Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1188: Thru-Hiking the Triple Crown in a Kilt Revisited - Nic “The Wandering Kiltsman” Cornett

Transcript

Ep. 1188: Thru-Hiking the Triple Crown in a Kilt Revisited - Nic “The Wandering Kiltsman” Cornett · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:08
[SPEAKER_02]: You're listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:10
[SPEAKER_02]: We talk with adventurers from around the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation you need to get started in the outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there.
0:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello everyone and welcome to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:22
[SPEAKER_01]: This is Caleb.
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you guys, but there's always been a part of me that has dreamed about doing one of the major through highs.
0:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail,
0:34
[SPEAKER_01]: or the specific crest trail, those are usually the ones which people talk about.
0:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And just the idea of being in the woods for months at a time with intermittent breaks to re-supply and traveling such a great distance on foot has always been something which has attracted me.
0:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what this episode is about.
0:56
[SPEAKER_01]: In this episode, Mason interviews Nick Kornet, like many of us, Nick lived a lot of his life doing the nine to five job.
1:05
[SPEAKER_01]: But then on Doctor's orders, he decided to quit his job and to do a through hike starting with an Appalachian Trail for rebirth.
1:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And after that, he did the Continental Divide Trail and then
1:19
[SPEAKER_01]: At the time that this episode was recorded, he was gearing up for the Pacific Crest Trail, all well embracing the kilt as a symbol of freedom, hope, and warmth.
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a really great episode.
1:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Hope you guys enjoy it.
1:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's Mason.
1:36
[SPEAKER_00]: There we got a really, really interesting episode.
1:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure the turns and twist it might take, but Nick Kornet, welcome to the show.
1:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, thanks for having me, man.
1:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
1:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So so you were talking a little bit about the weather before we hit record, but I didn't ask where you come from today.
1:54
[SPEAKER_03]: So right now, I'm in Knoxville, Tennessee, hanging out and in between the through hiking season as it were.
2:01
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, cool.
2:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So is that home for you then, Knoxville?
2:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I've got family in Knoxville.
2:07
[SPEAKER_03]: So I
2:09
[SPEAKER_03]: before I started through hiking home was Los Angeles, and then I've been on the road for three years.
2:16
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's just a matter of bouncing between.
2:19
[SPEAKER_03]: So I guess it's close to home as I can get right now.
2:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So before through hiking, before Los Angeles, where did you grow up and what did you grow up doing?
2:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Athletic-wise, or adventure-wise, were you into a family that did this kind of stuff, or did you discover it on your own?
2:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, so I was a military brat.
2:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So I was born overseas.
2:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I've lived all over the country, all over the world.
2:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Growing up, I did high school sports.
2:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I did football and wrestling.
2:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I ran track through shop put.
2:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I was super active as much as I could have been.
2:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And then started hiking in high school too.
3:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And then yeah, my family does outdoor stuff,
3:07
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I gained 10,000 miles and three years.
3:10
[SPEAKER_00]: She said no kidding.
3:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, not a lot of people do stuff like that.
3:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So being in the military or being a military brand, you got you got to see a lot of different places and explore a lot of places.
3:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, for sure.
3:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I did my eight year service and got to go around the world a couple of times moved across country more times than I can count right now.
3:30
[SPEAKER_03]: But I've definitely
3:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I've seen my share for sure.
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks.
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So how did how did the through hike and start coming up?
3:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely different than military life.
3:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's not.
3:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
3:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, it's actually got a lot of similarities to it.
3:43
[SPEAKER_03]: But um, I read a walk in the woods a long time ago before that.
3:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I had read a the smoking mountain guide to the Appalachian Trail.
3:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I've always wanted to hike the, uh, the AT, the Appalachian Trail.
3:58
[SPEAKER_03]: In a couple of years ago, I said, you know what, fine, I'm just going to go do it and I left my job as a filmmaker.
4:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, sort of, I left the professional side of filmmaking and went into the YouTube side of filmmaking.
4:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Told a bunch of people that I was leaving and I had some amazing producers and an awesome editor jump on and say, you know what, we're going to help you out.
4:20
[SPEAKER_03]: So just shoot pictures in video and that's how I'm able to do what I am now.
4:27
[SPEAKER_03]: while hiking these different through hikes.
4:30
[SPEAKER_03]: So that way, I can put things up on different platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, all that stuff.
