Never Too Late: Susan Otten’s Appalachian Trailblazing Story of Hope and Holy Grit

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast.
I'm your host, kristen Kurtz,and I'm also the founder of New
Wings Coaching.
I help and empower wildheartedand adventurous women of faith
feeling caged and stuck, unlocktheir true purpose and potential
, break free from limitationsand thrive with confidence,
courage and hope.
If you're curious to learn moreabout coaching with me, head to
newwingscoachingnet and be sureto explore the show notes for

(00:38):
ways to connect with me further.
Get ready to dive in as weuncover empowering keys and
insights in this episode.
So tune in and let's unlockhope together.
Welcome to the Hope Unlockedpodcast.
I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host.
I pray this episode is like aholy ivy of hope for your soul.
Please help me.
Welcome Susan Otten to the show.

(00:58):
I am so excited to have herhere today and wanted to give a
shout out to Heidi Haino, who isthe founder of our local
chapter here in the Twin Citiesof a networking group called Few
.
So shout out to Heidi.
I met Susan there and I wasjust so privileged to be able to
hear her amazing testimony ofsomething that she walked out

(01:22):
recently, several years ago, andshe is definitely a trailblazer
and what I would also call atrail guide.
So, susan, would you be open tofirst telling us a little bit
about yourself before we getinto your amazing story?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Sure, yeah, let's see .
Well, I grew up on a dairy farm, which really taught me the
importance of faith, family andhelping others if you can.
I always love the analogy offarming being the only industry
that really isn't competitive.
You can have two farms kittycorner, across the dirt road

(02:00):
from each other and they're notcompeting from each other and
they're not competing.
But if there were two gasstations across the corner, you
know from each other they wouldbe competing.
So that's one of the things Ilove about growing on a farm is
that learning that you knowimportance of helping others and
watching for ways that you canhelp them.
With that, I went to Universityof Minnesota here in the great

(02:21):
state of Minnesota, first twoyears up north in Duluth, and
then came down to the St Paulcampus and actually achieved my
goal of getting a job in what Iwas studying, which was to be a
4-H youth agent.
So a faculty of the Universityof Minnesota but out in the
counties that was helpingeducate kids, and I was there at

(02:45):
a time where I wastransitioning not just to farm
kids but to city kids too.
So it was a great time for thatorganization, a lot of fun.
But then I had to relocate toChicago because that's where my
then-boyfriend, now-husband,moved and got his job as he
graduated and we needed to betogether to be married.

(03:08):
So that was great.
And then I had an amazingcareer.
I started with the agricultureequipment company quickly after
I guess I was there three years,five years, something like that
but I answered an ad in thenewspaper yes, if you can
believe it, that's how youapplied for jobs.
Yes, I remember, and it was toa little company then called

(03:34):
Apple Computer and I talked myway into that job and had an
amazing 15 years there.
One of my regrets is I didn'tkeep all my business cards.
I think I would have had a fulldeck of 52.
Very dynamic company, veryentrepreneurial.
So I learned early on thebenefits of being an

(03:55):
entrepreneur.
You know, thinking creatively,trying things.
If didn't work, try it again,make it better.
In fact I had a boss one timethat said you know that million
dollar project you did thatdidn't work out so great, do it
again, don't need so much moneythis time, you know, because he
believed in the concept and itturned out great.

(04:17):
And that program grew.
And my last year at Apple I didover 10,000 events and actually,
you know it was a marketingfunction and normally marketing
is an expense to the company,right?
But I returned cash back to thecompany.
That gave me a budget but Ididn't need it and I gave them
even more money back because itwas a way that I could really

(04:41):
help grow the company and itdidn't even cost anything and I
had a staff of four people.
So it was great.
A lot of fun, teaches you theimportance of process and
process improvement, because wedid it, we did it again, we did
it 10,000 times that last yearand it was awesome.
Then I went on to do someindependent consulting, which I

(05:01):
really loved.
That was at a time when Appleemployees, or former employees,
were in really high demand.
So I got to work with smallcompanies and also medium and
big size companies and then Ilanded probably well, I don't
know, it's hard to pick yourfavorite company, I guess, but
Apple was pretty cool.
Then I worked for as like, cmofor a large agriculture company

(05:27):
and it was global they weredistributed in 140 countries got
to do fun things like launchsocial media.
Corporate wasn't really doingthat much social media, but it's
like come on, boys, because Iwas the lone female in a big
company.
It felt like that's.

(05:47):
It wasn't true, but that's whatit felt like.
It's like we could be numberone in social media.
You know, we're not, we'renumber three in in sales, but we
can be number one in socialmedia and let's give those
farmers something to do otherthan watching sports scores,
playing Angry Birds on theirautomated autonomous tractors.
So that was fun.

(06:07):
And got to use cool tools likeGoogle Translate, when it wasn't
really that good, but it wasgood enough because we had to
translate into 25 languages forour website and social media and
stuff like that.
So that was fun.
Came back to the great state ofMinnesota and started a company

(06:27):
called Indie Do Good, which isa logistics company otherwise
known as a 3PL or third partylogistics company.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
And we do warehousing .

Speaker 3 (06:37):
shipping for direct to consumer, we'll help.
Support for Amazon, dofulfilled by Amazon or fulfilled
by merchant FBM, or, if youwant it, support for Amazon, do
Fulfilled by Merchant FBM, or,if you want it Fulfilled by
Amazon FBA, we'll kit for it andget it ready so you don't have
so much damage or shrinkage.
I guess is a technical termshipping through Amazon and then

(07:00):
also for large retail.
So we love shipping pallets.
It's a lot easier to ship apallet full of product than that
amount of direct-to-consumerorders.
So we're called Indie Do Good,because we look for companies
that have a strong element ofdoing good, either through the
product itself, like might bereally clean food or herbs that

(07:21):
help people with problems,homeopathic stuff, um,
shelf-stable food.
Anyway, we we like helping them, because the more successful
they are then the more good theycan do so, so there's that I
love that name too.
I just yeah, independentcompanies, they do good and

(07:43):
we're here to help you.
So let's see, so that's kind ofthe work side, the personal
side.
Two kids, amazing kids.
Our son is a wealth advisor,our daughter is an emergency
veterinarian.
So very different career paths.
Very, very helpful.

(08:04):
Both of them are helping us outwith stuff.
Our daughter lets us know whensomething's wrong with our dog
and we should fix something like.
I just ordered new food bowlfor our dog because she's a
large breed dog and she eats toofast like she inhales her food
and that could cause the stomachto flip in the chest cavity or
in the abdomen and that's areally hard surgery.

