September 19, 2025 • 43 mins
The Adirondack 46 creates transformation for people who see the journey. This is Chet's comeback story of almost abandoning his journey alltogether due to weight gain and poor habits, to putting a stop to it, getting help, putting in the work to fight back for his health, and finishing the Adirondack 46.
An inspirational High Peaks comeback story.
Looking for help to improve your your fitness for hiking, nutrition, discipline, and daily habits?
Apply to work with James 1-on-1 in his Seek To Do More coaching program at www.seektodomore.com
Join the next GREAT RANGE ATHLETE Team and get in mountain-hiking shape alongside a likeminded group in just 6 weeks from your local gym or house.
Join the team at www.greatrangeathlete.com
Follow on Instagram & Facebook:
@46of46podcast
@jamesappleton46
Get my books:
1.) The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Complete Guide to Hiking the High Peaks
2.) Adirondack Campfire Stories: Tales and Folklore from Inside the Blue Line
Visit my other websites:
www.46OUTDOORS.com
www.46OF46.com
An inspirational High Peaks comeback story.
Looking for help to improve your your fitness for hiking, nutrition, discipline, and daily habits?
Apply to work with James 1-on-1 in his Seek To Do More coaching program at www.seektodomore.com
Join the next GREAT RANGE ATHLETE Team and get in mountain-hiking shape alongside a likeminded group in just 6 weeks from your local gym or house.
Join the team at www.greatrangeathlete.com
Follow on Instagram & Facebook:
@46of46podcast
@jamesappleton46
Get my books:
1.) The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Complete Guide to Hiking the High Peaks
2.) Adirondack Campfire Stories: Tales and Folklore from Inside the Blue Line
Visit my other websites:
www.46OUTDOORS.com
www.46OF46.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, boys, I'm calling it to sixteen pm on top
of Mercie tomorrow. A phrase from our coach and our
mentor Adrondack forty sixer been longtime coming, brothers, Long time coming.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the forty six of forty six podcast Summit Sessions,
where we'll talk all things Adirondack back country and beyond.
From high peaks, stories and adventures to trail tips and tricks.
We'll dive deep into the heart of these mountains and
the people who passionately climb them. Adirondack maps and spruce
traps to bushwax and backpacks. It's all here, the forty
(00:41):
six of forty six Summit Sessions. Hello everyone, and welcome
back to the forty six of forty six. I am
here with a Summit Session episode tonight that's a little
(01:04):
bit different than they've been in the past. So this
week one of my seek to Do More clients, Chet
from Saratoga, became an Adirondack forty six er. So on
our coaching call, he was less than twelve hours removed
from finishing the Adirondack forty six So, as you could imagine,
our conversation went right to the Adirondack high peaks and
(01:27):
how the adventure went and before we knew it, we
had basically just done a podcast together. So without further ado,
let's hear from Chet on his Adirondack forty six or
finish what led to it and what he's done to
prepare himself to be able to accomplish this goal of
becoming an Adirondack forty six er. There he is the
(01:51):
world's newest Adirondack forty six er.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
How's it? Field?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Brother? Good good?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
When you've got up to Marcy, will take me through
the emotions of that moment for you, so.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
You know the whole. Once I got up to Lake Tier,
you could see people on Settle on skylight, and you
could see people on Marcy right because they're they're they're open,
so you could see people up there. So I shoot
up to I shoot up to Gray. It's a treat summit.
I eventually find the sign, do my thing whatever, come
back down, eat lunch at Lake Tier, and I look
(02:28):
up and I don't see anybody on Marcy, and I
don't see anybody on Skylight, So I huh, So I
get going and I get up Skylight and there's three
people up there. I talk to them for a little bit,
and again I look up. Oh there's a there's a
person on top of Marcy. Okay, cool, There'll be somebody
to talk to when I'm when I'm up because I'm
solo hiking, right, and I'm a little bit excited because
(02:49):
this is my final hike, and it's you know, you're
just kind of like and it's nice to get out
of your head and talk to other humans, and which
is why I, you know, ninety percent of my hikes
I did with one or more other people, because you're
all talking to each other and you just kind of
stay out of your head. So then I'm going up
(03:11):
the backside of Marci, and I'm thinking, damn it, James,
I didn't do enough on the stair climber with my
heavy backpack. But I get up. Eventually get up to
the top of Marcy and I'm looking around and I'm
looking around and there's nobody there, and I it was
(03:36):
very surreal. I took my backpack off, I sat down
for a minute. I'm on the highest I'm at the
highest point in the state of New York, and I
have it all to myself and It was just so
surreal looking around, seeing the whole park right, all of it,
(03:58):
all of it, and you can't like you try to
take pictures and you try to do all this stuff,
but nothing captures it what you're seeing. Nothing really does.
And it was so surreal and so like just so
emotional to finally be up there and and like, I
(04:24):
did this after years of saying I'm working on this,
I'm working on this. I did this. I did it,
and so emotional, so very surreal to be up there
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And how'd you feel this morning when you woke up?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Hips a little sore, Knees are a little cranky. My
feet are always cranky when I'm done. I don't it's
you know, there's nothing to do about that. But legs
are good, body is good. You know. The hips are
or from the the I haven't been on the van
hole since twenty twenty one. Did when I did Phelpson
(05:07):
Tabletop really early on, and then it never went back
to the van hole after that, so I had forgot
how much of a rock hop slog it kind of
was walking down, you know. So the hips are a
little bit sore, but you can see how widely used
that trail is because there's bushwhacks all around it. So
when it got too bad, I just went in the
(05:28):
woods and followed some of the bushwhacks in the woods
and come on. But yeah, I know, the legs are good,
the calves are good, the legs are good.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Great. Now, from an emotional standpoint, when you woke up
this morning and realized, like the the journey was complete,
the journey's not over. The journey's never over. In fact,
what I find finishing the forty six does is it
opens you up to really start having the adventures because
you no longer feel tied down to this idea of like, well,
(06:02):
I've hiked this mount, I need to go hike this one. No. No,
Now you freed yourself to go do whatever you want.
You want to just hike right. You can go just
hike right and not feel like you have to also
do the others. You know, you have freed yourself. So
this morning when you woke up, you know, talking about
like what you know, how are the emotions as you
were knowing that you completed the journey.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
So it was still really like I didn't believe it
when I woke up. It was still one of those
things like, I'm kind of pinching myself because I'm you know,
you wake up and you fee you take stock of
your body. My body, my like I said, my hips
are a little cranky, my knees are cranky. All the
places that are cranky are cranky. But yet the rest
(06:45):
of the body feels really great. And knowing in years
past the rest of the body would I would like
if I was going to do that hike, I would
have taken today off because I would have slept in
and not got out of bed till like noone And
but so it really was it. It was still not real.
But one of the things that I did when I
(07:06):
got home, because I was so excited last night, is
I had, you know, I have a booklet that me
and my hiking partners have been using, and so I
went got it and like, as I'm getting ready to
take a shower and get cleaned up, I went to
the forty six or site. I started the process. While
(07:27):
I'm taking a shower, my wife's putting the dates inform
of me and finishing, you know, and finishing it up.
And this morning the number was there, sixteen thousand, seven
hundred and twenty five and so again. It was just
a flood of emotion that I completed this. I really
(07:53):
really completed this, and it was like relief like we've
talked about in the past, where that that relief comes
off your shoulders and that yes, I am a forty
six er. I am not trying to be a forty
six er, or it's not this abstract thought that one
day I'm going to be a forty six er. I
(08:15):
am a forty six er. That's it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Aspiring no More, I believe, is the phrase that people
like to post right, aspiring no more. Congratulations. It's super cool,
and you know, it's a it's a title, it's a
it's an accomplishment that no one can ever take away
from you either. That's the beautiful thing. It's like, these
are experiences, these are memories that we have that they
(08:39):
can never be taken from us. So, you know, congratulations again,
because it's a huge thing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I know a lot of people sometimes crap on the
whole idea of hiking list, but I think that's so
stupid Personally. I think lists give you something to shoot for,
they give you structure, they give you a goal, and
I'm sure accomplish that as all.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, structure and goal right is, here's what you should
Here's what you need, Here's what you should do for
this carat right here, so do this and here's the
carrot yep. Let me ask your es.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Does it feel better than you anticipated? Exactly what you anticipated?