4:39
[SPEAKER_03]: The transition between,
4:41
[SPEAKER_03]: acting and cinematography and directing and Los Angeles to being full-time content creator on trail is a very different format for sure and you don't get to go home and sleep every night.
4:55
[SPEAKER_03]: You just gotta carry it with you and set up wherever you set up.
5:00
[SPEAKER_03]: The difference between the two is now I get to hike every day and stay in shape and have fun and see different parts of the world instead of staying in one location to do the same basic thing.
5:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no kid and wild to you.
5:16
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really interesting.
5:17
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that's there's oh gosh, it's so hard to capture an adventure like decide what to capture, how to tell the story.
5:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure it's the same way with film, just like how are we going to do this?
5:28
[SPEAKER_00]: What to say, you know, everything from camera angles to lighting to, you know, the tone.
5:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know the lingo, but there's so many decisions to make.
5:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure it can be overwhelming on top of
5:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.
5:45
[SPEAKER_03]: And on both sides of the coin, there's a ton of preparation, a ton of planning.
5:51
[SPEAKER_03]: You can do it alone, but it's a lot easier if you do it with more people.
5:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And when it comes to like hiking and trying to tell a story, it gets a little more difficult when you're trying to do longer mileage, finishing by certain deadlines when you're dealing with fires
6:14
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, all the logistics that go into filmmaking, plus the logistics of doing a thrill through hike altogether at one cheese.
6:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And not only that, something that you're kind of known for, you're unique, we haven't even mentioned it yet, is that you don't, you don't, you don't wear what a lot of normal thru hackers wear, you wear a kill.
6:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us about that.
6:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, I wear a kill every day.
6:38
[SPEAKER_03]: So in 2016, I went to the Scottish Highland Festival.
6:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was given a kilt to wear.
6:46
[SPEAKER_03]: So I decided, you know what, fine, cool.
6:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I will absolutely do it.
6:50
[SPEAKER_03]: It was my family tartan.
6:51
[SPEAKER_03]: I wore it to the Highland Festival.
6:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Had a great time for the weekend, came home, and threw away all my pants.
6:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And I've only been wearing a kilt scent bun.
7:00
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, man, you gotta tell us like, why?
7:03
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it about the kilt?
7:05
[SPEAKER_00]: How did it feel?
7:06
[SPEAKER_00]: What gave you the confidence, man?
7:08
[SPEAKER_03]: That's the thing for me.
7:12
[SPEAKER_03]: guys that wear kills, they get it.
7:14
[SPEAKER_03]: You there's a a machismo, a given comfort that you get once you're wearing a kilt for long enough that, you know, people come up and start conversation with you just because you're wearing a kilt.
7:30
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, that guy's interesting, obviously, let me talk to him.
7:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
7:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's one of those things where if you see somebody wearing a kilt, you're like, hey, you know what?
7:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to follow that guy because he's about to do something cool.
7:42
[SPEAKER_03]: which is usually the case and I recommend if you see somebody wearing a kilt go ask him who they are and what they're about to do because they're probably doing something interesting.
7:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, I love it.
7:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be honest.
7:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I know a few people that wear quilts and they're all, they all kind of, obviously, march to the beat of their own drum and they're very interested in people.
8:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I did see them in a crowd, I'd have to be like, whoa, why?
8:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us about when the quilt came in in conjunction with through hiking did one come before the other, did they come together for you?
8:14
[SPEAKER_03]: For me, the quilt came first, but the hiking quilts that I wore,
8:19
[SPEAKER_03]: I got as I was leaving because there's different fabrics for different occasions, I've got killed set-way eight pounds because they're super heavy for certain weather and I've got super ultra light kills, but it was one of those.
8:33
[SPEAKER_03]: It saves me waiting my backpack because I don't
8:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of those things that it makes the hiking experience better for me.
8:53
[SPEAKER_03]: I know it's not for everybody, but I think everyone should wear a kilt at least for a day on trail and see how it works for them because when you get out there and you're walking, you'll chase a little bit, but that's what they make body glide for and you'll find that it's cleaner.
9:08
[SPEAKER_03]: It's easier to take care of.
9:10
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't sweat as much and when it's cold, you're actually warmer, depending on the fabric you're using.
9:16
[SPEAKER_00]: How is that possible?
9:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it's like having a blanket on, I guess.
9:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
9:20
[SPEAKER_03]: So anatomy of physiology, when your body needs regularly temperature, it uses your femoral arteries the most.
9:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And if they're touching, they can regulate temperature a lot better than if you haven't separated by fabric.