(08:28):
So we're trying to keep sweetlittle eve um healthy and so
she's got a bowl now.
That's like a maze so she can'tinhale her food in a nanosecond
.
It took like three minutes toeat this morning.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I couldn't believe it was great I've heard about
those bowls I they sound kind ofcool like it gives.
It gives dogs like a littletreasure hunt to eat their own
food.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, yeah, and I thought she would like be
frustrated, but mostly she lovesher food, so she's.
She hung in there and you knowshe was kind of intrigued by it.
I hope.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
I hope she continues to enjoy it so we might have to
link that bowl in the show nightnotes, because I'm I'm guessing
that somebody might be likewhat is this that they're
talking about?
So um I'll have to ask you, butwhere they can be found.
Yeah, we ordered it on good oldamazon.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
It wasn't that expensive.
I can't remember the name of it, but I'll look it up after the
show, send it to you.
Um, yeah, it's great, and Iknow they make different ones
and this one's nice because Iwas surprised for the cost.
It was less than ten dollars, Ithink, and um, it's pretty
heavy.
I thought it would like,because they're going at it,
they're trying to get their foodout and I thought it would

(09:39):
slide around the floor.
But it's, it's good.
Eve did well.
We'll see how she does it fortime that's very sweet yeah, so,
um and then so and our son andhis wife Mackenzie have, um, our
first grandchild.
It's um, um, heat trip is a joyand I get to babysit him one

(10:01):
day a week and and and that's sofun.
I'm kind of going throughwithdrawal now because it's
summer and Kenzie is a teacherso I don't need me anymore, but
but that's not true.
I guess on Friday I get tobabysit him because Kenzie's got
an opportunity to get away fromhome for a day, so that'll be,
fun.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I have a very I love if you guys are listening, if
you listen well, like I tend tolove listening to people.
Susan says fun a lot.
She is very fun, she is so fun,and I was just when we were
talking right before this, I wasjust saying how God is so fun,
right, yeah, and he is so funthat he brought you on like one

(10:45):
of the most amazing adventuresever.
I would love for you to share,um your story about that and
kind of how how this all liketranspired, because, um, you
know, I look at you and I'm like, wow, you are so inspirational
and I can't wait for people tobe so inspired by your story in
that realm.
That's sweet.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
That's very humbling.
So in 2022, my daughter wasgoing to be done with her vet
med internship or residency andready to start a job.
But before she started a job,she and a friend of hers who was
also finishing vet schoolwanted to hike the Appalachian

(11:29):
Trail, and it goes from Maine toGeorgia.
It kind of changes the lengthevery year because as they
repair the trail or, you know,fix parts of it, it the length
changes.
But, um, I rounded up to 2200,but we, when we did it, was
2194.3 miles along the trail.

(11:51):
Wow, and I love that you calledme a trailblazer, because the
trail is marked by what theycall blazes and they're it.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yes, wow, didn't you know that?

Speaker 3 (12:03):
no.
So I'm like, oh, that's wheretrailblazer comes from, you know
, and they're just whitesplotches of paint every once in
a while on a tree so that youcan find your way, and it's so
you are a trailblazer.
There is mostly like decent oryou can see where to go, but

(12:24):
sometimes there's not,especially in the fall, when the
crazy leaves, you know, andyou've not lived.
This is one why I wouldn't callit fun.
You have not lived until you'vewalked in trees up or leaves up
to your knees in the fall.
Dry leaves, they make so muchnoise.
They gave us headaches, yeah,but it was better dry than wet.

(12:47):
They gave us something elsewhen it was when they were wet,
yeah, but the purpose of this,this epic journey, was to raise
Parkinson's disease researchfunds.
Our organization that we workedwith was Michael J Fox
Foundation, and the reason wedid it, the why behind it, is my

(13:12):
husband, greta.
Our daughter's dad hasParkinson's.
He was diagnosed at 51 anddoing pretty good.
Up until like really a fewyears ago he was good enough.
He could stay on his own.
Mostly while we were on trailwe had our son and
daughter-in-law here close by tocheck in on him and cook him a

(13:37):
nice healthy meal once in awhile.
So it was fine.
But that was the why behind it.
And we raised a little under ahundred thousand dollars while
while we were on well, with thatinitiative, I was going to say
while we're on trail, but peoplecontinued to give for a while
after the trail was done we weum, we had to start in maine,

(14:00):
which is at the northern end,which is backwards, because at
the last minute not last minutemy daughter's friend that was
going to go with her the otherveterinarian decided she
couldn't do it.
She needed to start working andstart paying off her vet school
bills.
So she had to back out.

(14:21):
And I'm like, well, and we usedto to Greta, used to go to
Mercer University and theirmascot was the bears, and so I
became mama bear and she becamebaby bear and this mama bear was
not going to let baby bear dothe trail alone.
I didn't know much about thetrail.
I knew it was a long way.
I knew there were some storiesabout dangerous things along the

(14:43):
trail, so I was not going tolet her go do the trail on her
own and so she let me come along.
I did some hiking with her andher friend Shannon, but not like
the Uber hiking that theAppalachian Trail is.

(15:03):
So we started up north becauseshe didn't get done with her
internship until the middle ofjuly or the beginning of july.
Then she had to interview andfind a job.
So she interviewed and gotoffers and negotiated and you
know all that stuff, andaccepted and said, okay,
remember, this is july.
She said to them I'll see youin january.
And then they're looking at her, what?

(15:25):
And she said, well, I've madethis commitment to myself and my
family to hike the AppalachianTrail for Parkinson's disease
research and my mom and I arestarting July 15th and they're
like wow.
And they held her job and theydid a number of articles in the
employee newsletter so peoplecould know they have a new staff

(15:47):
member but may not see much ofher for a few months.
So that that was great yeah andso we started, and.
But before that I'm you knowthere's a lot of work to prepare
, just like in life.
You can't just go do somethingbig without preparing for it,
right, and so I um.

(16:08):
But I don't know if people thatare listening really know about
minnesota.
We don't really have mountainsin minnesota like they do on the
trip on the appalachian trail.
Right, the appalachian trail isthe shortest of the three major
north-south trails in theUnited States, but it's also the
steepest.
It's like going up and downMount Everest 16 times, and so,

(16:31):
with it being the shortest, thatmakes it by far the steepest of
the trails.
So elevation was something thatI couldn't really prepare for
here in Minnesota.
I did get my backpack earlyenough that I couldn't really
prepare for here in Minnesota.
I did get my backpack earlyenough that I could start
training with it, because I wasworried that my back wouldn't be

(16:52):
strong enough to carry thestuff I needed along the trail,
because you have to carryeverything you need.
It's not like you're going tocheck into a hotel every night
and have shampoo and all thestuff you need or food, you know
.
So when we started out ourbackpacks, we were a little, a
little over generous.

