Thru-hiking the CDT was a solitary journey in that I did it with my own legs and without a hiking partner; however, I didn’t do it all on my own. I had plenty of support from all of you along the way, as well as a myriad of people I met throughout my journey. Whether it was knowing you were reading along (which helped to hold me accountable), the kindness of strangers, the companionship of hikers, or the support of my wife and family, I cannot claim to have reached Canada without your help. For that, I am incredibly grateful – thank you!!
I’d also like to extend a very special THANK YOU to those of you who supported me through the Buy Me a Coffee platform! It is not something that I pushed when I rolled it out here on the blog (the little coffee cup icon that floats on the page); rather, I set it up as an experiment with two goals: (1) I wanted to try to help cover the cost of maintaining this blog, and (2) I wanted a better way to gauge who was getting a high degree of value from my content, outside of family and close friends who might read it just because it is me. I found this very useful and was happily surprised by the positive response. I occasionally posted status updates for my BMAC (Let’s use this acronym for Buy Me a Coffee – it sounds like Big Mac, yum!) Supporters while hiking, to show my appreciation, provide a little extra touchpoint to make it more fun, and because some Supporters came in through my YouTube channel and might not have been reading this blog.
BMAC Supporters will be the first to get a glimpse of the upcoming CDT documentary that I plan to create from my trip footage. It’s a small thing, but I do want you to know that I appreciate that you supported me monetarily even though you didn’t have to in order to follow along the journey. It means a lot to me! I have also thought about my BMAC Supporters being a good group for early feedback on more formal writing projects I may complete in the future – books, short stories, etc. Obviously that would be meant to be fun, not any kind of requirement or burden, and completely optional.
I’m so grateful to all of you who are reading this, especially if you have made it this far in this long post! But seriously, just the fact that you read my content gives me the drive to want to be a better writer and story teller.
Writing while hiking the CDT was difficult for me. I never had the energy I needed to write the way I wanted to at the end of a long day. I always felt like I was cutting corners, either to catch up, or to try and finish before falling asleep. I thumb-typed all of my posts on my iPhone, so I was forever fighting typos and weird autocorrects, which I had no great way to automatically fix while on trail. I always wanted to take more time than I had to craft the stories, play with the ordering of events, build in complexly layered themes, and develop characters. At some point, however, I just accepted that I could only do the best I could given the circumstances. I even lost a few of my entries through careless thumbing after spending a great deal of time crafting them, which at one point caused me to have a slight breakdown on trail because I had worked so hard on the days of writing that I had lost. My wife got to “enjoy” hearing about that one. Despite the difficulties, writing about this hike was a real joy, and though there were days I didn’t want to or fretted about getting too far behind, I am so glad that I did this for another long hike.
If you subscribe to this blog, thank you very much! I hope that the cadence of posting during this particular journey was not overwhelming. I never post unless I have something to deliver that I hope you will like, or at least find informative. I am happy if you are reading this blog, but when you subscribe it really helps me to better understand how valued it really is.
If you are enjoying the blog, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel so you can be notified about my CDT documentary (plus your subscription is free and really helps me out on that platform!). YouTube has been a more recent creative outlet for me, and for hiking in particular I enjoy weaving together a visual story as well as writing one. I experimented with the Vlog style back in 2019, but I have since settled on a more relaxed style of less talking, more scenery, natural sounds with carefully curated light music, and occasional voiceover narration. My shots are locked down or stabilized so that post production there should be little shakiness to the footage, which I know is bothersome for many viewers. I am imagining a documentary-like format for my CDT footage, but this will be the longest trip I have turned into video yet, so we will see how it shapes up.
Shifting topics, I’m sure some of you are wondering what I might get up to next. I’ll go ahead and knock off the obvious, which is that I don’t foresee doing another hike this long for a while. I am not sure if I want to hike the PCT yet. I definitely need some time before a hike as long as the CDT will again become so attractive that I cannot resist it. There is an opportunity cost to any commitment to being away and singularly focused for 4-5 months, particularly if your partner will not be participating. I think my adventures for the next few years are likely to reflect my desire to have a bit more balance.