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: It definitely makes sense.
9:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So you were wearing the kill.
9:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You weren't getting used to that years before you started through hiking.
9:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So tell us about the idea of wanting to quit your job.
9:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You're wearing a kill through all this, of course.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Wanting to quit your job in L.A. and hike the Appalachian Trail.
9:49
[SPEAKER_00]: How long of a process was it to decide to do that?
9:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And then was it just immediately like, oh, yeah, obviously I'm going to wear a kill during this.
9:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, so,
10:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, a lot of long stories in there and I was a bit old in my book, but when I was leaving California, I had a lot of major negative life changes that happened all at once.
10:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And because of that, I went to the VA, got into a therapy program and therapist said, you don't you need to do you need to go hiking.
10:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Just go for a week, two weeks, whatever.
10:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, okay, yeah, that makes sense.
10:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Sounds intense, but brilliant.
10:31
[SPEAKER_03]: So have fun.
10:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And I said, you know what cool.
10:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to do this sold off everything I had, except for six boxes of stuff that I still keep.
10:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And got rid of the cars houses everything to go hike.
10:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And by doing that, got rid of all my debts by getting rid of all the things that I was paying for.
10:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And my only bills are ones that I choose to have, like cell phone, some streaming services.
10:59
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, okay, now that I have all this in play, I can go do these hikes, and the kilth, it's part of my brand now.
11:08
[SPEAKER_03]: People see me in public, you know, hey, you're the kilth guy.
11:12
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, close.
11:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't avoid it.
11:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure you can't avoid it.
11:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, I mean, that's a major life chain.
11:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Good on your therapist, too, to to recommend that.
11:22
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that kind of, that's the kind of advice I'm looking for.
11:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Life, you know, from from the folks around me, that's incredible.
11:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was the negative life changes that you said,
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: that kind of spurred this on.
11:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what did it feel like for you to drastically change your life so much?
11:38
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, going from a job, houses, build, normal builds, a frankly normal debt, and trading that off for essentially the unknown and a path through the woods.
11:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, um, so it was kind of like a wonderful analogy for it.
11:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I was being born again, like you go through a really painful experience.
12:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you come out the other side.
12:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's just light and everything was better.
12:05
[SPEAKER_03]: It went from being this rat race of I need to have all these things.
12:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And I need to make everyone else happy.
12:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I decided, you know what, I'm going to go do this.
12:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's something that I enjoy and because I was able to do that.
12:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, I'm in a position of, I'm happy all the time.
12:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't have anywhere near as much stress.
12:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm not on somebody else's schedule.
12:30
[SPEAKER_03]: I get to do what I need to do when I need to do it.
12:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And on the same token, I can do what I want when I want to do it.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you fear about that new lifestyle, or this new challenge of starting out your new life of doing the application trail?
12:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I guess the normal fear that most everybody feels when they start a through hike is I've got this monumental task and am I going to be able to do it when it came to the 18 there's a time limit you have up until a certain day every year to finish because of whether and they shut down the finish line up at back to state park and main.
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you're one of those weird people that go southbound, which we love and support them too, but I just had a friend finished southbound last year and so yeah, he'll be listening to this.
13:18
[SPEAKER_00]: He's weird.
13:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, that's hardcore.
13:21
[SPEAKER_03]: That is amazing.
13:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I did the southbound on the continental the by trail and southbound hikes versus northbound hikes are completely different.
13:29
[SPEAKER_03]: So, Kudos to him, that's crazy.
13:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So you started off the A.T., you had the normal challenges, the normal fears, you sold off all your stuff, your old life.
13:44
[SPEAKER_00]: As soon as you got your gear together, you had your tilt ready to go.
13:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Take us through, just maybe the first, you know, few weeks or so of the AT, there's so many, and I always want to like bring up the same experiences of people, like, what did it feel like starting out?
13:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there's so many people that listen to this show that listen, because they have in their mind, they want to do something.
14:05
[SPEAKER_00]: They're you with your job, you know, with all those things in place, wondering what that other side is like.
14:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So I always want to, you know, learn from
14:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a quick message break.
14:21
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
14:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go ahead and get back into next story.
14:25
[SPEAKER_03]: OK.
14:26
[SPEAKER_03]: So leading up to the hike, we're going to backtrack just a little bit.
14:30
[SPEAKER_03]: The six months up until the day before I left, I was not allowed to walk more than a mile a day because I was having kidney issues and I wasn't allowed to walk that far.
