Category: Adventure Profiles

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Rock Star on the Trail

My daughter Livvy is a rock star hiker.

I already knew this. But it was reiterated for me recently when I hiked through New Hampshire’s White Mountains as part of my Appalachian Trail thru-hike.

Livvy Weld finishes the Pacific Crest Trail

Livvy’s recent completion of the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,600+-mile challenging hike from the Mexican border in California to the Canadian border in Washington, would be enough to qualify her rock star credentials. But she had already locked it up four years ago when she took her spring semester off from college to solo thru-hike the AT, at age 19.

I humbly follow in her footsteps. Except, where she hiked the AT from Georgia to Maine, I am hiking the grandfather of all trails from north to south, having started with a summit of Maine’s Mount Katahdin on June 30.

As I climbed among New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot mountains on a daily basis, I made a point of stopping in to visit each of the Appalachian Mountain Club huts dotting the trail throughout the grueling White Mountains.

Further bolstering her rock star credentials, Livvy has worked as a member of AMC hut crews (hut “croos” in the vernacular) for several years, in Zealand Falls Hut, and as hut master at Mizpah Hut. She recently started as hut master at the famous Lakes of the Clouds Hut, perched just below the summit of Mount Washington, for the fall 2022 season.

Celebrity Status

As I stopped into each hut during my White Mountain hike, I made a point of approaching the croo members. It went something like this:

“Do you know Livvy Weld?”

“Yes! We know Livvy! Oh my god, we love Livvy, she’s awesome, Why?” This interchange took place every time, without fail.

Then, my favorite part: “I’m Livvy’s dad.”

“You’re kidding! Oh my god, Livvy’s dad is here, what are the odds? Come in, have some free food, can I get you anything?”

Word Travels

Being treated as a celebrity because of my offspring was a highlight of my AT so far and defines New Hampshire in my memory.

I stopped by Carter Notch Hut amid a torrential downpour and met Bailey, Cooper and Caro. Caro even knew my name:

“I’m Livvy’s dad.”

“Oh my god, are you Eric?” Caro asked right away. (Livvy didn’t remember mentioning my first name to her croo mates.)

Livvy and me in the Mojave just before she departed on the PCT.

I next went to Madison Hut and met Riley, Noah and Will. They offered to let me work-for-stay, an option for thru-hikers in which they can help the croo with kitchen and dining duties in exchange for staying in the hut (sleeping on the dining room floor) and eating left over dinner once paying guests have finished.

I stopped by Lakes of Clouds Hut and met Acadia, who was Livvy’s assistant hut master last year, and Aidan and Lydia. Then over to Mizpah and met CC, who went to Smith College with Livvy.

By the time I worked my way to Lonesome Lake Hut and met Jo, she knew I was coming.   

“Hi Jo, I’m Livvy’s dad, I’m thru-hiking the AT while she’s thru-hiking the PCT,” I said.

“I know,” Jo exclaimed, to my surprise. “Word came through that Livvy’s dad was coming through the huts, and I so wanted to be here when you came by.” Jo offered me left over breakfast and a wonderful savory scone before I pushed on to climb the Kinsmans.

Opposite Directions

Since learning (over again) that my daughter is indeed a rock star on the trail (and that word travels impressively fast among croo members), I have proceeded to send many northbound thru-hikers her way. “Say hi to Livvy when you pass through Lakes of the Clouds.”

I wished my and Livvy’s trail timing could have worked out more in sync so that I could have seen her at work in her hut as I hiked through. As it was, we both appreciated the symbiosis of thru-hiking simultaneously, albeit her north near the west coast as I traveled south near the east.

But my experience meeting her croo mates and friends throughout the Whites provided the effect of helping me feel closer to my daughter as we co-thru-hiked our respective journeys. And, of course, it underscored for me, once again, that my daughter is truly a rock star.

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What Have We Done Lately?

25 Years Later, a New Chapter

When I started my current day job back in the 20th century as a news and public relations writer and event planner for a private college, I had no intention of spending 25 years doing it.

It’s not even like me. I crave variety in life, of experience, geography, flavors, relationships and knowledge. Spending 25 years at one place didn’t fit with my life narrative.

