Amanda “Cheeks” Popa returns after last summer’s hike
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
Amanda Popa walked 2,652 miles last summer, the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail. “It took me 5 months and 5 days,” she remembers, “from April 21 to September 26, 2018.” Starting in Campo, a small town on the United States-Mexico border, the trail goes through California, Oregon, and Washington before reaching its northern terminus at the United States-Canada border in Manning Park, British Columbia.
“I just wanted to get out of society a little bit,” Amanda says. “I don’t think we’re supposed to work our whole lives away. So it was time. I just carried my backpack with a tent. Everything I needed was in there. I could carry 6 days worth of food, then I’d have to hitchhike into a town for supplies.”
When I asked Amanda if she felt any danger doing that, she replied, “Most of the people along the trail know what we’re doing. I felt a lot safer because of that.”
Many others were also hiking the Trail, so Amanda made a lot of friends. “Five of those friends have visited me here already,” she smiles. “It’s a different connection because you’re out in nature with that person. Liz from Oregon is here now. Her Trail name was “Barefoot”. My Trail name was “Cheeks” because I kept getting a hole in my shorts!” She met folks from all over the world, and enjoyed “all the different accents. And the Sierra Nevada range is just gorgeous scenery. I’m hooked on the mountains now.”
Back in Leelanau County, Amanda has resumed her routine of working the seasonal economy. Born and raised near Cedar on Popa Road at the family strawberry farm, Amanda graduated from Glen Lake High School in 2008. She was working at the Pinecone in Glen Arbor when she was 14. At 16 she started at the Good Harbor Grill as a back cook or dishwasher, helping with orders, busing and prepping, working pretty much wherever she was needed. She has continued “on and off, not every summer, but most of ‘em.” The summer season is intense, requiring “50-60 hours a week until it slows down. Now many of our staff have to go back to school, so the rest of us step up and take over.”
One of Amanda’s bosses at the Grill is Cady Hall. When the Grill slows down in spring and fall, the ‘shoulder seasons’, Amanda doubles up and starts working for Cady’s husband Matt at Grand Traverse Masonry. “We do a lot of driveways and garages,” she explains. “I’m more like a tender, not a bricklayer. I make sure they have concrete, all the blocks or bricks they need, all the tools. We’re mostly laying concrete. I also worked for Socks Construction in Traverse City for a while. It’s a little different every day being a laborer. Construction is the only work around here in the winter that guarantees a bunch of hours. It depends a little on the weather, but ends up being just as many hours as summer at the Grill. Everything takes longer in winter—you’ve got to remove snow from the job sites before the work really begins.”
So what does the future hold for Amanda, a food service worker when it’s warm and a construction worker when it’s cold? “I want to move out west somewhere, maybe Portland or San Diego or up in Washington. Maybe I’ll try the ski bum thing, work out there in the snow in the winter and back here in summer. I love the mountains. But I don’t want to keep working 50 hours a week if I don’t have to. Around here it’s tough to find a place to live for less than $1,500 per month in season. Out-of-season there are lots of empty houses around here, but they’re not for rent!”
Amanda’s story typifies what so many young workers find as they try to get by in Leelanau County. The jobs are seasonal, you have to work many hours to make a living, and it’s tough to find a place to live. The Glen Arbor Sunhas tried to highlight the challenges of the gig economy and the affordable housing shortage in our issues this summer. If you’ve got a story to tell that fits either of these themes, please let us know. Email us at editorial@glenarborsun.com.
