{"id":6862,"date":"2021-07-30T09:32:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T15:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zters.com\/?p=6862"},"modified":"2021-07-30T09:32:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T15:32:44","slug":"trail-life-qa-with-mike-campos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zters.com\/blog\/trail-life-qa-with-mike-campos","title":{"rendered":"Trail Life Q&#038;A with Mike Campos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Many of our Zeeps spend a lot of time outdoors, and as a company that works on sites across the country, we care about exploring and taking care of our natural environment. One of our good friends, Mike Campos, is currently completing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenbelly.co\/pages\/triple-crown-of-hiking\">Triple Crown of Hiking<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those who don\u2019t know, the Triple Crown consists of three iconic U.S. hiking trails \u2013 The Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. Fewer than five hundred people have ever completed the entire distance for all three trails, and Mike is on his way to being one of them. He started the Continental Divide Trail at the beginning of July 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All told, the three trails are more than 8,000 miles of through hiking \u2013 meaning you carry what you need, camp out along the trail, and restock your supplies as you travel thousands of miles on foot. Fewer than half the people who attempt these trails end up completing them, so finishing all three is a rare accomplishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mike chatted with us before he left on his 3,100-mile trek. Here\u2019s what he had to say about trail life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Z: When did you complete the other segments of the Triple Crown?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MC: I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018, from March to September, and I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2020 from March to September \u2013 although I went off-trail for the month of April because of COVID-19 and returned to the trail May 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Z: What made you start hiking, especially these iconic hikes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MC: I started hiking these long trails because I needed to change the way I was living my life. I wasn\u2019t happy with my life or the path I saw my life taking. I knew I needed to change everything I was doing but I didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do or how to do it. I felt lost. I sold everything I owned, bought a baby stroller, loaded it with food and water and started walking west, on the side of the road. I quickly learned that you can\u2019t get lost if you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Z: What\u2019s something you\u2019ve learned on the trail?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MC: I\u2019ve learned that we have some amazing people in our country. The help you receive from a stranger is a different kind of help. You appreciate it in a different way. When&nbsp;you haven\u2019t showered in a week and you look like you haven\u2019t showered&nbsp;in three weeks, and a stranger invites you into their house to feed, shower, and&nbsp;wash your clothes, it\u2019s hard to describe but it gives&nbsp;you hope that things can get better, that people are better. It\u2019s not all bad out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Z: What made you want to attempt the Triple Crown?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MC: I\u2019ll steal&nbsp;this&nbsp;from something I read once, \u201cIf you hike one you\u2019ll&nbsp;hike all three.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trail life or hiking these trails has changed my life in&nbsp;ways I never thought possible. I never planned, thought, or would have guessed that I\u2019d be where I am in my life today. And with every new trail I keep changing. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d say it\u2019s important for me to finish \u201cthe big three\u201d but it\u2019s definitely important for me to keep hiking, so I can keep changing. I\u2019m not done seeing where walking will take me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Z: You now also work in national parks \u2013 anything you\u2019d like people to know about making big life changes or spending more time in the outdoors?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MC: I\u2019d just want everyone to know that you can change. You don\u2019t have to hate your life. The first step to change is the hardest. The first time I quit working to go walk across the country was the hardest, scariest, unknown thing I had ever done. Now I love finishing&nbsp;jobs to go hike. I love working to go live, not living to work. The&nbsp;jobs I\u2019ve worked these last few years love supporting me while I plan my next hike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Truthfully, I wish I knew more about our national park system. But the one thing I now know and think everyone should know is that you can live and get paid to live in our national parks, and it\u2019s fun. I\u2019ve lived in the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and in Yellowstone all in the last three years. And I plan on living in many more national parks \u2013 live where people vacation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Z: Any advice for people thinking about a long hike like this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MC: My main advice for people wanting to get into long distance hiking would be,&nbsp;do it. It\u2019s going to be the hardest thing you\u2019ve ever done, mentally and physically (and for some people emotionally).&nbsp;It will change you. You\u2019re not going to start out hiking 20\u201325-mile days. It\u2019s not about walking 1,000 miles or 3,000 miles, it\u2019s about walking today, every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take less. It\u2019s okay if you don\u2019t shower for seven days. All you need is food and water, everything else is comfort. Start early, finish late. I spent six months to a year&nbsp;watching YouTube videos on hiking, reading everything I could find online,&nbsp;hiking gear, food,&nbsp;and anything to do with people walking across the country or hiking long trails or things on&nbsp;being homeless. I started living this lifestyle long before my first step on a trail,&nbsp;or in my case, on the road.&nbsp;I might not know what I\u2019ll be doing next year, where I\u2019ll be working, where I\u2019ll be living, where I\u2019ll be hiking. But I know that no matter what I do, something will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most trails are nonprofit organizations that take&nbsp;donations and use volunteers to maintain the trail systems.&nbsp;If you can\u2019t get away to tackle a long hike,&nbsp;you can have an&nbsp;awesome week or two working and living&nbsp;on the trail.&nbsp;I\u2019m no expert at any of this. I\u2019m still learning.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many of our Zeeps spend a lot of time outdoors, and as a company that works on sites across the country, we care about exploring and taking care of our natural environment. One of our good friends, Mike Campos, is currently completing the Triple Crown of Hiking. For those who don\u2019t know, the Triple Crown [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trail Life Q&amp;A with Mike Campos - The Site Savvy Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of our good friends, Mike Campos, is currently completing the Triple Crown of Hiking. 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