in ages who came out. I couldn’t have asked for a better party. I hope to have many, many more. Some suggested it be an annual thing! Who wants to host next time?

And of course, Amber’s Nomadic Pizza was a huge hit. She and our friend Megan sweated for hours slinging pies for us in the hot, hot wood-fired food cart, and it was so delicious. (Amber can cater private events like my party…please book her if you have so m ething coming up!)

This week has been one full of doctor’s appointments and hanging with my little brother Dan. He just bought a new car and wanted to stretch its legs and see me too. Dan is in the Air Force based in San Antonio, so he drove three days up, arriving just in time to go out to dinner with Kirk and me on my actual birthday (Monday, June 9….the best day of the year!).

He took me to meet my new oncologist and to wrap up with my old one. He took me to get more labs done and along with another MRI. We took walks along the river and drove up to the mountains for an afternoon, too. It was a chill but wonderful visit. Thanks Dan!

I have more appointments before I head out again to visit my parents next week. All three of my brothers will be down there too, so it will be another busy week. My dad’s Alzheimer’s is progressing, and his time is limited, so I’m glad we are all able to gather together.

So even though my prospects of health continue to improve, I’m still caught living in the moment, paying attention to each day as it comes. The peonies that I got for my birthday are a good reminder of that…each day they open a little more, changing ever so slightly, but changing, so that it’s worth stopping and appreciating them in each slight phase. Sure, I could think ahead to when they are dead and gone, but why do that when they are vibrant and alive and in front of me now? Enjoy them. Enjoy this. Enjoy the moment.

Cancer Update June 3

Posted on June 3, 2025 by sheraaaa

Did those few weeks even happen? The few weeks where Kirk and I lounged on beach chairs under thatched shade and watched waves the color of turquoise gently touch the white sand shore?

We went deep into sleepy vacation mode, and it now all seems like a quick dream.

And it’s June all of a sudden! Otherwise known as birthday month 🙂

Let the wild ruckus begin!

I have a feeling it will be similar to the birthday I celebrated on the PCT in 2006 at Walker Pass…

NEMO and I doing our last few miles into Walker Pass.

So many wonderful people are arriving this weekend for my party at Amber’s place, it’s going to be so much fun. She will be slinging her scrumptious wood-fired pizzas and I’m excited to be immersed in my most treasured place: among dear friends!

Back in the real world I got a news update that had me in a great mood. Apparently exercise is ‘better than drugs’ to stop cancer returning after treatment. That’s just the news I needed to hear. I need to ramp up my miles if I want to hike some of the Camino this fall. My default state lately has been resting as I’m still dealing with neck, shoulder, and body soreness every day….but now I have more motivation to walk despite the aches.

“Patients who began a structured exercise regime… had a 37% lower risk of death and a 28% lower risk of recurrent or new cancers developing, compared with patients who received only health advice, the trial found…Their weekly target was the equivalent of three to four walks of between 45 and 60 minutes, but patients could choose how they got more active. Some went kayaking or skiing, for instance.”

I mean, it’s like the world is begging me to keep hiking.

I still am getting caught up in the surprise of it all. That my life is 100% different than it was a year ago.

A year ago Kirk and I spent Memorial Day snow camping and ski touring up our local back-yard mountain, Broken Top. We skied in with heavy packs and plenty of snacks for several days…a prospect I can’t even imagine right now.

A year ago I was strategizing which trails to hike next and how to improve those trails through resource development…a la my trails consulting business.

A year ago I was hosting several conversations a month at Intentional Hiking, trying to encourage the trails community to take a more active role in the world we are hiking through.

Today, that is all gone. Well, not gone exactly; the trick now is to find out how to live what life I have now to the fullest, not knowing how much time I have left. Some argue we should always live this way….but I do know inside and and out that walking and hiking will still take center stage in whatever way I choose to live now.

Cancer Update April 30

Posted on April 30, 2025 by sheraaaa

When I was growing up, I believed the world was magical and filled with wonder and surprise. A childhood spent in nature only confirmed it. And then there were the movies and books I read. I already mentioned the all powerful Wizard of Oz, but this past week I’ve been going down the rabbit hole of all the childhood delights: Alice in Wonderland, The Neverending Story, The Last Unicorn, Mary Poppins, The Princess Bride, and most of them hold up. Screen time back in the day wasn’t like it is now. I would watch these once a year, or once we got a VCR, maybe monthly, because most of my time was spent outside…my mom would push me and my three brothers outside, and I am so grateful for that now.

