Isaac Lewis

My goal is to tell the story one more time and then never again.

It's been five years since the last time, but it just takes it all out of me.

So, no more, hopefully.

It was summer break was coming up, and I was not in a great headspace at all.

And in the student union, someone had posted a notice.

Come walk the strong bone road.

So I called and this guy Peter answered and yeah, he was getting random people together to hike all hundred miles, 130 actually of the road.

as a, like a meditation thing.

He wanted to do it as a silent hike, very zen.

I'd never done a hike of more than 50, but I thought I could do it.

It was, it was just a strange, different thing to try.

So I signed up.

And it wasn't even technically legal because the road was closed off.

It's up in Alberta.

The only reason it was ever built was for trucks to haul chemicals, petrochemicals, out of a couple factories out there.

It didn't have other traffic.

It was a private road.

So, five days of silent walking it was going to be.

My friends thought I was crazy.

We had to pack all our food in advance, and the water was in these emergency pumps on the side of the road every 15 miles or so.