Who Is “Easily Forgotten”?

                I am!  Ask anyone who has ever met me and the response will be universal—“Who?”

                My first, and sadly most recent accomplishment, was learning to walk.  From that time on, everyone has told me to sit down and shut up.  But this is just the milestone that one needs to enjoy backpacking—I peaked at 9 months of age.

                I grew up in a city of distinction–Decatur, IL. “What distinction?” you may ask.  There are two, actually.  When you get within 20 miles of the city, you will notice a distinct odor; the smell of burnt soybeans (often confused with an open sewer).  Decatur is the self-recognized soybean capitol of the world due to the presence of ADM and AE Staley (now a division of Lisle and Tate).  The second, most telling distinction, is to be the absolute last city in the entire United States with a population of over 80,000 residents to get access to the Eisenhower Interstate System.  To say that the city is forward thinking misses the mark.

                In my former life, I attended 12 years of Catholic School where there are only 2 possible outcomes: 1) you swallow the cool aide, become a Republican, attend church regularly (Christmas and Easter), tithe your 10%, and congratulate yourself on being open and accepting even though the only minority you know is the janitor at the company you work for even though you’re not quite sure of his name, or 2) you get Religion beaten out of you so you get the hell out of town and learn that there’s more to the world than the Midwest, and only go back to visit family.  It’s safe to say I fall into category 2.

                When I was 10, I accidentally went to a talk about UFO’s which was being held by the local Boy Scout Troop.  This led to me joining the troop where I was introduced to primitive camping and backpacking along the way to getting my Eagle Scout. Boy Scouts allowed me to get to know other kids who didn’t necessarily fit in the “main stream.”  I eventually got a job working on scout camp staff every summer from the time I was 14 to 22.  My camp staff job allowed me to camp anywhere from 7-9 weeks every summer and then I would use what money I earned to go on a 2 week trip before school restarted.  Twice, I was lucky enough to go to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico where the emphasis is on backpacking.

                I attended several Universities and Colleges (freedom, sex, and alcohol being unknown to a shy kid in a Catholic School provided many diversions to academia) eventually graduating from Southern Illinois University with a BSEE in 1988—seven years after graduating HS (but they were a fun 7 years!).  After graduation, I got married and immersed in the corporate world and pretty much lost my connection to the outdoors.  After the death of my sister and 16 years of marriage (divorce precursor—extended time with me; coincidentally, my ex-wife forgot my name when I ran into her one time) a great friend of mine, Steve Johnson (his real name and not a pseudonym representing the most common name in the USA), from Boy Scouts/High School invited me to go on a 2 week back packing trip with him to Washington State. 

Steve showed tremendous patience with me.  Over the years, I had ballooned up in weight to over 270# and had the cardio capacity of an 80 year old man.  We went to 3 National Parks in those two weeks; Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades and spent 2-3 nights at each park.  Steve has the ability and fitness level to walk the same speed no matter what terrain; uphill, downhill, rocky, level, it doesn’t matter.  With breaks, he can walk in the 3 mph range.  With breaks, I could walk in the 2-300 yph (yards per hour).  Steve would wait at every switchback until I showed up—he never left me behind or ditched me.  I promised after that I would get in better shape or I wouldn’t go backpacking with him again.

Enter Crossfit.  When I got back from Washington, I joined the SIU Rec Center and started spending time on an elliptical 5-6 days a week.  I managed to get down to 240# on my own and then got a personal trainer.  When I started working with Joanne, I still couldn’t do a sit up.  She worked the next 20# off of me and then handed me over to some friends of hers that had started a crossfit box.  The first time I went there, they were doing “Filthy 50” (look it up)—I was hooked from day 1.  I couldn’t even come close to doing a Dirty 30 after my intro sessions were over but Randy, Jasmine, and Kelly changed my life.  In the course of 4-5 months, they got me in the best shape of my life.  By the time I went on my first solo trip to Nepal to hike the Annapurna Circuit, I was down to 175#.

After I got back from my 5 week trip to Nepal and Bhutan, I knew that I had the hiking bug, but I wanted to have someone to share that life with.  I eventually met Pam.  She claimed to want to backpack but had never had the opportunity to do any because of raising a family, work, etc.  She was also recently divorced.  I also continued to do Crossfit and tried to entice Pam into joining the cult, but she has resisted over time even with a few forays into the realm.  At one point through Crossfit and series of gall bladder attacks (eventually leading to the little bastard’s removal) I was able to meet my goal of losing over 100# and got down to 165# but this kept leading to people asking me if I had cancer (I’m 6’1” almost 6’2”) so I decided I’d put on some weight.

Romantic devil that I am, I got Pam a backpack for Christmas one year and we planned our first extended trip to Scotland to hike the West Highland Way—the rest is history.  Since then, we’ve hiked rim to rim in the Grand Canyon, did the Gray Wolf Loop in Olympic National Park, took my brother-in-law with us to Isle Royale National Park and gotten him bitten by the hiking bug, hiked the 4 Pass Loop at Maroon Bells in Colorado, and most recently, hiked the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier.  Details of all these trips and more are located in this blog.

I have never really been a big fan of our corporate owners but I’ve reached my limit with this past election cycle (but I was already headed in that direction).  Over the years, when I worked directly for a company, I would be out of vacation by the end of February having used time paid time off as soon as I got it because I was so burnt out.  Fortunately, Pam’s kids are finally old enough that we are just an inconvenience to them (when they don’t need money) and she also is fed up with her work in the healthcare field where the emphasis is on see more patients and screw the quality of care.  As a result, this past year, I have liquidated all of my possessions and land (I had bought a small farm in Southern Illinois—twice, thanks to divorce) with the exception of my camping gear, clothes, and some tools that I’ll need to build us a house some day.  Until then, we hike!