Do I still believe in magic and majestic adventures?? I will admit that the wind has been taken out of my sails these past eight months (eight months of sickness so far!!!), but the magic has shown up in many of my relationships with you, and I find I’m so rich in amazing people in my life.

And now that things are about to change, I can dive back into the wonder and awe that nature brings into my life. My hiking will be different now, but I know it will continue to bring complete strangers into my life and that they will quickly become great friends. And it doesn’t even have to be a thru-hike. I had an incredibly moving walk this weekend. Of course, spring had a lot to do with it, Bend is practically bursting at the seams with flowers and birds, and green everywhere….which is saying something for the desert. My walk helped to wipe the darkness from the corners of my mind. A darkness that was dragging me down to its sleepy hopelessness. (That reminds me of another movie: Legend, the 1985 version with a young Tom Cruise!) I took a walk and had some fantastic laughs with friends, and the world became whole and hopeful and wonderful again. Even if this is my last spring, this feeling is life, and I’m quite in love with it all. A walk is the engine for all the feels.

But thru-hiking, man, it just doesn’t get much better than that, and finding a good hiking partner that helps you see color is a real gift.

Check out this video I made of a short thru-hike of the Sunshine Coast Trail with Nemo back in 2018.

This sums up the feeling fairly well:

Will I carry a pack again in the wilderness? Will I be able to immerse myself in the far backcountry for weeks at a time? I don’t know, but I do know I have to make peace with this new body, or this new reality. And work? What the heck am I going to do if the focus of my business before was hiking a long trail to evaluate how to make it better, safer, easier for hikers to be successful? To make new trail resources and help a trail organization communicate with their hikers? Maybe I can help develop more hut-to-hut or bnb-to-bnb type trails in the US (Europe is spoiled for them) since those might be the only trails I can hike for a while. Maybe I’ll revamp the National Recreation Trails designation (something I’ve been wanting to do for years now! And a post for another day).

The news I got this week has helped fuel these thoughts. I know, I know, you will say I buried the lead, but I had my scans this week and met with my oncologist, and…it’s working! I’m officially in maintenance mode!! That means no more chemo for now. He said my body was chemo-d out…and man, do I feel it. I am still so tired. I have no appetite, I’m still losing weight and am quite nauseous, but the farther away I get from chemo, the more my body should find its equilibrium. The treatments have been working and he said I’m responding really well to the Tegresso and chemo…the combo helped to knock the tumors back a bit, and some of my brain ones are completely gone! I mean, I still have tumors, and might the rest of my life, but they are in check now. I’ll continue with the daily targeted med indefinitely and hope that I can regain my strength. This is a life-long disease, but I can see a life again.

There were tears of happiness yesterday when I heard the news….I’m bursting with the news.

So, things are happening this May! I’ll be on the road a lot, and you might not hear from me for a while. I have some nature bathing to do, visiting family to do, and even a spot of vacation with Kirk…he has dealt with so much these past eight months. I hope you all have a Kirk in your lives who is there for you when something completely unexpected and wild is thrown at you like this was.

Don’t worry, I will still keep blogging…it’s my way of processing this whole thing, and has been the way I’ve been sharing my hikes with you for over 20 years now. You could fall down the rabbit hole of my hiking journals for weeks and months if you explore some of my past hikes in this blog. And there will be future hikes, I can just feel it. And I still have more I want to explore…more memories and past lives, it’s fun to rummage around in my youth to tease out the elements that have led me to where I am today.

With that, my friends, remember that I’m having a big birthday party on June 7 in Corvallis. Please let me know if you want to come! Everyone is welcome.

Peace out, I’m going rafting! Or really, I’m going to sit on the raft very gently while Kirk rows, but I’ll take it!

Cancer Update April 15

Posted on April 15, 2025 by sheraaaa

*The view from my hotel room in Madison*

Should I be writing updates when things are heavy and dark? Maybe that’s exactly when I should be writing updates.

I learned yesterday that a friend from college’s husband, who has stage 4 lung cancer with the EGFR 20 mutation (mine is EGFR 19) is not doing well and has moved into hospice. OMG, I keep thinking this is something I will move past, but it’s claiming people I know!

And some family members are really not doing well.

And more hair is falling out.

And my pet’s heads are falling off.

