About Me
Chezwick at the southern terminus of the ECT
The hiking bug caught me in my early 20’s with a trek to the base camp of Mt. Everest. The culture, the people, the views. It opened my eyes to a lifestyle that I could see myself pursuing. For the rest of that decade, however, I became sidetracked with the party lifestyle that comes with living in a ski town. Fortunately, the freedom of the trail never left me, and as my 30’s approached, the question of what I wanted to do with my life started to consume my thoughts. I knew I didn't want to continue my career in the restaurant business and up to that point it was the only type of work I had ever known. The idea of marriage, kids, a mortgage, while working some food service job just to keep up with the Joneses scared the hell out of me. I searched for answers.
The Appalachian Trail seemed like a good fit. A long distance trail that I believed would bring me the same feelings as the Everest trek I had done some years earlier. As I scrolled through pictures of the A.T. on the internet, I came across a scene that looked straight out of Jurassic Park. It was the Florida Trail. The wheels of adventure started turning again as I wondered if this trail would link up with the A.T. That’s when I came across the Eastern Continental Trail (ECT). The ECT is a 4,800-mile long distance hike that links together 8 different trail segments, using the Appalachian Trail as its backbone, essentially trekking the entire east coast of North America, starting at the tip of Key West, Florida and finishing in Gaspe, Quebec. With less than expert knowledge of what a thru-hike was, without reading blogs or watching YouTube videos, I bought what I THOUGHT I needed, and flew to Miami. With paper maps, a compass, and an old flip phone with no camera, I started hiking north and my new life began.
Over 10 months later I completed the trail and became the 16th person ever to hike the ECT. Two years later I attempted the Pacific Crest Trail, but I was stopped short by massive forest fires in northern California and Oregon. That year came to be known as “The Year of Fire and Ice.” This didn't discourage my sense of adventure and only seems to have fueled my determination for more!
Now that the hiking bug has firmly cemented itself into my core, the search for the next challenge and adventure has begun. I am now poised to attempt the 6,875-mile Great Western Loop. First conceived and accomplished by Andrew Skurka in 2007 and then Jeff “Legend” Garmire in 2018, it stands as the hardest thru-hike in the world. With a required average pace of no less than 30 miles per day, it has everything you could ask for from the ultimate thru-hike. Hot deserts, deep snow, dangerous river crossings, and an abundance of high mountain passes make this hike particularly demanding both physically and mentally. To be successful, rest days are nill, there’s no time for a trail family or hiking companions, and logistics have to be on point. In the end, it's about putting one foot in front of the other and with a little luck from mother nature and help from a core group of close friends and family, this will undoubtedly be the greatest adventure and accomplishment I could ever hope for.
Fill It Up Foundation
790 million people! 790 million people (11% of the world's population) do not have access to a clean water supply. It's 2021 and while people complain about what so-and-so posted on Facebook or are busy writing a one-star restaurant review on Yelp because there was too much dressing on their Mediterranean couscous salad, these are insignificant first world problems in comparison and lack of access to clean, drinkable water, necessary for human survival. We don’t think twice about this in our normal lives. We go out to dinner with a group of people and there is always that person who just orders a round of water for the table, whether we want it or not. Most don’t drink it, let alone finish it, and once we leave the table, our server dumps it down the drain. Water is free and plentiful for us, why should we care? We were born in a place that has it all set up for us. This is the hand we were dealt. Others not so lucky, no fault of their own, just the way it goes. This crisis does not receive nearly enough attention. Maybe it’s because people don’t know this statistic, maybe it’s a case of out of sight out of mind, regardless of what it is, it is.
I’m just a guy who likes to hike, but as someone living in a first world country, I have something that these 800 million people don’t -- a faucet. I can stop at a number of stores and choose any number of beverages at any time. I clean my clothes and dishes without question. I can brush my teeth and take showers at will. Imagine if the only way to do any of that would first include a 5-mile walk in the morning to the only water source around and, upon arrival, the water source is crowded with several dozen people all trying to get their water for the day. The area around the water source is covered with trash and feces, the water itself not clean, and once you have filled up, loaded up, and drank up, you turn around and walk the same 5 miles you just did, back to your village to cook, clean, and use that water for everything throughout the day. Whether it’s clean or not, you don’t have a choice, that’s just the way it is.
I have chosen to partner my charity, the Fill It Up Foundation, with the Chris Long Foundation and its Waterboys initiative, which is dedicated to raising funds and awareness to bring clean water to communities in East Africa and works to fund the building of clean water wells through WorldServe International. Not being a rich man, I can’t just go around the world building wells in all these places (although if I could, I would), but raising money and spreading awareness is something I can do. There is that saying, “I’m not here for a long time, I’m here for a good time.” I agree, but on top of that, let us help as many people who are less fortunate before we go. These villages will benefit from clean drinking water long after we’re gone.
