Stewart leads "Pilgrimage to the Edge'

Sisters citizens experienced the dynamic 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), all from the comfort of their seats - that is, if they could find a seat at Jonathan Stewart's packed Sunday presentation on his book, "Pilgrimage to the Edge." About 50 people turned out for the Friends of the Sisters Library event, enjoying pictures and tales from Stewart's four-year trek from the Mexican border of southern California all the way to Canada.

Stewart, a resident of Bend, hiked portions of the PCT over a period of four years and ultimately walked the entire length of the western United States. He first followed the trail in the summer of 2003 from its lowest point, the Columbia River, to the Canadian border. His journey culminated in the fall of 2006 near Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States.

A rich account of his journey, Stewart's book is a testament to tackling life's great challenges - snakes, bears, near-avalanches and all.

Stewart's presentation spoke to the diversity of what he calls "the world's finest long-distance trail."

Traversing Californian deserts, torturous portions in the Mojave Desert following a gurgling aqueduct but allowing no access to the water, to jagged peaks where the trail carves into the side of a cliff, to splendid forests where Stewart says the trail "strings alpine lakes together like a string of jewels," the PCT zigzags its way through some of the most stunning scenery in the world.

One of Stewart's photos of wildflowers in the Kiavah Wilderness elicited gasps from the audience; there he saw lupine five feet high, thriving after a wildfire.

Jim Anderson, Sisters naturalist, praised Stewart's lecture: "I enjoyed his manner of speaking. He gave a lot of detail and the talk was at times hilarious - great storytelling."

Stewart's stories not only vividly described the beauty of the trail, but the adventurous spirits he met along the way. He hiked pieces of the trail with other trailgoers, making friends with characters such as a young woman named Heidi, who described hiking the PCT as "the only legalized way you can be a hobo."

Stewart also gave an account of how he earned his PCT nickname - an essential for all of the 300 or more hearty souls who make the trip each year.

His moniker, Basmati, came from his service as a member of the Peace Corps in Nepal, where he farmed high-yield rice. As he proudly brought his staggering heap of rice to the village, accompanied by three roasted goats he purchased to lure in the locals, he realized no one was eating his harvest. When Stewart tasted the rice he realized why: "My rice tasted like dead grasshopper," he said.

Stewart had sprayed his crops after an infestation of the pest, and the grasshopper corpses fertilized the rice paddy. After tasting the local rice he realized that rice engineers had been focusing on yield instead of flavor. When he asked the Nepalese what kind of rice they grew, they responded, "basmati."

This was just one of Stewart's amusing insights offered from his 33 years of service, not only in the Peace Corps but with the U.S. Forest Service.

He also spoke passionately about the contemporary challenges that face our national forests.

"The Forest Service is given only .001 percent of the federal budget, and manages 30 percent of the land," Stewart explained. "It's an agency on the edge. People don't give much thought to where their drinking water and fresh air come from anymore. We are walking away from the land as a society."

Stewart won't be walking away from the land anytime soon - he'll continue to walk through it. He's already hiked the Continental Trail and the Long Trail in addition to the PCT, and has many more on his to-do list.

Pilgrimage to the Edge can be purchased at Paulina Springs Books.