One Step Leads To Another (Part 3)

To view Part 2, click here.

I may not be bright, but I sure aint dumb.

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Sorry, I don't have a single photo of Vail. This is the Sierra Nevadas instead.

Not wanting to make the same mistake again, stuck in a rut in good ol’ Jersey, I flew to Portland, Oregon. New Jersey hadn't worked out thus far, and at the (nearly inevitable) risk of financial losses I decided it was time for a change. The plan was, I would stay with my extended hiker family in Portland while trying to dig up some work and a place of my own to call home. Mega huge thanks to Smiles (and her entire household!), Beef Nuggets, and the all the lovely trash at the Hiker Haus (Panorama, Zana, Morrissey, Clutch, Kristo, and everyone else who made room for me on the couch).

I spent about three weeks in Portland dishing out resumes to just about every single restaurant and coffee shop in the city. As a hiker, this was great. I was putting in miles and got to know just about every inch of the city. As a job seeker, things did not go as smoothly. Portland is a city with a lot of young people looking for work and the few restaurants I did come into that were looking for help were getting upwards of fifty resumes daily. My search for housing was equally difficult; I needed low rent, a short-term or month-to-month lease, and not having a car I wanted to be close to the action.

I began to look into bailout options. I couldn't remain in Portland without a source of income and a place to call my own. Then one day, while searching craigslist in a last-ditch effort to pull things together, I saw that Veggie (AT 2010, PCT 2012) happened to be online. I recalled that she used to work in Vail, Colorado selling t-shirts. Very suddenly, the ball was once again rolling. Veggie contacted her old employer and put in a couple of words on my behalf. I then gave him a call and sent him a resume. His response, "sounds good, Dan. We can get you started and moved in as soon as you get out here."

I booked a flight to Denver that night and arranged to spend a few days in Boulder, CO with my good friend Mouse (AT 2010, CT yo-yo 2011, PCT 2012). Following that short visit he dropped me off here in Vail, Colorado where I have been living and working since.

I've got a stress free job and a great place to live with only a ten-minute walk or a short bus ride to the gondola. I spend my days off and many mornings enjoying the mountain as I train for the 2018 Olympic Games (I've got four whole years, it's in the bag).

Life has been good out here in Colorado.

Best of all, the job also allows me to leave for half a year. In fact, it's encouraged, leaving me free to hike all summer. Job and home will be waiting patiently right here for me to return. It may not be glamorous, but I live my day-to-day life doing what other people spend thousands of dollars to do for a single week.

You sure won’t hear me complaining.

It took a little while to get things sorted out. And arguably, I could probably be doing "better", or "more". I don't care, though. I'm content -- for the time being. I like where I live and I like the lifestyle that living here allows me. One step always leads to another.

It’s hard to say where I, or anyone else for that matter, will end up next.

And oh yeah, I’ll be hiking the Continental Divide Trail this year.

One Step Leads To Another (Part 2)

To view Part 1 of One Step Leads To Another, click here.

I returned to New Jersey once more. Again, unemployed and without enough income for a place of my own, I ran into an opportunity to work with a religious based service group on a week long trip to West Virginia. Their program is an excellent mix of service to those in need and an educational component dealing with environmental justice. Admittedly, the program's religious base did not align with my own, but their physical project and educational objectives seemed worthwhile, coupled with their need for additional adult assistance, I was driven to sign on for a week. This was, in many ways, a desperate attempt to have a positive teaching experience after such a difficult one in Texas.

And it was.

My week volunteering with the project was exactly what I needed. A worthy work project, physical labor, dedicated, self motivated, and interested students, a well organized and coordinated program, and of course, excellent leadership from all involved throughout the week.

I may have made an impact in West Virginia, through my physical labors and also through the students I worked with. But, West Virginia undoubtedly left a positive impact on me. I was once again re-invigorated.

