Wading out of the Pacific, I set off with a bold band of environmental activists on a nine-month transcontinental trek.  Together and individually, we would confront the elements, local opposition, and ourselves.  We assigned ourselves the immodest goal of sowing an ecological message from Los Angeles to New York City.  This account interlaces the ecstatic, the nitty-gritty, and the disheartening events that crowded our days and eventually wove a pattern of community and wonder.