14:41
[SPEAKER_03]: So I was basically going from couch to trail.
14:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's people out there that have done it.
14:46
[SPEAKER_03]: talked to your doctor first, of course.
14:48
[SPEAKER_03]: But when I stepped on trail, I hadn't worked out in almost a year because of things that were going on with me.
14:56
[SPEAKER_03]: So some of the best advice that I was given was start slow, finished, strong.
15:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So the furthest I went for the first two weeks was 10 miles in a day, which for the Appalachian Trail starting out, that's actually pretty far, but you're doing six
15:16
[SPEAKER_03]: 20 mile days, 25 mile days.
15:19
[SPEAKER_03]: When I got into Vermont, I was able to do 30 mile days because those first few weeks, I was going slow.
15:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was figuring out what gear I needed.
15:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I sent home a ton of weight when I first got to the first town, which is Helen Georgia.
15:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's so many things that you can do to set yourself up for success, which the number one is asking people that I've already done it.
15:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey,
15:40
[SPEAKER_03]: What did you have at the end versus what you had at the beginning, and what did you do to start out, and how did you finish?
15:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you feel like you have to be absolutely tuned in for something like this to work.
15:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But really, it sounds like you had everything, a lot of things working against you.
15:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You just went out there and started and did it and learned every day a little bit getting just a little bit better every day.
16:06
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's something anybody can do.
16:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah, and not just with Nike either, that's life because I'm still learning every single day.
16:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm two thirds of the way through this triple crown and I'm still learning stuff about hiking and what I can and can't do.
16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So you get out there and you start learning, start shedding some weight.
16:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Your tilt is just gracefully moving about with you.
16:29
[SPEAKER_00]: We're you getting a lot of attention for that.
16:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And how many people, if you could put a percentage, we're also wearing kilt.
16:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Was it like half a percent?
16:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody?
16:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Because any other other souls, like yourself out there wearing kilt.
16:44
[SPEAKER_03]: So in 5,000 miles, I run into three other people wearing kilt's hiking.
16:51
[SPEAKER_03]: um as through hikers day hikers and stuff i've seen a handful but when it comes to through hikers i've seen three and then when it comes to me wearing it there's usually like the same jokes come out and there's always the few same comments but when it comes to the the through hiking community you can't judge somebody based on what they wear anyway because once you get into town you look completely different than what you're wearing on
17:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And yes, I still wear a kilt in town, but when I'm out hiking and you see me in a kilt, I look disgusting because when you're hiking, you just get gross and then once I'm in town, I look, you know, distinguished.
17:32
[SPEAKER_03]: because that's what it kills you.
17:33
[SPEAKER_03]: They make you look distinguished, not weird.
17:36
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the whole point behind them, right?
17:39
[SPEAKER_00]: No, exactly.
17:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Getting through the A.T. What, you know, going back to just the experience, ooh, just as a person you're having, going from, you know, from this old life, was it fulfilling?
17:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, so it was fulfilling.
17:55
[SPEAKER_03]: The actual experience going from Georgia to Maine and getting all the way to the end and touching the finish line,
18:02
[SPEAKER_03]: after doing this thing that not very many people do anyway, but it's from beginning to end, it's a kick in the teeth, it's hard and you get finished and it's fulfilling.
18:14
[SPEAKER_03]: For me, I was still going through a lot in my head because I was processing an entire, basically life time before that, getting on this trail.
18:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And by the time I had reached the end, I had calmed down a lot, and I had a clear mind, I knew what I wanted, and I knew where I wanted to go.
18:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So that way, when it came to the next trail, I started out ready to just be open-minded to enjoy the experience of itself, which was this year, the CDT.
18:44
[SPEAKER_03]: So when it comes to a through hike, if you go into it thinking, oh, it's just going to be hard the whole time.
18:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's fine.
18:51
[SPEAKER_03]: but go into it open-minded and you can go into just like any experience and make it into what you want it to be and have fulfilling every day as opposed to just when you finish.
19:04
[SPEAKER_03]: But there's a lot of adages with through hiking and life comparisons where people say, you know, it's...
19:12
[SPEAKER_03]: every step of the way, it is because you can stop any moment or you can be taken off trail any second, so you might as well enjoy every second, not just when you finish.
19:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm, you know, that's true.
19:24
[SPEAKER_00]: We really only talk to people that finish their through hikes on this show.
