SPECIAL TO THE HERALD
Bill Hogseth, a native of the Chippewa Valley, plans to hike 2,650 miles to raise awareness and support for the Wisconsin wilderness conservation organization, Habitat Education Center (HEC).
He will hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) which stretches from Mexico to Canada. In April 2005 he'll begin walking in California. Hogseth now lives in Ashland, but as a youth lived in Chippewa Falls and attended high school in Eau Claire.
On the 2,650-mile journey, he'll experience some of America's most dramatic wilderness. The trail crosses through three western states, travels along the spine of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains and passes through seven national parks, 24 national forests and 33 wilderness areas.
An end-to-end hike of the trail features a wide breadth of landscape diversity, winding through six of the seven North American eco-zones including high and low deserts, old-growth forests and arctic-alpine country.
His planned hike of the PCT won't be the first time he's hiked more than a thousand miles. In 2003 he spent four-and-a-half-months hiking the Appalachian Trail.
"I spent four-and-a-half-months hiking in the Appalachian Mountains and the summit of each peak offered views of mountainsides taken over by condominiums, patchworks of farm land, blocks of timbered forest, networks of intersecting roads, and the general run-away development that is an epidemic in America," Hogseth said. "As a friend of mine said, 'It looks like someone took a razor blade to the face of a beautiful woman.'"
After hiking the Appalachian Trail Hogseth was prompted to investigate the issues surrounding Wisconsin's public lands, particularly the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forests (CNNF). He was saddened to discover that Wisconsin's National Forests were recently ranked as one of the 10 most endangered forests in America.
"I consider myself a concerned hiker," Hogseth said. "Concerned because the more time I spend in the backcountry, the more I realize how little is left of the real wilderness that used to blanket America. While those four months really deepened my love of wilderness, that time on the trail also showed me how preciously rare it all is.
"For me, becoming intimate with wilderness has meant becoming aware of how quickly it is diminishing. Wisconsin's wilderness is no different. Our public forests are the most heavily logged in the country, they are overrun with deer, cut up by too many roads, and our so-called wilderness areas are too small to even be called wilderness. Since I was a kid, I've been all over in Wisconsin's forests and I have yet to find somewhere that I can call 'remote,' somewhere that I can't hear cars passing on nearby roads while lying in my tent at night. It's sad."
Looking for ways to help, Hogseth connected with the people from HEC, a small staffed organization that is focused on the restoration of Northern Wisconsin's forests and ecosystems. He was happy to learn that HEC has almost single-handedly ignited a new wilderness movement in Wisconsin.
By combining scientific expertise, grassroots campaigning, and legal action, HEC has proved itself as Wisconsin's most effective watchdog for the Northwoods. HEC has halted unsustainable logging on over 14,000 acres of National Forest, helped to win habitat improvements on 11,500 acres on the CNNF, and have actively focused attention on Wisconsin's 69,000 acres of threatened roadless areas.
They have authored reports and produced films that highlight the threats posed to Northern Wisconsin forests. Not only that, but HEC also introduces urban youth to the outdoors by leading trips, guided by ecologists, into some of the Upper Midwest's best wilderness areas, such as the Sylvania Wilderness. Habitat Education Center is truly an asset to the state of Wisconsin.
However, he was disappointed to learn that HEC lacks the support necessary to achieve all of its goals.
"I hope that my upcoming trip out West can raise attention to the urgent ecological issues facing my home in Wisconsin while also paying tribute to the forests and rivers I explored as a kid and still love today," Hogseth said. "Living in Ashland, these forests are my backyard. Without a hard-working group like Habitat Education Center, I would be really worried about the future of these forests."
In addition to raising awareness and support for HEC, Hogseth will spend much time preparing for his hike. He estimates by hiking an average pace of 20 miles per day he will spend five months on the trail. That will make it the longest hike he's ever been on.
"The biggest challenge of a long distance hike might not be the physical aspect, but maybe the psychological aspect of getting yourself to keep going," Hogseth said. "Sometimes, you have to whip yourself into action, to get up every morning and keep moving north. Sometimes, walking can get old, even if you are in breathtaking mountains."
To reduce the physical stress of the trip Hogseth will carry a light load -- only 10 pounds of equipment, including a nylon tarp and a homemade soda-can stove. He expects to go through five pairs of shoes.
Hogseth hopes his hike will draw attention to the importance of protecting wild areas.
"I hope that Wisconsin's future will someday see a return of big wilderness, of large unfragmented areas, where hikers can be submerged in a forest that is truly deep and truly quiet, a healthy forest that can once again support populations of moose, lynx, and other wildlife," Hogseth said. "People forget that Wisconsin used to be dominated by old-growth forest, when people were dwarfed in scale by looming white pine, sugar maple and hemlock. I want to see some of that old forest come back. It's a dream I have and it might seem unrealistic but it is, like all dreams, within our reach."
Check it out
Hogseth will speak at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 26 at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire. He will be speaking about the experiences of long-distance hiking and will address issues concerning endangered forests of northern Wisconsin.
Donations to the Habitat Education Center can be made online (www.forthewoods.org) or checks made out to "Habitat Education Center/For The Woods" and mailed directly to Habitat Education Center, 1345 Morrison St. #1, Madison, WI 53703.
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD
Bill Hogseth pauses on Mt. Katahdin in northern Maine after a 1,600-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail in 2003. Following the hike, he decided to learn more about protecting Wisconsin's wilderness.
