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Woman finishes her walk to Joseph 39-day trek raised blisters, made friends BY DANI DODGE More than 500 miles, 60 Power Bars, four blisters, and two pairs of shoes later, Karen Shaw of Ashland has completed a 39-day across-the-state-trek to raise awareness of Y2K. Shaw "My legs still work, too!" Shaw said in a phone interview Thursday from her parents' home in Joseph, near La Grande in Eastern Oregon. "But I think my feet are bigger." On July 10, the 49-year-old teacher's aide began her journey to Joseph from the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse in Medford. She wanted to spread the news about the possible effects of Y2K to rural resident of Oregon, and to suggest positive ways of dealing with the issues. Y2K, short for the year 2000, refers to concerns that computers will fail to recognize the year 2000 date and malfunction, causing disruptions in utilities and other vital services. Shaw left Medford with only $20 in her pocket but never went hungry. Road workers along the route gave her their sandwiches, and others shared cherries, salmon and cash, which she used to buy hummus and seaweed. She added six pounds to her 5-foot-2, 90-pound frame during the journey. "I never asked for anything; it was just people's spontaneous generosity," Shaw said. Although Shaw was given lodging several times along the way, she spent most nights sleeping in tall brush beside the road. She'd packed only a flimsy space blanket, and once, when it got so cold she thought she would get hypothermia, some pine-cone pickers offered her their extra wool blanket. When her Camel-pack -- a backpack filled with water -- started to seem too heavy, she dumped it, carrying only a small bottle of water and drinking from creeks. "It was a test of faith," Shaw said. "I had less than a quart container and drank out of streams, saying a prayer every time I did," she explained. "I said, `God please purify this water,' and I never had any ill effects." Sometimes, she said, she thought she might not make it. Her blisters were terribly painful. The arch on her foot ached occasionally. Her knee hurt. "I thought it would be the end of my journey, but I'd soak my feet in cold creeks and say a little prayer and the pain just kept going away," she said. She said in talking to people along the route, she learned much more about Y2K preparedness than she was able to teach. "I did not come across any panicked people. but very practical, grounded, spiritual, caring people who are just doing what their hearts tell them to do," she said. "There was a wide gamut of preparation, but everyone had just very calm ways of dealing with it. It was very amazing." Shaw said she learned from these people that it was community that would get the world through Y2K. "What I experienced was this definition of community -- it has to do with people connected to God and land and to each other," she said. "That is what makes resilient community." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA