[Music]
my teacher one day borrowed all of his
kids in a circle and one by one she
began to ask us that wonderful life
question what do you want to be when you
grow up and there are firefighters and
policemen one boy wanted to be a plumber
just like his dad and one girl wanted to
be a urologist now I didn’t know what
urology even was in first grade nor
can’t even pronounce it so finally the
teacher came to me Sean what do you want
to be when you grow up I was still
trying to figure out what are you wrong
is just wrong and I was so interested in
everyone else’s answers I really wasn’t
thinking of mine and so I said the first
thing that came to my head I want to be
a Canadian farmer why the nationality I
have no idea but the farmer point part
I’m starting to understand more and more
I enjoy nature
I loved open space I love to grow
something and to watch it grow and 20
years later I found myself with the same
question this time being asked by my
college professor and what he was trying
to figure out was what was my specialty
going to be in my degree of anthropology
and sadly Canadian farmer wasn’t a
choice and I didn’t know I didn’t know I
didn’t know where I was going what I was
doing who I was you know the usual
college experience I was lost and I was
disappointed and that I was lost and so
I did what most people do when they get
upset or flustered I went out for a walk
but mine was about six months long
I ended up hiking the Appalachian Trail
in 2012 season one and it was wonderful
but when I came back I found that I was
still lost and so four years after that
I kind of liked it I’ll do another one
but this time I’ll do the console divide
trail a trail that extends from the
northern border of Mexico all the way to
the southern border of Canada right
along the spines of the Rockies 3,100
miles so in April of last year I started
at the border of Mexico in the Chihuahua
desert and the desert is an interesting
thing it’s kind of like the beach but
with less water and more like pokey
plants that just want to like hurt you
and kill you all the time and every day
for five months in two weeks I would
walk I’d walk at first twelve miles then
15 then I got up to 20 and 25 and one
day I even did a thirty mile and when
you’re walking through this beautiful
immersion of nature it feels like you’re
in a living art museum a living gallery
you can’t just fly through the Louvre
and say oh I saw the Lu that was that
done now you have to take your time you
have to look at each piece one by one
look at the brushstrokes of gratitude
for the painter find inspiration and
there’s something to say being able to
walk on a summit for two or three days
and seeing the same mountain in the
horizon and watch it change colors
throughout the day it’s magical
absolutely magical
but with anything in nature it is a
double-edged sword there is beauty but
there’s also danger scary moments its
nature just what happens and one of
those times I was about 1,400 miles into
the journey and I was in northern
Colorado about 80 miles south of a place
called a whammy Basin a massive flat old
that’s part of the divide and I was
really looking forward to something flat
and in Colorado every day at 3 or 4
o’clock like clockwork
especially during the summer there’s
these storms that roll up from the
mountains it’s the weather engine that
drives the monsoon season throughout New
Mexico getting all the water and these
storms are spectacular
they’re beautiful when you’re down in
the valley and you’re on a porch with a
beer looking at it from a hundred miles
away but then when you’re up there at
13,000 400 feet it’s terrifying
absolutely terrifying and one day I was
climbing a summit I thought I could make
it I could make it the clouds are still
far away enough I can make it and I only
had three quarters of a mile left to get
to the top of the summer and so I
decided to make it but I didn’t make it
the storm came and as I was going up the
summit the next thing I realized was
that this beautiful panorama that was
all around me this Vista of the world
had instantly turned to white I was in a
cloud I was stuck in a cloud and that
white turned to gray and that gray
turned to this pitch blackness and the
temperature dropped and all above me all
I heard was static going above my head
and hail started to come down
and I was terrified because on my back I
had this ice axes metal ice act which
was working just like a lightning rod
and then right below my ice axe there
was also this little like gas tank for
cooking so I was an explosive lightning
rod it was horrible and I wanted to run
but you can’t run up there you are on a
tight rope of rocks you’re on a
Ridgeline and so I did the only thing
that I could do do Dave
Harry Bellefonte about 12 songs later I
found myself in a lower ground in a
saddle that had few trees and tree line
and that was one of the nicest nights I
ever had
it was wonderful great sleep by the time
I did get to the Wyoming Basin I was
starting to get a little done with the
entire adventure thing I wanted to come
home and I wanted to come home safe and
I thought well you know by the time I
get to Yellowstone which is just a few
more hundred miles away you take a train
