Christopher Knight — the Last True Hermit

GQ, September 2014.

Like the Mountain Man of Utah, such a life does not quite live up to the romanticized depiction of Anton Chekhov's The Bet.

Back in the spring/early summer of 1972, I worked in Yellowstone Park and took climbing lessons at a school in Jackson Hole. But I grew tired of "campus life" at Yellowstone and headed west to hike California portions of the Pacific Crest Trail. By the time I returned to civilization in the fall, I sounded a bit like Peter Sellers in Being There (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYeVQzTVyLk).

A thousand clouds, ten thousand streams,
Here I live, an idle man,
Roaming green peaks by day,
Back to sleep by cliffs at night.
One by one, springs and autumns go,
Free of heat and dust, my mind.
Sweet to know there’s nothing I need,
Silent as the autumn river’s flood.
--Han-shan, Words from Cold Mountain

Well, for almost two decades Penny and I have been caretakers for a week each season at Upper Goose Pond Cabin on the Appalachian Trail (MA, about 2 miles south on the trail from where the trail crosses the MA Pike). I guess it's a matter of perspective, very unlike the big city. But we see perhaps 50-100 other humans in the week and while sometimes a hiker is walking "in a bubble" (alone because hikers moving at approximately the same speed in the same direction so meets nobody else) that doesn't normally last more than a couple days. And not unusual for us to have a night or two in the week when we have no hikers staying at the cabin.

But I wouldn't consider life on the Trail to be "hermit".

Well, 42 years ago the Pacific Crest Trail was not as popular, and I was not through-hiking, so I often stopped to camp for a week or two in semi-wilderness areas--at least until my flour and beans would run out. This was long before freeze-dried meals and modern light-weight equipment; I can't imagine the kind of weight that I once hauled around like a mule.

Also, if you can imagine it now, Yellowstone was mostly empty away from the big attractions back then. And even more so the Bridger-Teton Wilderness, where I camped by myself for 2-3 weeks waiting on a check before heading out for California.

Do you ever hike yourself? My last hiking/camping trip was two summers ago to Gila Wilderness in New Mexico, but it was too hot and dry for me to stay more than two weeks!

Edit: I had planned on taking my dogs to Hoosier National Forrest last summer, but my lab got very sick and eventually died. I am left with a too large tent (Cloudburst 3) that I may end up selling without ever using.

Yes used to hike, mainly in the Whites (NH) and Greens (VT) and some of the ME mountains. Working back then so the pits, because with a two week vacation, the first week a real struggle/soreness, resupply and the second week better, and then having to go back just when ready to hike for real. Unfortunately there is no way to get into shape for backpacking up rough mountain trails except humping loads up rough trails.

Had to give it up when Penny got lupus since she has to be totally out of the sun and you can't do summer hiking covered up (and neither of us ski or snowshoe so winter camping out). That's when we began caretaking since that doesn't call for her to be exerting herself in hot weather all covered up.

But understand, we don't live in town. Except for a once a week shopping trip to town, where we live, while we might hear cars go by on the road, we might not see more people than we would during a week caretaking on the AT.

Doesn't make us hermits.

Of course not!

The closest I've come to hiking the Appalachian Trail is reading A Walk in the Woods. My idea of a vacation is hiking into a remote area, setting up a base camp, and doing exploration day hikes, prospecting/rock hounding, climbs, fishing, reading (especially now with my Nook), etc--and, when necessary, making resupply runs to the nearest store if I am overcome by craving for some junk food.

I'm sorry to hear of Penny's lupus. I tried to interest my wife in winter camping as she hates heat and bugs. I probably made a mistake by starting her with cross-country skiing, which she also hated. At my age, I no longer feel like heading out alone in the winter on my skis. I still have a lot of winter gear, though: a 4-season tent (Hilleberg Staika), down bag (Mountain Hardwear Ghost, -40 F), down pad (Exped 9 Downmat DLX), vapor liner (Western Mountaineering HotSac), etc., and a homemade pulka for dragging my gear around. (I also became very depressed when my son died and lost interest in competitive powerlifting, and then lifting itself, so in addition to getting quite old I'm not nearly as strong as I used to be.)