(17:14):
I guess, or I don't know partof it was being we were started
in the north.
After you start there's 100mile wilderness that there's no
access to grocery stores and wedidn't know how fast we were
going to be going.
So how long is it going to takeus to do a hundred miles?
We figured we better packenough for 12 days just to be

(17:36):
safe.
And so our packs weighed like 42, 43, 44 pounds, something like
that.
Like 42, 43, 44 pounds,something like that.
And um, so I was afraid youknow that I wouldn't be able to
sustain hiking every day.
Um, not that I have a bad back,but that's still nobody.

(17:57):
Really a lot lugs that amountof weight around daily,
especially climbing up and downmountains.
So I got my backpack and Istarted putting hand weights or
disc weights in them to increasethe weight slowly.
I still didn't have theelevation to practice on, so I
would walk up and down theditches alongside the road.

(18:20):
Just try to get so inclined towork on my glutes and hips and
stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
So yeah, can I stop you for a second?
Because you're tiny like you're.
You're tiny and can you tell usin 2022, how old were you?

Speaker 3 (18:38):
I was 65 when we started.
I turned 66 on the trail inDecember when we were almost
done.
Yeah, I'm about five.
I haven't measured myself along time.
Five, three, five, four, yeah,yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
So I just want you guys to know, like as you're
listening to her, like thedemographic and the just
amazingness that she has liketruly.
And it'll just be this.
You know, illumination of it'snever too late, right, it's
never too late.
You're never too old, you don'thave to be a certain age, you
don't have to look a certain wayto do anything, yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
And that's such a great reminder that you know
that is so true.
That's such a great reminderthat you know that is so true.
And first of all, you have tokind of combine little old me
with my 27-year-old,six-foot-tall, two-sport, d1
athlete daughter, who's donemore marathons than she can
count, including an Ironman, toraise money for Parkinson's so,

(19:43):
and I had to, and I have to keepup with her, like literally,
she'd take a stride, I wouldhave to take like one and a half
to keep up with her.
So there were places on thetrail where she would say, like
we're doing a rock scramble orclimbing down a mountain or
whatever, okay, just put yourhand here and your foot here.
And it's like, yeah, but myfoot there's like a foot like 12

(20:09):
inches before my foot willreach where you're telling me to
put my foot.
She said, okay, well, just letgo of your hand and just slide
down the mountain, you know,slide down the rock until your
foot hits there, what you know.
That's just weird, but it didhave an advantage.
There was one point where wewere scrambling.
It's called Mahusak Notch andit's a mile long and it took us

(20:30):
like three hours.
It's like you're climbing,you're bouldering, you're
climbing under stuff.
You have to take your backpackoff and pass it through and hand
it up and stuff like that.
And there was this one placewhere I'm like you, you're
kidding me the rock was like atleast twice as, at least twice
as tall as me and there was noway I could get up and there was

(20:51):
no route to go around it.
And I'm just standing therelooking at it and like, and then
my daughter caught up to me andshe's like, oh my and.
But you know, there was so manycool miracles of God along the
trail and this was one of them,because there was a family that
was going the other directionand this big, you know beast of

(21:11):
a man just flops down on hisbelly, puts his hand like bends
over, Like he's got his waist atthe edge so he can be long
enough to grab my hand, and Ihad my backpack on and he said,
okay, ready, and he lifted me upon top of that rock and I'm
just like, how did?
How did you know I wasspeechless, I couldn't, I guess,

(21:33):
like I didn't even have time tothink about it, or like decline
, or like be bashful or anything.
He's just give me your hand andhe isn't the kind of guy you
really argue with and he justpulled me up like, oh, my
goodness, that was great.
Um, but there was, there weretimes that definitely you know,

(21:54):
the hype is an advantage on thetrail, let me just put it that
way.
So it was crazy, but so we werestarting out.
We're going the wrong direction.
We're also starting really lateand that's the other reason why
we had to go north to south,because they close the mountain
at the beginning of the trailbecause it gets so much snow and

(22:16):
people die on that mountain, sothey close it.
You can't get up there to start, and that's another thing.
You hike on your first day fourmiles for the fun of it to get
to the top of the mountain whichis the official start of the
trail, that's Mount Katahdin,and so that's fun, you know,

(22:37):
carrying that 42 pound backpack.
Then you turn, you get to thetop, take a picture by the sign
that says the start of the trail, and then turn around and go
back down.
Now there's multiple ways toget down and of course my
daughter didn't want to like gothe way we just came up, so we
go down, which it's not.
I don't think that one is calledKnife's Edge, but that's what
it kind of looks like.

(22:58):
I mean, it's a sheer drop offon one side and the other side
is up against more rocks andjust crazy.
And that's that's literally the.
You know, it's our first day.
And she says, okay, hand here,foot here.
And my foot didn't reach andshe said to me just let go, and
I'm like I'll catch you.
You know my I'll, I'll use myhands like a stirrup to to stop,

(23:19):
you know, so you won't fall.
And I mean, that's somethingthat we learned early on was
trust, and you know that's.
There's people in this worldthat are, you know, smart,
smarter and more capable, and Ithink of business leaders or
people that are leading verydiverse teams.

(23:40):
Or, you know, sometimes youjust have to stop and listen to.
You know if you're the leaderand you're leading people,
sometimes you're leading leaders.
They may not have that title,but they're really smart or
experienced or have vision thatyou don't have, and being open

(24:00):
to that is so important.
I mean, on the trail we learnedso many lessons.
It just was such an amazingexperience and, like you had
mentioned, that really age isn'ta factor, size isn't a factor
and we met numbers of people onthe trail that I felt really
proud to have influenced some oftheir future decisions, like

(24:25):
one sweet couple yeah, when weretire we're going to do the
trail.
And they invited us into theirhome and you know they're called
trail angels that's like anofficial term.
On the trail People reach outand offer help and you know
people would follow us on ourYouTube channel, which is
Appalachian Trail forParkinson's Disease.