(Sorry, that’s a Dumb and Dumber movie quote that my highschool friends and I used to reference incessantly)

The gravity of my situation has been feeling so heavy lately. This last round of chemo really got me for some reason. I’m much more nauseous that I’ve been since the first round and can’t walk as far…and I am still struggling to eat enough to keep my energy levels up.

Enough! Chin up!

I keep hearing positivity is the key, but do I have to be positive every freaking minute? Can I feel the weight of this and cry and rage every once in a while? Of course. There are no rules, but are there? There are so many books that I’ve been reading about how to live with cancer, how to eat with cancer, how to survive cancer, and there seem to be rules….but they are different for everyone, so we can’t tell you exactly what they are, but know that if you don’t follow them it won’t be good, or might not. We don’t really know why some people make it out and some don’t. So do the right thing, we just don’t know exactly what the right thing FOR YOU is, so figure it out.

Ahhhhhhhh!

I know my body is fighting. Is that why my hair is falling out now, and I have no appetite? Or is that the poison of chemo working its way through all the cells in my body? Or is that the cancer advancing?

How about some good news? I made it to Madison after spending all day sick in bed the day before my flight. I even looked at flying out a day or two later, but ticket prices were RIDICULOUS to reschedule, so I put on my big girl pants, packed a puke bag, and hoped for the best.

*I had a delicious breakfast where I felt like a normal person. Normal!*

And I made it. Travel day wasn’t too bad after all, and I had a wonderful dinner catching up with Jasmine. We laughed over the “turkey vultures” bit (see the last blog if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and remembered that it really was “pig vultures”. We were trying to get under our little brothers’ skin after all. “Pig Vultures!” we would screech as we peddled away down the country roads. They would circle and circle the intersection on their bmx bikes, hurling insults back at us as we laughed hysterically and coasted down the hill on our bikes, giddy with freedom.

It was fun to tell stories, and apparently, we lived about a mile from the Ice Age Trail…I knew we were close, but not that close!!! A national scenic trail was evolving in my backyard and I didn’t even know it existed! It was designated as an NST in 1980, I was three, so yes, it was most definitely there. I have to hike it. I have to live long enough to hike it. And Jasmine’s mom still lives in the house I know so well, she can be my trail angel! She just doesn’t know it yet. In fact, I have a friend thru-hiking it right now, and he calls it a pub crawl, so maybe I can arrange for some of my gear to be transferred from town to town so I don’t have to carry much, and there isn’t much elevation gain, so maybe this is a trail I can hike in my cancer years??

Whitney and I went out for dinner with Luke last night, the executive director of the Ice Age Trail, and we talked a lot about it. That’s the magic of these trail conferences: you get to meet the people that do the thing! And that thing is trails, which I love so much!

Jasmine also told me that she remembered that I was very philosophical when I was growing up, and remembered lots of deep conversations that we had during sleepovers. While dealing with a bout of nausea in the hotel room yesterday, I did finish watching Wicked online, the prequel to the Wizard of Oz. Then I had to watch the Wizard of Oz of course, and was immediately reminded of its influence in my life growing up.

Back then we just had a TV with a few channels. It was even before the VCR days. The Wizard of Oz would come on once a year around Easter (wait a minute….Easter is this week, in real life!). The story of a long walk, meeting kind strangers you ended up loving and having good and scary adventures with, must have planted the seed for what would become my thru-hiking life. That and the Ice Age Trail in my backyard (right by Fountain Lake where we spent sooooo many days swimming) and my dreamy philosophical nature.

Check out this map:

The x is where I lived, the circle is where Jasmine lived, and the + is where our other friend Katie lived. My freaking back yard!!!

I feel down, but then I start thinking about how many trails there are left to hike, how many places to see and people to meet, and I get excited again. And sure, I probably won’t be hiking the Hayduke Trail that I had planned to do in 2026, and the Great Divide Trail in 2027 for my 50th birthday, but there are plenty of other trails where I don’t have to carry 7 days of food and 8 liters of water on my back that can be added to my list.

I can do this, right?

Cancer Update 2/28 (and a 2007ish trip down memory lane)

Posted on February 28, 2025 by sheraaaa

Wow, my brain on sleep is magical.

Sleep feels like a wonder drug right now…especially when I don’t get it on a regular basis. And it breaks my heart that so many of you also struggle to get regular sleep! It seems like an epidemic of sorts. My hope for all of you, for us together during this time, is to cultivate better sleep habits…our brains need it, our bodies need it, our communities need it.