19:28
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't take into consideration the thousands that get pulled off for whatever reason and forget about that.
19:34
[SPEAKER_00]: There, you might not be out there as long as you think you will.
19:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So you should enjoy it.
19:38
[SPEAKER_00]: You might not be here on Earth as long as you think you will.
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to enjoy today.
19:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You never know what's going to happen.
19:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a story about being on the AT, just something that you really enjoyed.
19:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Something that sticks out is...
19:49
[SPEAKER_00]: just a positive thing that happened that that people could relate to.
19:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, um, the first week I was on trail.
19:57
[SPEAKER_03]: I met some of my new lifetime best friends.
20:01
[SPEAKER_03]: We had together a lot last year and this year.
20:03
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of those.
20:06
[SPEAKER_03]: You're like minded people in the same area from different walks of life.
20:10
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you meet, you start talking, you hang out with each other
20:15
[SPEAKER_03]: great friends and you know you give your shirt for them and vice versa.
20:20
[SPEAKER_03]: So I met my buddy Crash and my buddy Zaxquatch on trail and there's so many more that I've met last year in this year, but you know within a week finding like minded individuals and just starting hiking through.
20:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Was it immediately clear that you wanted to do the rest the other two of the triple crown or did it take time to get to that point like this is possible?
20:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is something I want to
20:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, so even before I left for the AT, I had already committed to the triple crown, which, I know, there's, um, so I've got an amazing team at the wandering killsmen in order to get people on board with supporting, whether it be giving us gear or joining Patreon or any of the other facets of being able to just contribute to this adventure.
21:13
[SPEAKER_03]: goofy guy, I wear a kilt.
21:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm doing this adventure.
21:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to be hiking 10,000 miles and three years.
21:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And that number usually makes people go, okay, tell me more.
21:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, okay, I'm hiking the Applegit Trail, continental divide, and the Pacific Crest Trail.
21:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm doing it in a kilt.
21:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm carrying a guitar now I'm hiking with a dog.
21:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And we're going to be doing this monumental thing that less than a thousand people have done in history period.
21:41
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's
21:42
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a crazy, crazy fun time.
21:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You can, holy cow.
21:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And I saw the guitar.
21:50
[SPEAKER_00]: That didn't know you were carrying it the whole time.
21:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You're carrying that on your back.
21:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, um, so the great thing about through hiking is that if you're carrying something you have to use it, so I've actually gotten pretty decent at a guitar.
22:03
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a great point.
22:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I come from a bike packing and grounded.
22:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You can just throw all kinds of stuff in the kayak around the bike that you don't really ever need or use.
22:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a vehicle, you know.
22:14
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not nearly as difficult to carry a whole jar of peanut butter on the bike as it is on your back.
22:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, that's really interesting that you're able to carry that and use it, geez, man, a whole guitar.
22:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a lot of you're basically right there.
22:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, so I started out with the backpacking guitars and I've gone through three guitars already.
22:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I just got a new one on the CDT.
22:40
[SPEAKER_03]: And the newest guitar that I have is a full-size guitar because when I was in Montana coming southbound, I got swept up in a river and destroyed my Martin Backpacker.
22:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's like a $300 guitar.
22:54
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't really replace them that easily.
22:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So when into Helena, Montana, what found a music shop and asked them what they had on sale and I was able to find a full-size guitar that I've been quote unquote damaged in shipping
23:10
[SPEAKER_03]: and got it for a steal, and I've been carrying it up for cents.
23:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Gosh man, so what happened with that river?
23:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember you're watching a video on your channel about that, but it looked like it could have been a lot worse.
23:27
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, I could have been a whole lot worse.
23:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's a lot of hype behind the video, which is great.
23:33
[SPEAKER_03]: It should be a lesson of, you know, don't be overconfident across the water.
23:37
[SPEAKER_03]: But Crash and I, we had just gotten through to the tougher days of just climbing over blowdown trees from the start and it had been raining the entire time.
23:48
[SPEAKER_03]: So we had six days of rain and the ice and snow from the previous winter had been melting.
23:56
[SPEAKER_03]: So avian little streams were torrents just coming through and he crossed first,
24:07
[SPEAKER_03]: I heard them registered, I just wasn't, you know, it's kind of hard to communicate to your feet.
24:14
[SPEAKER_03]: We've actually crossing like a raging water, anything.
24:19
[SPEAKER_03]: So took a step, missed step, and then if you watch this video, you'll see that I was underwater for exactly a minute and got swept.
24:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it was.
24:30
[SPEAKER_03]: 40, 50 yards down the stream.
24:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And if I had gone another 15, I would have gone over a waterfall down a cascade and then got caught in what we call a strainer, which is, you know, a bunch of logs hanging across.
24:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Luckily, I was able to upright myself and get out unscathed or mostly unscathed.
24:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Geez, man, that probably made you think about things a little differently.
24:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, we had to do a lot of damage control because I lost a lot of gear.
24:59
[SPEAKER_03]: We still had five days go to town.
25:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it was four or five.
25:03
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe it was four.
25:05
[SPEAKER_03]: And then my water filter got swept away and I was missing a water bottle.
25:10
[SPEAKER_03]: last night trekking poles, everything was soaked and I didn't stop raining until we got to town.
25:15
[SPEAKER_03]: So kept hiking another 10 miles that day with crash because we had to in order to warm up and get dryer and wasn't able to do a campfire because it was just soaked.
25:26
[SPEAKER_03]: It was just that rainy week where we just couldn't get anything to light.
25:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh and I got it on film too and not only that my phone camera which I was recording on kept recording underwater audio and video.
25:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I was
25:41
[SPEAKER_03]: I was happy that I did it wasn't happy with why it happened, but I mean, geez.
25:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So was there anything that happened out there that wasn't wasn't captured on on film?
25:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Because yeah, you're right.
25:51
[SPEAKER_00]: That was you're pretty lucky to be able to be rolling at that time and in captured all because it was intense.
25:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man, uh, there's all kinds of stuff that doesn't get captured because from
26:03
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a 3,000 mile hike on the continental divide trail.
26:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's a 2,200 mile hike on the AT.
26:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you film the entire thing, it takes you about six months to watch it, let alone, you know, to do it.
26:15
[SPEAKER_03]: So for the CDT, when I did the Teton Lake solitude descent, there was a lot of glistating that I did with Crash and one of the National Park Rangers and his kid.
26:33
[SPEAKER_03]: We were way off trail on a trail that doesn't exist anymore and taking the high t-ton crest route.
26:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And we were going straight down.
26:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to say it's a 2800 foot descent over 0.6 miles.
26:50
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's straight down.
26:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And we had to do three glissades, which is not the most fun to do in a
27:04
[SPEAKER_03]: it's like extreme sledding only without a sled and then you're also wearing a backpack and carrying whatever else you've got.
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is that's that's one knock against the kill just one though.
27:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah and I made it and it was just a
27:20
[SPEAKER_03]: some pretty decent abrading that happen on my legs, but still camp hiking, then make me get off trail or anything.
27:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So why the CDT right after the Amplation Trail, that seems like you're going from the one with the most guides and how to's to the one with the least?
27:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So COVID helped with that, because I was supposed to do the PCT this last year.
27:45
[SPEAKER_03]: when I was doing the Florida trail in between the AT and the PCT.
27:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So I got off trail, went to go look and the PCTA had pulled permits for everybody last year and said, hey, if you don't have your permit, you can't do it.
28:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And the travel bands and stuff got really weird.
28:04
[SPEAKER_03]: So I had to wait it out for a bit and then crash and I were like, hey, we can still do the CDT.
28:10
[SPEAKER_03]: They haven't closed.
28:15
[SPEAKER_03]: symptoms.
28:16
[SPEAKER_03]: We'd be basically in the woods for anywhere from seven to 15 days at a time.
28:22
[SPEAKER_03]: So it made sense to go up and just southbound it.
28:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So tell us about, you know, getting ready for the PCT.
28:28
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you looking forward to?
28:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Or at this point are you nervous about tackling something that bigger?
28:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You feel like you have a pretty good handle on getting big projects done.
28:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a quick message break in here from the folks that help make this show possible.
28:49
[SPEAKER_00]: That is plenty of that for now.
28:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get back into the episode.
28:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, um, for this one, it's just another six month day.
28:59
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to say, um, it's, I've already done two major through bikes.
29:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I've done the hardest one and I've done the longest one
29:10
[SPEAKER_03]: which I'm looking forward to.
29:12
[SPEAKER_03]: But the big thing that I'm looking at for this year is how much of the PCT is going to be completely self-sustained.
29:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Am I going to have to send boxes to myself the entire time because of how California is handling COVID?
29:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And if that's the case, am I going to be able to get through
29:32
[SPEAKER_03]: all the areas of the PCT quick enough to beat weather and not, you know, starve from having to do the same food every single week.
