The Post I've Been Putting Off...

Some of you may have noticed it's been quiet on my blog for a little while.  In fact, I've sat down to write posts several times, but never had the heart to finish them.  The short answer to my lack of posting is a simple one - I've been incredibly depressed the past few months.  For those of you following me on social media, you may have noticed I've really dropped the ball on basically all channels the past few months.  I've just not had the heart to do much posting.  In fact, I've only recently begun to start getting active on Twitter and Instagram again.  It's very  hard to curate images that are beautiful when you feel so heavy.  

I've been doing a lot less guiding at my job the past few months.  I love being a guide and teaching people how to see and explore the outdoors in new ways.  The wildfire that swept our region back in November has had devastating effects on area businesses.  Many local places are reporting being down between 20-45% from last year.  In fact, many people are still under the impression that the entire town of Gatlinburg and all of the Great Smoky Mountains are completely decimated.  The truth of the matter is that 1700 homes were lost, but many businesses reopened in the past few months or are rebuilding.  The Smokies only saw 2% of the park damaged by fire and the damage becomes less and less noticeable every day thanks to spring rejuvenating the burned ground.  Getting people to come back to the area, however, has been really, REALLY tough.  

The past few months haven't been all bad for me.  As usual, I focus my off-season months on running.  I ran a PR in both the half marathon (finally running a sub 2-hr half) and full marathon (4:05:30 - nearly 20 minutes off last year) events I entered this year.  I ran a trail marathon without ever having really gone trail running.  I ran my fastest ever mile.  I even decided to start focusing on more endurance and ultra events in 2018.  Physically, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in.  Mentally though, I'm not doing so hot. The past few months have brought up a lot of personal issues I need to deal with and I'm just now dragging myself out of the hole to do it.  It's been really heart-wrenching at times and, if any of you have ever dealt with depression, you know it's not an easy road to recovery.  Add to that the fact that I don't have health insurance and that means I'll be paying for all of this out-of-pocket and you've got an even tougher road ahead.  

For those of you still looking for trail advice and reading trail journals, I'm still reachable by email and by Facebook.  I'm still loving answering your questions and helping you plan your journey.  Just know that the posts will be coming back slowly and it might be a quick minute before I'm feeling up to the task.  For those of you who are regular readers, please note that I'm writing posts for you guys!  It's very hard to continue coming up with new ideas, graphics, and formatting that makes sense.  Drop a comment every once in a while and let me know you're reading.  It's very tough to continue writing if you feel like no one is out there!

I'll be back at it again soon.  Happy Trails!

Smokies Wildfires - What It's Like to be Here Now

This post was really rough for me to write - not because of the content, but because I'm honestly just so tired.  It's been over a week since the wildfires struck the town of Gatlinburg.  With all the misinformation and jumbled messages out there, I wanted to put it all in one place.  I've had so many people - former clients, friends, old thru hiking buddies, and even total strangers - emailing me and asking how to help.  Here is my experience in the Gatlinburg area in the past week with some links to legitimate ways to help out.  

A photo of the former Driftwood Apartments in front of the Park Vista Hotel (taken by NoKey)

A lot of people assume these fires all started on Monday last week, but that's actually not true.  If you're a regular reader of my blog, you might recall my last backpacking trip of the season had to end a day early due to wildfire.  In early November I was actually walking directly into a fire outside of Franklin, NC.  The following weekend NoKey and I took a hiking trip and we were very close to another fire outside of Robbinsville, NC.  Basically, from the end of October until this very moment wildfires have been ravaging the drought-stricken Southeastern US.  In the Smokies, we are officially down more than 13 inches of rain for the year.  This doesn't sound like a lot, but when you take into consideration that we in the Smokies are actually considered a temperate rainforest and our springs were running dry in the high elevations, it was the perfect set of conditions for a fire.  

I took this picture the first week of November after physically walking up on the fire.

While the fires were spreading throughout the region the air quality became very poor here.  Some days when I would go out to lead a hike you could smell the smoke in the air and you'd get massive headaches just from being outside.  Some days it looked as thick as fog.  We had nothing to worry about then - the fires were upwards of 50 miles away and across a giant lake.  Then, November 23rd, 2016, a fire broke out on the Chimney Tops here in the Smokies.  It has been proven at this point this fire was deliberately set.  In fact, 79% of the fires in the southeast that have been burning have been proven to be arson.  With the severe drought in place, the southeast has become an actual tinderbox.  On Monday, November 28th, many of us in the area knew something was very, VERY wrong.  The smoke in the air was incredibly thick.  There was an eerie yellow glow.  Many downtown Gatlinburg businesses locked up early due to the shops and restaurants filling with smoke.  By 2 p.m., the press conference told people there was another fire behind the Sugarlands Visitor Center - less than 2 miles from town.  We were told not to worry.  However, there were strong storms coming into the area that night.  Strong storms bring with them strong winds.  By 5 p.m. the winds had begun to gust and we were seeing gusts up to 91 mph.  By 7 p.m. chaos began to erupt.  It was being reported that the dry ground and winds were causing the fires to spread at 30 feet per minute and evacuations were  starting.  Traffic was snarled.  The videos started pouring in on our Facebook feeds of people driving through flames on Ski Mountain.  