Not as enjoyable as you anticipated. Kind of talked to
me about that.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So it's way better than I anticipated. Now. One of
the reasons, if I'm honest with myself and everybody else,
one of the reasons I took twenty twenty four off
was because I allowed life to get in the way
and I got really, really, really out of shape, and
I wasn't doing the work, working with you and doing
(09:43):
the work. My last two hikes, I my last two
hikes have been the most enjoyable hikes that I have had,
with one exception. They have been the most enjoyable hikes
I've had the whole time, and all the time it
took me to do it because I'm I'm not tired.
I'm not you know, I'm not halfway up a mountain
(10:05):
going I just can't go anymore, but forcing myself to
do it because if I don't do it, I'm all
this way and why didn't I do it? Right? My
body's not boinking, it's just that I'm super, super super tired.
And so what should take maybe an hour to scale
(10:28):
up and down takes two and a half because it's
like five steps and take a break and sit down
for ten minutes, and another ten steps and take a
break and sit down for ten or fifteen more minutes.
And I didn't have to do that, and it just
was really really you know, there was a little bit
of that on the backside of Marcy because it was
(10:48):
my third one, and I was, like I said in
my poll, I was I was getting tired, right, but
I was Karen, Okay, so I'm here, I'm going to
go to that third Karen. So let's get to the
third Karen, and then let's take a two minute break
and then okay, now I'm gonna get I'm gonna go
to that one. And then the closer I got to
the top, and I will say, I know that there
(11:09):
is a there's a little Marsie, right, And I was like,
I've not read anything about a false summit on Marcie.
But as I get closer, like I'm getting closer faster,
there better not be a false summit. I better not
get up there, be like, no, you got to go there.
But yeah, very enjoyable, very very enjoyable. And when you're
(11:35):
not tired, you're able to get up on top of
the peaks and not throw your pack on the ground
and be like, I want to take a nap. You
just sit down, You have your food, whatever you're having,
You drink your snack, your summit sandwich, whatever it is
you're doing, and then you take your you take your
little break, you take your pictures, and you get yourself
(11:55):
geared up and down you go. You know I'm not
I'm not a summit sitter. Right, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes,
and it's time. It's time to go. Either go down
and go out or or go on to the next
I had planned to sit on top of Marsie, but interestingly,
(12:17):
and I haven't carried bugspray in two months. Interestingly, I
got up on top of Marcie and there were these
biting gnats that I don't know if they said, oh,
there's fresh blood on top of Marcy and he's all
by himself, let's go there. But there was no wind.
When I got to Marcie. There was no wind right
that sign that says weather conditions can change drastically. So
there was no wind up there. And so as soon
(12:37):
as I took my pack off and started to walk
around and see things, the gnats just like attack. So
like I didn't even see the Marsie plaque because it's
in a spot that I didn't go to. And I,
you know, did my thing and put my pet, got
a drink and put my pack back on and was like, well,
this has been all. This is all been great. I
sent my polo and this is all been great. But
I'm not going to sit up here and get eating
(12:58):
up by the bugs. I'm gonna to head out the
Adirondack Mountains. Man.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I'll tell you they're going to test you every which way,
and of course they're going to give you that little,
that little reminder of who they are, that they don't
care that you finish care on forty six. They're going
to just remind you, hey, we are in control up here.
You are a guest in our mountains. So I think
that's fantastic. Dude, chat Seriously, you have done the work
(13:25):
and you know, and I know we talked in our
very first call, right like what a difference it is
when you can go hike some mountains, get up there,
feel fine, get and then just go back to the trailhead,
go to sleep, wake up, and the next day just
keep doing your normal thing, versus stumbling your way up
to a summit, stopping a million times, feeling like death
(13:46):
on the summit, feeling even worse when you get back
to the trailhead, and then the next day, as you said,
in years past, you'd have to take the day off
of work. But here you are just living life normally,
feeling you know, a little sore, like no different from
a big workout. You feel sore, and then two days
later you're right back to it.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's that's the difference of preparing yourself physically for this
very unique demand of hiking up mountains, especially here in
the Northeast, where the trails just go straight up and
they're rugged, and you're pulling yourself up things and over
things and all this stuff. But you've done the work.
It's not and think someone could do for you. Just
like climbing the forty six, no one can do it
(14:24):
for you. It's up to you to get yourself to
the top. It's up to you to get yourself back,
do your homework all the things. So huge, congratulations to you.
What an exciting thing.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Thank you, Yeah, thank you. It was uh the trim
down once I got down to Indian Falls, the rest
of it was like floating was just.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And you must have had quite the high on that
way down that mountain probably, you know it's still like,
what is it still like a six mile hike.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Down the Vandeus trail.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, it's probably the best discent that you have on
your entire journey where you don't even remember, right, remember
that long trip down the mountain because you just have
this amazing high by this thing that you just accomplished.
So that's exciting, dude.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah. The only uh, the only comparison I have is
we I was hyking with another friend and we went
to do the lower Great Range and it we were
driving up on its raining and we get to the
AMR and it's raining, so we gear up. It stops
raining by the time we get to the to the gate,
(15:33):
so we take our raincoats off but leave the packs on,
and then we get caught Beaver Fall. Right, Beaver Falls anyway,
there's a set of falls that's really close to the
amr Gate and we got caught in just a super
downpour and we're drenched, and we get up lower wolf Jaw.
(15:54):
We go to upper wolf Jaw, still wet, rain whatever,
but we get to Gothics, the clouds go away, the
sun comes out. We sat up on Gothics for probably
forty minutes, shirts off ever, you know, socks off, everything,
drying out, getting wind blown, drying out, and we go
(16:16):
to Pyramid and we shoot up to you know, I
know it's not part of the Lord Great Range, but
we shoot up to saw Teeth, saw Tooth Yeap. We
get sawt Teeth and then we're hiking down and hiking out,
and we both were commenting about how how and dwarfhin
high we were because it started so like we're going
(16:37):
to turn around, like I am not hiking. I mean,
I'll hike in the rain, but I am not hiking
in this. I'm just not right, Like I like to
see where I'm going, and hail is not fun when
you're hiking. I am not hiking in this. To being
up on the top of Gothics, Shun can see everywhere.
(16:57):
The wind is blowing just enough so it's not cold, right,
So we're not because we're shirts off and stuff and
we're warm, but our stuff is drying out. And yeah,
that was that was another great one.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, very cool, very good dude, fantastic. So let me
to ask you in twenty twenty four, you know, as
you said, you got you kind of just got super
out of shape things. You know, life hit right, life,
Life has a tendency to do that. Did you in
twenty twenty four? Everythink, man, I don't know if I'm
going to finish this forty six?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yes, yes, I thought that a lot, a lot a
lot as the as may came and then June and
I believe you know.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
And I.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Whatever follower however it works on Facebook, the trail conditions
and the aspiring and completionists and whatever. Right, And then
because I'm a little bit of a a sado a masochist,
I followed the New Hampshire stuff too, because that's my
(17:59):
law term agenda is to go to New Hampshire. So
because I like to punish myself, I follow that too.
So as the summer came and the fall in the winter,
I'm not I maybe because I've not done the winter,
not done any in the winter. I don't right now
have a desire to do any winter hiking. It's just
(18:21):
maybe I don't. I never say never, I just don't
have the desire right now. I got a guy here
at work. He's done, he's almost done with his winter
forty six, and he's like, well, now you're done, you
can we can go do Marcia in the winter. You
can see how much fun it is. I'm thinking, Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I would start with the Lake Placid Niner Mountains in
the winter. Give that a run. See what it's like.
I guarantee it hooks you. I'd say that to anyone.
Winter hiking will hook you. It's just a different animal,
it's a different beast. But ultimately, yeah, I think you'll
be out there with snowshoes at no time. But continue
So twenty twenty four summer.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
So as the summer comes and goes in the fall
comes and goes, and I'm thinking, I really did. I'm like,
I am not going to finish. I am forever going
to be an adderon deck fortier right because I was
at forty and I did. I'm like, I am not.
I'm I'm gonna be fifty five and I Am not
(19:18):
going to finish the weight was, you know, going up,
and I was getting more. I was allowing myself to
become more and more and more and more busy with
other things. And that I had that exact thought that
I am going to be forever an adiron deck fortier
in my little book. I was gonna sit on my
(19:41):
desk and it's going to get buried with papers and
eventually I won't be able to find it and it'll
just be Yeah. I did that, but I never finished.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It had that feel of having that thought that you know,
what you've done, come all this way, and you're like
almost feeling like you're watching it slip away in a
sense as you said, like your weight was going up things,
you're getting worse in worse shape, and then the time
is going and all of a sudden, and also you
have you have some big mountains still to climb.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Well that was the other part too, right, Like Alin
is scary when you're when you don't go to it,
Alin is scary. And was it that I was afraid
of Marcy? But yeah, I mean Marcy's the tallest peak
in the state, right, it's five thousand some odd feet.
