Hi there, my name is Patch and welcome to the first post in my official blog.
I am extremely new to this whole blogging thing, but wanted to find a way to get my thoughts and goals out there so that whoever might have an interest in reading about them will have the opportunity.
The primary focus of this blog is going to be the personal goals I am in the process of setting for myself which revolve around hiking. Before I start with any of that though, I figure it would be smart to give a back story about who I am and what my values are in case somebody has just managed to stumble across this site on accident, and somehow is still reading at this point.
My real name is Todd Everleth, and I grew up in suburban Upstate New York. While growing up as a kid, I think that I believed very heavily in the "American Dream." The "American Dream" in my eyes consisted of doing well in school, going to college, getting a degree in something that I loved, graduating from school, getting a job/career, meeting a girl, falling in love, getting married, having kids, buying a house with the white picket fence, having a dog, making a fortune, and living happily ever after. Somehow when you are young, not only does all of this seem possible, but it seems completely ideal. To give credit where it is due, I have a few friends who are quite on their way to completing most if not all of these steps.
When my guidance counselor came around in high school and we had a split second decision to try and figure out what I wanted to do with my life I tried to think of the things that made me the most happy. I was a boy scout growing up, and loved the outdoors hiking, and camping and all that. I wasn't really a hippe, but there was something that felt right about making sure that my life revolved being in the outdoors. So I went off to college at the SUNY (State University of New York) College of Environmental Science and Forestry on the Syracuse University campus. After 4 1/2 years I graduated with a Dual degree in Forest Resource Management and Environmental Forest Biology. About 3 months after graduating I got a job working as a Procurement Forester down near Binghamton, NY. This was the ideal job, it had been what I had spent 4 1/2 years working towards, and I was exactly where I wanted to be.
About 5 months into the job I realized that something was wrong though. As a kid, and even in college I had spent a lot of time recreating in the outdoors, hiking, camping, rock climbing, and such, and in the 5 months I had been working as a Forester, I had not done any of it. The pay wasn't great, and it was long hours but it was fine because I was outside every day doing what I loved right? I finally realized what was wrong. By working outdoors every single day no matter what the weather was like, no matter how many hours I was out there, I was slowly starting to lose my appreciation for recreating in the outdoors. After working 40-50 hours a week, the last thing I wanted to do was go back out and hike or camp on my days off. I found myself sleeping in, and sitting around the apartment watching TV instead. I let this go on for another month and decided it was time to stop fooling myself, and that I wasn't happy. I wound up quitting that job, and within a year was back home in Albany starting over.
Somewhere along the line I heard about the Appalachian Trail. I knew of it from a very young age, but had never seen it or hiked on it. I started to hear stories of people who would take an entire summer, and hike the whole length of the trail, they were called Thruhikers. These people would drop their lives and head out to one end of the trail or the other and just start hiking. The idea of hiking 2175 miles was such a daunting task that I had literally said "That would be cool to do, but I don't think I could actually finish." About 25-30% of people who attempt to complete a thruhike actually finish it.
Once back in Albany I somehow heard about the Appalachian Trail again, and started to wonder if it was possible. I started researching it, and figured out that though it was still a daunting task, there were bountiful resources out there to help me figure it out, and it seemed that there were so many other people attempting it themselves each year that even though I knew nobody willing to drop their lives and go with me, I would meet people out there on the trail in the same boat as me. So I set my mind to it and started to plan. I knew what I needed as far as gear, and knew what I needed as far as money, so I had to put it off for another year. I was working as a server and a bartender at the time, and though my lifestyle was very carefree I was able to put away the amount of money I needed and on March 27th, 2005 I arrived at Amicaola Falls State Park in Georgia and started my trek north to Mt. Katahdin in Maine.
The trail was physically demanding at first, and then mentally demanding for the last 2/3 of the hike once my body got in shape. This is also where I was nicknamed "Patch". Every thruhiker gets a trail name given to them along the trail. It usually comes from a personal experience, running joke, or personality trait of some kind. Mine came from the ridiculous amount of blisters I carried on my feet and the scars from trying to keep them "Patched Up." To this day I identify with the name Patch just as much as I do with my given name, Todd.
It was not easy, but after 182 days I reached the summit of Katahdin on September 26th, 2005. To this day those 6 months of my life are by far the most amazing time of my life. I wanted to hike the trail because of one reason and one reason only - I wanted to prove to myself that I could. After 6 months of hiking I was tired, and came back to life and society unsure of where to go next. I went back to serving and bartending, and was trying to think about careers and girls and settling down, but that feeling of freedom, exploration, and wanderlust was still there in the back of my head trying to direct me again.
