100 hikes: A 5-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia. So she and her mother turned to outdoor therapy.

BELLVUE — Sarah Bailey had one thought in the sterile hospital room where the doctors were going over her daughter’s diagnosis, using words like hemoglobin and neutrophils and allopurinol: We need to get out of here. 

This story first appeared in The Outsider, the premium outdoor newsletter by Jason Blevins.

In it, he covers the industry from the inside out, plus the fun side of being outdoors in our beautiful state.

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It was March 2023 and the beginning of a battle she knew she was willing to fight with 5-year-old Bellamy Korn, the youngest of her four kids. She knew she would be there for every step of the treatment that she hoped would wipe out the leukemia sickening her child. 

But as she looked through the windows of the hospital, she just wanted to be out there, away from the big, scary words and talk about chemotherapy. The expansive, beautiful trails of Larimer County helped heal her during her divorce. She thought that being outside could do the same for Bellamy.

Hers in an outdoor family and she imagined skiing and hiking, and even the baseball games her sons played, would be as much a part of their life as the disease and the cure. That would not change. 

“The leukemia wasn’t going to stop us from doing the things we loved,” Bailey said. 

She took out her daughter’s IV and walked with her outside. Sitting there, among all the trees and sunshine, even as spring’s frigid air bit at them, she came up with an idea: The treatment would take 2½ years, and during that time, she and Bellamy would do 100 hikes. The rules were loose: They could repeat them, and they didn’t have to make the destination for it to count. The journey was the point. 

Their first walk was a trip to the mailbox, a tenth of a mile, and Bellamy barely made it. That’s OK, honey, Sarah told her. Tomorrow we will go farther. 

• • • 

On an unseasonably warm day in April, Bellamy started hike No. 44 by dashing off and up to the trail to Arthur’s Rock in Lory State Park in Bellvue. It’s a 3.5-mile hike with 1,100 feet of elevation gain that Colorado Parks and Wildlife calls “moderate.”

It’s not a hike for those who can barely make it to the mailbox. But that was Bellamy a year ago. 

“Hi Mommy,” Bellamy chirped from 75 yards away.”‘I’m way ahead of you.”

“Watch the trippy rocks,” Bailey yelled in response. 

• • • 

After a few more walks around their neighborhood, the 100-hike journey began in the Pineridge Natural Area in Fort Collins near Dixon Reservoir. It felt flat and close to a hospital. Bailey carried everything in a huge backpack, including, after a while, Bellamy. 

100 hikes seemed like a lot at first, and at times it still does. Bailey had to learn early on how hard to push Bellamy. She was used to telling her boys to suck it up, but the only repercussions from that was some whining. 

“With Bellamy,” Bailey said, “it’s a trip to the hospital.” 

Bellamy collapsed on one trip to Red Feather Lakes, still early in the 100 Hikes adventure. She wouldn’t move, and Bailey didn’t have the backpack. Instead, she carried Bellamy in her arms and drove straight to the hospital. Her hemoglobin levels had dropped. After a blood transfusion, she was fine. 

Bellamy learned after that hike how to advocate for herself, which is a good skill for a young girl to have, Bailey said. Bellamy tells her mother when she’s thirsty or hot or when she needs a break. 

Red Feather was the only time they’ve had real complications from a hike. Hiking is the easy part.