go home and everyone would be happy and
one day there was a thirty mile section
that only had one water source and that
water source was called Mormon Springs
one of the very few springs in the wimey
Basin that was not sailing it was
insulting to the taste in that morning I
ended up walking started around 5:30 in
the morning and walked to the spring and
the Mormon spring was actually a pit
stop if you will to the Mormons who were
immigrating west to Salt Lake City it
was also a water source – for the Pony
Express and I was kneeling down and I
had my little sippy cup to scoop water
out of the spring and had to brush away
all the little floaties and
well that’s what you give on the show
you have to give like things that are
floating on the water really cute names
because if not it’s not appetizing like
dead bugs and like cow poop you know
just doesn’t sound good
and then God forbid bloaty’s I’ll let
your imagination go on that one what a
blow D is and I’m brushing everything
away and I hear it and I look up and in
front of me is a herd of wild mustang
running from the horizon from the Rising
Sun of the east the dusk glistening up
hitting it shining and behind me there
were antelope deer and a few cows
there’s always counts and I was that
moment but I felt like I was an America
I was in an American Oasis and that
moment gave me the energy the momentum
to continue on I felt a part of it now
to do something like this you can’t just
do it all on your own with your own grit
you have to have others you have to have
friends and family at home to be sitting
you packages letters and you know little
notes like you got and then also too you
need help from people along the way and
the trail world recall this trail magic
the trail magic can be anything can be
someone giving a ride into town from a
mountain pass and you thought lightning
was scared try hitchhiking
and one of those moments that I really
became dependent on people was I was
going through a section called the Wind
River Range one of the most beautiful
places on this planet it is spectacular
it is a mountain range that runs to the
southeast of Yellowstone part of the
massive volcanic caldera and over the
millennia has been carved by glaciers
and ice and it’s just spectacular
absolutely spectacular but it’s also
very rugged as well as isolated it’s
there’s isolation to it it’s wilderness
and so you really don’t see that many
people out there my trail section for
that what I thought was about a hundred
and twenty miles roughly and so I packed
roughly oh seven six days worth of food
and my backpack but also too I had heard
I was going into grizzly country and so
for not wanting to see a grizzly I ended
up packing out as well a massive bear
bear and what a bear barrel is it is
this kind of barrel contraption with
this weird lid that you can never really
fit on just right and you shove all your
food in there and this thing weighs a
ton
it’s miserable but when the bear does
get it he’s rolling around with that
instead of with you and your tent so
that’s why I got this thing and in about
four days of me walking north I found
that I had greatly underestimated not
only my distance it wasn’t a hundred and
twenty miles it was nearly a hundred and
ninety miles and I’d also to greatly
under missed underestimated the terrain
I was no longer in this flat Basin
making twenty five miles a day I was now
in the mountains only able to do 14:13
that was it I wasn’t going very fast
and so by day five I found myself with a
bear barrel full of just wrappers it was
completely empty I was out of food and I
still had a whole lot more to go to get
to the boy first day was okay I was a
little hungry but everything was fine I
had an extra pack of Skittles that every
single time I was going up an incline or
a mountain or a summit or a past I would
just eat one or two skittles just to
kind of get my blood sugar up and I was
able to get over it and I also had one
emergency ration pack of ramen noodles
just one by a two things were getting
scary I was starting to get nervous and
I thought I was going to have to drop
off to lower ground to get to a town but
even the closest town was still 5060
miles away by day three I was terrified
and thankfully as I was walking I came
across not only a man on horseback but
also a hiker they gave me resupply
resupplied my food as well as gave me a
beautiful jar of peanut butter but
that’s not what they only gave me two I
also found out she this horrible bear
barrel that I was cursing at the top of
it was a frying pan the lid I could have
been eating fish that entire time and I
had no idea but that was the most
delicious jar of peanut butter I ever
had and without that I could have never
made it what is this all about I’m still
trying to figure that one out but what I
do know is that I’m no longer asking
myself what do I want to be but I’m now
asking myself who do I want to become
life is a trail it doesn’t end when you
get to the northern terminus it doesn’t
end when you come home it continues and
for me in my life it is not the
destination it is the journey an
adventure with a handful of skills thank
you
[Applause]
my teacher one day borrowed all of his
