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Into the Skagit

Day 4 · Completed

Marysville

St. Mary Catholic Church, Marysville, Washington

Out of Everett over the sloughs, and a parish that took her in

This day on the route

Date
The day
Walking
Walked
7.7 miles

Day 4, September 10: 7.7 miles walked, from downtown Everett to St. Mary Catholic Church in Marysville. A friend drove her back to this point the next morning.

Route overview, not turn-by-turn directions.

Gouache illustration of railway tracks branching through dry golden grass toward low homes and distant coastal water.
Kruse Junction, Marysville, which she was approaching when her fourth day ended. Illustration.

On September 10 Jeana walked 7.7 miles out of Everett, over the sloughs and into Marysville, where Father Peter of St. Mary Catholic Church found her a room for the night.

The plan had a Bone Marrow Awareness Day in Everett on September 10, but the work was already done: the city, the police and the fire department. She did not want to outstay her welcome, so she walked on. On the way out of town she called at Everett Community College, and made contacts for the Foundation to follow up.

Marysville had no rooms that night, because a concert had filled them. Three hotels turned her down before she came to St. Mary Catholic Church. The woman at the desk sent her to Father Peter, who thought about it carefully and arranged a room for her at a nearby hotel.

The railway and the timber trade shaped Marysville. The city incorporated in 1891, the same year the Stimson Logging Company was formed, and schools, a library and other civic institutions followed as it grew.

From the road

Out of Everett over the sloughs, and a parish that took her in

The schedule had a bone marrow awareness day in Everett on it, but the work was already done — the city council, the police department, the fire department — and she did not want to outstay her welcome. On the way out of town she called at Everett Community College and at Providence Regional Medical Center and came away with contacts at both. Then she walked on towards Kruse Junction, in Marysville.

Just under eight miles, and a beautiful one. The road out of Everett crosses water again and again — Union Slough, Steamboat Slough, Ebey Slough — and every bridge had a walkway on it. She notes that she was on the right-hand side of the road for once. She usually walks facing the traffic.

Partway along she realised she was walking on Tulalip tribal land, and rang the Tribes. They gave her contact details so the Foundation can write to them about joining the registry, and about whether they would like to host a stem cell donor event.

Marysville had no rooms in it — a concert at one of the casinos had taken them all — and three hotels turned her down before she passed St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The woman at the desk sent her to Father Peter, who thought about it carefully and offered her the crying room at the back of the sanctuary. Then he did better than that, and arranged a room at the Quality Inn instead; a woman named Deb drove her over, and arranged to bring her back to the route in the morning.

They’re a beautiful group of human beings that have improved my life by knowing them.

