My BIG FINALE on The Ireland Way - 1000km solo thru-hike - Days 46 & 47 of 47 - Ulster Way Section

[@irlpiotrkowska]

Congratulations Linda on a phenomenal achievement. Delighted to see you finishing in glorious sunshine.

[@TheHealthyHiker]

Thank you! The sunshine delighted me too!

[@therechargeroom8646]

Congratulations! I have enjoyed taking this journey with you. Thank you for sharing.

[@davidripley3945]

Thank you for sharing your pilgrimage for your parents. It was an awesome journey. Thank you for being real by not hiding the tough bits and your moments of frustration and anguish. ❤️❤️❤️

[@TheHealthyHiker]

I really appreciate you watching, and your suport

[@regulastucki8451]

Thank you a thousand times for taking me with you on your walk. It was a treasure to follow you, to learn and to marvel. You will always be my inspiration. I will start to plan my hiking journey, now. All the best to you, wonderful Linda.

[@TheHealthyHiker]

It is so nice to hear from you that you were so personally touched by my account of my journey - it was a physical challenge for me, and a personal transformation. I wish you great success on your own personal journeys ahead!

[@regulastucki8451]

@@TheHealthyHiker Thank you so much. I can't resist and I will go on your journey for a second time

[@heyitssiobhan]

An emotional finale for the books ❤ also classic you guys missed each other but I agree, you were meant to end with your mom and dad. ❤

[@loriloignon-uprichard4525]

Thank you Linda for journaling your journey for us. Wow! It was emotional even as a viewer so can only imagine what it was like for you to experience it. I had tears at the finish right along with you. Congratulations on this amazing accomplishment both emotionally and physically in one of the most beautiful places!

[@TheHealthyHiker]

Thank you so much for watching with your heart wide open, so that it could be moved by what you saw and heard in my story. That was new and hard for me - to be completely honest and open with what I was personally going through on a trek. But, given that this was a grief-healing journey, I thought it was really important to share the bad and the ugly, as well as the good, since all three were instrumental to my healing.

[@musingwithreba9667]

Such an amazing, beautiful journey, both the footpath, and the spiritual path.

[@TheHealthyHiker]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. It really was a transformational experience.

[@IrishDragon666]

Linda! How lovely to see you finish your pilgrimage along the Causeway Coast where my wife and I have run for the manys a year. The North Coast is our home and we haven't found anywhere else in the world that feels quite like it...even when we've lived overseas. I've enjoyed being your companion all along the Irish Way. I've watched your adventure over the last few weeks while I work (I'm a writer and I work from home). You are a legend and an inspiration, Linda. Thank you for sharing your personal journey and growth with us. What an honor we have to be part of this wonderful thing you've done. I'll be following in your footsteps next year ahead of leaving our homeland for perhaps the last time. Fair winds agus go n'éirí an bothar leat i gconaí.

[@TheHealthyHiker]

I am so honoured to have had your "company" on this journey - thank you very much for your kind sentiments, so eloquently expressed! I must know, if I may...why would you leave your beloved Irish coastal paradise for a final time?

[@CScullyBrown]

Congrats Linda! This was such an awesome video series to watch and I can't thank you enough for sharing all the serious ups and downs. Thanks for keeping it real and happy continued healing!!

[@TheHealthyHiker]

I appreciate our hiking sisterhood - Happy Trails!

[@adventuringonward5118]

Such a great journey Linda! I just finished watching all of the videos and thoroughly enjoyed them. Very glad you were treated for the tick invasion though sounds rough dealing with after effects. Appreciate your sharing the highs and lows. Beautiful country and people. You and I spoke via phone a few years ago about your PCT hike. So sorry about the loss of your mom and dad. Seems like your pilgrimage brought you some peace. I lost my mom last July. We were very close. My wife and I are hiking the Camino de Santiago in May/June as a memorial and also pilgrimage of my own. Be well and hope for your continued healing.

[@TheHealthyHiker]

I love how the trails helps us all to share our journeys, whether they be emotional or physical, or whether we are on the same trail or not. Buen Camino to both you and your wife! Thanks so much for watching my Ireland Way vlog!

[@jeanb8355]

And btw, I still haven't recovered from that tick infestation, whoa!!

[@TheHealthyHiker]

It's okay...I have, and with some time, you will too! lol

[@joycedunnrogers8248]

Wow! You did the whole thing without taking a skip or a hop or a pass. Outstanding, Linda!🎉👏 Congratulations on your monumental achievement! It is so very impressive. ❤️ It makes those of us (okay, me), who adjusted & altered & rearranged things at times to fit our wants feel ashamed for doing that. You found the trail out of Balintoy toward Ballycastle?! I couldn't find it for the life of me and, thinking I had to walk every mile on the dangerous narrow, curvy road into Balleycastle, I gave up after 2 miles & caught the bus. Seeing you walk the whole coastline from Castlerock to Balleycastle has put the thought in my head to go back and do a Redemption Hike on that section.🙂

[@TheHealthyHiker]

Oh man, I'm so sorry you missed that turn! I knownit looks likeni came up to the B15 from Ballintoy, but i didnt. I kept going to Rope Bridge Rd, had a snack and break at the Weighbeidge Tearoom, then headed up from the coast feom there. If you go on goolemaps, and switch to street view, you can see the Ulster Way sign pointing up Glenstaughey Rd. It parallels the B15, and then comes back to it later, so you only have a short walk on it. FYI, here's a link to where the Ulster Way leaves the main road maps.app.goo.gl/hfkz9ePCLKfSSEPP9

[@joycedunnrogers8248]

@@TheHealthyHiker NOW I see that road! I walked right on past it and never spotted the signpost. Darn. I remember that car park area and kept thinking any off-road traveling would be on the left (ocean side) of the B15 and never looked up on my right hand side. Duh! 🤦. With my propensity for often missing the obvious, it's a wonder I made it out of Ireland at all!.😀 Thanks for showing me.👍

[@TheHealthyHiker]

I never took as many wrong turns, and felt at a complete loss, so many times on ANY other trail!

[@TheHealthyHiker]

You know what? Your missing it is quite understandable...the IW Guide contains virtually NO details re: directions on this final stretch, and the map route in it only shows the B15 option. And, if you check Alltrails, it too, only shows the route following the B15 - BUT - the signs in real life tell a different story, sending us off the main road and onto that secondary road - so frustrating, I know - and, just thinking...those signs look pretty new - perhaps they weren't even THERE when you hiked The Way!

[@joycedunnrogers8248]

@@TheHealthyHiker You're right. I've re-read my guide book and my Hiiker app and there was no mention at all about an off road route...only scenic "must sees", which at that point, I did not care about. I did re-view Mountain Mikes last day's trek (2020) and saw his video where he took the road paralleling B15 that you did. So, obviously, it was there and I missed it. Wish the guide book hadn't abandoned its readers after Balintoy.

[@jeanb8355]

What an achievement! So inspiring too. I have tons of questions about your gear. Do you have a post somewhere about the equipment? Thank You

[@TheHealthyHiker]

Thanks for watching! Yes, there is a video at the start of my first thru-hike, (the Pacific Crest Trail in '19), called "What's in Linda's pack?" Click on Playlists, then look for "Hiking Home for Shelter" - it was called that, as I was hiking home to Canada, from Mexico, to raise funds for shelters for abused women across Canada. There's a number of items for that hike that I didn't need in Ireland, such as the winter weather gear, but almost everything else is the same. Did you watch all episodes of this vlog, or just the final one? I do try to show a bit here and there about my gear throughout all my hiking videos. Please feel free to post any further questions!

[@jeanb8355]

TYSM!! Yes I watched all Ireland episodes. Incredibly helpful videos especially as the trail is not well marked. Watched your gear video from PCT, it answered most of my questions. I wasn't able to catch the type of battery pack you used. On Ireland Way, how often would you say your phone gps didn't work? Did it come thru eventually to be helpful? That's pretty much what happened on the AT through state of Virginia-had to catch those signals when you could. TY Miss LInda your vlog really touched so many points. Can't express how ??? feel about losing your mom especially having lived so close for so long. Best to you and your family!