kids in a circle and one by one she
began to ask us that wonderful life
question what do you want to be when you
grow up and there are firefighters and
policemen one boy wanted to be a plumber
just like his dad and one girl wanted to
be a urologist now I didn’t know what
urology even was in first grade nor
can’t even pronounce it so finally the
teacher came to me Sean what do you want
to be when you grow up I was still
trying to figure out what are you wrong
is just wrong and I was so interested in
everyone else’s answers I really wasn’t
thinking of mine and so I said the first
thing that came to my head I want to be
a Canadian farmer why the nationality I
have no idea but the farmer point part
I’m starting to understand more and more
I enjoy nature
I loved open space I love to grow
something and to watch it grow and 20
years later I found myself with the same
question this time being asked by my
college professor and what he was trying
to figure out was what was my specialty
going to be in my degree of anthropology
and sadly Canadian farmer wasn’t a
choice and I didn’t know I didn’t know I
didn’t know where I was going what I was
doing who I was you know the usual
college experience I was lost and I was
disappointed and that I was lost and so
I did what most people do when they get
upset or flustered I went out for a walk
but mine was about six months long
I ended up hiking the Appalachian Trail
in 2012 season one and it was wonderful
but when I came back I found that I was
still lost and so four years after that
I kind of liked it I’ll do another one
but this time I’ll do the console divide
trail a trail that extends from the
northern border of Mexico all the way to
the southern border of Canada right
along the spines of the Rockies 3,100
miles so in April of last year I started
at the border of Mexico in the Chihuahua
desert and the desert is an interesting
thing it’s kind of like the beach but
with less water and more like pokey
plants that just want to like hurt you
and kill you all the time and every day
for five months in two weeks I would
walk I’d walk at first twelve miles then
15 then I got up to 20 and 25 and one
day I even did a thirty mile and when
you’re walking through this beautiful
immersion of nature it feels like you’re
in a living art museum a living gallery
you can’t just fly through the Louvre
and say oh I saw the Lu that was that
done now you have to take your time you
have to look at each piece one by one
look at the brushstrokes of gratitude
for the painter find inspiration and
there’s something to say being able to
walk on a summit for two or three days
and seeing the same mountain in the
horizon and watch it change colors
throughout the day it’s magical
absolutely magical
but with anything in nature it is a
double-edged sword there is beauty but
there’s also danger scary moments its
nature just what happens and one of
those times I was about 1,400 miles into
the journey and I was in northern
Colorado about 80 miles south of a place
called a whammy Basin a massive flat old
that’s part of the divide and I was
really looking forward to something flat
and in Colorado every day at 3 or 4
o’clock like clockwork
especially during the summer there’s
these storms that roll up from the
mountains it’s the weather engine that
drives the monsoon season throughout New
Mexico getting all the water and these
storms are spectacular
they’re beautiful when you’re down in
the valley and you’re on a porch with a
beer looking at it from a hundred miles
away but then when you’re up there at
13,000 400 feet it’s terrifying
absolutely terrifying and one day I was
climbing a summit I thought I could make
it I could make it the clouds are still
far away enough I can make it and I only
had three quarters of a mile left to get
to the top of the summer and so I
decided to make it but I didn’t make it
the storm came and as I was going up the
summit the next thing I realized was
that this beautiful panorama that was
all around me this Vista of the world
had instantly turned to white I was in a
cloud I was stuck in a cloud and that
white turned to gray and that gray
turned to this pitch blackness and the
temperature dropped and all above me all
I heard was static going above my head
and hail started to come down
and I was terrified because on my back I
had this ice axes metal ice act which
was working just like a lightning rod
and then right below my ice axe there
was also this little like gas tank for
cooking so I was an explosive lightning
rod it was horrible and I wanted to run
but you can’t run up there you are on a
tight rope of rocks you’re on a
Ridgeline and so I did the only thing
that I could do do Dave
Harry Bellefonte about 12 songs later I
found myself in a lower ground in a
saddle that had few trees and tree line
and that was one of the nicest nights I
ever had
it was wonderful great sleep by the time
I did get to the Wyoming Basin I was
starting to get a little done with the
entire adventure thing I wanted to come
home and I wanted to come home safe and
I thought well you know by the time I
get to Yellowstone which is just a few
more hundred miles away you take a train