The week ended and I returned to New Jersey, once more unemployed, but this time full of positive thoughts. Low and behold, it was only a few days before I received an email and promptly thereafter a phone call concerning a trails project in Nevada. Without other employment options and with the promise of two months of life outside in Nevada I took the job, and within days I was headed to Reno. I was no longer crew leader, but member. This afforded a less stressful opportunity to do some good work and focus on my own learning objectives with a group of fellow crew leaders, all having just finished up their own summers leading throughout the country.

And it was good.

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It was good, that is, until something bizarre happened. The U.S. government shut down. As an American citizen of twenty-four years I had assumed that government shut downs were the business of third world countries and places of similar turmoil and unrest. I never questioned that one day we'd have a functioning government, the type who pays  those it has employed, -- the next day we would not. I was wrong. (This, might I add, was in no way the fault of the organization I was working with. We were contracted through the Bureau of Land Management and when they ceased operations we were forced to do the same.)

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There I was, once again, unemployed, homeless, and this time in the middle-of-nowhere Nevada desert. We spent nearly a week just kicking our heels out in the desert with the hopes that maybe tomorrow, the next day, or the day after that, the government would resume operation and we therefore could do the same. This did not happen. In fact, the government would remain in this state for over half a month.

With light pockets, having earned only half the pay we had expected, we gathered our gear, packed it in, went back to Reno, and booked flights back "home".

One Step Leads To Another (Part 1)

Here's how it all wrapped up and here's what happened since the last big hike.

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I finished the Pacific Crest Trail on October 1st, 2012. It was good.

I hiked to Manning Park where I got on a bus and spent a week in Vancouver. And that was good.

Then, I was picked up by my uncle Steve. Technically he's my great uncle; it's all the same. I had the pleasure of spending a week with him and his wife, Michelle, at their beautiful home on a small island off the northern coast of Washington. And that too, was also good.

Following all of this, I did what had to be done, or at least what I believed at that time had to be done.

I flew back to New Jersey. I planned to spend some time living with the folks, visit with friends and family, and find myself a good ol' fashioned job. The real type. The type that isn't dependent upon the seasons and maybe, just maybe, offers a few so-called "benefits". Among these "benefits" is typically the benefit of working indoors on a rigid schedule that allows so many to live without recognizing or feeling the flow of natural time and the changing of the seasons. -- it does not necessarily, but can easily, lead to the Great Disconnect between Man and Earth. However, such a job simply wasn't in the cards.

In an effort to keep busy, I picked up a job at a local coffee shop. Which turned out to be a great job, however it rooted me in New Jersey without making even enough money to pay the cheapest rent in the area.

I grew restless. And as the summer season approached, I took on a job leading high school trail crews for another season. I've loved this job. Travel, camping, hiking, and on-job tasks with clear objectives able to be completed only through raw physical effort. It has given me an opportunity to hone my skills as a teacher and mentor. Best yet, I wasn't teaching from a book or a prescribed curriculum, I was let lose to teach what inspired me. Whichever of Nature's many beauties struck me throughout the day would become our lesson. Such an organic teaching method coupled with total natural immersion and the natural highs of physical activity meant one thing; young people would be inspired. Inspired to take up the cause of the natural world, for She speaks softly without Human aid, and to care for her for the rest of their lives.

Additionally, trail crews give their members freedom and responsibility that perhaps has not existed in their life until this point. Nature is the greatest teacher and it has been my pleasure to work as her assistant. If it looks as if it will rain, I will guide my students towards taking the correct measures to remain comfortable and happy. I will not, and often cannot, do these things for my students. Therefore, if they fail to act, they will be forced to handle the natural consequences, whether it be simply a wet change of clothes, an uncomfortable camp layout, or a tent which may not be keeping its contents dry (obviously the safety of my students is of utmost importance and when necessary I will step in to correct a situation if need be).

This summer I was assigned to work in Texas and ran up against more problems than successes. I truly hope that beyond the physically observable and immediate successes further ones may become apparent as these students grow and look back upon their experiences on the crew. Regardless, it was a very difficult summer in a largely uninspiring location. As a final statement concerning Texas, I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful co-worker and friend who without I would have been lost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Click here for Part 2!