Carey Kish: The right stuff
By V. Paul Reynolds
Envy is an element of the human condition. We all experience it at one time or another. My mother taught me that jealousy of another fellow traveler, or envy, is not a healthy thing. Resist it if you can.
A confession. While I do not get envious of rich men with big houses ,or faster cars or beautiful women, or even those with Cessna 180s on floats, I have all my life struggled to suppress a reflexive envy I have of certain men: those with the right stuff.
That’s right. I envy astronauts who land on the moon, Navy pilots who fly high performance jet fighters off aircraft carriers, mountain climbers who scale Mt. Everest and Carey Kish. These daring individuals have whatever it takes to undertake risky, highly challenging ventures that I have neither the stomach for or the personal courage to confront.
MEXICO TO CANADA – Carey Kish of Bar Harbor just completed hiking the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada, spending six months walking alone for 2,700 miles through some of the wildest, loneliest, most rugged terrain in the lower 48!
My mother would be displeased — about my envy — not my sense of self preservation.
Who is Carey Kish?
He is the hardcore hiker from Bar Harbor who just completed a hike of the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada. Now think about this. Kish, who is no spring chicken, spent six months walking alone for 2,700 miles through some of the wildest, loneliest, most rugged terrain in the lower 48!
That’s not all. Kish, who writes a monthly hiking column for the Northwoods Sporting Journal, will write this 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 question that Kish has earned a place in the annals of those with the right stuff? He certainly has in my book. For his feat tells me that, aside from his sore feet and leg cramps, he has really met the test of a remarkable emotional survival. How does he do it? How does he put one foot in front of the other day after day after day, while enduring the elements and the loneliness, not to mention probable calorie deprivation?
Laurence Gonzales, in his wonderful book “Deep Survival” reports that psychologists and others who have studied the question of why some people survive in the same predicament while others don’t, really can only speculate. There are references to a “sacred inner core of self-hood” and an “inner resource that is a state of mind.”
So let’s all share in the wonderment and inspiration of the personal victories of the Carey Kishes of this world, who remind us of what is possible when human beings persevere and allow their dreams and passions to guide their actions.
Think about it. At his core, Carey Kish is simply a guy who loves to hike. He is worthy of the Triple Crown.
The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.