Will you do that with me?

What is one action you could take to work towards better sleep?

One that I have been avoiding but seems the simplest to do is to stay in bed until at least 3am. I did not do that today. I woke up several times as usual, but got out of bed at about 1am. If I can stay put and at least try to sleep until 3am (given my usual 7pm bedtime) that would mean I’m giving myself a chance at 8 hours. I pledge to do that the rest of the week. Pinky swear.

So biopsy. I had my deep bone biopsy yesterday at St. Charles Hospital in Bend. I had to get propped up on my stomach so they could take the sample; it was a CT-guided biopsy of the ovoid mixed lytic and sclerotic osseous lesion within the L4 vertebral body….that means they put me through a CT scanner to find the meatiest tumor which happened to be in my back rib. I was awake during all of it, but was pumped full of pain medications, so I felt pressure when the doctor pushed a drill into my bone, but not pain. Very trippy.

The doctors and nurses were most kind, and the world being the magical place that it is, I even had a connection with my recovery nurse when we found out that we had thru-hiker friends in common. Thank you world, you show me support in the most unexpected places!

Lets see, shall we go down memory lane again today? Lets explore the time after my Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike…that hike was so exhilarating and transformative that I decided I needed to find a job outside, somehow related to hiking. No matter that I had just gotten my master’s degree a few years before; I felt a very strong pull to the hiking community and wanted to immerse myself in that world. (Grad school happened at Goldsmiths College in London from 2003-2004 following my Smithsonian internship and will be a story for another day).

I finished the PCT on September 20 with Nemo and Pouch, and returned to Portland to figure out what the heck I would do next.

*A triumphant She-ra at the PCT border monument.*

*One of the best things about hiking the PCT in 2006 was meeting NEMO.*

*Pouch and NEMO fell in love on the PCT and now are married and live on a farm in upstate NY!* *They are some of my best friends to this day.*

This seems like a good place to tease my own PCT photo montage video that I made. This one isn’t as long as the class of 2006 one that Pro-Deal made, but at 45 minutes, it’s a commitment!

When I returned to Portland after the trail I found a new place to live…before the PCT I had been living in a group house in SE Portland on 44th and Lincoln (near Mt. Tabor), and this time I found another room to rent up in NE near the Lloyd Center. I didn’t go back to my graphic design job, and instead worked as a metal roofer for a few months.

I know! Random, right? Metal roofing? What the heck?

I became good friends with several other Portland hikers while we were hiking the trail that year, and it seemed like a good temporary job to work with them for the winter on metal roofs. In retrospect, metal roofing in the cold/wet/gray/rainy season of the Willamette Valley in Oregon wasn’t a brilliant move, but because I was working with friends, it was a pretty fun winter gig.

Luigi and Lint and I had spent some good time on the trail together that year; and as for the job, most days we carpooled together down to a Portland suburb to work. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but I am pretty good at following directions so was able to figure it out and do a passable job. A kayaker friend of a friend owned the business, and there was a whole group of us hikers/kayakers who worked together.

Those few months in Portland were so much fun. We were big bike nerds then and got into the whole bike-punk, zoo-bomb scene, which basically meant we rode kids bikes and tall bikes around town; we went on midnight mystery bike rides and got into a whole bunch of other shenanigans. Too much fun!

Here are some more pics from that time…

So during this time I was also trying to figure out what a job in the outdoors meant, and how I would get one. Another friend I made on the trail that year was Jack “Union” Haskel, who ended up being a pretty big influence on my next few career moves. I learned that getting certified as a Wilderness First Responder would help me get a job in the outdoor industry, so that winter I took the 80-hour course so I could be qualified to lead trips in the outdoors.

We also decided to apply to be the Backpacker Magazine’s Get Out More team, which would have meant traveling the country in 2007 and talking to people about hiking and camping and all things backpacking. We didn’t get the gig, but I started applying my graphic design and writing skills to outdoor work, which is still a big part of what I do today.

*I designed our Get Out More Team Application to look like pages from Backpacker Magazine.*

I applied for a bunch of seasonal jobs for the 2007 season, and finally got some traction with the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) which was based out of Durango, Colorado. Trail work was another side of the trail community that seemed essential to the thru-hiking world, so I found an Americorps program where I could train to become a trail crew leader with SCC and then lead trail maintenance crews around Colorado that year. I knew I was in the right place at the right time when I had my interview and learned that SCC had just hired a new Executive Director, Nelson Cronyn, who just happened to be my Peace Corps Burkina Faso Country Director! What a small world is that!?!?!