And when I climbed Outgonquin at five thousand feet we
were clouded in, and I was like, well, you know,
(20:30):
that wasn't such a great experience like al Gonquin's on
my redo list, because I didn't get any views when
I went up there. In fact, it was cold and
crappy when we were up there, only to get eventually
over to right and have it be hot and sunny
because we were below the cloud layer and you could
still see the cloud layer hitting Algonquin in Iroquois even
though we were below and sunny on right. And so yeah,
(20:54):
all that thought, all that stuff crossed my mind, all
of it, all of it, like what was the what
was the straw that broke the camel's back when you
originally reached out to me to get help, to get
yourself back on the trail, Like there had to have
been some time, in some moment where you said, enough
is enough. I have to a finish what I started.
But also beyond that, I have to, you know, take
(21:17):
take charge of my own health and my own life
again as it's you know, going worse, Like there had
to be something that made you say a change has
to come. Yeah. So family history wise, my mom had
what in a man would have been a widow maker
heart attack when she was my age fifty five. Thanks
(21:37):
to a couple of women that she worked with that
wouldn't listen to her and wouldn't take no for an answer.
She survived because they did what needed to be done
to get her where she needed to be. But yeah,
it was a a man they call a widow maker
the heart attack that she had. So my doctor, I've
(21:59):
been working with my doctor since I've been in my
mid thirties, watching all of the indicators right, because I
tend to have the same medical history that lines with
my mom and her side of the family, not my
dad and his side of the family. And when I
(22:20):
was fifty two, my blood pressure started to elevate and
my doctor, my GP, was concerned, but not concern enough
to really like, we just got to watch it, diet, exercise,
all the stuff, right. And then when I was fifty three,
they put me on a blood pressure bad and I
(22:42):
was like, huh okay. And then when I was fifty four,
he sent me to one of the noted cardiologists in Saratoga. Now,
I know every place has noted cardiologists, but he sent
me to a noted cardiologist in Saratoga. In the meantime,
(23:03):
I'd been having stress tests in all these different checks
every handful of years just to see how I was doing.
And the cardiologist said to me at fifty four, okay,
so you have you officially have a cardiologist. Because he
wasn't necessarily taking new patients, but he says, okay, you
(23:23):
officially have a cardiologist, and your current at your current lifestyle,
it's going to be a question of when, not a
question of if. Medical intervention is going to need to
be necessary, he said. And I can tell you not
from firsthand experience, but from performing many operations. You don't
(23:49):
want to wake up with the big scar, which is
the big scar that must have hit like a ton
of bricks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was towards the
end of twenty four, and so we got into twenty
(24:10):
five and I had a pity party January February, at
twenty five, I was having a pity party for myself, like, well,
my mom had her art attack of fifty five, and
I guess I'm going down the same road. And then
in April I I said, well, I got on the treadmill.
(24:34):
We have a treadmill, and we have an elliptical, so
I got on the treadmill and I started doing some
of the programs on the treadmill, and slowly, from April
to May, I started I lost weight, like ten pounds,
(25:00):
and then I forget, I don't. I mean, i'd seen
your stuff for Great Range Athlete and I saw something
for your you know, and I was aware of your
Seek to Do More program, but I had to be
one of the testimonials. I don't know if it was
on if it was in your podcast, because I've been
(25:20):
a regular listener to your podcast for a long time.
I don't know if it was your podcast or if
it was on Facebook or I saw a couple of
the testimonials right, and I initially thought, well, maybe I'll
join one of the Great Range Athlete programs. Maybe that
sounds like what I want to do. And then I
(25:43):
started reading more about the coaching aspect of it and
the diet and what Seek to Do More offered, and
I talked to my wife and said, I want to
talk to him. I'm just going to talk to him,
and then, you know, we hooked up through Initially we
(26:03):
hooked up a little bit through Instagram because you had show,
you had put something out there and it was strength
or so anyway, So we hooked up a little bit
through Instagram, and that just kind of solidified the fact
that I wanted to talk to you about it. And
when you explain how everything worked and how it was
(26:23):
comprehensive and how it's coaching and it's diet and it's
it's not just a program, right, It's like it's everything
all mixed in together. And I've said this a bunch,
I know, I've said it to you, and I've said
it to my wife about you know, get busy living
or get busy dying. And it's a famous line from
a famous movie, and it's kind of cliche, but it's
(26:46):
so true, right, so true, And when you stacked everything up. Okay,
you have a cardiologist. I'm fifty four years old and
I have a cardiologist. I am sixty pounds overweight, although
it's really eighty pounds overweight, but he'll accept two hundreds.
(27:07):
He'd really like me to be at one hundred and
eighty first six foot frame, but he'll he'll take me
at two hundred. You know, my wife and I think
we're doing things and we think we're we're adhering, but
we're not we're still like, I don't want to do
that today, Let's go out, let's get pizza, Let's just
(27:28):
go let's just go over here and get something quick,
or let's you know. And it got easier, not harder,
because our kids aren't home, so it's just her and
I the majority of the time. We have one son
that still lives home, but he's twenty three and he's
really self sustaining, so it's like occasionally he eats dinner
or we just leave it in the refrigerator. But if
(27:49):
we don't, we just tell him, hey, we went out.
He's like okay, and he goes and does his own thing.
So ironically, it got easier to do that. When our
two kids went to college, it was just her and I,
and so I just put all that together and told
her that I really felt like I'm at a turning
(28:10):
point in my life where if I don't do something
right now, I'm not going to do it ever, and
I'm going to get busy dying and I'm not going
to get busy living. And I told you, I have
five grandkids, and I still have three kids that don't
have any grandkids, and I want to see those grandkids
(28:34):
from my other kids. You know, I don't want to
die at fifty five or sixty or even sixty four.
You know, I want to I want to live a
full life, whatever that full life is. But I don't
want to work and then die right after I'm done working,
because it's not living. And if I didn't do stuff,
(28:55):
if I didn't get a hold of whatever it was
and change my patterns, I was not going to do that.
I was going to be that guy that died at
sixty that everybody's like, oh my god, he's so he
looked like he was so healthy. Really he's eighty pounds
overweight and his blood pressure is one hundred and eighty
(29:17):
over one hundred, and he's just a ticking time bob.
You know, doesn't matter what you look like on the outside,
it's what's going on on the inside. You can be
really healthy looking on the outside and be super unhealthy
on the inside. Nobody knows. And that really was that
was that was it. It was like all of that
(29:38):
came together, and it was that whole let's get busy
living or get busy dying and talking to you being
very vulnerable when I was talking to you and fleshing
out what your program does and how it might work
for me, and that kind of all came together to
(30:01):
make me realize that for the three month period or
however long I worked at this was going to get
me started down the road that I needed to be started.
This was going to make me take that left turn
at Albuquerque, like bugs Bunny used to say, right and
help me, help me really really get back to where
(30:27):
I was. And I don't expect to be that sixteen seventeen,
eighteen year old three sport athlete, because that's just not really,
that's not realistic. Right. I already have arthritis, so that's
not really that's not realistic. But I can definitely be
a two hundred pound person that's in good shape, that
(30:51):
maybe still has elevated blood pressure, but is doing all
of the things that they need to do to live
a healthy and active lifestyle and enjoy life and enjoy
family and enjoy just living. And I wasn't. That was
(31:11):
not the road I was on before we started.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Hm.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
You know, it's easy to throw yourself a pity party
when things look bad, and you did that, but then
you realize you weren't willing to settle for that, and
you did what most people don't do, which is now
I'm going to take action. I'm going to go where
I need to go, do what I need to do,
and get the help that you need so that you
can live the life that you're looking for. You really
(31:36):
just needed the map, right like you needed the You
needed to know what route to go to get where
you want to go. And you know, as we learn quickly,
especially when you hop on a call with me, as
as you saw, hiking is just this thing that we
do in the background. This isn't real life. This is
the cherry on top, the icing on the cake. Yeah,
you wanted to get back in shape so that you
(31:57):
can finish the forties and get back to that sort
of ability, but this runs so much deeper than that.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
This is about becoming the man, the grandfather, the father
who is living the long, healthy life for his family.
