Personal annotated and random relevant resume
1) Hiked the entire 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail.
2) Hiked the entire 850-mile Arizona Trail … five years before the guidebook was written. Also hiked the 850-mile Colorado section of the Continental Divide Trail, as well as the 500-mile Colorado Trail (twice).
3) Consumed adult beverages with Edward Abbey, Hunter Thompson, Charles Bowden, Doug Peacock, Tim Cahill, John Nichols, Mary Sojourner and Katie Lee.
4) Illegally entered an officially closed area in China during the Tibetan uprisings of 1987.
5) Successfully performed CPR on a two-year-old girl who had been seriously smooshed by a hit-and-run driver.
6) Performed an original song on stage.
7) Interviewed not one, but two, of the 14 men who have walked on the moon.
8) Founded Spontaneous Combustion, a community bonfire in Frisco, Colorado, that is now a certified annual event.
9) Co-founded the Friends of the Eagles Nest Wilderness.
10) Earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
11) Rallied for five minutes with Ilie Nastase, just before he played Jimmy Connors in the finals of a tennis tournament in Hampton, Va.
12) Was a best man … at a divorce.
13) Gave book readings with Royal Robbins, Conrad Anker, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden … and I’m not a climber.
14) Traveled through the epicenter of a raging war zone … with my bride-to-be.
15) Married a homecoming queen.
16) Drove into the Northwest Territories on 9/11.
17) Burned my draft card in front of witnesses.
18) Paddled 12 kilometers across a crocodile-infested lake in a Zodiac that was leaking badly.
19) Was an integral part of the ultimately successful effort to prevent a Home Depot from coming to our small mountain town (the actual election took place on my 50th birthday).
20) Participated in a Tarahumara tesguinada — the infamous three-day drinking parties held by Mexico’s famed long-distance-running Indians.
21) Helped resurrect the Mountain Gazette.