Tolkkinen: Couple’s walk across Minnesota showcases our littlest towns and the trails that unite us all

GENOLA, MINN. - I didn’t know that I needed Tom and Cheryl Hoff until I heard that they were walking across Minnesota.

I didn’t even know Tom and Cheryl Hoff. Had never met them, hadn’t even heard of them.

But someone on Facebook mentioned they were walking from Breckenridge to Duluth, and I was hooked. Years ago, I had read “A Walk Across America” by Peter Jenkins, who took six years to walk from New York to New Orleans and then to the Pacific. He was disillusioned with America. It was the 1970s, we had just left Vietnam, and people were trying to reconcile who we were as a country following a decade of political violence and protests. Along the way, people invited him to live with them and he wrote about them and their communities.

His book resonated with readers across the country, becoming a bestseller.

The Hoffs’ walk isn’t as ambitious, but it has its own appeal. A chance to see Minnesota on foot, to slow down and notice things, to connect with fellow Minnesotans. To power yourself up hills and through all kinds of weather, to lose the comfort and protection a vehicle provides but gain the physical memory of the landscape.

I wanted to meet them. I wanted to walk with them. They agreed, so on Monday I drove to a little town most of you have probably never heard of, Genola, a city of only 70 people with its own mayor and council.

I left my car outside the Dollar General, hoisted my beat-up old student backpack onto my shoulders, and just ... started walking.

The Hoffs messaged that they were down the trail a ways. They weren’t sure how far, exactly, but with them heading my way and me heading their way we were bound to meet sooner or later.

Their Facebook accounts are full of their delight at visiting small towns along their route. In Foxhome, population 126, they procured Ethiopian and Dominican coffee beans. In Fergus Falls, population 14,000, they snapped a selfie with the world’s largest otter. They grabbed cheeseburgers in Dalton (214 residents) and were cheered by students and teachers in Ashby (472 souls) where Cheryl volunteers at the school; the Hoffs live outside Ashby.

News of their trek had spread by the time they reached Evansville (population 587). A couple at the restaurant there asked about their walk and wished them well, and on their way to Brandon (500), cars gave them friendly toots. They wear matching yellow T-shirts designed by their two grown sons.

I met up with them on Day 9 of their walk, from Bowlus (271), where a restaurant owner told them about a customer who had tried to bicycle around the world, only to be kidnapped by nomads who stole all her stuff. We stopped and chatted, then I turned around and walked with them to Genola, named after a city in northern Italy.

The Hoffs, in their early 60s, are retired from careers in education.

The trip has had its plagues. They have battled no-see-ums, Asian beetles, mosquitoes and the heat. They had not expected temperatures to reach 90 degrees in October, and the sun beat at them. Cheryl hurt her ankle. Tom developed blisters on his feet. And the first 30 miles of their trip, along Hwy. 210, was particularly punishing as semi-trucks blew past and they worried about getting hit by rocks or debris.

But they kept going, 15 to 20 miles a day. Tom likes to push himself to the edge physically once a year as a Misogi challenge, a traditional Japanese feat that carries a high chance of failure. This is the first time Cheryl has joined him. They might not make it to Duluth, they say. The important thing is to try their best.

They’re using the trip to raise money for the Ashby Legacy Fund, a community fund that pays for local projects. But the highlight has been connecting with the people along the way, business owners who offer watering holes for thirsty travelers, and other hikers or bicyclists or ATV drivers.

“I’m amazed at the number of people using the trails,” said Cheryl’s sister Pam Peterson of Tracy, who is driving their support van — their bedroom when they’re not in a hotel.

What a great thing we Minnesotans have built together, these trail systems that connect so many communities. The Central Lakes Trail. The Lake Woebegon Trail. The Soo Line Trail. The Willard Munger State Trail. And more.