DAD! – A walk through life

DAD!

How the hell did I get that name?! In 2018 I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. My first introduction to hiking, camping and being a trash.

Weighing 285 pounds of solid fat, 7 feet tall, and depressed on the brink of suicide, I began a trail I had no plans to complete. 3 days into a hiker thought, because of my size and the normal sized people I hiked with, I was a parent taking my kids on a hike. Those on the field trip looked at me and called me DAD! at the same time and so the name stuck.

I finished the PCT in 173 days, possibly the longest I have ever completed the trail. I lost 89 pounds and lost my depression, forever!

Then I hiked the Centennial Trail (not the most fun hike I’ve ever done) and the Colorado Trail in 2019. I haven’t done much hiking since then except magical hikes and trails with my goats. Yes goats!

With my goats we hiked approximately 500 to 800 miles a year, summiting peaks, camping, fording rivers, and crossing glaciers. We go everywhere and surprise many people.

Now it’s my time to hike the Appalachian Trail alone one more time. I am currently torn between a NOBO walk or a YoYo walk. Either way, I have a unique adventure planned immediately afterwards, which I choose to keep private until my last Trek post.

My gear on this hike has improved a lot since the PCT when my base weight was 27 pounds, now only 13, well 13 if you don’t count a 2 pound lead brick (I’ll explain that while I’m on the trail) and a baby (not a real baby); Otherwise, my base weight is 17 pounds.

Currently weighing 242 pounds, still 7 feet tall and in much better shape, the Appalachian Trail will be a tough hike, but I hope to keep my desired mileage average between 25 and 33 miles per day with less than 10 zero days. That’s 63 zero days less than the PCT. I’m excited to get out there, share my journey, and let go of literally everything in my life. All. Follow us for more.

I will also write a book about this adventure, but not the typical hiking book, but one that explores more than just what happens on and off the trail.

Follow your feet, not your mind. Your mind will be fixed with each step.

We have all been lost in life, searching for a sense of direction, following other people’s dreams and lives and reflecting on how beautiful it seems. We spend so much time dreaming about other people’s lives that we get lost in our own.

For those of us taking the path, we are most likely looking for direction, not NOBO OR SOBO, but inner growth and direction towards our future selves. “The path provides” a common phrase we are used to hearing. But it’s true, when you allow yourself to put one foot on the path to improving, both physically and mentally, all you really have to do is put one foot in front of the other and your mind will do the rest for the next few months.

Is my self-esteem important? Yeah

Everyone I come into contact with asks me why? Why do I intend to hike the Appalachian Trail? Especially since this particular trail I have always said I never wanted to hike, I have no desire to do so. I still don’t do it.

Mental health reflects your self-esteem.

Depression has wreaked havoc on my life until my first hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. Broken and lost for never having found direction in anything in life before a long Journey. I had no self-esteem, I always had that sad story and I never felt really happy. The trail saved my life and completely beat the depression of my life! The trail provides!

So why hike the Appalachian Trail? I’m not depressed, but I am devastated. Two seemingly similar issues that I long thought were connected, until I now realized they are not.

We’ve all been through a breakup, it hurts and you get lost in the emotions of why things happened the way they did. I spent days after days reading and learning about what I went through and how to move forward. I realized that from now on, I don’t want to move forward. I would go through this pain over and over again to feel the happiness I had in that moment. The reason I’m doing the Appalachian Trail is because she thought she was going to do the Pacific Crest Trail again and I wanted to do it so I could walk home with her. Now I have no one to walk home with, so I might take a tour I was never interested in in the hopes of finding a new version of myself that I love. It will bother me all the way, and if I get to Katahdin feeling the same way, I’ll turn around and head back to Springer Mountain.

For those who are lost, wander. Wander until your mind finds its way back to you.

We’ve all been through a breakup and months later I feel the same way. Healing comes along the way, at least for me.

March 3, 2026 is my start date. If I end up in Maine I intend to do it at the end of May, if I do a YoYo I intend to do it at the beginning of September.

DAD!

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