June 25, 2008
Walking 32,000 miles!
From the LATimes, a story of our grand human family.
George Woodard, known by his nom de guerre, Billy Goat."George is the name my mother gave me," he said.

Billy Goat has hiked more than 32,000 miles -- which would have taken him around the world and a third of the way again. He has walked across the South and the Southwest, the Northeast and the West. He has crossed the Rocky Mountains on four occasions, twice in each direction. He has conquered the so-called triple crown of American hiking -- the Appalachian, Continental Divide and Pacific Crest trails -- multiple times.

He has a wife, his third, and a home in Nevada. That is where George, the 69-year-old retired railroad worker, would live if Billy Goat cared to be George. Billy Goat lives more than 10 months of the year outdoors, drinking unfiltered water from streams, eating vacuum-sealed meals he prepares himself, sleeping under the stars without a tent. He carries what he needs in a backpack weighing less than 10 pounds.

"I'm not on vacation. I'm not out for a weekend," he said, settling in for the night under a fire-scarred tree next to a gurgling creek and surrounded by the rugged granite outcroppings of the Dome Land Wilderness. "This is where I live. When you do that, all the other trappings of life fade away."

Comments on "Walking 32,000 miles!"

 

Blogger Pauline said ... (6/27/2008) : 

amazing when you find someone actually living your dream

 

Blogger mareja said ... (6/30/2008) : 

This man hates people. It isn't about lofty ideals that he walks. Read the story: he is only pleasant and philosophical on the trail. When home, he is dark, dismal, unkind to family and friends. He walks to escape not civilization and its trappings, he walks to escape himself. Not exactly John Muir or a Thoreau.

 

Blogger Brian Hayes said ... (7/02/2008) : 

A post on a blog can be a salute. Another post can spit across the room.

This post to a walking man might be cheap journalism, just a blog, just a link to a fellow with 32,000 miles under his feet.

You might see your chance for a front porch sneer, something you noticed and want to say to the folks down the road.

I will not censor your complaint because I am too far from wise to know.

You have some simple right to cry foul. I hope you have a conscience too.

You say a curmudgeon takes 32,000 miles to tell us he's grumpy about all this, then I'll post your hate of him.

No one should hurt you.

 

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