It was 1997 when I joined the college, armed with some newspaper and freelance writing experience, having spent a decade traveling and living around the world. The U.S. was on a roll, guided by President Bill Clinton and an economy that lifted all boats. I had entered matrimony and invited a new child, Elliot, into the world the year before, with a second, Olivia, on the way. Raising them to adulthood has been its own, wonderful adventure.

I’ve never viewed spending 25 years at the same job (basically) as any kind of adventure. But I can allow how I might be corrected on that spurn now. Adventure? Not sure, but it has certainly been a time of personal and professional growth.

Now, after 25 years at the same job, it is beyond time to move on, to begin real adventure, new horizons. When I recently announced my retirement from this quarter-century employment, I viewed it as a grand step toward that endeavor.

Let the adventure begin.

Sunset at Dog Pier, Ocean Beach, San Diego

4 Elements

To explain what I mean, I refer to my four conditions of adventure, four tenets that I define must be present in order to refer to an experience as adventure:

  1. Challenge – it must include some kind of challenging goal, something to overcome and achieve.
  2. Risk – let’s face it, without at least a dose of risk, an activity isn’t an adventure.
  3. Out of the ordinary – it’s got to be something that you don’t do routinely, something distinct from everyday experience.
  4. Movement or travel – some kind of transportation from one place to another, whether that is virtual or actual.

Working the same job for 25 years is a lot of things. It’s a living, it’s a platform for professional advancement and a source for funding life’s necessities. It also includes aspects of adventure, such as challenge and, at times, some risk.

But, I argue, it does not meet the definition of adventure per se because it lacks important defining characteristics of that term. Movement, for one. My day job has not involved a lot of movement or travel, not enough to term it adventure. And as for being out of the ordinary? Well, remaining in the same job for 25 years is the antithesis of extraordinary. Rather, it defines ordinary by its nature of repetition.

Onward to Adventure

The way I see it is, I am leaving the ordinary for the extraordinary. Adventure is what lies before me, beyond retirement. This will be the chapter that includes challenge, risk, most certainly, living out of the ordinary, and lots of movement.

The challenges of my next 25 years will be multiple, intentional and unforeseen. I will purposely plot and tackle physical challenges, beginning with a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. And because it’s life, I know I will encounter challenges that I can’t imagine from this current vantage.

As for risk, there’s no question that the act of stepping off the financial cliff of a regular paycheck and venturing into the unknown is risky. Though I will maintain and pursue other forms of income, there are any number of ways I could fail and return to destitution I once knew, in my youth.

Shifting gears after 25 years of doing the same thing is the definition of living out of the ordinary. Moreover, my next 25-year chapter plans aim to avoid things from becoming too ordinary, to keep it fresh and malleable, to always invite change and new experience.

And movement. This is perhaps the most important aspect of adventure for me. Moving is my element. When I’m on the move, I am most fulfilled. Therefore, my next quarter century will be a series of movement, travel and various forms of locomotion: walking, hiking, biking, driving, boating, riding, flying and training.

Crossroad

Retirement is a demarcation. It marks the end of one road and the beginning of another. I know what is ending, but unsure what is beginning. Within that transition is always opportunity for adventure. The unknown. The abyss.

That is where I’m voluntarily heading. Into who-knows-what and where. Wide open.

Now that’s adventure.

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Adventure in Profile

Martie McNabb, Personal Historian, Legacy Artist, Nomad

Martie McNabb with her beloved road companion “Brooklyn”

A few years ago, Martie McNabb sold her apartment in Brooklyn, purchased a Winnebago Travato RV, and hit the road.

She was 59 at the time. And she’s been on the road ever since.

Martie, now 62, promptly named her Winnebago “Brooklyn,” in homage to her beloved city of 24 years. These days, she spends part of the year in Vermont, where her mother lives in warm seasons, and another part in Albuquerque, where her partner, Judy, has lived for most of her life.

The rest of the time, Martie lives in Brooklyn (again, the Winnebago, not the city), freely traversing the highways and taking in the sights across the United States, staying in campgrounds, RV parks and the occasional Cracker Barrel parking lot.

