Day 328 – 4/16/12 – Coincidences

Antietam Creek to Huckleberry Hill; Distance = 6.7 Miles; People Met = 13

Two nice coincidences happened today.  The first occurred at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harpers Ferry.  We dropped in there to get the New York/New Jersey guidebook for the very last leg of our journey … and for old time’s sake by two veteran AT hikers.  The last time I was here the legendary Jean Cashen was holding down the fort with her famous good will towards long distance hikers.  Nowadays Dave, Wendell and Lori seem just as eager to meet and greet the long distance hikers that come through.

Dave and Wendell at ATC

They keep a photo album of hikers.  Until this year there were photos of AT hikers.  Now our photo is the second one for ADT hikers, closely following “Boston” and “Cubby,” who came through earlier on their journey from east to west.

Two other hikers came in while we were there.  Cassie Meador and Matt Mahaney were doing a 500 mile hike that combined community, energy and dance.  The word community perked up my ears and I interviewed them about their project.  I’m going to save the podcast for the West Virginia/Maryland newsletter that will come out soon.

Matt and Cassie stopping in at the ATC

Meanwhile, part of their project involved collecting 500 stories and they interviewed us as well.  The coincidence has to do with Heather Doyle, heavily involved with their project, who is the daughter of our old hiking comrade Warren Doyle.  That made sense.  Father Warren is renowned for contra-dancing and daughter Heather picked up the dancing bug as well.

Before we left the ATC office I got in a discussion with Dave for which I now have to eat my words.  We shared with Dave what we’ve been told, that we are the first ADT hikers to do the trail continuously from west to east.  Dave qualified that we are the first recorded hikers; you don’t know who might have done the trail without any recognition.  I countered that the American Discovery Trail is less known than the AT and people hiking the trail are bound to touch base with the ADT Society and thus be recorded.

That came back to haunt me when that evening we stopped at the same campsite as Paul Wilke.  Paul is hiking the ADT from east to west and we are the first people with any connection to the ADT to know about him.  Funny how things work out.  We knew about five ADT hikers coming our way in 2012 and we missed all of them.  The one that nobody knew about we encounter.  He said he did not know how far he would make it and did not want to make a big deal about it.

ADT hiker Paul Wilke

Paul has a compelling story.  He was laid off twice in the span of a few months as a construction worker in New York City.  Fed up with both the city and work in general he decided he needed to do something drastically different in order to figure his life out.  At age 46, he never camped out until the beginning of this journey.  He sold everything he had to put himself in a position where he had only two choices:  either figure out the next step in his life or continue on the ADT until the end.

We were impressed with Paul’s determination to reboot his life, and that led me to greater acceptance for our own situation.  Early on I talked only about our cause when people asked why we were doing this.  In reality, besides promoting a cause Cindy and I are also hiking to reboot our lives.  Cindy is not likely to be able to go back to her career as a nurse.  I must find a way for us to survive financially when we return.  Hopefully this hike has provided insights and opportunities towards that end.

Chatting with Paul provided some additional food for thought.  I have a parable of sorts based on this hike; a tale of two Matts.  Utah Matt railed against corporate America, yet thought it naive to pursue any work outside of a corporation.  Kansas Matt was doing exactly that by returning to his roots in rural (and inexpensive) Kansas and diversifying his income streams in clever and interrelated ways.

Paul shared that his girlfriend was looking to do something similar; become an entrepreneur revitalizing a small town business.  Paul added that this is becoming a movement of sorts for the young.  Hooray if that is true!  Our country will need far more entrepreneurial “Kansas Matts” who care about community, rather than the “Utah Matts” who want to be indulged by a corporate economy.

Paul gave me his blessings to let ADT folks know he’s out there.  Sharon and Paul? Gary?  He’s coming your way soon.