And the hiking that's just the that's just the bonus,
right like right, and being able to be in the mountains, man,
that makes us a better version of ourselves every time,
you know, I say it on the podcast all the time,
You come down the mountain a better version of yourself
than you can't when you went up it. You just
(32:26):
there's just something about the woods that bring this thing
out of us and for us to have that, man,
it's it's good. But life goes beyond the trail. And
that's why I would, you know, seek to do more
as we just as you learned. It's it's about making
sure everything is firing on all cylinders. And when you do.
Now going out in the mountains is going to be
easier because we've actually started fixing the core problem which
(32:48):
usually is up in our head. Why can't we show
up to the gym? Why don't we show up here?
And when we learn why, we can figure that out.
Now we can show up in these other aspects of life, relationship,
your mental state. You're making sure you're having some fun too,
Like all of a sudden, the same principle applies, you know,
Just like the same principle applies in the gym. When
(33:08):
it comes to lifting a weight, the weight's not gonna
lift itself, you know. It's here's one hundred pounds. You're
either gonna lift it or you're not. Same thing in
the mountains. Hey, here's the mountain. You're either gonna hike
it or you're not. I don't care about it doesn't
care about your excuses. The mountains don't care about what
your past is, what you've hiked before, irrelevant. You're either
going to do it or you're not. And I think
that sort of black and white mentality that the barbell,
(33:31):
the dumbbells, the gym, the mountains, the trail, like that
they all possessed the same exact thing. It's it's refreshing
because we a lot of times need that black and white.
It's yours if you want it, but I ain't going
to do the work for you. And I think that
is really what the moral of the story is for you.
Chet is like you decided, all right, it's time to
(33:52):
it's time to take action, you know, because we all,
like I said, we all can feel sorry for ourselves
at different points. But what we do after that moment
when we realize we're feeling sorry for ourselves, that's the
defining moment. That's the trail junction, that's the fork in
the road. Do I continue down this what was me?
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Path?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Or do I say no, time to chop that off
at the knees. I'm going to go down this other
path because this is the path to go down. You
know we have to you clearly wait the cost right,
like you, what's the cost of me doing nothing? That's
even that's so much worse. So it's just been super
awesome watching you, watching you come here trying to trying
to finish the forty six to a finish the forty six.
(34:33):
But more than that, do you become the person that
brings dumbbells when you go on vacation, when you go
camping in the woods, like you're doing workouts in the
back of your car while you're on a camping trip.
You're going flying across the country to work conferences and
you're not going to miss your training. You're down in
the hotel gym when I could guarantee no one else
that was with you was down at the hotel gym.
(34:53):
You're finding other gyms locally, Like that is the mentality shift,
that is a what makes what we're doing at seek
to do more powerful and why we're building the brain
as much as we're building the physical ability that translates
to the mountains. But you're becoming the type of person
that does what he needs to do and therefore you
(35:13):
reap the rewards and the benefits of becoming that sort
of person. So kudos to you, brother, It's been awesome.
Once again, huge congratulations for completely in the forty six.
It's been awesome and getting those videos from you throughout
the day yesterday, It's weird. I felt like I was
finishing the forty six. I kept checking my phone, kept
checking the seek to do more. Marco Polo app to
(35:35):
find his chet on his chet on Gray yet is
chet on Skylight?
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Oh my god?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
And between between you getting on Skylight and Marcia, I
must have checked it five times because I'm just like
waiting for that moment, because how exciting is it to
see someone else's forty six because I remember that for
me in that moment, for me walking on Too Big Slide,
it's so surreal, and it's not it's surreal because you
(36:01):
climbed a mountain or you climbed a bunch of mountains.
It's because you did something start to finish that was hard,
that nobody made you do it, that most people would
never do. But you saw it through to the end.
And for you, you haven't even bet. You have a
way better story than I do. You have a comeback
in the middle of that story. Right like twenty twenty four.
(36:21):
You know, you see you said you put on you know,
like sixty pounds. You're getting heavier and you're seeing it
slip away, you know, like a rope covering grease. You
squeeze it and you fall faster, like you see that moment.
But you decided to make a change into you know,
say no to that. So it gets me super fired up.
So fired up I could like walk in the woods
and fight a bear right now.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I guess most psyched. Nice.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Nice, That's great, dude, it's great. So what's next? What's
what's the very next hike you have in your brain?
Now that you've freed yourself from the having to do
the forty six, now that you get to go wherever
you want without having that mental you know list thing,
What's what's the next hike in your brain?
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Right now? I have? I want to do Camel's Hump. Okay,
I'm not right because you can see it. Hey, you
can see it from the forty six. And then a
buddy of mine just did it last weekend and sent
me a video on it, and so I want to
(37:23):
go do Camel's Hump. I think that's the next one.
I'm going to do it. I have the LP nine
on my list to do, but I we'll see if
I October here is a shutdown month, so I don't
know if I'll have a lot of time to get
out to do that. We'll see what the weather's like
in November. Maybe I maybe I'll get up there and
do some My wife has recently taken to going with
(37:46):
me on my training rocks in the woods. Sure, and
so she had mentioned wanting to do some stuff. So
that's why I was thinking the LP nine And absolutely
are they, Yeah, because we've done she's done some of
the Lake George stuff already, so I was thinking the
LP nine And then next year I don't know quite
(38:08):
when we're gonna go back to Marcy so she can
get her first peak. And when she asked me why
I've learned all right with the big one, huh right, Well,
she asked you why Marcy first? For why Marcy last
for me, but first for her? I said, Well, I said,
because you'll get all the way up there and you'll
either hate it or you'll love it, I said, And
(38:28):
you'll be able to see the whole park from up
top and you'll either hate it or you'll love it.
But Marcy's a great The Van ho is a great
representation of what every other trail in the park stands for.
It's got it all, it's got rocks, it's got mud,
it's got blowed out, it's got all of it running water, slabs,
(38:51):
it's got it all. Ye and so it'll be a
great reference point for you to decide whether you like
it and this is something you want to do slowly,
or you're like, no, that was I'm good, Marcy was
that was a good hike, and I'm yeah, but we're
sad awesome, So I love it. I always like to
ask people what their next mountain is. For me, I
(39:13):
had it planned well before I finished at forty six.
My next mountain after completing the forty six was Moose Mountain,
which is in Lake Placid.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I say, I call it the secret mountain. That was,
and that's you know, that's one you see from pretty
much every high peak as well, you'll see Moose Mountain.
So that was for me, that was the that was
the one I was waiting for. In fact, I remember
being on my forty six er journey thinking I can't
wait to go hike Moose because it will mean I
accomplished this goal that I set out to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Very good.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Nice, So are you glad Chet that you decided to
make the changes and not just made the decision, but
you actually took action. Oh yes, joined seat to do,
you did the stuff, you flut the work in.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah. Right, very very very dude, very glad you. You
gave me the road map, you gave encouragement. You didn't
let me like when I was trying to talk my
way out of I'm not a gym guy. I don't
like I want to work. I want to work out
in my garage, but I don't have any weights, right,
You didn't really, You're like, okay, fine for now, we'll
(40:13):
start you with some body weight stuff. But that's not
really that's not the goal here. And yeah, that was that.
All was exactly what I needed to hear and what
I needed to follow and to do. And I am
so thankful for all of it. I'm thankful that I
(40:33):
made the decision to do it, and that I acted
on the decision. I'm thankful that my wife supported me
in the decision, and I'm thankful that you and your
program were able to help me and guide me and
give me the roadmap and the blueprint of what I
needed to do to become successful.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And now the world is your oyster, physically, mentally, spirit
all the things. You are a stronger version of yourself.
It shows every time we chat, I can see the
different aura about you and like obviously what you're doing
out in the woods, that just becomes secondary. That becomes
the icing on the cake to building the life that
you're looking to build and becoming the version of yourself
(41:16):
that you want to be, which is the person who
can go out and have the adventures but also shows
up for every aspect.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Of their life.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Your wife benefits from it, You benefit from it, your kids,
your grandkids, your future grandkids, all because Grandpa Chet decided
to bet on himself, take action and not accept a
fate that you know, quite frankly many would have and
many do accept. You said no, I'm not going to
accept that. So proud of you, dude. Kudos to you.
