LA to WA ... via Glacier National Park

By Emily Wolfe
ASC Staff

Meet Julie Hotz. 

This summer she'll be thru-hiking the 1,200-mile the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, which runs from Glacier National Park, Montana, to Cape Alva, on Washington’s Olympic Coast. To get to the trailhead in Glacier, she walked out her front door in Los Angeles, climbed aboard her bike, and began pedaling.

These maps show Julie's two-part journey by bike and by foot.

Along her journey, Julie is collecting data for the ASC Roadkill and Microplastics projects, and also raising both funds and awareness for ASC. You can live vicariously through the beautiful photos of her Instagram feed, as she pedals lonely desert highways, through the Rocky Mountains, and now heads northward. 

The open road in Kanab, Utah (Photo by Julie Hotz)

Recently, she also sent in this dispatch from the road about her work with the roadkill project:

The only tool I need is my smartphone, but part of the task includes photographing all the roadkill I come across. I'm not the sort that gets squeamish—you can talk about splintered bones at the dinner table or ask me to watch an open heart surgery and I won't flinch. 

So, my head handles the process of documenting roadkill well, but I didn't realize how my heart would be affected by doing more than just passing by and shaking my head mournfully. The act of stopping, getting off my bike, observing and photographing all adds up to some sort of intimate interaction with the deceased.  

I find myself saying, "Oh little buddy, I'm so sorry." Or in the case of this owl, I just stood and admired its beauty even though there was no life left. 

Owl hit by a vehicle on on the side of 1-40 (Photo by Julie Hotz)

Though my sympathy pours out like a puddle onto the roadside next to these animals, I also find that it adds more gravity to the need to understand how we all affect wildlife via our speeding cars and trucks. Just today, I spoke to a highway patrol officer who had to put a freshly hit deer out of its misery. He said it happens all the time.  

I hit a squirrel once, and a bird flew into my windshield this one time... I still think about it often. I don't know what the current solution is, other than to drive less? 

Maybe that's why I'm on a bike this summer: to drive less, and to find more ways to simplify my life, not just for my own well being, but for the well being of the air, the water, the land and the animals too.  

I was brought up being taught that we are to be good stewards of the land that is given to us for the time that we spend on this Earth, and maybe being a good steward means not worrying about having the most convenient life possible, but instead, striking balances, making choices that have positive long term effects.  

I have a lot of time to think through this while riding my bike.

Fundraise w/ Julie 

Julie is raising $2 for every mile she bikes and hikes. 

3,350 miles = $6,700 

Follow her at juliehotz.com, and give before she reaches the Pacific!  

Before leaving home, Julie created a film about her adventure, and about her motivation to give back through ASC. Watch the film here: 

Explore. Collect. Protect. (On Two Wheels and Two Feet) from Julie Hotz on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for more updates from Julie. Learn more about Roadkill and other ASC projects on our website, the Field Notes blog, and by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+.