29:43
[SPEAKER_03]: So my biggest preparation for the PCT are mostly with the logistics.
29:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I know that trail backwards and forwards by now.
29:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm ready to be on it because I was supposed to be my first trail actually.
29:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that was the idea was to do the PCT and then head over to the AT and save the CDT for last.
30:01
[SPEAKER_03]: But I mean, all three, the first two have been amazing.
30:05
[SPEAKER_03]: The AT is definitely the hardest.
30:08
[SPEAKER_03]: CDT is definitely the longest and it's the most brutal.
30:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm looking forward to getting on the PCT and see what kind of pace I've got on there because I've heard nothing but great things about the PCT.
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you mentioned that you are planning to share your hikes and kind of a unique way.
30:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you tell us about that?
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I really don't know a whole lot about what you mean by the book series that you have coming out.
30:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you tell us what you have planned?
30:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
30:36
[SPEAKER_03]: So hiking with Crash and a bunch of our other friends, there's conversations that we have about how it feels like you're in a video game.
30:44
[SPEAKER_03]: like a real-life role-playing game because you're walking through, it doesn't feel real, or it feels like you're in a loading screen when you're climbing a hill, or it feels like the word is simulation theory, where if the world were just one big video game.
31:04
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm writing a book in the vein of what if these hikes were a game, but in real life.
31:12
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's to play on what real life events, but in a gamer setting, because I'm also a super nerd in addition to being, you know, the the long distance through hiker.
31:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're a big time gamer.
31:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, for sure.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So you just don't do.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You just don't play for six months at a time.
31:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it kind of sucks.
31:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Like you get to the point where it's like, man, I would love to be
31:41
[SPEAKER_03]: playing a game, but at the same time, you're in the middle of this amazing adventure anyway, and it helps to, they fuel each other.
31:50
[SPEAKER_03]: The games fuel the adventure and the adventure fuels the game.
31:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's really neat, and I actually haven't heard a whole lot of that for through hiking yet.
31:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of, you know, sitting around, you know, with your gamer friends, you're sitting around a campfire, which is pretty cool, not going to lie.
32:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, it's really different when you're living out like the adventuring, questing life.
32:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Then you have to make it from point A to point B as opposed to playing it out on like a video game or on a tabletop or in a board game.
32:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So what would the book differ from other books?
32:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just going to be an exact recounting of your experience.
32:28
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be like in the style of a video game.
32:31
[SPEAKER_00]: What would the differences be?
32:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's still going to be in the novel format.
32:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's going to be, and it's going to be fiction 100%.
32:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Except for it's going to be based off of things that I've done.
32:43
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not going to be 100% real.
32:45
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not going to be 100% fiction, but it's going to be, it's based off of the fact that everything's a video game.
32:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm pretty sure that hasn't been proven yet.
32:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a fiction book.
33:02
[SPEAKER_03]: takes on these different challenges and one of them have to be the AT, what of them have to be the CDT and then hopefully I'll have enough to be able to do one for the PCT as well.
33:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh look at you just going down another path that hasn't been gone down before for yourself and now for for the experience afterwards you know I don't have you have you started writing it all because a lot of adventures
33:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I've started on those three books.
33:34
[SPEAKER_03]: I've also started on a philosophy book, but I'm not really announcing that one.
33:39
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll come out probably under a different pen name.
33:41
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure it's definitely harder to write because you have to sit and you have to write and getting out everything that you've experienced over a six month period or a three year period and putting it in the words it's just
34:02
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to ride it kind of like the the the the AT it's like here you're you're not going to get there or any of those trails you're not going to get there by just thinking about it you really just have to keep walking that's the only way right and when you're hiking if somebody comes by and says hey you're hiking wrong you can just keep walking if you write a book and you put it out and somebody's going to come by the idea this is like the worst garbage ever you can either take it or keep walking
34:29
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a little bit that they go hand in hand.
34:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I think of hiking a thousand miles versus writing a thousand pages.
34:38
[SPEAKER_03]: They're about the same amount of everything they go into it.
34:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, the good and the bad meat.
34:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That is so cool.
34:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So I, you know, I'd love to hear just maybe some advice to someone that was in your shoes a few years back, things that you've learned, things that you wish you, you know, you could have told yourself maybe 10 years ago, just about this new lifestyle you've discovered and that you're living and that you're not through it.
35:03
[SPEAKER_00]: What could you share with people that aren't there yet?
35:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man.
35:08
[SPEAKER_03]: So first and foremost, if you
35:12
[SPEAKER_03]: still feel taboo about therapy.
35:14
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a huge uprising in people and it's a good thing go to therapy.
35:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Even if you don't think there's anything wrong with you, even if there is nothing wrong with you, go to therapy.
35:24
[SPEAKER_03]: It helps to have someone to talk to, just period because it helps you put it things into perspective with a different set of eyes.
35:32
[SPEAKER_03]: For me with the hiking stuff, if
35:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Figure out what it is that would make you happy what you would like to do and do that figure out whatever you need to do, whether it's, you know, cutting out toxic relationships, getting rid of extra stuff because Americans love their excess as just the way it is.
36:00
[SPEAKER_03]: We all love our stuff.
36:03
[SPEAKER_03]: If it requires getting you down to just your basic necessities and a backpack and going out and
36:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Because if you're, if you're sad and you've got all the things in the world, but you're not happy, it's not worth it.
36:21
[SPEAKER_03]: You can come down to be basic and simple and be happy.
36:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Or if you want to have all the things and that's what makes you happy, then by all means go work yourself to death and buy all the things as long as it makes you happy.
36:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Personally, the happiest I've ever been with the usually in conjunction with the amount of stuff I have, the least amount of stuff I have.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can totally relate to therapy is very important, there we go.
36:48
[SPEAKER_00]: It is so important, you get so in a rut.
36:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure so many times on the trail, you have
36:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Had a realization like, oh my god, this trail sucks today or something's, you know, not going right and then you just kind of zoom out and realize where you are, realize what you're doing and how lucky you are to be out there.
37:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Just in this moment in history, in this moment in time and in your kilt and all being able to be out there and do something epic.
37:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
37:16
[SPEAKER_03]: No, it's amazing.
37:17
[SPEAKER_03]: The amount of times you'll be on trail and you'll catch yourself just depressed because it's the same thing every day.
37:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And some of it does suck.
37:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's not something that usually comes across on YouTube is like in the amount of, you know, amazing views and great times and amazing stuff that you see, there's also that many awful things and terrible days.
37:40
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, you have to deal with foot injuries and, you know, leg fatigue
37:46
[SPEAKER_03]: hunger and everything that goes along with it.
37:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And it can be both amazing and terrible, but still fulfilling in the end.
37:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
37:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Nick, how can people follow you, follow your journey that's coming up in winter you'll leave in also for the for the PCT we'd love to follow along.
38:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you want to follow along on the videos, it's youtube.com slash c slash the wandering
38:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, you can find my Instagram at the Wandering Kiltzman, uh, there's the Wandering Kiltzman.com, which links to everything that we have, including our store, which helps fund my way along.
38:24
[SPEAKER_03]: If anybody wants to buy merch, please buy merch.
38:28
[SPEAKER_03]: But, um, I'll be leaving for the PCT in April.
38:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I usually don't say exactly where I'm going to be at and when anymore, because of the people in Florida that decided to make my trip, a living hell.
38:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sorry.
38:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a Floridian.
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll judge that.
38:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, there's there were some amazing people in Florida that did some amazing trail magic, but there were some that showed up that just weren't not cool.
38:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So me and my producers that we've decided that all of our things are delayed.
39:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you go on the Instagram right now, I'm still hiking the CDT according to the Instagram.
39:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So you get to.
39:07
[SPEAKER_03]: watch it unfold as it was happening a few months ago.
39:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So very cool.
39:13
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
39:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we can jump right in right in the middle of it.
39:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, cool.
39:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Nick, man, thank you so much for being on.
39:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Telling your story.
39:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Another is a million stories in there.
39:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be looking forward to the books when they come out.
39:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, just for sharing, you know, your adventure and inspiration and getting folks out there, I appreciate it.
39:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, man, thanks for having me on this is great.
39:37
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, thank you so much for listening and means the world to us that you choose to listen to the show.
39:43
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to help us further, you can leave a review on iTunes, share us with your friends or family, it goes a long way to grow in the show.
39:50
[SPEAKER_00]: You can also support us financially through patreon.com slash adventure sports podcast, link is in the show notes.
39:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And also if you have an idea of who could be a good guest for the show, we're always looking for people to tell their story.
40:04
[SPEAKER_00]: About the outdoors or adventure so if you know someone please reach out email us at info at adventure sports podcast dot com and until then get out there and have some fun