(41:42):
It's been awesome having you here and the world of
seek to do more in the whole ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
It's it's been fantastic.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
And with that will wrap up this episode of the
forty six of forty six podcast. Once again check congratulations
for completing the Adirondack forty six and becoming a forty
six er. Nobody can take that away from you.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Now.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You did the work, you got the help, you took action,
and you have now accomplished the goal that you set
for yourself. Well done. If you want to get help,
just like Chet did, head over to Seek to Do
More dot com. Book a call with me and we'll
figure out how we can help you get on the
right track so that you can accomplish the goals you
have both out in the backcountry and in your own
(42:24):
personal lives. And if you're looking to join a Great
Range Athlete group to get in shape specifically for hiking
with a group of like minded people, the next six
week team kicks off October twentieth. You can sign up
for that at Great Range Aathlete dot com. And if
you're about to start climbing the forty six high peaks,
my book The Adirondack forty six in eighteen Hikes will
(42:46):
help you tremendously, giving you the information you need to
have a safe and successful Adirondack forty six er journey.
And make sure you check back on Fridays for new
mountains new stories, new guests, and new episodes right here
on the forty forty six podcasts. Remember always leave no trace,
do the rock walk, and if you carry it in,
carry it out. I'll see you on the trails. Everybody
Okay, boys, I'm calling it to sixteen pm on top
of Mercie tomorrow. A phrase from our coach and our
mentor Adrondack forty sixer been longtime coming, brothers, Long time coming.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the forty six of forty six podcast Summit Sessions,
where we'll talk all things Adirondack back country and beyond.
From high peaks, stories and adventures to trail tips and tricks.
We'll dive deep into the heart of these mountains and
the people who passionately climb them. Adirondack maps and spruce
traps to bushwax and backpacks. It's all here, the forty
(00:41):
six of forty six Summit Sessions. Hello everyone, and welcome
back to the forty six of forty six. I am
here with a Summit Session episode tonight that's a little
(01:04):
bit different than they've been in the past. So this
week one of my seek to Do More clients, Chet
from Saratoga, became an Adirondack forty six er. So on
our coaching call, he was less than twelve hours removed
from finishing the Adirondack forty six So, as you could imagine,
our conversation went right to the Adirondack high peaks and
(01:27):
how the adventure went and before we knew it, we
had basically just done a podcast together. So without further ado,
let's hear from Chet on his Adirondack forty six or
finish what led to it and what he's done to
prepare himself to be able to accomplish this goal of
becoming an Adirondack forty six er. There he is the
(01:51):
world's newest Adirondack forty six er.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
How's it? Field?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Brother? Good good?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
When you've got up to Marcy, will take me through
the emotions of that moment for you, so.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
You know the whole. Once I got up to Lake Tier,
you could see people on Settle on skylight, and you
could see people on Marcy right because they're they're they're open,
so you could see people up there. So I shoot
up to I shoot up to Gray. It's a treat summit.
I eventually find the sign, do my thing whatever, come
back down, eat lunch at Lake Tier, and I look
(02:28):
up and I don't see anybody on Marcy, and I
don't see anybody on Skylight, So I huh, So I
get going and I get up Skylight and there's three
people up there. I talk to them for a little bit,
and again I look up. Oh there's a there's a
person on top of Marcy. Okay, cool, There'll be somebody
to talk to when I'm when I'm up because I'm
solo hiking, right, and I'm a little bit excited because
(02:49):
this is my final hike, and it's you know, you're
just kind of like and it's nice to get out
of your head and talk to other humans, and which
is why I, you know, ninety percent of my hikes
I did with one or more other people, because you're
all talking to each other and you just kind of
stay out of your head. So then I'm going up
(03:11):
the backside of Marci, and I'm thinking, damn it, James,
I didn't do enough on the stair climber with my
heavy backpack. But I get up. Eventually get up to
the top of Marcy and I'm looking around and I'm
looking around and there's nobody there, and I it was
(03:36):
very surreal. I took my backpack off, I sat down
for a minute. I'm on the highest I'm at the
highest point in the state of New York, and I
have it all to myself and It was just so
surreal looking around, seeing the whole park right, all of it,
(03:58):
all of it, and you can't like you try to
take pictures and you try to do all this stuff,
but nothing captures it what you're seeing. Nothing really does.
And it was so surreal and so like just so
emotional to finally be up there and and like, I
(04:24):
did this after years of saying I'm working on this,
I'm working on this. I did this. I did it,
and so emotional, so very surreal to be up there
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And how'd you feel this morning when you woke up?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Hips a little sore, Knees are a little cranky. My
feet are always cranky when I'm done. I don't it's
you know, there's nothing to do about that. But legs
are good, body is good. You know. The hips are
or from the the I haven't been on the van
hole since twenty twenty one. Did when I did Phelpson
(05:07):
Tabletop really early on, and then it never went back
to the van hole after that, so I had forgot
how much of a rock hop slog it kind of
was walking down, you know. So the hips are a
little bit sore, but you can see how widely used
that trail is because there's bushwhacks all around it. So
when it got too bad, I just went in the
(05:28):
woods and followed some of the bushwhacks in the woods
and come on. But yeah, I know, the legs are good,
the calves are good, the legs are good.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Great. Now, from an emotional standpoint, when you woke up
this morning and realized, like the the journey was complete,
the journey's not over. The journey's never over. In fact,
what I find finishing the forty six does is it
opens you up to really start having the adventures because
you no longer feel tied down to this idea of like, well,
(06:02):
I've hiked this mount, I need to go hike this one. No. No,
Now you freed yourself to go do whatever you want.
You want to just hike right. You can go just
hike right and not feel like you have to also
do the others. You know, you have freed yourself. So
this morning when you woke up, you know, talking about
like what you know, how are the emotions as you
were knowing that you completed the journey.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
So it was still really like I didn't believe it
when I woke up. It was still one of those
things like, I'm kind of pinching myself because I'm you know,
you wake up and you fee you take stock of
your body. My body, my like I said, my hips
are a little cranky, my knees are cranky. All the
places that are cranky are cranky. But yet the rest
(06:45):
of the body feels really great. And knowing in years
past the rest of the body would I would like
if I was going to do that hike, I would
have taken today off because I would have slept in
and not got out of bed till like noone And
but so it really was it. It was still not real.
But one of the things that I did when I
(07:06):
got home, because I was so excited last night, is
I had, you know, I have a booklet that me
and my hiking partners have been using, and so I
went got it and like, as I'm getting ready to
take a shower and get cleaned up, I went to
the forty six or site. I started the process. While
(07:27):
I'm taking a shower, my wife's putting the dates inform
of me and finishing, you know, and finishing it up.
And this morning the number was there, sixteen thousand, seven
hundred and twenty five and so again. It was just
a flood of emotion that I completed this. I really
(07:53):
really completed this, and it was like relief like we've
talked about in the past, where that that relief comes
off your shoulders and that yes, I am a forty
six er. I am not trying to be a forty
six er, or it's not this abstract thought that one
day I'm going to be a forty six er. I
(08:15):
am a forty six er. That's it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Aspiring no More, I believe, is the phrase that people
like to post right, aspiring no more. Congratulations. It's super cool,
and you know, it's a it's a title, it's a
it's an accomplishment that no one can ever take away
from you either. That's the beautiful thing. It's like, these
are experiences, these are memories that we have that they
(08:39):
can never be taken from us. So, you know, congratulations again,
because it's a huge thing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I know a lot of people sometimes crap on the
whole idea of hiking list, but I think that's so
stupid Personally. I think lists give you something to shoot for,
they give you structure, they give you a goal, and
I'm sure accomplish that as all.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, structure and goal right is, here's what you should
Here's what you need, Here's what you should do for
this carat right here, so do this and here's the
carrot yep. Let me ask your es.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Does it feel better than you anticipated? Exactly what you anticipated?
Not as enjoyable as you anticipated. Kind of talked to
me about that.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So it's way better than I anticipated. Now. One of
the reasons, if I'm honest with myself and everybody else,
one of the reasons I took twenty twenty four off
was because I allowed life to get in the way
and I got really, really, really out of shape, and
I wasn't doing the work, working with you and doing
(09:43):
the work. My last two hikes, I my last two
hikes have been the most enjoyable hikes that I have had,
with one exception. They have been the most enjoyable hikes
I've had the whole time, and all the time it
took me to do it because I'm I'm not tired.
I'm not you know, I'm not halfway up a mountain
(10:05):
going I just can't go anymore, but forcing myself to
do it because if I don't do it, I'm all
this way and why didn't I do it? Right? My
body's not boinking, it's just that I'm super, super super tired.
And so what should take maybe an hour to scale
(10:28):
up and down takes two and a half because it's
like five steps and take a break and sit down
for ten minutes, and another ten steps and take a
break and sit down for ten or fifteen more minutes.