go home and everyone would be happy and
one day there was a thirty mile section
that only had one water source and that
water source was called Mormon Springs
one of the very few springs in the wimey
Basin that was not sailing it was
insulting to the taste in that morning I
ended up walking started around 5:30 in
the morning and walked to the spring and
the Mormon spring was actually a pit
stop if you will to the Mormons who were
immigrating west to Salt Lake City it
was also a water source – for the Pony
Express and I was kneeling down and I
had my little sippy cup to scoop water
out of the spring and had to brush away
all the little floaties and
well that’s what you give on the show
you have to give like things that are
floating on the water really cute names
because if not it’s not appetizing like
dead bugs and like cow poop you know
just doesn’t sound good
and then God forbid bloaty’s I’ll let
your imagination go on that one what a
blow D is and I’m brushing everything
away and I hear it and I look up and in
front of me is a herd of wild mustang
running from the horizon from the Rising
Sun of the east the dusk glistening up
hitting it shining and behind me there
were antelope deer and a few cows
there’s always counts and I was that
moment but I felt like I was an America
I was in an American Oasis and that
moment gave me the energy the momentum
to continue on I felt a part of it now
to do something like this you can’t just
do it all on your own with your own grit
you have to have others you have to have
friends and family at home to be sitting
you packages letters and you know little
notes like you got and then also too you
need help from people along the way and
the trail world recall this trail magic
the trail magic can be anything can be
someone giving a ride into town from a
mountain pass and you thought lightning
was scared try hitchhiking
and one of those moments that I really
became dependent on people was I was
going through a section called the Wind
River Range one of the most beautiful
places on this planet it is spectacular
it is a mountain range that runs to the
southeast of Yellowstone part of the
massive volcanic caldera and over the
millennia has been carved by glaciers
and ice and it’s just spectacular
absolutely spectacular but it’s also
very rugged as well as isolated it’s
there’s isolation to it it’s wilderness
and so you really don’t see that many
people out there my trail section for
that what I thought was about a hundred
and twenty miles roughly and so I packed
roughly oh seven six days worth of food
and my backpack but also too I had heard
I was going into grizzly country and so
for not wanting to see a grizzly I ended
up packing out as well a massive bear
bear and what a bear barrel is it is
this kind of barrel contraption with
this weird lid that you can never really
fit on just right and you shove all your
food in there and this thing weighs a
ton
it’s miserable but when the bear does
get it he’s rolling around with that
instead of with you and your tent so
that’s why I got this thing and in about
four days of me walking north I found
that I had greatly underestimated not
only my distance it wasn’t a hundred and
twenty miles it was nearly a hundred and
ninety miles and I’d also to greatly
under missed underestimated the terrain
I was no longer in this flat Basin
making twenty five miles a day I was now
in the mountains only able to do 14:13
that was it I wasn’t going very fast
and so by day five I found myself with a
bear barrel full of just wrappers it was
completely empty I was out of food and I
still had a whole lot more to go to get
to the boy first day was okay I was a
little hungry but everything was fine I
had an extra pack of Skittles that every
single time I was going up an incline or
a mountain or a summit or a past I would
just eat one or two skittles just to
kind of get my blood sugar up and I was
able to get over it and I also had one
emergency ration pack of ramen noodles
just one by a two things were getting
scary I was starting to get nervous and
I thought I was going to have to drop
off to lower ground to get to a town but
even the closest town was still 5060
miles away by day three I was terrified
and thankfully as I was walking I came
across not only a man on horseback but
also a hiker they gave me resupply
resupplied my food as well as gave me a
beautiful jar of peanut butter but
that’s not what they only gave me two I
also found out she this horrible bear
barrel that I was cursing at the top of
it was a frying pan the lid I could have
been eating fish that entire time and I
had no idea but that was the most
delicious jar of peanut butter I ever
had and without that I could have never
made it what is this all about I’m still
trying to figure that one out but what I
do know is that I’m no longer asking
myself what do I want to be but I’m now
asking myself who do I want to become
life is a trail it doesn’t end when you
get to the northern terminus it doesn’t
end when you come home it continues and
for me in my life it is not the
destination it is the journey an
adventure with a handful of skills thank
you
[Applause]
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