About The Journey Ahead

The record for fastest supported time to hike the Appalachian Trail is 41 days 7 hours. The fastest unsupported time is 45 days 12 hours by a guy who goes by the name Stringbean. The slowest time is 35 years by a guy who walked a hundred kilometers a year. The safe money is on me being nowhere near either record. Records aren’t important to me. My pace is somewhere between ambling and trudging. The only record I’m probably close to is consecutive days in an addiction treatment facility. I was swept into Bill’s Place recovery center on March 4, 2014 and never left, a mind boggling 3591 days ago.

I didn’t have much going on when I first arrived, and like most of the people I meet in early recovery I wasn’t in good shape. I couldn’t walk a hundred meters without taking a nap. I thought what would happen if I walked a little further each week for ten years. So I walked everyday and every Monday I walked one house farther. After a few years I was able to walk 5 kilometers. A few years later I was walking full marathons. My fastest marathon time is 7 ½ hours. The last marathon I did I decided to push myself and made it half way in 3 hours. Then I hit a brick wall and it took me 8 hours to go the remainder.

So I decided I would start walking with weights in a backpack. I walked up 39th Avenue in Vernon, across past Mutrie dog park and down 43rd Avenue a couple times a day for the next couple of years. (you know you’re walking the same route a lot when strangers approach you in the grocery store and say, “This might sound like a random question, but are you the guy who walks up 39th Avenue everyday with a backpack?”) I met dozens of unbelievably nice people along my route, like Brittany, who was excited to find out what my name was. For years as she dove past me her kids would play a game. First one to see me would yell, “There’s Pacman!” Now, it’s not uncommon for me to stop and chat with various people for half an hour each walk. I don’t really go anywhere or see anything different doing that, but it’s been one of the best experiences of my life.

After I did that for a while, I decided to do a solo through hike called the West Coast Trail. I was woefully under prepared and had to spend a couple days in the hospital when I finished. When I was out there, I was trying to pitch my tent in some tough conditions. I was about 20 meters from a river tying my tent to a log so it wouldn’t fly away in the wind when I looked down and noticed my feet were underwater. Upriver I could see a flash flood coming my way. I threw the tent and my bag over the log and dove over. I looked up and saw the river full of debris hit the big waves coming off the ocean. A piece of a tree maybe 10 meters long flew in the air and seemed to hover there for a few seconds. I don’t know why but watching that took my breath away. It was the most beautiful and inspiring thing I’d seen. I’ve been trying to relive that moment ever since.

To do this I put myself into situations I think are impossible, like hiking the 3500km Appalachian Trail. My plan is to take my time, make sure I keep dry and warm, have enough water and food and see what happens. My expectations are I will spend most of the time in various states of discomfort, I will meet some weird, wonderful and inspirational people, and I will have some jaw dropping inspirational experiences that remind me how big, beautiful and dangerous the world is.