In the near term, I am focused on just getting back to life in Wilmington. I’m catching up on a million emails, going to the various doctors/dentist, planning trips to see friends and family, and picking up where I left off. I mentioned the video footage from the hike; producing that documentary will be a labor-intensive process of storyboarding and editing. I’m excited about doing it, not just because I have not filmed a long hike in this manner before, but because it will allow me to actually show you many of the wonderful scenes that I experienced, while telling a bit of the story too, of course. Editing something that big is a daunting task, though, so it will take a while for me to finally complete it.
I plan to keep writing stories, so you’ll continue to see content here. I never intended to stop writing after the CDT, just like I didn’t stop after the AT. If there is something you’d like to see me write about, either about hiking the CDT, hiking in general, myself, other adventures, topics related to non-traditional lifestyles or breaking out of the normal 9 to 5 work arena, drop me a note through the Contact page on this site. I am interested to know if you want to read more of the same or something else. I mostly enjoy writing stories, but I’m not opposed to producing some informational content or doing a kind of Q&A if there are any questions out there.
What about work? Ah, yes. An unfettered lifestyle is not a work-free life; it is simply a life of refocused priorities and mindfulness. I am not immune to the usual dynamics of needing to pay the bills, make sure I have enough money for retirement, healthcare, etc. I bought myself some breathing room with previous corporate gigs, but not forever breathing room. I therefore expect to focus keenly on income generation in the near future.
I do enjoy the challenges of business and work. Outside of hiking, I am actually a big business/finance/investment geek. I didn’t leave corporate work because I didn’t like to work; I left jobs because I either didn’t like the work I was doing or didn’t like the environment I was working in. Corporate America can be such an all or nothing, burnout culture, which is a shame, because it wouldn’t take that much to make that space more inviting for the long haul. I’ve had enough time off, however, to feel like I can go into a new challenge with a positive attitude, refreshed and ready to solve some problems.
I have a lot of thoughts on work, and as I decided to focus on living a more unfettered life, my way of thinking about income changed and began to become fairly laser focused. I don’t believe that life has to exist in two extremes: corporate craziness with big paychecks OR working odd jobs and living out of a van so that I have more time to myself. There’s nothing wrong with either approach, but they are extremes and there is plenty of room to live happily in the middle. If you want to hear more about this kind of thing, let me know. I think this coming year is going to be an interesting one in terms of income and investment experiments, especially given the opportunities (and pitfalls) that our economic downturn will bring. Some trails need to be more closely scrutinized than others before venturing on the journey they offer.
I will probably have more to say in terms of gear and other services I used while hiking the CDT, so that will likely be a blog post and maybe a YouTube video or two. I definitely formed some thoughts and opinions about gear and services I was either trying out, or had been using but now probably no longer will.
You’ve read about my adventures – make sure you take some time to prioritize your own! They don’t have to be crazy, long cross-country hikes. The most important thing is just to create space where you can make some of your dreams a reality. If you find that you think about doing things, but somehow never get to them, take a minute to jot down the three main things you need to do to get started, then put time on your calendar to focus solely on those things. The only way to accomplish any goal of any kind is to get into action. It’ll make you feel better to start making progress, though I understand that it can feel daunting to get started. Just remember that the feeling is likely not directly correlated with the actual effort it will take to make plans. And don’t forget Newton’s first law, roughly simplified as: Objects in motion stay in motion; objects at rest stay at rest. When you get into motion it is much easier to keep moving towards your goal. If it feels uncomfortable, it’s just because we tend to feel uncomfortable when we break our routines. I was VERY uncomfortable starting my CDT thru-hike. But pushing through that discomfort is what will make whatever experience you are planning all the more meaningful.
If this does inspire you to go out and do something you’ve always wanted to, drop me a note through my contact page and let me know what you did! It would make my day! Until next time, enjoy whatever trail you are on, wherever it may take you.
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