Kae-Lin (pronounced ky-leen) is the founder of Ampersand Bikes Club, the Operations Manager at Bike Works, the head baker at Bubbledough and documents many aspects of her life through photojournalism. She's in love with her cat, Bubbles, and lives life guided by the calico-spotted cat. Before getting into long-distance cycling, she was very involved in the thru-hiking, trail-building, and mountaineering community. Kae-Lin is passionate about connecting with people beyond the surface, embracing authenticity, learning from mistakes, and trying to impact the world through community building.

Photo via Spencer Harding

Kae-Lin Wang’s last decade has had a familiar shape to anyone who’s spent time on long trails or long routes: go all in, get humbled, come back different, repeat. The places change, the discipline shifts, and your relationship to “outside” evolves as life does.

Somewhere in the middle of all of it, one pair of Bedrocks kept showing up.

Kae-Lin first got her sandals in late 2016. “When I took them out of the box, I immediately thought, oh wow, these are super comfy.” She wore them around town for a while, then brought them along the following year as camp and town shoes on her return to the Pacific Crest Trail.

 

Kae-Lin’s PCT story started in April 2016. About 1,800 miles in, near Crater Lake, she fell on a tree blowdown, fractured her ankle, and had to leave the trail. The kind of ending that doesn’t feel like an ending—just a hard stop.

 

In 2017, Kae-Lin went back. She picked up near Crater Lake and headed north through Oregon and Washington, starting later in the season and mostly outside the main hiker bubble. That meant long stretches alone, then, near the end, a new trail family in Washington. Not long after, she reached Manning Park and finished.

 

 

Back then, the sandals weren’t the main character. They were simply the thing Kae-Lin wanted on her feet when hiking stopped for the day. “There’s nothing better than ripping off my trail runners right when I get to camp, so that I can let my toes breathe and get my chores done each night.”

After the PCT, Kae-Lin kept wearing them in regular life, and the sandals naturally became her everyday choice. “They stay on your feet, they have grippy soles, and they’re light,” Kae-Lin said. “I could do so much more. I could go get groceries, then go straight into something outdoors. I didn’t have to change shoes.”

 

In the years after, Kae-Lin went through topical steroid withdrawal and describes a long stretch where getting out of the house was hard. As she began to heal, her relationship with being outside shifted. It wasn’t about chasing the biggest trail or the most ambitious goal anymore; it was simply about being able to step outside, take a walk, and feel grateful for something as basic as fresh air and movement.

“I used to be picky about trails,” Kae-Lin said. “And then I was like… any trail is amazing. Just being outside felt like such a privilege.”

During the pandemic, Kae-Lin started baking sourdough and delivering orders around the city by bike. She estimates she rode over 5,000 miles in her sandals that year.

 

Not long after, Kae-Lin set her sights on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. By then, the sandals were already in constant rotation, but the soles were getting thin. She ran into a friend (an employee here at Bedrock, actually) who suggested a Re-Soul—something Kae-Lin didn’t even know was an option.

“I love the idea of not having to get a whole new pair,” Kae-Lin said. “Just trying to be less wasteful.”

She sent the sandals in and got them back upgraded to our Pro version with an extra-sticky Vibram® Megagrip rubber outsole.

 

Photo via Spencer Harding

It was good timing, because the Divide asks a lot: long days, endless climbs, and miles of direct sun that test both body and gear. Kae-Lin rode much of the route in sandals, often pairing them with socks on colder days. She remembers it clearly: “The wind through my toes and through my hair,” Kae-Lin said. “That’s what it felt like.”

 

Then there’s the mud. The Divide is notorious for stretches that turn into thick, sticky “peanut butter” muck after storms. The kind that cakes onto everything and builds up fast. “With the mud, I could just rinse it off,” Kae-Lin said. “I can’t imagine how crusty that would get inside a shoe. It’s so heavy.”

 

After 71 days, Kae-Lin reached Antelope Wells and completed the route at 3,393 miles. The sandals that had carried her that far didn’t get retired; they simply went back to being her daily driver. She kept choosing them because they worked and fit her life on every kind of day.

 

Kae-Lin's well worn & Re-Souled Cairn 3D PROs after thousands of miles of riding. 

After the Divide, it was time for a second Re-Soul. We rebuilt Kae-Lin’s pair as Cairn Evo C, our cushioned take on the Cairn platform for everyday comfort and long days. The sandals came back feeling new in all the right ways, without losing the history they’d already earned.

“They’re so cushioned,” Kae-Lin said. “Every pair feels so different. And now I’m like, I have this brand new pair of sandals… what adventures will it take me on next?”

 

Kae-Lin's new elusive double re-soul updated to Cairn Evo Cs

What makes this special isn’t just the miles on the PCT or the Divide. A Re-Soul only happens after years of real use—after a pair has been chosen on the ordinary days as much as the big ones. A double Re-Soul is rarer: it means the sandals carried you through one chapter, got rebuilt, and then stayed in rotation for the next.

 

Photo via Jordan Khodabande

Hats off to you, Kae-Lin, and to the miles in between now and the next Re-Soul!

If you’ve got a pair that’s seen some life, we’d love to keep it going. Questions about whether your sandals qualify? Check out our Re-Soul & Repair Page for more.