There are hundreds of long trails in the US, but the "Big Three" or "Triple Crown" of hiking are the Appalachian Trail (AT), The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), and The Continental Divide Trail (CDT). If someone is ambitious enough to want to actually complete their triple crown they usually do them in that exact order, because each prior hike prepares you for the next in a unique way. Hiker friends of mine told me that they were considering moving onto the PCT in the summer of 2008 and wanted to know if I was interested. It took all of 5 minutes to persuade me and I was in. I knew I could save the money in time, but the problem was I was getting a little burnt out at my current job, and burnt out in New York. I wanted to move somewhere warm first. I decided to move closer to the Pacific Crest Trail itself as it would help with transportation and altitude issues out west associated with the hike. California was too expensive so I headed to Las Vegas. I knew I could make money there continuing to serve and bartend and I was right. Moving across country and the time it took to get a job wiped out most of the money I had already saved by June 2007, but by April 2008 I was ready to go even if it was with about only 60% of the money I had saved for the AT in comparison.
On April 19th, 2008 I was able to meet up with some great friends from the AT at the Southern Terminus of the PCT on the Mexican border. Our goal was to hike through California, Oregon, and Washington and make it to the Northern terminus at the Canadian Border. The actual trail was easier, but I was a lot more laid back on this hike and it cost me. About 550 miles in I developed an infected blister on my foot and couldn't walk. I had to visit an emergency room in California to get medicine. I was able to get back on the trail 10 days later and skipped 160 miles of trail to catch up to friends. I was able to hike about another 100 miles (including Mt. Whitney) before the hospital bill came in. It was going to eat up about 1/3 of the money I had saved for the hike, and it was decision time. I decided to quit the trail, head back to Vegas, get my car and car support the other hikers as they came through South Lake Tahoe. Though I wasn't able to hike the whole trail, this was rewarding in itself as I was able to give back to the hiking community for all that had been given to me. The two lessons I learned from that summer are probably the two most important rules to long distance hiking. Listen to your body first and foremost, and hike your own hike. I loved my friends that I was out there with, but somehow I wound up catering my hike to the principle that I had to stay with them. I could have let them go ahead or fall behind me, but I didn't and as a result I feel as though it affected me physically as well.
Afterwards I moved back to Las Vegas, and a year after that proceeded to head back to New York and start from square one. This time around though I am not fooling myself. I have no aspirations of a career, or the so called "American Dream." My goals in life have changed over the last 10 years since college, and revolve almost solely around hiking and adventuring. I currently have just over 2900 miles of long distance hiking and this coming summer I plan to continue working on the New England 115 (Every Mountain over 4000 ft. in New England and New York), as well as attempt to section hike the rest of the Long Trail, and most of the Long Path in NY. I have a lot of day hikes as well as 1-2-3 day overnight hikes as planned this summer and I can't wait!
In 2011, I will be attempting to get the monkey off my back that has been there for a couple years now. I will be returning to the west coast and taking another crack at the PCT. Whether I start from the Mexican Border again and try to thruhike the whole thing, or whether I fill in the wholes I skipped and head north from where I left off and do a long section hike to Canada is still up in the air. Unfortunately it will probably come down to money. I hate money and wished I didn't need it to do the things I wanted to do in my life, but it is necessary.
After 2011 and the PCT...who knows? As I said before there are hundreds of trails out there, many of which interest me. Will I feel another calling towards the CDT as well, or possibly another one of these trails? I will have to wait and see. I also have a desire to visit every National Park in my life. I'm not talking about the monuments, historic sites, seashores, and such, there's just too many, but every place designated as a "National Park" I see within my ability to visit. I have also taken a cue from my brother and started hiking and collecting (not all are actual hikes) State High Points. I have been to the highest point of 18 of the 50 states thus far, and though a couple might be out of reach (McKinley, Rainier) I would like to see how many I can find my way to. I also would like to indulge my other passion and take one summer and try to visit every Major League Baseball Stadium in one season as well. I just think this would be a great way to see the country and an all together cool road trip.
Those are a long ways away though and right now I have to think about this summer first (with the PCT in the back of my head). This blog is where I have decided to post the musings in my head as well as my plans and aspirations, and when the time comes my trip reports as well.
So here we go folks, my first blog post is about to be over. Thank you for reading all the way through if you did. Sorry this was so long, but I figured I would get all the background out in one post rather than over the course of a few. Not sure how it works quite yet with posting replies or how you follow along with my blog, but if anybody ever wants to comment or post on here, please feel free. Hopefully the next post will have some more details about my hiking goals for this summer........
Patch
