About

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Kevin, but my trail friends call me Hungry Cat. Unfettered Footsteps is a blog about my travel, long-distance hiking, and general life adventures on my quest to live a lean lifestyle free from the bondage of consumerism and workaholic culture. I hope that what I create here will help to inspire (or at least amuse) others who also may be considering, or already living, more unfettered, fulfilling lives.

Backstory

At 40 I left a fifteen-year career because I was tired of dealing with corporate politics, bored solving the same old problems over and over, and burnt out from years of being on call 24/7 with little work-life balance. I decided to do something for myself, so I spent 138 days thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. In embracing this new “trail life” and meeting people along the way, I realized how little I really needed to be happy (and to survive!). The lighter my pack, the more enjoyable my hike became, and I realized that this metaphor could carry into my off-trail, “normal” life. When I returned home, I started to think about all of the ways I could decouple myself from the things in my life that caused me to engage in activities that were not leading to fulfillment. I vowed to adventure more, to follow my heart, and to live a life untethered to the confines of consumerism and ridiculous workaholic culture.

Of course, then I rather quickly just slipped back into my old patterns of thinking! Two steps forward, one step back, and so it still goes today. The important thing is to achieve progress, not perfection. I hope that writing about my own journey can somehow help you on yours, whatever and wherever that may be!