(24:45):
There's 96 videos out there,including one at the end.
That is the whole trail in likeless than an hour.
I think it's like 54 minutes or56 minutes or something like
that.
And but they said after theyhad us into their home and, you
know, gave us a warm bed tosleep in and, if I remember

(25:05):
right, we had our own bedroomsin that house and, okay, we
shared a bathroom, but it was abathroom, it wasn't a shovel.
You went and digged a hole, youknow.
So it was.
You know they cooked us a meal,they did our laundry and that's
typical of what trail angelswill do.
But they said, after meeting usand spending time with us in

(25:28):
their home, they're like whatare we waiting for?
We can carve out time, we can.
We can do a weekend hike.
We can do, we can take ourweek's vacation and do a hike,
we don't need to wait.
There was other people thatwere um, we met this really
sweet group of older ladies thatevery I don't know if it was
every weekend, but they bakedcookies and they had them in

(25:50):
prepackaged, you know bags forus and they met hikers on the
trail and handed out fresh bakedcookies and they said after
meeting us, they're like well,we can hike.
If you can hike, we can hike,you know.
So that was so cool and justsweet things like that that we

(26:11):
learned from people along thetrail.
Another family that had us intheir home, the husband, was
hiking sections of the trailinstead.
It's hard to do the whole thingbecause it's hard to get that
much time off.
It took us 154 days on trailand we were away from home like
five and a half months and Iguess it was five months, ten

(26:33):
days, a little bit less, becauseour goal was to be home by
Christmas and the thirdhurricane was coming in and
slamming the East Coast and wewere kind of used to it, you
know, by then being in theweather and stuff like that and
we had the clothes for it.
But we didn't want the peoplethat were cheering us in at the

(26:54):
end because we used to live inAtlanta and the southern
terminus isn't that far fromwhere we live.
So we had a bunch of peoplethat came out and then Greta put
a message out on social mediaExtra brownie points if A you
wear an ugly Christmas sweateror Christmas attire.
Double points if you bring adog.

(27:15):
And I think she said somethingabout oh, that we're going to
Moe's it's a Mexican restaurantthat we loved when we lived down
there and we're going to Moe'sit's a Mexican restaurant that
we loved when we lived downthere and we're going to Moe's
afterwards.
So anybody who wants to comewith you know, feel free.
But that kind of stuff, just itmade for such great memories
and that, yes, you can do morethan you know, you can think or

(27:39):
imagine, especially with like.
For me, god was such animportant part of our team and I
broke my learnings down intotools.
You need the right tools rightand on the trail.
You need a lot of gear, andtalk about that.
But if you have the best gearin the world and you don't know
how to use it.
Or how to throw up that Trenttent in the pouring rain, or how

(28:02):
to get, you know, a firestarted when everything you see
and touch is wet, you know, andyou're out of gas fuel, you know
.
What do you do?
What do you eat, you know.
And then, and the third thing,component or way that I broke
down the learnings was team, andGreta was an amazing team

(28:24):
leader.
It took me a while, literally afew thunks upside the head, to
realize that she was a betterleader than I was, even though I
was older and businessexecutive blah, blah, blah.
That really doesn't matter.
The things that she was betterat are the things that mattered
along the trail.
So I did learn to back off,back down and let her lead and

(28:45):
encourage her leadership andotherwise, you know, may not
have ended the way it ended,which was fabulous, you know, we
accomplished our goal Becausewe had, you know, get home by
Christmas, raise money forParkinson's and the third goal
really was don't die.
And came close a couple oftimes.

(29:06):
But I had two ER worthy headinjuries one on day 18, which
isn't that far into it, kind ofmakes you stop and think but
tripped on a root, hit my headon a root.
And then what happened next wasone of the regrets I have of

(29:26):
the trail Not hitting my head,getting nine stitches.
But I didn't.
It was about 1.30 in theafternoon, beautiful August day.
Hadn't seen anybody on trailall day.
And when I sat up at my sidewere two gentlemen and the one
says to the other one hey, joe.
And when I sat up at my sidewere two gentlemen and the one
says to the other one hey Joe.

(29:46):
Know, when I fell last week andI hit my head, I think I have
some of those steering stripsleft in my backpack.
Can you get it out while I tendto the lady?
And then he goes oh, and youknow that big waterproof bandage
that we put on top of it tohold all the blood in.
We'll need that too.
And you know I didn't ask them.
My regret was I didn't ask themto turn around to see the angel

(30:07):
wings.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Oh yeah, they were just amazing and they were going
the opposite direction.
They got me all bandaged up onmy way.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
They're like are you okay to hike?
And I said yep.
And they're like well, the roadis about three and a half miles
.
That way You're going the rightdirection.
And off they went, and off wewent, and so that was miracle
number one.
Then we get to the roadcrossing.
We didn't even have ourbackpacks off, we didn't have

(30:35):
our thumbs out to hitchhike, anda car stopped and the guy
rolled down the window and saidyou gals need some help.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
It was so cute and they were.
They were like weekend hikingand camping and stuff and and we
said, yeah, we didn't, we needto get to an ER, but we don't
have any connection, we can't.
You know, we don't know, wedon't have any Wi-Fi, we don't
know which way to go.
And he turns to his wife andsays, hey, we go past the

(31:05):
hospital on the way home, don'twe?
And she said, yeah, it's about,it's more than an hour away.
And he says, jump in.
They were going right past itand um took us to the front door
.
Um, nine stitches later, the uh, the er doc is asking us so
where are you staying tonight?
You need a ride.
When does a doctor ask you thatkind of you know, you know,

(31:28):
crazy wait?
We didn't know where we werestaying.
You know, most were hungry andtired and had to, had to find
where we were going to stay.
And so we start walking andcarrying our backpacks and now I
have a big bloody bandage on myhead, but at least I have nine
stitches that were holdingtogether.
So it quit bleeding and umstopped it.
We're standing.

(31:48):
Oh, this is the other thing.
It was, you know, 2022.
So a lot of these little townsalong the trail, all the
restaurants were closed onMondays and sometimes Tuesdays,
and this was a Monday night.
So we didn't know where we weregoing to find food because.
And so we're standing at thislike local branded A&W type

(32:08):
drive-in restaurant and we'reshould we just have ice cream
for supper?
You know, nothing's going to beavailable.
It's right here.
So we're standing therepondering and discussing and
this guy, big motorcycle, he'sgot a big old, you know chopper
Harley sitting there and he'slike what's your story?
He's like talking to us andhe's he's like, okay, well,

(32:33):
here's $50 for Parkinson's,here's a 20 for supper, and
there's a hotel about a halfmile up that I'm sure they have
room, and right next door is aChinese restaurant.
Get yourself a good meal.
And um, and he said in my andwhere did you get off on the

(32:54):
trail?
And we're like, oh, not quitesure, but it was, you know, an
hour north of here, north ofhere.
And he says, well, our daughterlives up that way and my wife's
been wanting to go see her, soshe'll take you back to the
trail tomorrow morning and gosee our daughter, like she's
been trying to.
So it just everything justworked out beautifully and um,

(33:14):
no concussion, nothing.
I fell again um, about halfwaythrough or not quite um, the
great of Pennsylvania, which isknown as Rocksylvania.
On the trip or on the trail andstanding up pointy, wobbly
rocks that you're hiking on roll, I could do so.