Jeana Moore
A highway curves down past a dry grassy bank towards two green steel truss bridges, with a white pickup and other cars on the road and yellow signs reading Overheight Detector Ahead and 14'-0" at the roadside.Cars cross a road bridge through a green steel truss arch marked 14 FT 0 IN, beside a yellow sign reading Overheight Stop When Flashing, with a narrow footpath running along the timber barrier on the right.A timber walkway running along the side of a green steel truss bridge, with railway tracks and marshland below.A weathered plank walkway runs along the outside of a green riveted truss bridge, looking down over the railing at a railway line, an empty gravel lot and a river with wooded banks beyond.Evergreen treetops in the foreground frame a river, with white silos and black tanks of an industrial yard on the far bank, an American flag flying above them and houses on a wooded hill beyond.Looking up at the rusting green girders of a steel truss bridge, with an empty roadway on the left and a long timber walkway running straight ahead beside the river on the right.A wide grey river under a sky of broken white cloud, a few old wooden pilings standing in the water and, on the distant left shore, a red-and-white barge heaped with wood chips beneath a long conveyor.Rows of broken, blackened wooden pilings stand in silvery water, one carrying a sign reading Slow No Wake Zone, with a dark long-necked bird at its foot and small boats moored along the far bank.Looking straight down at thick wooden pilings crusted with barnacles where they meet murky green-grey water, ripples running past them.A green highway sign reading Interstate 5 North, Vancouver B C, Left 1 Mile, stands in rough grass beside a road shoulder that runs ahead toward yellow signs reading Left Lane, 14'-10", 1/2 Mile, with power lines and distant hills under a blue sky.A green highway sign reading Interstate 5 North, Vancouver B C, Left 1 Mile, standing in rough grass under a wide sky.A green sign reading Union Slough on a wooden post in dry grass, with tidal mudflats, a channel of water and a line of trees beyond under power lines and a cloudy blue sky.
Show all 29 photos from this dayShow fewer photos
Clumps of flattened brown marsh grass on a muddy bank in the foreground, a channel of water and grey mudflats beyond, with evergreens and houses on a hill on the far side.Seen from above, a broad channel of calm grey water winds away between exposed mudbanks, with flat land and trees on the horizon and power lines across the sky.Calm grey water fills the foreground beneath power lines, with a muddy bank and a line of leafy trees along the right and a flat, distant shore under a pale cloudy sky.A weathered wooden board holding a yellow sign reading Draw Bridge and Be Prepared to Stop between two signal lights, beside a road that runs on towards a steel bridge and green highway signs.A green sign reading Steamboat Slough on a metal post among brambles and dry grass, next to a pole topped with a camera, a crumpled blue cloth lying in the grass and the end of a green steel bridge on the left.Young pale-trunked trees with silvery-green leaves frame a glimpse of water, old timber pilings and a long concrete highway bridge, with tall weeds and a strip of green grass in front.A long concrete highway bridge crosses the far end of a wide river, trucks travelling along it, with a timber-sided pier on the left and weathered pilings and rocks along the right edge.Calm grey-green water stretches towards a low concrete highway bridge on tall pillars, with a muddy bank, a few old pilings and tall evergreens on the right under a pale cloudy sky.A lone dark piling and a cluster of broken, crusted wooden pilings stand in rippled water before a muddy bank, with golden marsh grass, bushes and tall evergreens behind and a white van on a bridge at the top left.A close view of pale purple daisy-like flowers with yellow centres and purple buds on branching stems, against a soft blur of dry ground.A spray of pale purple daisy-like flowers with yellow centers and purple buds on branching reddish stems, seen from above against a bed of dry, flattened grass.A close-up of a single flower with fringed petals that fade from deep red to bright yellow at the tips, around a dark red centre speckled with yellow pollen.A pale cream flower with four broad, cupped petals and a cluster of orange-yellow stamens at its centre, against a blurred background of dry brown stems.A bright orange flower with four silky, overlapping petals open among grey gravel, dry stems and feathery grey-green leaves.A road sign reading Ebey Slough beside a bridge railing, with tidal water and low buildings beyond.A speed display reading YOUR SPEED shows 36 in amber lights on a tall grey pole above a bridge railing, beside an old-style street lamp and hanging flower baskets, with rooftops, trees and distant mountains beyond.A calm channel curves away between a muddy bank lined with golden marsh grass on the right and a far bank of old pilings, low buildings and trees, with wooded hills on the horizon.
Distance walked
7.7 miles
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Choose where you live

Continue to the official registry that serves you. It decides eligibility, handles registration and contacts you if you may match a patient.

United States — NMDP

NMDP accepts new registry members who are 18 to 35, live in the US, its territories or freely associated states, can meet NMDP’s health guidelines, and are not already registered through another US organization. Joining happens at home: you answer a few questions on NMDP’s site, they mail you a free cheek-swab kit, and you swab and send it back. Once you are a member you stay listed until you are 61 unless you ask to be removed — 61 is when NMDP takes you off, not an age at which you can join. NMDP makes the final eligibility decision.

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NMDP — Join the registry · checked Sep 1, 2026

Prefer to text? Send JADA to 61474 and NMDP will take it from there.

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Sources

Local history and background reading for this stop.

  1. History of Marysville — checked Sep 5, 2026
The flyer: STOP BLOOD CANCER set in tall letters over a dark plum page, a quote, and a QR code beside a text-to-join line for the U.S.One standing face of the table tent: the same headline and quote on the left, a large QR code on the right.

Take it off the screen

Print it. Put it where people already stand.

A coffee counter, a church foyer, a break room, a race table. Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk, and a number to text for anyone who would rather not scan — no app, no wifi, nothing to hand back.Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk — nothing to install, nothing to hand back. The number to text printed beside it is for joining NMDP, which registers people who live in the U.S., its territories and the freely associated states. If you live anywhere else, find your country’s registry.

Everything else for running a drive

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