Hiker extraordinaire Gail Lowe has been resting in Cook County for a few days due to extreme fatigue and as of now an unknown medical condition. Lowe has completed 2,200 miles of her planned 4,600-mile hike across 7 states. If she completes her journey this year she will be the first women to solo hike the North Country Trail in one season.
During a good day of hiking Gail Lowe, age 64, carries her 28-pound backpack between 30-35 miles up and down some of those most rugged trails America has to offer.
“On a bad day I will make 20-25 miles,” said Lowe, who was resting at the Grand Marais home of Jack Stone, owner of Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply.
Lowe, who is from Lowell, Michigan, has been in Cook County the last few days suffering from an undiagnosed ailment. She has been to the North Shore Hospital ER twice since she arrived. Doctors are checking for Lyme disease or other illness. “I don’t have any energy and I have been suffering from extreme fatigue,” she said.
An ICU nurse for 30 years, Lowe is almost half way into her longest hike yet. She is attempting to become the first woman to solo hike the 4,600-mile North Country Trail in one season.
But that isn’t the only reason—or even the main reason—she is on this journey.
“My daughter Rebecca died last year of breast cancer. She was 46 and her biggest fear was that she would be forgotten. I am doing this hike in memory of her. It is called ‘Becca’s Hike.’”
Lowe left Logan, Ohio on March 16, 2,200 miles ago. She hopes to complete her journey in December.
At 4,600 miles, the North Country Trail is the longest recreational hike in the U.S. It stretches from New York to North Dakota, linking seven states, 10 national forests, and 10 public lands.
In addition to her recent health issues Lowe encountered a mad raptor in McCormick, Michigan. “A goshawk dive-bombed me about 12 times. The first time he crashed into the back of the head and it gave me a headache that lasted all day. I must have been too close to a nest or something.
“There was no trail on that part of the hike. A trail angel loaned me a GPS, otherwise I would still be out there thrashing around,” she said.
Trail angels are people who come forward to help hikers, she said. “They give us a place to stay for the night. Take us into town to resupply, run errands. That sort of thing,” she explained.
A solo hiker for 23 years, Lowe has twice traversed the Appalachian Mountain Trail, hiked from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail, hiked the Superior Hiking Trail in 2012, and many other trails.
Along the way she has faced obstacles and danger. In 1991 she was struck by lighnting after hiking with an aluminum ski pole given to her by a trail angel.
“It blew me off my feet and back about 6 feet. I was pretty addled for a while.
“Five days after Hurricane Bob (1991) I nearly drowned in the 210-foot-wide section of the Kennebec River in Maine. I went under three times with my backpack on.
“In 2008 I broke my ankle when I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I didn’t break it hiking. I broke it when I was at a store on uneven concrete. I took 10 days off and finished the hike on a broken ankle.
“In 2011, I was hiking and got sick. It was my gallbladder. I had an operation and I was back on the trail in two weeks.
“I ran into a man with a handgun on a trail once. He wasn’t a hiker. It was only by the grace of God that I got out of that one.”
On this hike Lowe has also encountered an inordinate amount of ticks in Ohio; mosquitos and gnats in Michigan and Wisconsin; and black flies in Minnesota.
Lowe hikes in open toed Tivas. She gets about 1,200 to 1,500 miles out of each pair of shoes. She burns about 6,000 calories each day she is out on the trail.
To refuel her body Lowe said, “I don’t cook. I eat soft-shelled tortillas with tuna or peanut butter. I eat cookies or snack foods. I call this my binge and starve diet. I lose 20 to 30 pounds and then once a week I get to a town and get to eat hot meals and get my calories back.”
When asked why she took up hiking, Lowe said she was seeing more and more people her age dying. “A voice went off in my head one day asking me what I really wanted to do. Another voice said ‘take a walk.’ I don’t know where that voice came from. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as long distance hiking then.”
Asked if she gets lonely, Lowe replied, “The outdoors and trails are my church. I feel closer to a higher power out in the woods than I do in any man-made building.”
Lowe has a website http:// www.naturenymphllc.com where she sells three DVDs that cover the entire gamut of hiking. The series is called Amateur to Ace and it will, she said “give you everything you will need to know to hike from one mile to 1,000 miles.”
She also lectures at colleges, libraries and outdoor stores.
“I don’t tell people that they have to hike. I tell them to follow their passion.”
“This is my ultimate hike. I’m getting to the point where I realize that I don’t have the stamina that I once had. I’m not interested in doing parts of trails. My mindset is to do the whole trail. It’s all or nothing for me.
“I want one thing on my headstone. I want it to say, “She was a bad***. But even bad***‘es have to retire eventually. The body dictates that.”
Until she gets diagnosed, Lowe will rest and try to recoup her strength. Jack Stone is her trail angel this time around.
In talking to her, her toughness and resilience stand out. She wants to get back into the woods, head into the BWCAW on the Kekekabic Trail. She’s as genuine as the night sky, a thousand points of light coming through. But in all of her words the brightest of those lights points to her daughter. A mother first, hiker second, she is on a mission to make sure her daughter isn’t forgotten— one step at a time, no matter how hard they are to take.
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