(33:44):
I didn't smash my face andbreak my teeth or nose, poke my
eye out on these pointy rocksand hit the top of my head and
that was 10 staples.
And that's a little weird,getting your head stapled
together.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
But the head like bleed, a lot Like was.
It was on the top of your head.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yes, and it bled so much and it wouldn't stop
because you know there's nothingholding it together.
I had a buff because it waswarm and you know the stereo
strips were on it before it kindof held it shut and then I put
the buff on top of it that hadenough compression that it it
slowed the bleeding.
But the one on the top of myhead it just kept dripping and

(34:25):
bleeding and so I'm trying towalk with one trekking pole on
these standy up, pointy, wobblyrocks with the buff on top of my
head and me trying to docompression down for a mile and
a half before there was a roadcrossing.
And you still had your backpackon yeah, I think both times

(34:45):
though Greta lightened the loada little bit so I didn't have,
but she couldn't carry bothpacks.
That'd be, you know, 70 pounds.
So, um, there is one time whereshe did carry a part of my pack
because I had rolled my anklereally bad, but it wasn't a
break, so just keep walking onit, but it helped to not have

(35:05):
that much weight Anyway.
So the the trail was amazing,you know, taught us amazing
lessons.
One thing that I really lovedabout the trail is the lessons
are so extensible, so universal.
They apply to thing I think Imentioned, you know, leadership,
and also I've done a workshopat an entrepreneur's competition

(35:34):
, a collegiate competition.
I've done a workshop at usingthe story as a metaphor for the
journey to well-being and mental, you know, good mental health,
and it's just it's it's.
You know I'm sad when I sayit's a once in a lifetime

(35:55):
experience, because I would loveto get out there and do it
again.
I just don't know if I wouldever have that amount of time.
I don't think I would do it bymyself.
I, you know, now my husband'sParkinson's is worse and you
know, I'm not, I'm not sure hecould safely be good for five

(36:16):
and a half months, or the othertrails are longer, so they might
take, they would take longer,but that doesn't you know.
But that shouldn't stop me.
You can still get outside inGod's beauty and God's creation
and draw power and energy fromthat, and that's what helps me
to stay balanced and focused andfocused on God.

(36:40):
Because man, who makes creationlike this, who makes trees that
have big, fluffy bonnets, orthe tree that I'm looking at
outside my office window that isdead in the middle, the center
branch, but, as you pointed outso wisely, each side of the tree

(37:02):
looks like it's holding handsup to heaven.
A raisin and praisin, yes.
Yes, I love that We've got toget that dead part cut out so it
grows nice again.
They're so resilient.
But in the meantime I can havea raisin and praisin team tree,
yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Erin and her holding up Moses's arms right.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Well, you mentioned even the word resilient right.
So on this journey you said itwas how many miles again?

Speaker 3 (37:36):
2,194.3.
And that doesn't count thetrips walking into town and back
when you have to go getgroceries.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
So did you guys keep track of how many steps you took
too?

Speaker 3 (37:50):
I suppose we could add them up.
We did.
We kept.
We had a paper map in case ouryou know, gps doesn't really
work great on the trail.
We had a satellitecommunication device If we, you
know, in case of emergency, ifwe had to put out a distress
call, and that mapped ourlocation and we had a group of

(38:12):
like family and friends thatwe'd send a message at the end
of every day.
You know, we're safe, we're atcamp, or we're safe, we're in
town, and it would grab thelocation where we're at and send
that in the message.
So at least they would havesomething, you know, that would
be 24 hours old if someone hadto come find us or something.
Um, there was one time when Ithought for sure we were going

(38:35):
to have to get medevaced outbecause I was walking on what a
knife's edge and Greta was aheadand sometimes these rocks have
like fissures in them or cracks,and this was a very smooth,
slanted rock and Greta hadstopped to turn around and made
sure I was coming, okay, and Iclimbed with the face of the

(39:00):
rock, you know kind of rockscrambled, up to the top and
then, oh, we can just walkacross, oh, and it was drizzling
.
It was slightly, slightly damp,just enough to make the rock so
slippery.
And I took one step onto thetop of that rock, not realizing
it was going to be slippery likethat, and slid down the rock
until my downhill leg droppedinto one of those cracks and of

(39:25):
course, the momentum and theweight of my pack continued to
push me down the rock.
And Greta said she saw my legbend sideways, like at about a
45 degree or maybe a little morethan that.
It wasn't 90 degrees, but shesaw the leg bend where it's not
supposed to bend and I stillhave a bruise that's like a

(39:47):
permanent dent in the muscle onthat leg.
you know it's, and if I wouldhave gone over the edge I mean
it was a blessing that my legdropped into that crack,
otherwise I would have slid downthe face of the rock and
dropped probably 40 feet oh myword To the little rock chunks

(40:11):
below.
So that was that was.
That was a good thing that I,that I had a bent leg.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
So you're, in essence , doing like rock climbing right
?
Yeah, you know I've done thatbefore?

Speaker 3 (40:24):
No, and that was a surprise.
I thought it was.
You know, a trail, a hike, awalk in the woods right, Like
you're like.
Oh, this is gonna be great,it's just nuts and I mean
Mahusaknach was the worst,because I was just.
It was like giants took rocksand thought it'd be fun to just

(40:45):
throw them down this crevice,this ravine, in the mountain.
Or somebody that mapped thetrail had a sick sense of humor
and, oh yes, let's just havethem go up this rocky, you know,
rock choked ravine, you know.
okay, boys, you could have doneit like around the side of this
rock, we wouldn't have to gostraight through it like create

(41:09):
some stairs or something, yeahyeah, well, there was places
where that during the depression, it was the civilian corps that
they did cut uh, steps androcks and so it is, and that was
great.
But, yeah, I kind of fell downalmost fell down one of those
too and good old Greta came tohelp me up and stepped on my

(41:31):
trekking pole.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
That then thwacked me in the eye and had a great
black eye and that was like daysix or something like so I'm
just getting this picture of you, okay, so, so you're not, and
I'm just imagining myself, likeyou don't do rock climbing, no,
you kind of go into this likeyou know, not fully knowing,
like what it's going to be like,which to me is like huge faith,

(41:56):
right?
Yeah?
So, you're standing therelooking at this like rock
mountain.
What's going through your head?
Like what is going through yourhead.
Like what?
What is going through your head?