I left Portland in February of 2007 to head down to Durango for a few months of crew leader training, and jumped in head-first to the trail maintenance world.

Of course I met some amazing people down there, and folks who I am happy to still call friends today.

In fact, Amber is coming to visit me TODAY!

Amber and I led a group of tribal youth in a front-country hitch in Colorado that year, and have remained friends ever since. She now lives in Corvallis, Oregon with her wife Anne…You may remember I just mentioned Amber in a recent blog post, we hiked the Corvallis to Sea Trail together a few years ago. Amber still puts her trail work to good use and has been instrumental in keeping the C2C trail clear of logs…she is great on the chain saw!

*Amber, me, Laurie, Nicole, Jonah, Artec & Carith (one of our leaders) in the Great Sand Dunes.*

Learning how trails are built and maintained has been core to how I’ve progressed in my career and as a hiker, and my time at the Southwest Conservation Corps was elemental in that journey. Over the next seven months we worked in places like Canyon of the Ancients, Mesa Verde, and the Great Sand Dunes; there were hitches in state parks and on backcountry trails; and I learned how to build massive rock and log retaining walls, cut down trees with hand tools and chain saws, and so much more.

All the time I was working around Colorado that year, the promise of the next trail I would hike was always hovering in the background. Durango happens to be the southern terminus of the Colorado Trail, and overlaps with quite a bit of the Continental Divide Trail too.

I decided to do a solo thru-hike of the Colorado Trail that fall and hiked out of Durango in mid-August and walked up to Denver (some 500ish miles) by the end of September.

You can read all about that hike on trail journals here:

And you can watch my video montage of the hike here:

That will do it for me today everyone, thanks for coming down memory lane with me, I’m really enjoying it!

Cancer Update 2/26

Posted on February 26, 2025 by sheraaaa

*This photo comes into play later on in today’s blog post (CDT 2015!). For over 10 years of adventures give my Instagram account @wearehikertrash a follow.*

First of all, thank you so much for all of your sleep suggestions, advice, tips, etc. The last few nights have been much better, I’ve been clocking in at 5 or 6 hours of sleep which is a huge improvement over last week, and have implemented a few new things after talking to some of you and my doctors:

Using sleep stories on platforms like Calm and Headspace. These are brilliant. I start a story and get invested. I listened to one last night about Mont Saint-Michele in France, a place I’ve always wanted to go since learning more about France in high school french classes, and the initial details really captivated me and brought me in, but as the story progressed maybe the details got more mundane, or I was getting lulled by the voice, but I don’t remember…cause it worked! I fell asleep. I think these sleep stories will be key for me coming up, especially if I am waking every few hours…which after talking with a lot of you seems very common! We collectively have trouble sleeping solid nights.
More meds. A lot of you suggested THC/CBD products, and some of you told me about other medications. I met with my palliative care doc this week and we talked about sleep, and we decided to try trazodone for a while. I don’t like taking meds, before all of this cancer stuff I almost never took medications and preferred a natural way if at all possible, but given I’m on 437 different meds now I’ve kind of given in and will try the pharmaceutical way for now.
Limit screen time. I was in the habit of picking up my phone when I would wake every few hours, to check the time, first, but then I would start scrolling. Which is all new for me, again before cancer I didn’t sleep with my phone in the room. So many things have changed with how I live my life now! I didn’t have my phone in the room, so would have to get up when the alarm went off in the mornings, and didn’t have the temptation to scroll. If I needed to get sleepy in the before times, I would read a few pages of a book and that would put me out. I don’t have that problem at least because of the HUSO sound therapy. I listen to that when it’s bedtime and I’m out. So anyway, I haven’t been picking up the phone as much, and I think that’s been helping.

What have I been up to this week? I don’t know, the days seem to melt into each other and it’s hard to determine what day is what. But I do have a big day coming up tomorrow, I get another biopsy! The two I had done in December ended up being useless, at least for what we need to know now about my genetic mutation, so I am doing it all over again tomorrow. I get a deep bone biopsy and it’s a legit procedure, so no food tomorrow and only clear liquids.

