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Hiker takes aim at Great Divide
By BOB McCLURE
Article published on Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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![[Image]](/content_images/052708_smb-01.jpg) |
| Richard Smith of Seminole stands on a hill with Mount Rainier in the background during his 2007 hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. |
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SEMINOLE – When most people retire, they focus on golf, travel or volunteering in their community.
But not 62-year-old Richard Smith of Seminole.
For Smith, a former project manager of a software company, retirement has been hiking some of the most beautiful terrain our nation has to offer.
It started in 2005 with the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail and extended into 2007 when he hiked the 2,663-mile Pacific Crest Trail in California, Oregon and Washington.
And it won’t stop there. On June 16 Smith will begin his next quest when he embarks on a 2,800-mile hike of the Continental Divide Trail, which will take him from Glacier National Park in Montana south through Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado to Columbus, N.M., at the Mexican border.
He anticipates the trip taking about five months and a week.
For most of the trail he will be hiking alone but will also hook up with other hikers along the way.
“The biggest areas I want to be with someone else is in Colorado and New Mexico,” said Smith. “New Mexico due to the distance between water sites and Colorado due to the elevation and the remoteness.”
When he’s hiking solo, he depends solely on a compass, maps and a GPS system to guide him to his next camp site. Trails are virtually non-existent. Hikers are left to forge their own way.
“They say no two people hike the Continental Divide the same way,” Smith said. “They say I’ll see more rain, desert, elevation, heat and animals than either of the first two hikes.”
Smith hopes to see a variety of wildlife from elk to goats and wolves to coyotes.
“I’m anticipating a lot of those things when I go through Yellowstone (National Park),” he said.
For Smith, who goes by the trail name of “Dad’s Grin,” his late-life adventure started when his son Stephen, also of Seminole, handed him a copy of Bill Bryson’s “A Walk In The Woods: Rediscovering America On The Appalachian Trail.”
“He said ‘read it, you’re going to do it,’ ” said Smith. “It was a humorous look at his (Bryson’s) attempt to the hike and it peaked my interest in it.”
Since Smith was a former ultra-distance marathon runner he didn’t need much conditioning to get ready for the Appalachian.
“Actually, I was out of shape when I started,” he said. “I weighed 167 pounds, which was the most I’ve weighed in 20 years.”
Armed with a 47-pound backpack, off he went from Springer Mountain, Ga., on March 6, 2005 and 151 days later finished at Mount Katahin in Maine.
“I just really enjoyed it,” Smith said. “New Hampshire was tough, going through the White Mountains. My knees were sore and stiff. But I enjoyed the journey and the people, and decided I wanted to continue.”
Smith’s wife of 35 years, Yvonne, supports his adventures.
“She’s pretty nice about it,” he said. “She let’s me go. The locks haven’t been changed at home yet. But she knows these are all things I want to do and lets me do them.”
For those thinking about a similar lifestyle, Smith suggests buying good gear.
“Try to find out about as much as you can about what you’re buying before you buy it,” he said. “I spent about $1,500 for pretty much everything I needed. I figured it up and I spent about $2.50 per mile to do my first two hikes. I stopped at a hotel maybe once a week or once every two weeks. But other than that I slept under the stars.”
So what trail will be next? Smith says it’s anyone’s guess.
“The last step on this trail will be the first step on the next one,” he said. “I just don’t know where it will be yet.”
To follow Smith on his Continental Divide hike, go to www.trailjournals.com and go to the journals box and type in “dad’s grin.” Under Journal List Search, click on 2008. Photos and dialogue will be posted by his son as Smith progresses on his next adventure.
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Article published on Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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