Speaker 3 (42:06):
well, one thing was it was never an option to quit
okay, and I think that again,never an option to quit, and I
think that's so important tolife to have like a purpose or
something that's bigger thanyourself.
And even like every time I'dfall which was every day I mean

(42:28):
my goal.
I tried real hard.
I don't think I had a day I'dhave to double check with Greta
because it's kind of a blur butI don't think I had a day that I
didn't have some type of fall.
And we define we even definethe fault.
Like if I could stop mydownward momentum with my hand
and my butt didn't touch theground or my knee didn't touch

(42:49):
the ground, that was not a fall,okay.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
So you had different levels of falling.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Yeah, but the I, I, I tried real hard to not fall and
it's just, your center ofgravity is off.
I'm not that strong.
I mean you got stronger.
You also are dog tired.
We average 14 and a quartermiles a day.
On average, if you like thetrail, you burn 5000 calories a

(43:17):
day.
We couldn't carry that muchfood, you know.
So we're, you know, losingweight?
You know not.
Not, as I mean, we made up forit.
When we got into town then itwas fully loaded like I don't
know how many grams of sugar, 64grams of sugar.
Mountain dew pounded those downlike we'd split a six-pack

(43:40):
between the two of us, like inthe first, in one sitting, 15
minutes in town.
Yeah, I mean, always dehydratedwater is heavy to carry.
We had a water filter system,um, but still, you, you try not
to drink that much during theday because you have to stop and
pee all the time and then youreally don't want to drink.

(44:00):
We drink good as soon as we getto camp, but then you don't
want to get up in the middle ofthe night and have to go out.
You know where's the shovel,where's the?
You know what's toilet paper?
You don't, you know, no, soyeah, it just it's complicated,
so it um, we, we.
I give a presentation on thisamazing story and I even have a

(44:22):
slide in there that saysignorance is bliss, absolutely.
I would say I was clueless, butit didn't matter, because once
I figured it out, it wasn't anoption, and Greta and I were
talking about that the other daythat, for us, this was our job,
was our job.

(44:44):
You know, you get up in themorning.
We had it down to a greatsystem.
You know, when we would get tocamp, greta would start cooking.
I start setting up the tent.
There were certain things Icouldn't do, you know was really
hard to do on my own, so she'dhelp me, you know, get the
structure of the tent up andthen I would roll the sleeping
bags out, get the backpacksecure, get the food out so she
could cook.
You know, do all that stuffwhile she's filtering water.

(45:05):
You know we had it down toreally a good system in the
morning.
Vice versa, we would timeourselves and try to beat our
time, you know, to get moreefficient and stuff like that.
So, but it was a job, this iswhat we're doing.
And my husband would say, youknow, well, after the second
fall he said I had to get ahelmet, and he said a hockey

(45:28):
helmet with a full metal cageface.
You know, face guard Like agoalie helmet.
Yeah yeah, well, or even playerswill have helmets that have a
metal face guard thing, and sowe were in town where there was
a dick sporting goods and wewent there and and it was
getting to be fall, so hockeywas starting up and I tried one

(45:52):
of those helmets on and, oh mygosh, I have new respect for
hockey players, which our sonhas played hockey since he was
four years old and he's over 30years old now and he's still
coaching and playing, so I havenew respect for hockey players
because those are stinking heavy.
I cannot believe how heavy theywere and there's like there's no
way I can hike the trail with ahockey helmet.

(46:13):
So we went over to the BMX bikehelmet you know a really great
salesperson that was helping usout and found one that was
lightweight, still had like avisor, so if I went face
planting it would kind ofprotect my face, maybe a little
bit, and then it was tonslighter and I love it because it

(46:40):
has a really good gash on oneside.
There would have been anotherER visit, I'm convinced, so you
saved it obviously.
Yeah, I really.
Someone suggested one of thepeople that were following along
our journey put a comment inthat I should auction it off for
Parkinson's research, and Ithink that'd be so much fun, so

(47:03):
maybe I'll figure out a way todo that.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
There you go, yeah Well, so as you guys are, like
you know, working this thing out, I, as I'm listening, I'm
thinking of Proverbs 3, 5through 6, it's trust the Lord
with all your heart and do notlean on your own understanding
like the ignorance is bliss part.
Right In all your ways.
Acknowledge him and he willmake straight your paths.

(47:27):
So this is kind of maybe a funquestion.
What was the most annoyingthing about being with each
other for 150 plus days?

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Oh my gosh Well, one thing was sleeping.
Oh my gosh Well, one thing wassleeping.
And Greta had been away fromhome for nine years four years
undergrad, four years vet schooland then one year vet med,
internship, slash kind ofresidency.
She comes home and she's homefor, I think, eight days before

(47:59):
we got on the plane and flew toMaine.
Eight days, Eight days, Eightdays.
Well, she, you know she had allthese.
She had these interviews linedup with three different vet
practices.
She interviewed, negotiated theoffers and then we got on a
plane.
Oh, maybe it was.
No, it was a little more thanthat.
I'm bad at math.
She got home like July 3rd andwe flew out the 14th because we

(48:25):
had to get to the campsite.
We wanted to start on the 15th.
We figured that would give usenough time to get home for
Christmas.
And so the and the other thingyou know in the ignorance is
bliss category.
You know, back to the annoying,the most annoying thing about
being together you are so soreand tired by the end of the day

(48:50):
and then you're sleeping in asleeping bag on the ground and
we had inflatable air mattressesbut they were annoying because
they they squeaked when yourolled over on them.
They were kind of squeaky andcrunchy and um, I mean, you got
used to it, but still, the onlyplace, the only way it was
really totally comfortable forany length of time, was flat on

(49:10):
your back, oh and, and then Isnore when I'm flat on my back
so that was annoying for Gretathat was very annoying and it
was annoying for me because shekept punching me in the middle
of the night to roll over, youknow so.
So there was that.
Other than that, you know, wegot our routine down pretty good

(49:30):
.
There was times where, you know, I was kind of a whiny baby and
I just wanted some sympathy.
And Greta's not that way.
She's like buck up and dealwith it, let's go, kind of thing
.
And and she was right, I meanwe didn't have time for me to be
a puddle and wham, wham, wham,we had to get, you know, we had
to move it.
So with that last hurricanecoming in, there were days where

(49:52):
we were doing close to amarathon a day, that last week,
to try to beat the weather.
So that was that was annoying.

(50:15):
There was, but with each other,I mean this is another thing
that was really important,having that purpose.
We had a common mission, we hada common God.
We both believed in themiracles of trail.
Angels was a real thing alongthe trail and they were truly
angels.
They were helping us.
One time we never even met thepeople.
They had a cooler.
Oh, you have trail names, like,I guess, for security reasons or
whatever.
So people can't track you downor go rob your house or

(50:37):
something I don't know.
But everybody has trail namesand it took us a long time to
figure out trail names becausenormally your trail family, like
who you're hiking with, givesyou your name and Greta kept
giving me stupid suggestionsthat I didn't want visit fall.