Downtown on Monday before the fires spread.

The eerie yellow glow. 

From our house, which was also starting to fill with smoke and was not near any fires, we were watching Gatlinburg catch fire.  We were glued to social media trying to figure out how to help and what we could do.  We helplessly watched as friends were fleeing their homes and learning what was supposedly on fire.  We would learn a week later that more than 1700 buildings were destroyed and 14 people would be left dead.  My friend and coworker, Sam, who was 8 months pregnant, lost her home and went into labor a few days later.  Many people living in the neighborhoods destroyed were immigrants who speak no English and are left with absolutely nothing.  So many people lost everything and we had to help. 

Appalachian Folks have a way of helping their own in need.  Now, a week after the fires, they're begging people to stop donating physical items like clothing and bottled water.  We ran out of places to store the items and we can't get them delivered to the people who need them most.  Dolly Parton set up the My People Fund, a foundation that gives 100% of the money raised to victims of the fire to get them back on their feet.  Local charities, like Crib Connection, have been getting in touch with people via social media to help them get the items they need.  The Volunteer Spirit is alive and well in East Tennessee.  We are far from in the clear, however.  Over the next week we need approximately 2000 volunteers to help us sort and deliver supplies to families in need.  We are desperately in need of translators who can speak Spanish to help those who can't communicate with local hospitals and clinics.  We need diapers and formula for those living in the shelters.  We need toys for the kids.  

Below you'll find a few links.  If you're in the area we would love to see you out volunteering.  If you're not in the area and want to help, please see the first link below to the Mountain Tough website.  
http://www.mountaintough.org/
https://dollywoodfoundation.org/
http://mountainhope.org/get-involved/the-spirit-of-giving/

Finally, this is the Go Fund Me for my friends Sam, Junior, and new baby Abbie.  These are the most generous, sweetest people I know and they definitely need a hand. 
https://www.gofundme.com/sam-junior-suttles-fire-relief

Thank you, THANK YOU to each and every one of you who reached out during this terrible time.  Seeing all the emails from you guys just warmed my heart.  

"But How Can You Afford That?!" - Working Hard to Play Hard

It might look relaxing, but a TON of hard work went on behind the scenes before doing a hike!

The number one question asked to me upon finding out that I enjoy long-distance hiking is "how can you afford to do that?!"  Similarly, "you must be independently wealthy!" is a common followup.  The truth of the matter is if you find your passion, most of the time there is so much behind-the-scenes hard work involved in making your dream a reality that many people often don't see your struggle to reach your goal.  This post is brought to you by hard work, folks!

When I had decided I wanted to attempt a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2012 it was July 2011.  I had a vague notion I'd want to thru hike one day, but I made a firm decision in July and immediately began planning.  When you plan for a long-distance hike there is a lot of research involved and the thing I noticed in many failed thru hike attempts was running out of money. This was back in the days before everyone and their brother ran a GoFundMe.  I knew immediately that if I wanted to up my chances of finishing a 2200-mile hike I would need to prepare financially.  

Saving money has never been hard for me.  I grew up in a family where if we wanted something, we saved up for it.  I bought my own cell phone and plan in the early 2000s from part job after school jobs.  I bought my first laptop computer when I was 17 through the same hard work.  Keep in mind these were the days when laptops were $1500 and cell phone plans were only 200 minutes a month with no text messaging options!  I've always been a saver, so this task wasn't hard for me at all.  Although, as an adult with a home mortgage and a fairly brand new car recently purchased, saving money wasn't as easy as it was in my teenage years! The first thing I would need to do is supplement my income with a second job. 

In 2011 I took a job with a temp agency.  The agency I was with specialized only in medical offices, my area of training.  I worked part time at night from home as my regular job, so that left me free for day shift jobs.  In the medical field I quickly found fairly regular work as a temp from 7:30-5 p.m. and still had time for my regular job.  Some weeks found me working as many as 65 hours, but I was okay with this as all that money from temp work was going into my savings and my trail fund.  By the time I left in 2012 I had expanded my network in the healthcare field and saved some money to thru hike. 

The same methodology applied to my summer 2015 thru hikes.  Although the medical field in Syracuse was much smaller, I had to get more creative.  I worked an early morning shift at FedEx and then worked a normal 8-5 job like any other person.  While doing these shifts I often found myself working 70-hour weeks in the Christmas season, but the result was still the same - I was able to funnel the extra cash into my savings for thru hiking.  For months I was often tired and I wasn't the most social person, but the end result allowed me to take off an entire summer to live my dreams.  I am personally not a fan of the GoFundMe campaigns for people to take the time to do a thru hike.  If you want to take the time off from life to do a hike, you should be willing to work just as hard for it as you would any other dream! Kickstarters, however, are different.  If you're a filmmaker or a writer I find this a viable option for production costs.  I have nothing against people who do use GoFundMe for trips, I have just found it's not something I could see myself doing for a trip I've chosen to do. 

Once again I've found myself back in the real world dreaming of my next adventure.  While my new job as a backpacking guide will help me live out my passion on a smaller scale for the next several months, I know that if I want to get back out and take a season away from my adulting hard work and little free time will be the key.  How did you save for your adventuring?  I'd love to hear some of the methods you use!  Please leave me a comment or connect with me on Facebook!