“I feel like, at this point, this is indefinite,” she says of her nomadic way of life. “Until I’m not able to do it anymore physically.”

Business Adventures

Martie has always had an adventurous spirit, she says, noting that her current cross-country travels are not her first. “I used to cross-country travel back in my youth, then in my Toyota Camry and car camping.”

When she got a job as a high school biology teacher, she settled down in Brooklyn (the city this time) and bought an apartment, where she lived for more than two decades.

“But the cost of living started getting ridiculous” in and around New York City, she said. “I couldn’t even afford to hire a coach.” That, combined with the negative effects of gentrification in her neighborhood, nudged her to sell her apartment and leave her job. “”That was the first decision I made,” she says. “It was just this perfect storm of everything happening at the same time.”

Meanwhile, Martie had started a business, Memories Out of the Box, through which she assists people in organizing and archiving personal memorabilia and visual memories to provide them with access to their past lives and the lives of their loved ones.

“I feel like it’s healing work,” she says of Memories Out of the Box, “to help my clients reconnect with family and friends.”

Martie followed that business with another startup a few years ago, Show & Tales, a business marketing and community-building service in which the host and participants share stories of the things they keep as a way to generate word-of-mouth buzz for their business endeavors. By doing so, they are also able to make deep connections with their own and each other’s personal histories.

As a proprietor of two online businesses, Martie has the freedom to nourish her adventure spirit on the road while generating income.

30 Years in the Making

One fortuitous connection – or reconnection, that is, after 30 years – that resulted, in part, from Martie’s nomadic lifestyle is her relationship with Judy.

Martie (right), Judy (left), their pet dog and Brooklyn interior

Martie and Judy had dated briefly when they were in their early 30s, but mutually drifted apart as their lives moved on, Judy remaining in her hometown of Albuquerque as Martie moved to the East coast. Then, about three years ago, Martie was scheduled to be in Alburquerque for a conference with The Photo Managers, and looked Judy up.

“It had been about 25 years since we’d seen each other,” she says. They got together, “and we started talking, then dating, and then we admitted our feelings for each other.”

Martie and Judy have continued their relationship over two years since of living together part of the time, and remaining together while separated by more than 2,200 miles the rest of the year.

Not Perfect

For Martie, her life on the road feels like a natural fit. The highlights of her lifestyle are the freedom and the people she meets.

“I like people, I like when I’m with people, and people watching,” she says. “I need time to myself, but I do like seeing people, seeing the way they live, everyone lives their lives differently.”

She loves exploring different parts of the country and seeing the different ways people and cultures are shaped and defined by their environment. “It’s fascinating, people dealing with challenges of different areas, and how people are different depending on where they live. I just find it fascinating.”

As free and interesting as life is on the road, it’s not always easy, Martie emphasizes.

Prices are inflated, for one thing, and paying for hiked gasoline rates makes a noticeable impact. “It really is not that inexpensive to live this life,” she says. There’s the high up-front cost of buying a vehicle suitable for living. And paying for park residence plus electricity at a camp site add to the daily expense.

And every day has its small inconveniences. Martie loves to cook, for example. But cooking in an RV isn’t ideal. “Everything smells like whatever you’re cooking,” she notes. “That’s a little challenge.” Also, it can be hard to get around once you’re parked and hooked up for electricity. You can’t hop in your car and run into town. “In order to go any place, you have to plan around that,” she says.

Finally, just getting in and out of Brooklyn, and for that matter climbing in and out of her elevated bed inside Brooklyn, require physical agility. “Some of these things I probably won’t be able to do anymore at my mother’s age.”

Adventure Dream Life

Still, for now, Martie points out, she wouldn’t trade it. She gets to live freely on the road, and spend extended time with people she loves who live far apart.

She meets a huge spectrum of interesting people and operates two businesses from an office on four wheels. The road is endless and always full of possibilities, and she’s planning an open-ended road trip out to the West coast this year.

Altogether, Martie is living an adventurer’s dream life, and she appreciates the opportunity.

“I have felt like I’m very lucky,” she says.