And I didn't have to do that, and it just
was really really you know, there was a little bit
of that on the backside of Marcy because it was
(10:48):
my third one, and I was, like I said in
my poll, I was I was getting tired, right, but
I was Karen, Okay, so I'm here, I'm going to
go to that third Karen. So let's get to the
third Karen, and then let's take a two minute break
and then okay, now I'm gonna get I'm gonna go
to that one. And then the closer I got to
the top, and I will say, I know that there
(11:09):
is a there's a little Marsie, right, And I was like,
I've not read anything about a false summit on Marcie.
But as I get closer, like I'm getting closer faster,
there better not be a false summit. I better not
get up there, be like, no, you got to go there.
But yeah, very enjoyable, very very enjoyable. And when you're
(11:35):
not tired, you're able to get up on top of
the peaks and not throw your pack on the ground
and be like, I want to take a nap. You
just sit down, You have your food, whatever you're having,
You drink your snack, your summit sandwich, whatever it is
you're doing, and then you take your you take your
little break, you take your pictures, and you get yourself
(11:55):
geared up and down you go. You know I'm not
I'm not a summit sitter. Right, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes,
and it's time. It's time to go. Either go down
and go out or or go on to the next
I had planned to sit on top of Marsie, but interestingly,
(12:17):
and I haven't carried bugspray in two months. Interestingly, I
got up on top of Marcie and there were these
biting gnats that I don't know if they said, oh,
there's fresh blood on top of Marcy and he's all
by himself, let's go there. But there was no wind.
When I got to Marcie. There was no wind right
that sign that says weather conditions can change drastically. So
there was no wind up there. And so as soon
(12:37):
as I took my pack off and started to walk
around and see things, the gnats just like attack. So
like I didn't even see the Marsie plaque because it's
in a spot that I didn't go to. And I,
you know, did my thing and put my pet, got
a drink and put my pack back on and was like, well,
this has been all. This is all been great. I
sent my polo and this is all been great. But
I'm not going to sit up here and get eating
(12:58):
up by the bugs. I'm gonna to head out the
Adirondack Mountains. Man.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I'll tell you they're going to test you every which way,
and of course they're going to give you that little,
that little reminder of who they are, that they don't
care that you finish care on forty six. They're going
to just remind you, hey, we are in control up here.
You are a guest in our mountains. So I think
that's fantastic. Dude, chat Seriously, you have done the work
(13:25):
and you know, and I know we talked in our
very first call, right like what a difference it is
when you can go hike some mountains, get up there,
feel fine, get and then just go back to the trailhead,
go to sleep, wake up, and the next day just
keep doing your normal thing, versus stumbling your way up
to a summit, stopping a million times, feeling like death
(13:46):
on the summit, feeling even worse when you get back
to the trailhead, and then the next day, as you said,
in years past, you'd have to take the day off
of work. But here you are just living life normally,
feeling you know, a little sore, like no different from
a big workout. You feel sore, and then two days
later you're right back to it.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's that's the difference of preparing yourself physically for this
very unique demand of hiking up mountains, especially here in
the Northeast, where the trails just go straight up and
they're rugged, and you're pulling yourself up things and over
things and all this stuff. But you've done the work.
It's not and think someone could do for you. Just
like climbing the forty six, no one can do it
(14:24):
for you. It's up to you to get yourself to
the top. It's up to you to get yourself back,
do your homework all the things. So huge, congratulations to you.
What an exciting thing.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Thank you, Yeah, thank you. It was uh the trim
down once I got down to Indian Falls, the rest
of it was like floating was just.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And you must have had quite the high on that
way down that mountain probably, you know it's still like,
what is it still like a six mile hike.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Down the Vandeus trail.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, it's probably the best discent that you have on
your entire journey where you don't even remember, right, remember
that long trip down the mountain because you just have
this amazing high by this thing that you just accomplished.
So that's exciting, dude.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah. The only uh, the only comparison I have is
we I was hyking with another friend and we went
to do the lower Great Range and it we were
driving up on its raining and we get to the
AMR and it's raining, so we gear up. It stops
raining by the time we get to the to the gate,
(15:33):
so we take our raincoats off but leave the packs on,
and then we get caught Beaver Fall. Right, Beaver Falls anyway,
there's a set of falls that's really close to the
amr Gate and we got caught in just a super
downpour and we're drenched, and we get up lower wolf Jaw.
(15:54):
We go to upper wolf Jaw, still wet, rain whatever,
but we get to Gothics, the clouds go away, the
sun comes out. We sat up on Gothics for probably
forty minutes, shirts off ever, you know, socks off, everything,
drying out, getting wind blown, drying out, and we go
(16:16):
to Pyramid and we shoot up to you know, I
know it's not part of the Lord Great Range, but
we shoot up to saw Teeth, saw Tooth Yeap. We
get sawt Teeth and then we're hiking down and hiking out,
and we both were commenting about how how and dwarfhin
high we were because it started so like we're going
(16:37):
to turn around, like I am not hiking. I mean,
I'll hike in the rain, but I am not hiking
in this. I'm just not right, Like I like to
see where I'm going, and hail is not fun when
you're hiking. I am not hiking in this. To being
up on the top of Gothics, Shun can see everywhere.
(16:57):
The wind is blowing just enough so it's not cold, right,
So we're not because we're shirts off and stuff and
we're warm, but our stuff is drying out. And yeah,
that was that was another great one.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, very cool, very good dude, fantastic. So let me
to ask you in twenty twenty four, you know, as
you said, you got you kind of just got super
out of shape things. You know, life hit right, life,
Life has a tendency to do that. Did you in
twenty twenty four? Everythink, man, I don't know if I'm
going to finish this forty six?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yes, yes, I thought that a lot, a lot a
lot as the as may came and then June and
I believe you know.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
And I.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Whatever follower however it works on Facebook, the trail conditions
and the aspiring and completionists and whatever. Right, And then
because I'm a little bit of a a sado a masochist,
I followed the New Hampshire stuff too, because that's my
(17:59):
law term agenda is to go to New Hampshire. So
because I like to punish myself, I follow that too.
So as the summer came and the fall in the winter,
I'm not I maybe because I've not done the winter,
not done any in the winter. I don't right now
have a desire to do any winter hiking. It's just
(18:21):
maybe I don't. I never say never, I just don't
have the desire right now. I got a guy here
at work. He's done, he's almost done with his winter
forty six, and he's like, well, now you're done, you
can we can go do Marcia in the winter. You
can see how much fun it is. I'm thinking, Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I would start with the Lake Placid Niner Mountains in
the winter. Give that a run. See what it's like.
I guarantee it hooks you. I'd say that to anyone.
Winter hiking will hook you. It's just a different animal,
it's a different beast. But ultimately, yeah, I think you'll
be out there with snowshoes at no time. But continue
So twenty twenty four summer.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
So as the summer comes and goes in the fall
comes and goes, and I'm thinking, I really did. I'm like,
I am not going to finish. I am forever going
to be an adderon deck fortier right because I was
at forty and I did. I'm like, I am not.
I'm I'm gonna be fifty five and I Am not
(19:18):
going to finish the weight was, you know, going up,
and I was getting more. I was allowing myself to
become more and more and more and more busy with
other things. And that I had that exact thought that
I am going to be forever an adiron deck fortier
in my little book. I was gonna sit on my
(19:41):
desk and it's going to get buried with papers and
eventually I won't be able to find it and it'll
just be Yeah. I did that, but I never finished.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It had that feel of having that thought that you know,
what you've done, come all this way, and you're like
almost feeling like you're watching it slip away in a
sense as you said, like your weight was going up things,
you're getting worse in worse shape, and then the time
is going and all of a sudden, and also you
have you have some big mountains still to climb.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Well that was the other part too, right, Like Alin
is scary when you're when you don't go to it,
Alin is scary. And was it that I was afraid
of Marcy? But yeah, I mean Marcy's the tallest peak
in the state, right, it's five thousand some odd feet.
And when I climbed Outgonquin at five thousand feet we
were clouded in, and I was like, well, you know,
(20:30):
that wasn't such a great experience like al Gonquin's on
my redo list, because I didn't get any views when
I went up there. In fact, it was cold and
crappy when we were up there, only to get eventually
over to right and have it be hot and sunny
because we were below the cloud layer and you could
still see the cloud layer hitting Algonquin in Iroquois even
though we were below and sunny on right. And so yeah,
(20:54):
all that thought, all that stuff crossed my mind, all
of it, all of it, like what was the what
was the straw that broke the camel's back when you
originally reached out to me to get help, to get
yourself back on the trail, Like there had to have
been some time, in some moment where you said, enough
is enough. I have to a finish what I started.