(50:59):
Um.
Someone on social media anumber of people did actually
suggested that greta be lilo andI be stitched, so that became
our trail name.
And um, in fact I'm looking inmy office I have this cute,
adorable um drawing that sometrail angels got for us.

(51:21):
Um, at Disney World that's Liloand Stitch hugging each other.
It's just so yeah, so sweet.
But then, when, then, when Ifell and got the staples, then
ha ha, thanks very much fanswere suggesting I change it to
Lilo and Staples, but thatdidn't.
That didn't really roll off thetongue as nicely, so we kept

(51:42):
stitch.
Oh my gosh.
Well, so speaking of kind of theflip side of annoyance, like
what was your most favoritemoment together, if you were to
say, gosh, there were so many, Idon't know, probably the
beginning and the end and theend would have trumped it Again.

(52:06):
It's kind of like the beginningyou reach the end of the trail
and then, for the fun of it, forthe end for the beginning, you
know, you hike like four milesfor the fun of it.
At the end it's like eight ornine miles to get down to the
state park's parking lot whereyour friends are to cheer you in
, but there's this really prettystone arch and you walk through

(52:28):
the stone arch and that's kindof like the iconic end of the
trail, even though it endedeight or nine miles before that.
But everybody was there andgreat photo op and stuff like
that and, and you know, greta'sdad, my husband, were there and
some of our good friends and itwas just really sweet that we
actually did it.
Another one when we got to theofficial terminus or end of the

(52:51):
trail that eight or nine milesbefore, greta is not a crier by
any stretch of the imagination.
She's, you know, she's toughand down to business and you
know.
But when we got to the, to theend, and there's a book there in
a metal case hidden in the rockthat you pull out and you sign

(53:14):
your names and then you'vefinished the trail or you
started the trail, depending onwhich way you're going, and it's
like, and she knew it, she, sheknew that we were at the end
before I did, because she was,you know, kind of tracking it
and stuff like that.
And, um, she just startedcrying and it was very, very

(53:34):
sweet to see her.
You know that we actuallyactually did it.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
That was pretty cool mind like mind blowing right
yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Yeah, it's like okay, it's like it almost, almost
felt surreal, you know, likelike the end of a movie is like
right, Okay, we did it what wedid.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
How do we go back to real life, Like like, moment of
like?
How do I integrate back intolike life?

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Absolutely.
In fact, people had warned us,kind of like the last, I don't
know, third of the trail or so,that okay beware, reentry is
really hard.
People have a lot of mentalhealth issues, you know a lot of
depression and you know you canimagine being, on average, out
in God's creation for 14 and aquarter miles.

(54:24):
I mean looking at all thisbeauty and just fun things.
That happened.
Like there was one place at thebeginning and I think God did
this on purpose that at the topof mountains where it was sunny,
like not in the woods, butyou'd like get to the top, the
crust of the mountain, andthere'd be a gazillion blueberry

(54:45):
bushes and we could not pickand we couldn't pick enough.
I mean, we, we like, had to likeremind yourself that we have to
get going and we just sat on arock and ate blueberries, you
know, for like an hour and um,and then we, um, we had um
netting to put over your face,because there's times on the

(55:06):
trail there's like black fliesor deer flies or mosquitoes or
whatever and it's reallyirritating when they bite your
face and your eyes and stuff.
So we had one, we each had ahead netting and greta filled up
her head netting withblueberries and then we went on
our way, yeah, and then it wasgreat because I think at that
time Greta was also eating um.

(55:29):
You have to kind of figure outwhat food works for you and and
then you settle on it and thenyou eat the same thing, you know
, for the rest of the trail, andmine was cold soak, oatmeal, um
with um cricket powder I useground cricket for protein and
um because I'm vegetarian,except for crickets um and then

(55:51):
um and m&ms for extra calories.
But it's cold soak so the m&msdon't get like melty and gushy
like they normally do if you doit when you put those in your
oatmeal with cricket.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Yeah, I never think of that recipe.
Yeah, well, and it was greatbecause cricket.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
Very sustainable, hot , you know.
Totally digestible, not so itdoesn't cause inflammation like
traditional meat meat does, andum, but gretta's, gretta's go-to
breakfast was Pop-Tarts andNutella.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Okay, pop-tarts like with Nutella on top of it.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
Yes, or like using the Pop-Tarts like a chip and
dipping it in there, and oh, wehave a fun God story about that
too.
We were resupplying at aWalmart you know super Walmart
that had grocery store and stufflike that yeah, and the only
Nutella we could find were thesegiant tubs of it and it's so

(56:50):
heavy and we would always buylike the smallest tub and
because we'd have to resupplylike every week or 10 days.
And so I run around the storelooking for like a Walmart clerk
, and I find one finally.
And I kid you not, he has aWalmart clerk.
And I find one finally.
And I kid you not, he has aLilo and Stitch t-shirt on.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Oh, wow, and I'm like you get a picture.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
We're good we did.
I said, I know this is a weirdrequest, but and I explained to
him you know, my name's Stitch,my daughter's Lilo, we're hiking
the trail and in, you know know, out there they know about the
trail, so, unlike here in themidwest, you usually have to
explain to people what the heckit is.
And anyway he go.
I said I know you probablydon't get requests for this a
lot, but we want the smallestjar of new chela.

(57:33):
Do you have something smallerthan this, like pound giant jar?
And he said I don't know, I'llgo look in the back, let Let me,
let me know, let me see.
And um, and so he, he went backand then he, he found us and we
were looking, we were shoppingall over the store and he's
carrying this case of small jarsof Nutella around, cause he

(57:54):
didn't know how many we needed.
It was just so sweet, so sosweet yeah.
Anyway, how many people thatlike came alongside you, like in
unexpected ways, it's just well, we we know that we stayed in
like 25 people, perfectstrangers home, 45 trail angels
in in total, you know, helped usalong the way.
So it was pretty, pretty great,amazing, hey, I'm going to

(58:17):
pause here.
I see my daughter's walkingover and the dogs are going to
bark.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Let me pause here.
I'll pause the recording.
Oh, we were talking about.
All right, we're back.
We just took a little pause, soback to you, susan.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
Yeah well, the, um, yeah, the, the.
The people that helped us alongthe trail were amazing.
They'd usually reach out insocial media, comment on videos
and stuff.
People would say stuff like badweather's coming, it's going to
rain or another hurricane'scoming.
You know, we live close by, letus know when you'd be at this

(58:52):
road crossing and we'll comepick you up and get you out of
the weather and to resupply and,you know, help you out and get
you back on trail the nextmorning.
That was something that justblew our minds and just the
kindness of the community alongthe trail was something that
just restores your faith inhumanity.

