Step by step: Oregon's walk to protect the earth.(SOLV)

For three solid days during the summer of 2001, walkers for SOLV--a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting Oregon's coastal environment--battled headwinds gusting up to 50 mph. Walk leader, Jan McGowan, allergic to bees, had suffered a sting on top of an already painfully raw sun blister, and her husband, Jack McGowan, having exacerbated an old injury, limped along in a knee brace.

It seemed it couldn't get any worse--that is, until a violent thunderstorm broke overhead, sending the McGowans and some 30 others--known as Legacy Walkers--scrambling over slippery rocks for cover. There was no choice but to keep going.

"We were to the point of exhaustion," says Jack, director of SOLV. "This was only two and a half weeks into the walk. We had 300 more miles to go. We were hurting--really suffering--and asking, literally, how can we continue?"

Little did the McGowans know that among the things that lay ahead was measurably improved heart health.

making a plan

Two years earlier, the idea for the walk had come to Jan, SOLV associate director and a fifth-generation Oregonian, on one of those days that free time seemed a distant but oh-so-welcome dream.

"I just thought I'd like to have some time offand to walk the entire coast, to touch every foot of the Oregon coastline because obviously we're passionate about it."