GLACIER NATIONAL PARK – On April 21, Shayla Paradeis will start hiking in New Mexico with the goal of getting back here. It would be easier, one might say, to instead just drive from her Columbia Falls home to hike in Glacier, but Paradeis is hell-bent on taking the long way: 3,100 miles, from the Mexican border to the Waterton-Glacier border.
By the time this story is published, Paradeis will be making her final preparations to leave the Flathead on April 13 and begin her hike on the Continental Divide Trail, a grueling and gorgeous pathway traversing mountain peaks and deserts, and innumerable special places along the way.
Attempting the CDT is a feat enough; only about 150 hikers try to make it from end to end each year, according to the CDT Coalition. But for Paradeis, the CDT is a third jewel for her burgeoning crown.
In 2011, she completed the 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail, and in 2013, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs 2,650 miles from Canada to Mexico.
Hiking all three is called the “Triple Crown.”
When asked why she would attempt such a monumental task, Paradeis said it was merely her five-year plan.
“And because I love hiking so much,” she said.
A native Minnesotan, Paradeis, 28, said she fell in love with Glacier Park during her first visit at age 14. After that, her life took her elsewhere, and she was working in New York City performing musical theater when Glacier called her back, this time as a server at the Lake McDonald Lodge when she was 21.
She still works at the lodge seasonally, as well as at the Belton Chalet, Tupelo Grille, and as the nanny for two boys. Living in the Flathead brings her closer to Glacier, and keeps her running and hiking the trails; fittingly, she has also taken up ultra-marathon running, recently completing a 50-miler in Moab.
Her main reasons for taking on such intense and demanding challenges are relatively simple. The first, of course, is a love for traveling outdoors.
“The other part of the reason I got into distance athletics is I love to eat,” Paradeis said.
She estimated that during the CDT hike, covering 25 to 30 miles a day, she will power through about 7,000 calories each day. It wouldn’t be possible to carry all that food, so she’s got a portion of her meals planned out and split up in packages to be mailed to post offices along the way.
Other meals will come from her supply of vegetarian, dehydrated food in her pack, and from restaurants and grocery stores in the towns along the way. Food becomes the focal point of a hiker’s life on these long-distance trails, she said.
“You eat like it’s your job when you get to town,” Paradeis said.
Fatty foods are particularly attractive.
“You dream about butter melting,” she said. “I almost cried at a restaurant, because all I had to do was order and sit there, and a waitress was going to bring me food.”
Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail also settled any questions about whether she preferred beer over wine, when she found herself running down a mountain of switchbacks chanting “beer, beer, beer” with each step.
Paradeis also appreciates the trail culture, where everyone uses nicknames – hers, bestowed upon her on day three of the Appalachian Trail, is Kiddo, due to her youthful appearance – and helps out others. Residents of the towns along the way also help hikers, setting up rest stations or handing out snacks.
“You can walk with someone for two months and not know their mother-given name,” Paradeis said.
Her daily travel pack will weigh about 35 pounds, which is the heaviest it has been on such a distance trip. But the CDT offers challenges the other trails in the Triple Crown don’t, such as long desert stretches without water sources.
The CDT is also high-elevation, ranging from 4,000 to 14,000 feet, so alpine weather will be a considerable factor, and she’ll need crampons and an ice axe.
Now that she is an experienced hiker, Paradeis said her equipment mainstays are simple: a dry sleeping bag, three pairs of socks, and her books. She catches some heat from other hikers for adding book weight to her pack, but knows it’s worth it when she can settle in next to a tree for a break with a book of Sherman Alexie’s short stories.
In Glacier, Paradeis is a familiar figure on all the trails starting at the Sperry Trailhead; she climbs to the Sperry Chalet probably once a week in the summers. So she wants to make it back in time to visit it at least once.
“It’s my goal to be here before Sperry Chalet closes,” she said.
The hike will take about four-and-a-half months, and Paradeis will update her blog, cdtkiddo.wordpress.com, whenever she can find a public library. Otherwise, she’ll be meeting new people, exploring new places, and dreaming of butter all while heading back to where her heart lives.
“(The CDT) is especially romantic for me because I’m walking to Glacier,” Paradeis said. “I’m walking home.”