We are going with Foundation One testing, and the biopsy tomorrow combined with the blood draw I had last week should tell us what we need to know! So of course lets look into this Foundation One:

The company says they are an essential partner to patients, physicians, researchers, and biopharma organizations navigating the complex landscape of cancer care. Their genomic insights help guide informed decisions about treatment plans and research priorities. They built a powerful portfolio of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) tests that—via both blood and tissue samples—evaluate more than 300 genes known to drive cancer.
Liquid CDx: I had the labs drawn last week, and apparently this test is an FDA-approved companion diagnostic that analyzes guideline-recommended genes from a simple blood draw. It analyzes over 300 genes—making it the most comprehensive FDA-approved liquid biopsy on the market. Sounds good to me!
I believe the biopsy tissue sample will also be sent to Foundation One, and they will put it through their fancy-schmancy testing system to give us an even better picture of what the heck I’m dealing with.

So hopefully we’ll know more soon (I’m not sure what soon means…weeks? A month?) about the specific mutation(s) I have and what kinds of treatments are available for it.

I’m also going to get another radiation blast to my ribs…my ribs have been achy with the tumors and slight fracture I have going on in one of them, so we’re going to hit it again next week right before my third round of chemo.

I’m telling you, its a full time job to have cancer.

What else do I have going on? The hospital provides Reiki, so I’m doing some of that. My PT is coming over this week, so we’ll go over exercises now that I’m out of the wheelchair and walking around the house. I did a lot of walking yesterday at the hospital trying to get some labs done, and it felt good, and I’m a little sore today. It’s been super mild outside in Bend, so I think I’ll try some outside time here soon. I’m trying not to go too hard too fast, yesterday was quite exhausting by the time we finally got home. It’s going to take me a while to get back into walking outside every day condition again, but it’s on the horizon!

Lets go to intermission

Are you an Oregonian who loves hiking?

As many of you know, I enjoy hiking so much that I’ve become much more active in joining in with other trail advocates around the state to share our love of trails and strategize how we can work together to defend our current trails and build the trails we envision.

YOU CAN JOIN US TOO by registering today for Trails Day at the Oregon Capitol on March 10.

For the Love of Trails! 2025 Trails Day at the Oregon Capitol Tickets, Mon, Mar 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM | Eventbrite

What will happen on Monday March 10 in Salem?

8:30-9:00 am: Attendees arrive at our training venue about a half mile from the capitol to sign in and pick up up a schedule, training materials and talking points, and materials to share with legislators. (There will be coffee and light snacks!)
9:00-10:30: Welcome and training: We’ll let attendees know what to expect, go over tips for a productive meeting with your legislators, and give a primer on our key issues.
10:30-11:00: Small group practice and Q&A.
11:00-4:30: Grab a (free) sack lunch and head to the Capitol for meetings with legislators and/or legislative office staff. Expect to have 2-4 small group meetings (generally 15 minutes) scheduled during the afternoon. We’ll ask each meeting group to share a short meeting report so we can track support for our issues and respond to any questions that legislators or staff may have. (You don’t have to have all the answers!)
5:00-6:30: (Optional) Join a group of trails advocates at the Joint Committee on Transportation Meeting. (We don’t yet know if there will be a public comment opportunity during this meeting, but it’s a great opportunity to see a bit of the legislative process at work.)
4:00-7:00: (Optional) As you wrap up your meetings, join other trails day participants for camaraderie, an informal debrief, and a bite at a local watering hole before heading home!

What are we asking for? Our platform is straightforward!

Oregonians love trails! More than 80% of Oregonians use local trails and are happier, healthier and more connected to their communities because of it.
Oregonians want to keep our trails open! We’re working toward a lasting legislative fix to recreational immunity through passage of SB 179 with amendments.
Oregonians want alternatives to walking, biking, running, and skating on high-traffic roadways! We must address the funding shortfall for the Oregon Community Paths program as part of a safe, green, fairly-funded transportation funding measure.
Oregonians want to see beloved trail projects move forward! We must continue to build on recent planning efforts for Oregon Signature Trails like the Salmonberry Trail and Oregon Coast Trail and not let those plans gather dust on a shelf.
Oregonians love trails! More than 80% of Oregonians report using local trails, so of course we want our state legislators to partner in the work to keep trails open and build the trails we envision for our communities.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to be (game time decision?) in Salem on March 10, which is why I’d like to ask you to consider going on my behalf!

