Just do it…get away from a normal life

The first years…

Growing up in a small town in New Hampshire, my “sports career” consisted mostly of avoiding them. While my brothers were in the field, and much to my father’s chagrin, I was busy discovering that the backyard wasn’t just grass: it was a gateway to an untamed playground filled with trees and rivers. From dawn to dusk, I was a professional fort builder and stream explorer until my high school graduation forced me to “get serious.”

I got bored, wanted to travel, and looked for a new perspective on life outside of my backyard. I took a leap of faith and joined the U.S. Army, serving overseas in both peacetime and war as a communications specialist. Later, as a law enforcement lieutenant, he traded finely crinkled camouflage for navy blue polyester for nearly two decades. It took me until I was 32 to realize that while I was definitely on a “path,” I was flying solo and deeply missed the wild.

Meeting my only companion…

In 2004, I met my wife, Sloane, a logistics coordinator. If you’ve ever met a high-energy German Shepherd, the kind who anxiously paces the ground if she’s not out running in the mountains daily, that’s her.

Like me, she found a sense of belonging in the land and trees that no team sport could provide. She was basically “raised in a barn,” cleaning trash stalls and smelling like fragrant straw while training horses and dreaming of the Olympics. He even earned a degree in equine management before realizing that while horses were his first love, they weren’t exactly a «stable» source of income (pun absolutely intended).

Driven by a yearning for adventure, she headed just south of “the Whites” for international studies, where she reconnected with nature through a semester-long outdoor skills program. Guiding «highly energetic» teenagers through the New England countryside solidified it: she was destined for a life of adventure. And honestly? Just like one of those teenagers, she is 100% responsible for dragging me back into the wild.

Living the weekend…

A life of adventure was always in the offing, but it had to wait a long time. We kept our hiking and camping spirit alive, but we were both stuck in our careers. Our wanderlust was strictly rationed for long weekends and the occasional week’s vacation. At night, we devour documentaries of epic hikes, looking at each other with a “someday” look in our eyes. Although quick getaways to South America, Canada and the UK fueled our “fix”, it was the desire to keep walking that would ultimately relieve the “itch”.

Snowdon Summit in Wales, via Watkin Path, 2017

At that point, we had sold our first house and moved into a small apartment for our in-laws while we searched for a “forever” home defined by isolation and tranquility. It took five years of relentless “Zillow-ing,” but we finally found it.

Life on the farm…

Our peaceful sanctuary in full bloom!

In 2011, we literally “bought the farm,” transforming 15 acres of Maine woods and fields into a medicinal herb sanctuary and apothecary – Sloane, now an herbalist. Our hearts were there, but my job called me three hours south every four days, while Sloane handled farm chores and business. This back-and-forth routine became the norm, separating us only by distance, as each of us counted the days until we could be together again. Despite the presence of “part time,” we work in the field full time, often performing household chores into the wee hours of the morning while donning headlamps (hikers in training?). For the next ten years, we lived a life of high-speed horticulture. It was a decade of dirt, sweat and miles of road, but we had a purpose and a «living» property. We loved our farm, but deep down we were vagabonds at heart who had a hard time settling down.

Here’s a crazy idea…

By 2023, our “someday” goal had finally reached its limit. After unexpectedly losing both of our parents (Sloane’s twenty years earlier and mine just five), we stopped talking about «eventually.» It sounds like a cliché until you live it, but life is short and we decided it was time to stop waiting for permission to start living our own.

That was the year I took a leap of faith by retiring early. Sloane closed the doors of our thriving apothecary and we traded a perfectly good roof for a two-person tent. Lihat juga SEef4c. We set out on the Appalachian Trail in the middle of an ice storm in March 2024, and by September we were atop the iconic Mount Katahdin summit sign. We were wild, exhausted, and incredibly proud to be “hiker trash.”

The Appalachian Trail dominated a complex love-hate relationship with roots, rocks, and a constant state of starvation. Most days were the hardest things we had ever done in our lives, but they were also the most life-shaping. There were moments of pure, unadulterated joy, and others punctuated by tears and subtle reminders to accept the body parts we «didn’t know we had,» a constant reminder of Never quit on a bad day.

We did it! 09/14/24

Home is where your heart is…

When we returned we did the only logical thing: we sold the farm. With no backup plan and only five weeks to cut down on a lifetime of “stuff,” our lives became a whirlwind. By Christmas Eve, we had moved into a city apartment in Portland, Maine. However, the trail had left its mark…literally. I was nursing a torn meniscus and Sloane was nursing a torn rotator cuff. That winter was a humiliating cycle of physical therapy and silent stings of defeat.

At the end of May, our lease was up and we were on the move again, this time downsizing to “Sunny,” our yellow 1984 VW Westfalia (we are products of the ’70s, after all!). We spent half a year touring the northern US and Canada, visiting Niagara Falls, the Badlands, the Tetons, and the Glacier, just to name a few. Then we flew back east, grabbed our other V-dub, and did it all again on a southerly route through scorching Texas, the high deserts of New Mexico, and the California coast, but not before taking a detour to visit our beloved Smokies.

Our dear “Sunny”! After hundreds of miles, we all needed a break.

While “recovering” from our AT injuries, we did exactly what doctors advised against: walking. We traveled through 38 states, watched the sunset from every possible angle, camped under a starry sky, and left our footprints on sections of the Continental Divide, Pacific Crest, and Tahoe Rim trails before finally landing in Portland, Oregon. It was truly the trip of a lifetime.

National Parks Leap, Summer 2025.

Embracing the blowjob (again)…

The PCT has been on our list for a long time; It was never a question of Yeahit’s just a matter of when. And we have finally learned the best answer to that question: Why not now?

On April 1, we left our 100-square-foot rented space in Oregon and took a train to San Diego. We’ll spend a couple of days enjoying little luxuries (bathing, eating with utensils, sleeping in a bed) and, a few days later, we’ll be dropped off at the southern terminus of the PCT. Completely “normal”, right?

People often ask why we would sign up for something so difficult again. The truth is that discomfort is predictable; the real surprises are personal growth and resilience. Out there, it’s all about “embracing the bad!”

From that first step, we will attempt to walk 2,655 miles to Canada. Naturally, Sloane will be about 200 feet in front of me (a helpful tip for anyone following me!), while I document the trip from behind. We will be fueled by the hope of resupply boxes containing something (anything) other than another “bar” and the simple joy of each mile in the wilderness we have finally rediscovered.

Exploring the PCT (near Mt. Shasta California)…we will be back!

As we struggle to put this all together, we’re beyond excited and, honestly, a little overwhelmed. We still have 35 (vegan) resupply boxes to pack and ship (more details on this to come!) and some final equipment adjustments to figure out, all in the next 5 days. We’ve been known to be last minute about everything (as evidenced by this late first post), but we’ve learned that on the other side of the chaos, somehow it always works out.

Can you identify yourself? We’d love to hear about your own “someday” in the comments below!

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Thank you for reading and for allowing us to be part of this adventure with you.