But also beyond that, I have to, you know, take
(21:17):
take charge of my own health and my own life
again as it's you know, going worse, Like there had
to be something that made you say a change has
to come. Yeah. So family history wise, my mom had
what in a man would have been a widow maker
heart attack when she was my age fifty five. Thanks
(21:37):
to a couple of women that she worked with that
wouldn't listen to her and wouldn't take no for an answer.
She survived because they did what needed to be done
to get her where she needed to be. But yeah,
it was a a man they call a widow maker
the heart attack that she had. So my doctor, I've
(21:59):
been working with my doctor since I've been in my
mid thirties, watching all of the indicators right, because I
tend to have the same medical history that lines with
my mom and her side of the family, not my
dad and his side of the family. And when I
(22:20):
was fifty two, my blood pressure started to elevate and
my doctor, my GP, was concerned, but not concern enough
to really like, we just got to watch it, diet, exercise,
all the stuff, right. And then when I was fifty three,
they put me on a blood pressure bad and I
(22:42):
was like, huh okay. And then when I was fifty four,
he sent me to one of the noted cardiologists in Saratoga. Now,
I know every place has noted cardiologists, but he sent
me to a noted cardiologist in Saratoga. In the meantime,
(23:03):
I'd been having stress tests in all these different checks
every handful of years just to see how I was doing.
And the cardiologist said to me at fifty four, okay,
so you have you officially have a cardiologist. Because he
wasn't necessarily taking new patients, but he says, okay, you
(23:23):
officially have a cardiologist, and your current at your current lifestyle,
it's going to be a question of when, not a
question of if. Medical intervention is going to need to
be necessary, he said. And I can tell you not
from firsthand experience, but from performing many operations. You don't
(23:49):
want to wake up with the big scar, which is
the big scar that must have hit like a ton
of bricks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was towards the
end of twenty four, and so we got into twenty
(24:10):
five and I had a pity party January February, at
twenty five, I was having a pity party for myself, like, well,
my mom had her art attack of fifty five, and
I guess I'm going down the same road. And then
in April I I said, well, I got on the treadmill.
(24:34):
We have a treadmill, and we have an elliptical, so
I got on the treadmill and I started doing some
of the programs on the treadmill, and slowly, from April
to May, I started I lost weight, like ten pounds,
(25:00):
and then I forget, I don't. I mean, i'd seen
your stuff for Great Range Athlete and I saw something
for your you know, and I was aware of your
Seek to Do More program, but I had to be
one of the testimonials. I don't know if it was
on if it was in your podcast, because I've been
(25:20):
a regular listener to your podcast for a long time.
I don't know if it was your podcast or if
it was on Facebook or I saw a couple of
the testimonials right, and I initially thought, well, maybe I'll
join one of the Great Range Athlete programs. Maybe that
sounds like what I want to do. And then I
(25:43):
started reading more about the coaching aspect of it and
the diet and what Seek to Do More offered, and
I talked to my wife and said, I want to
talk to him. I'm just going to talk to him,
and then, you know, we hooked up through Initially we
(26:03):
hooked up a little bit through Instagram because you had show,
you had put something out there and it was strength
or so anyway, So we hooked up a little bit
through Instagram, and that just kind of solidified the fact
that I wanted to talk to you about it. And
when you explain how everything worked and how it was
(26:23):
comprehensive and how it's coaching and it's diet and it's
it's not just a program, right, It's like it's everything
all mixed in together. And I've said this a bunch,
I know, I've said it to you, and I've said
it to my wife about you know, get busy living
or get busy dying. And it's a famous line from
a famous movie, and it's kind of cliche, but it's
(26:46):
so true, right, so true, And when you stacked everything up. Okay,
you have a cardiologist. I'm fifty four years old and
I have a cardiologist. I am sixty pounds overweight, although
it's really eighty pounds overweight, but he'll accept two hundreds.
(27:07):
He'd really like me to be at one hundred and
eighty first six foot frame, but he'll he'll take me
at two hundred. You know, my wife and I think
we're doing things and we think we're we're adhering, but
we're not we're still like, I don't want to do
that today, Let's go out, let's get pizza, Let's just
(27:28):
go let's just go over here and get something quick,
or let's you know. And it got easier, not harder,
because our kids aren't home, so it's just her and
I the majority of the time. We have one son
that still lives home, but he's twenty three and he's
really self sustaining, so it's like occasionally he eats dinner
or we just leave it in the refrigerator. But if
(27:49):
we don't, we just tell him, hey, we went out.
He's like okay, and he goes and does his own thing.
So ironically, it got easier to do that. When our
two kids went to college, it was just her and I,
and so I just put all that together and told
her that I really felt like I'm at a turning
(28:10):
point in my life where if I don't do something
right now, I'm not going to do it ever, and
I'm going to get busy dying and I'm not going
to get busy living. And I told you, I have
five grandkids, and I still have three kids that don't
have any grandkids, and I want to see those grandkids
(28:34):
from my other kids. You know, I don't want to
die at fifty five or sixty or even sixty four.
You know, I want to I want to live a
full life, whatever that full life is. But I don't
want to work and then die right after I'm done working,
because it's not living. And if I didn't do stuff,
(28:55):
if I didn't get a hold of whatever it was
and change my patterns, I was not going to do that.
I was going to be that guy that died at
sixty that everybody's like, oh my god, he's so he
looked like he was so healthy. Really he's eighty pounds
overweight and his blood pressure is one hundred and eighty
(29:17):
over one hundred, and he's just a ticking time bob.
You know, doesn't matter what you look like on the outside,
it's what's going on on the inside. You can be
really healthy looking on the outside and be super unhealthy
on the inside. Nobody knows. And that really was that
was that was it. It was like all of that
(29:38):
came together, and it was that whole let's get busy
living or get busy dying and talking to you being
very vulnerable when I was talking to you and fleshing
out what your program does and how it might work
for me, and that kind of all came together to
(30:01):
make me realize that for the three month period or
however long I worked at this was going to get
me started down the road that I needed to be started.
This was going to make me take that left turn
at Albuquerque, like bugs Bunny used to say, right and
help me, help me really really get back to where
(30:27):
I was. And I don't expect to be that sixteen seventeen,
eighteen year old three sport athlete, because that's just not really,
that's not realistic. Right. I already have arthritis, so that's
not really that's not realistic. But I can definitely be
a two hundred pound person that's in good shape, that
(30:51):
maybe still has elevated blood pressure, but is doing all
of the things that they need to do to live
a healthy and active lifestyle and enjoy life and enjoy
family and enjoy just living. And I wasn't. That was
(31:11):
not the road I was on before we started.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Hm.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
You know, it's easy to throw yourself a pity party
when things look bad, and you did that, but then
you realize you weren't willing to settle for that, and
you did what most people don't do, which is now
I'm going to take action. I'm going to go where
I need to go, do what I need to do,
and get the help that you need so that you
can live the life that you're looking for. You really
(31:36):
just needed the map, right like you needed the You
needed to know what route to go to get where
you want to go. And you know, as we learn quickly,
especially when you hop on a call with me, as
as you saw, hiking is just this thing that we
do in the background. This isn't real life. This is
the cherry on top, the icing on the cake. Yeah,
you wanted to get back in shape so that you
(31:57):
can finish the forties and get back to that sort
of ability, but this runs so much deeper than that.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
This is about becoming the man, the grandfather, the father
who is living the long, healthy life for his family.
And the hiking that's just the that's just the bonus,
right like right, and being able to be in the mountains, man,
that makes us a better version of ourselves every time,
you know, I say it on the podcast all the time,
You come down the mountain a better version of yourself
than you can't when you went up it. You just
(32:26):
there's just something about the woods that bring this thing
out of us and for us to have that, man,
it's it's good. But life goes beyond the trail. And
that's why I would, you know, seek to do more
as we just as you learned. It's it's about making
sure everything is firing on all cylinders. And when you do.
Now going out in the mountains is going to be
easier because we've actually started fixing the core problem which
(32:48):
usually is up in our head. Why can't we show
up to the gym? Why don't we show up here?
And when we learn why, we can figure that out.
