Envy is an element of the human condition. We all experience it at one time or another. My mother always warned me that envy was unhealthy, and I try to resist it.
A confession: I don’t envy rich men with big houses, fast cars, beautiful women, or even those with Cessna 180s on floats. But all my life I’ve struggled to suppress a reflexive envy of certain men — those with “the right stuff.”
I envy astronauts who land on the moon, Navy pilots who launch jet fighters off carriers, mountaineers who scale Everest — and Carey Kish.
These daring individuals have what it takes to undertake risky, highly challenging ventures I lack the stomach or courage to attempt. My mother would be displeased by my envy, though perhaps not by my sense of self-preservation.
Carey Kish, the hardcore hiker from Bar Harbor, just completed the 2,700-mile Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada.
Consider this: Kish, who is well past his youth, spent six months walking alone through some of the wildest, loneliest, most rugged terrain in the lower 48.
And that’s not all. Kish, who writes a monthly hiking column for the Northwoods Sporting Journal, reflected in the October issue:
“I’ve never allowed myself to think much about the ‘Triple Crown,’ the recognition bestowed upon hikers who have completed America’s ‘Big Three’ trails. But with the Appalachian Trail (2015), the Pacific Crest Trail (2019) and now the CDT in the can — a grand total of 7,500 miles over 19 months — I guess it’s okay to finally say that, well, yeah, I did that.”
Can there be any doubt that Kish has earned a place among those with “the right stuff”? He certainly has in my book. His feat proves that, aside from sore feet and relentless leg cramps, he has mastered the test of emotional endurance.
How does someone put one foot in front of the other, day after day, enduring the elements, the loneliness and the gnawing hunger? Writers have long tried to explain what drives people like Kish to keep going. As Laurence Gonzales observes in his book ‘Deep Survival,’ psychologists who study why some prevail where others falter often point to a “sacred inner core of selfhood” — an inner resource that is ultimately a state of mind.
So let’s share in the wonder and inspiration of the Carey Kishes of this world, who remind us of what is possible when passion and perseverance carry us forward.
At his core, Kish is simply a guy who loves to hike. He may not be an astronaut or Navy pilot, but he has the right stuff — and the Triple Crown to prove it.