I went last year and many of us were learning to speak up and have meetings with our electeds for the first time. It wasn’t that scary! I wrote up a blog post about how it all went last year so you can give it a read and decide if this is something you would like to participate in. You don’t need to be affiliated with a trails group, and you don’t need to be a hiker! The Oregon Trails Coalition represents motorized and non-motorized trail users, and there are lots of issues we can combine our voices on together.

A hiker, biker, and equestrian walk into the Oregon State Capitol

Memory time

Early this morning I got an email from Mark Trails (one of my CDT hiking buddies) with a photo that brought back a flood of memories.

Instead of rehashing these first few days going into Colorado with Mark, trying to ski the trail, and getting spit out, I’m going to redirect you to my blog posts from those days to help tell the story of one of the hardest weeks of my life on the trail.

Here are a series of links to my blog that will explain everything:

That was a good chapter of the CDT, things got a bit easier from there, actually did they? No, they didn’t.

Mark Trails and I went low again, he had a scary fall when we headed back to the trail from Creed. I lit myself on fire and had to walk with 3rd degree burns to Salida, and wow, I guess the brutality didn’t end at Durango. Keep reading my blog to get all the deets!! (at the bottom of each day’s blog post will be a link to the next day)

That’s it for today kids. Have a good one.

Celebrating and Respecting Trail Communities

Posted on April 25, 2024 by sheraaaa

What a whirlwind few weeks on the road!

Hiking, hanging, talking, and celebrating…

After the hike through the Gila, I attended the Continental Divide Trail Coalition’s Trail Days festival in Silver City to host the first of my Intentional Hiking fireside chats.

A big thanks to Silver City Daily Press for covering the evening and capturing some of the sentiment shared by hikers and community members:

Discussion looks at building CDT Connections

Community members and hikers gathered around a campfire Saturday night at the old Silver City Waterworks to discuss building on the sense of community that draws people along the Continental Divide Trail to Grant County in particular.

The Waterworks opened to accommodate CDT hikers for Trail Days, with about 40 tents booked each night for camping.

Veteran hiker and original CDT ambassador Renee Patrick led the discussion focusing on the relationships between hikers and the communities and people along the trail. She is the founder of Intentional Hiking, which offers an online discussion series about various hiking-related themes.
One point of discussion was that hikers need to remember to be humble — they are just one of hundreds each year who make the trip from border to border.

Kristy Lopez, owner of Doc Campbell’s Post in Gila Hot Springs, said she tries to give hikers the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes it can be difficult.

“They say, ‘I hiked all the way from Mexico,’” Lopez said. “Two days ago there was a guy that came in, and I said, ‘That’s awesome. So did all the 12 other people on the porch.’”

But hikers have generally been helpful for her family business, she said.

“We wouldn’t be where we are now if it wasn’t for hikers sitting down with us and spending time to tell us what they need and what they don’t need,” Lopez said.

“I think we have to be humble and be thankful for what we have access to in the communities. Sometimes we forget that,” said hiker Mike “Just Mike” McClue. “It’s amazing to talk to the local people and understand the history. It’s not just about us.”

Michael Darrow, tribal historian for the Fort Sill Chiricahua Apache Warm Springs Tribe, agreed that hikers should know about the history of the land.

“For us, the whole thing is considered sacred land,” he said of the Gila region. “Historical events took place all along the way, and they were special to people in our tribe. Keep in mind some of the things that have taken place before, and it can have an influence on the way you think, the way you feel as you go through the area.”

Likewise, people in communities should get more involved with the CDT, Raul Turrieta said. Locals have gone to the Gila River and the Gila Wilderness for recreation for years, he said, but hiking has not been a big activity for people who live.

“We need to spend more time on hiking, because they don’t really understand how important the CDT is,” he said. “Next year, I would really like to get involved in stimulating the community and bringing in the Mining District also for them to come out and do a lot of hiking.”

Turrieta said it’s also important for hikers to share their experiences with youth to help them get interested.

Overall, the CDT is about connections, Patrick said, including the physical connection across the continent, connection to nature and connection to each other.

“That’s something that long-distance hiking has really helped me realize, is I’m connected to everything, I’m a part of everything,” she said. “Finding that connection is what’s so unique about what we do. It helps us understand that in a way that’s hard to do when we’re in our walls, roofs and Wi-Fi all the time.”