Now we can show up in these other aspects of life, relationship,
your mental state. You're making sure you're having some fun too,
Like all of a sudden, the same principle applies, you know,
Just like the same principle applies in the gym. When
(33:08):
it comes to lifting a weight, the weight's not gonna
lift itself, you know. It's here's one hundred pounds. You're
either gonna lift it or you're not. Same thing in
the mountains. Hey, here's the mountain. You're either gonna hike
it or you're not. I don't care about it doesn't
care about your excuses. The mountains don't care about what
your past is, what you've hiked before, irrelevant. You're either
going to do it or you're not. And I think
that sort of black and white mentality that the barbell,
(33:31):
the dumbbells, the gym, the mountains, the trail, like that
they all possessed the same exact thing. It's it's refreshing
because we a lot of times need that black and white.
It's yours if you want it, but I ain't going
to do the work for you. And I think that
is really what the moral of the story is for you.
Chet is like you decided, all right, it's time to
(33:52):
it's time to take action, you know, because we all,
like I said, we all can feel sorry for ourselves
at different points. But what we do after that moment
when we realize we're feeling sorry for ourselves, that's the
defining moment. That's the trail junction, that's the fork in
the road. Do I continue down this what was me?
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Path?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Or do I say no, time to chop that off
at the knees. I'm going to go down this other
path because this is the path to go down. You
know we have to you clearly wait the cost right,
like you, what's the cost of me doing nothing? That's
even that's so much worse. So it's just been super
awesome watching you, watching you come here trying to trying
to finish the forty six to a finish the forty six.
(34:33):
But more than that, do you become the person that
brings dumbbells when you go on vacation, when you go
camping in the woods, like you're doing workouts in the
back of your car while you're on a camping trip.
You're going flying across the country to work conferences and
you're not going to miss your training. You're down in
the hotel gym when I could guarantee no one else
that was with you was down at the hotel gym.
(34:53):
You're finding other gyms locally, Like that is the mentality shift,
that is a what makes what we're doing at seek
to do more powerful and why we're building the brain
as much as we're building the physical ability that translates
to the mountains. But you're becoming the type of person
that does what he needs to do and therefore you
(35:13):
reap the rewards and the benefits of becoming that sort
of person. So kudos to you, brother, It's been awesome.
Once again, huge congratulations for completely in the forty six.
It's been awesome and getting those videos from you throughout
the day yesterday, It's weird. I felt like I was
finishing the forty six. I kept checking my phone, kept
checking the seek to do more. Marco Polo app to
(35:35):
find his chet on his chet on Gray yet is
chet on Skylight?
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Oh my god?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
And between between you getting on Skylight and Marcia, I
must have checked it five times because I'm just like
waiting for that moment, because how exciting is it to
see someone else's forty six because I remember that for
me in that moment, for me walking on Too Big Slide,
it's so surreal, and it's not it's surreal because you
(36:01):
climbed a mountain or you climbed a bunch of mountains.
It's because you did something start to finish that was hard,
that nobody made you do it, that most people would
never do. But you saw it through to the end.
And for you, you haven't even bet. You have a
way better story than I do. You have a comeback
in the middle of that story. Right like twenty twenty four.
(36:21):
You know, you see you said you put on you know,
like sixty pounds. You're getting heavier and you're seeing it
slip away, you know, like a rope covering grease. You
squeeze it and you fall faster, like you see that moment.
But you decided to make a change into you know,
say no to that. So it gets me super fired up.
So fired up I could like walk in the woods
and fight a bear right now.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I guess most psyched. Nice.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Nice, That's great, dude, it's great. So what's next? What's
what's the very next hike you have in your brain?
Now that you've freed yourself from the having to do
the forty six, now that you get to go wherever
you want without having that mental you know list thing,
What's what's the next hike in your brain?
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Right now? I have? I want to do Camel's Hump. Okay,
I'm not right because you can see it. Hey, you
can see it from the forty six. And then a
buddy of mine just did it last weekend and sent
me a video on it, and so I want to
(37:23):
go do Camel's Hump. I think that's the next one.
I'm going to do it. I have the LP nine
on my list to do, but I we'll see if
I October here is a shutdown month, so I don't
know if I'll have a lot of time to get
out to do that. We'll see what the weather's like
in November. Maybe I maybe I'll get up there and
do some My wife has recently taken to going with
(37:46):
me on my training rocks in the woods. Sure, and
so she had mentioned wanting to do some stuff. So
that's why I was thinking the LP nine And absolutely
are they, Yeah, because we've done she's done some of
the Lake George stuff already, so I was thinking the
LP nine And then next year I don't know quite
(38:08):
when we're gonna go back to Marcy so she can
get her first peak. And when she asked me why
I've learned all right with the big one, huh right, Well,
she asked you why Marcy first? For why Marcy last
for me, but first for her? I said, Well, I said,
because you'll get all the way up there and you'll
either hate it or you'll love it, I said, And
(38:28):
you'll be able to see the whole park from up
top and you'll either hate it or you'll love it.
But Marcy's a great The Van ho is a great
representation of what every other trail in the park stands for.
It's got it all, it's got rocks, it's got mud,
it's got blowed out, it's got all of it running water, slabs,
(38:51):
it's got it all. Ye and so it'll be a
great reference point for you to decide whether you like
it and this is something you want to do slowly,
or you're like, no, that was I'm good, Marcy was
that was a good hike, and I'm yeah, but we're
sad awesome, So I love it. I always like to
ask people what their next mountain is. For me, I
(39:13):
had it planned well before I finished at forty six.
My next mountain after completing the forty six was Moose Mountain,
which is in Lake Placid.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I say, I call it the secret mountain. That was,
and that's you know, that's one you see from pretty
much every high peak as well, you'll see Moose Mountain.
So that was for me, that was the that was
the one I was waiting for. In fact, I remember
being on my forty six er journey thinking I can't
wait to go hike Moose because it will mean I
accomplished this goal that I set out to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Very good.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Nice, So are you glad Chet that you decided to
make the changes and not just made the decision, but
you actually took action. Oh yes, joined seat to do,
you did the stuff, you flut the work in.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah. Right, very very very dude, very glad you. You
gave me the road map, you gave encouragement. You didn't
let me like when I was trying to talk my
way out of I'm not a gym guy. I don't
like I want to work. I want to work out
in my garage, but I don't have any weights, right,
You didn't really, You're like, okay, fine for now, we'll
(40:13):
start you with some body weight stuff. But that's not
really that's not the goal here. And yeah, that was that.
All was exactly what I needed to hear and what
I needed to follow and to do. And I am
so thankful for all of it. I'm thankful that I
(40:33):
made the decision to do it, and that I acted
on the decision. I'm thankful that my wife supported me
in the decision, and I'm thankful that you and your
program were able to help me and guide me and
give me the roadmap and the blueprint of what I
needed to do to become successful.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And now the world is your oyster, physically, mentally, spirit
all the things. You are a stronger version of yourself.
It shows every time we chat, I can see the
different aura about you and like obviously what you're doing
out in the woods, that just becomes secondary. That becomes
the icing on the cake to building the life that
you're looking to build and becoming the version of yourself
(41:16):
that you want to be, which is the person who
can go out and have the adventures but also shows
up for every aspect.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Of their life.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Your wife benefits from it, You benefit from it, your kids,
your grandkids, your future grandkids, all because Grandpa Chet decided
to bet on himself, take action and not accept a
fate that you know, quite frankly many would have and
many do accept. You said no, I'm not going to
accept that. So proud of you, dude. Kudos to you.
(41:42):
It's been awesome having you here and the world of
seek to do more in the whole ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
It's it's been fantastic.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
And with that will wrap up this episode of the
forty six of forty six podcast. Once again check congratulations
for completing the Adirondack forty six and becoming a forty
six er. Nobody can take that away from you.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
Now.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You did the work, you got the help, you took action,
and you have now accomplished the goal that you set
for yourself. Well done. If you want to get help,
just like Chet did, head over to Seek to Do
More dot com. Book a call with me and we'll
figure out how we can help you get on the
right track so that you can accomplish the goals you
have both out in the backcountry and in your own
(42:24):
personal lives. And if you're looking to join a Great
Range Athlete group to get in shape specifically for hiking
with a group of like minded people, the next six
week team kicks off October twentieth. You can sign up
for that at Great Range Aathlete dot com. And if
you're about to start climbing the forty six high peaks,
my book The Adirondack forty six in eighteen Hikes will
(42:46):
help you tremendously, giving you the information you need to
have a safe and successful Adirondack forty six er journey.
And make sure you check back on Fridays for new
mountains new stories, new guests, and new episodes right here
on the forty forty six podcasts. Remember always leave no trace,
do the rock walk, and if you carry it in,
carry it out. I'll see you on the trails. Everybody
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