—JUNO OGLE

Stay tuned…I plan to hold another discussion at PCT Days this August!

Gear Review: TOAKS Alcohol Stove & TiStand

Posted on February 20, 2020 by sheraaaa

Stoves have come a long way since I started backpacking…or maybe I’ve come a long way. Regardless, I now have a system that far outshines the whisperlite stove I started with. When thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2002 I often started the picnic table on fire when there was too much fuel in the line, finding and filling the bottle with white gas wasn’t too hard, but the weight and hassle (cleaning it…don’t get me started) of it all seems hilarious when I think back on it.

I started using alcohol stoves for my next thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. My homemade beer can stove worked, but this time I started myself and my sleeping bag on fire, had the jb-weld that I used to fuse it together fail on me half way through the trail, and watched the top of my stove pop into the air when it finally failed…I was truly a danger to myself and the forest around me.

Now, I have the TOAKS Titanium Siphon Alcohol Stove, and it’s astonishingly easy to use, efficient, safe, lightweight, and yes, I might even say sexy.

Some of the things I love about the TOAKS alcohol stove?

You can turn it off. The big problem with most alcohol stoves is that once you pour the fuel in and light it, you have to wait until the fuel is all burned off to either add more fuel, or put the stove away. You definitely do not want to put a stove in your pack that still has traces of denatured alcohol in it only to have it run over the food in your food bag or over your gear. You REALLY do not want to try and add more fuel to the stove if it’s still lit. Yes, I’ve made that mistake, and yes I burned myself. The TOAKS stove has an open reservoir that you pour the fuel into which includes a barely perceptible double wall design that helps to pressurize the fuel into hot jets of fire so you can cook your meal, but once your water is boiling, or you dinner is ready, you can take the lid from your pot, cover the stove, and extinguish the flame. Once the stove has cooled off a few minutes, you can pour the extra fuel back into your bottle. This alone would make me use the stove, but there are some other very fine features:

It is efficient. I told a friend about this stove last summer, and being the gear-head he is, decided we should do a stove-off and test the TOAKS stove against a few other alcohol stoves on the market (and one of my old homemade versions) to see how they performed. Bill has been using the Trail Design Kojin stove, and the Trail Designs 12-10 stove, and in his words, “The TOAKS kicked my ass for boil time.”

We used 300ml of 50 degree water for each test, One ounce of 190 proof Everclear grain alcohol, and the same pot and windscreen to keep things equal.

The results to a rolling boil were:

TOAKS: 3 m 50 s
Trail Designs Kojin: 4 m 20 s
Trail Designs 12-10: 5 m 20 s
Renee’s homemade stove: big fail

The flame the TOAKS version pumps out is impressive. I was demoing the stove for some folks at the OR Show last summer in front of several gear-jaded hikers, and I was able to knock them out of their trade-show daze by setting the stove alight and boiling some water…to gasps and awes. Yes, it’s powerful.

I even took it on a ski tour trip recently and melted snow for water. I never would have taken an alcohol stove in cold temps when I needed a workhorse of a stove to melt water, boil water, and cook my dinner, but I was able to accomplish all three tasks with fuel to spare.

At .7 oz (20g) it’s incredibly lightweight, and fits into any pot or cup you may want to use. The new TOAKS TiStand Titanium Alcohol Duel Stand and Windscreen far surpasses the previous stand and windscreen they offered. I often will use the 550ml pot with this set-up as it fits just enough water to make a dinner or cup of coffee for one, and most of my trips are solo anyway.

I made a little video about how to put it together and use it:

So in conclusion:

It’s light: Stove – .7 oz, TiStand – 2.5 oz, 550ml Pot 2.6 oz, equals a total of 5.8 oz for your entire cook system. (the whisperlite stove ALONE weighs 15.2oz)
It’s efficient: 300ml of water boils in under 4 minutes
It can turn off: the lid snuffs out the flame
It’s sexy: the clean and simple lines and look of titanium are very visually appealing to this designer 🙂
It’s affordable: The stove retails at $39.95, the TiStand at $24.95, and the 550ml pot at $33.95

I’ll be using this stove most of the year on the backpacking and packrafting trips I have planned. It’s important to note that in fire restriction conditions you need a stove that can be turned off. This version would not qualify for an actual off-switch even though you can easily extinguish the flame, but above all else, please don’t start a fire with whatever stove you are using. For most conditions this will be my go-to stove.