(59:13):
Just people, genuinely kind andhelping.
You know they don't getanything out of it.
There's one family they're like.
I know you're vegetarian.
I've been practicing my masalarecipe.
You know, please, please,please, come to our house and
just like it just was so sweetand so humbling to have you know
people help us like that.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Well, I would love for you to share and this is
going to be super off the cuff.
We'll see if you can come upwith something.
But I just feel led to ask youthis and it might sound really
random, but I love quotes.
I just love quotes.
So if we were to quote, have aquotable from your experience I

(59:55):
know you mentioned don't quit.
You know, basically get up whenyou fall down, like those are
things that are reallyhighlighted to me.
But if you were to, like, putsomething out there that would
kind of encompass yourexperience to pass on to people,
what would that quote be?

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Hmm.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
You know, when you started talking, what jumped in
my brain and my heart was listenfor the still small voice of
God.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
And it just seems like in our sorry, our busy,
crazy, hectic, challenging worldto just be able to stop and
listen for the voice of God.
Yeah, be able to stop andlisten for the voice of God?

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
Yeah, and it's.
You know, it's always the rightthing.
It may not be what you want tohear, you may be surprised by it
or not understand it, but ifyou slow down and quiet yourself
and listen, that is just sopowerful and we were so blessed
to have that experience.

(01:01:06):
My favorite picture of the trail, isn't the Grand Mountains,
isn't the you know, isn't eventhe final picture at the end of
the hike where we're finishingand all our family and friends
there, but it's our daughter,greta and I sitting on a dock on
this beautiful mountain lake.
And it's late in the day andit's just gorgeous.

(01:01:30):
There isn't another evidence ofhumanity other than the dock
and us sitting there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
And it just reminds me that God is ever present and
he's there for you.
And it's just such a greatexperience to be able to have
witnessed that, lived thatshared that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
I mean it was tough.
There was times it was brutal.
There was times we had everypiece of clothing on and were
soaking, wet, soaked to the bone, uncontrollably shaking
hypothermia, and I would do itagain in a heartbeat get in a

(01:02:30):
heartbeat.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Oh, susan, sure it's amazing.
Seriously, I, I, you, haveinspired so many people and I
just want to re-quote your quote.
And for the still small voiceof god yeah, we every day have
an opportunity to do this, andit's interesting because I even
said, you know, I think thatit's a lost art to listen in
general and, um, sometimesyou're actually listening for
silence.

(01:02:52):
Yeah, because he doesn't alwayshave something to say to us, and
it's okay yeah, but it's thoseopportunities to be still and
know that he's there every stepof the way, Like I just love.
I just love you and I'm sothankful that you were able to
be on today.
I know that there's so muchmore coming your way and I'm

(01:03:14):
sure that we'll have you onanother time, but, as you, I do
this for the one.
This the Lord had me to startthe podcast for the one.
So is there anything else thatyou'd want to share with the
listener today to encourage them?
Any words of wisdom?
Obviously, you've shared a lotof words of wisdom here, but

(01:03:35):
anything else that's really onyour heart, to encourage this
one that's listening today, andthen would you pray us out?

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
No thanks.
Encourage this one that'slistening today.
And then would you pray us out,no thanks.
Yeah, I think you know for methe kind of the tagline or the
takeaway from the trail and whatI learned is is identify what
is your mountain you know, and,and you know, for it was up and

(01:04:02):
down Mount Everest 16 times andthe mountain was doing it and
finishing it and raising money,and we had an incredible story,
so many generous people, youknow people sharing the story.
But it all starts with, youknow, we talked about purpose
and having something that'sbigger than yourself, and the

(01:04:25):
other side of that coin is, youknow, that's kind of the
positive.
The other side is, wow, you'reup against stuff.
You know your mountains,everybody's got mountains.
They're big, they'rechallenging.
Sometimes they look impassable,you know.
But then comes along somebodythat extends a hand and offers

(01:04:47):
to help.
Someone says, hey, get out ofthe rain, I will shelter you.
Someone says, you know, I hadIT ban, horrible issues toward
the end of the trail and peoplewould say let me take your
backpack, you don't need tocarry it today, you're going to

(01:05:08):
stay at our house tonight.
You don't need a sleeping bag,you need emergency stuff and
enough for food, and you knowthat's about 10 pounds.
Here's a day pack, here's yourbottles of water, here's your
water filter system, here's youremergency communication device.
Here's your water filter system, here's your emergency
communication device.
Go head front and Greta wouldcarry all that stuff and I
didn't have anything to carry.

(01:05:35):
You know, it was just peoplethat were wiser and could see
things that we couldn't see.
You know, surround yourselfwith those, don't be afraid to
ask for help.
Don't be afraid to say I don'tknow.
Don't be afraid to say you'rebetter at this than I am.
You be the leader.
It applies in so many differentways and that's one of the many

(01:06:00):
things I loved about the trailis the learning, the opportunity
to learn, the opportunity toprocess that and now to share
that.
It's just so big, so powerfuland you know, I don't want it to
be a secret.
I don't want God, god doesn'twant it to be a secret.
I mean, there are justundeniable miracles and
witnesses.
You know that we can tellstories of how God helped us out

(01:06:23):
.
There's no way that, you know,a 66 year old, non-athletic,
short, you know klutzy personcould do that trail without the
miracles of God.
You know, no way.
No way.
I mean, I was walking the dogsyesterday.
I rolled my ankle and fell asecond time, and it wasn't even

(01:06:43):
on the bad ankle.
I don't know.
I mean, I was walking the dogsyesterday.
I rolled my ankle and fell asecond time, and it wasn't even
on the bad ankle.
I don't know.
I don't know why I fell.
I just to the ground.
You know that's not someonewho's a trail runner, you know.
But now I loved it when you saidit.
I can be a trail guide.
Yeah, take what I've learnedand share it, and I really

(01:07:04):
encourage others to share it too.
This isn't something that hasto be just me.
Our YouTube videos are outthere.
We had people tell us oh,they're inspiring, it's better
than TV.
Our kids can watch it, we don'thave to worry about you know,
what's going to be said orwhat's going to be on.
We were goofy, we were silly.
We made up songs.

(01:07:24):
You know I have a horriblevoice, but sometimes Greta even
made me sing by myself.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
You know it's like the freedom right.
Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
And you know not everybody, I know, you know even
I will probably never get thatopportunity again.
But it doesn't mean I have tostop hiking.
It doesn't mean I can't takethe dog for a walk up and down
the road.
You know I can go to the marsh,we can listen to the birds, we

(01:07:57):
can see the deer, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
We can pick up a new trail.
You're blazing new trails rightEvery day every day you know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
Look for those opportunities and, along the way
, be a trail angel and helpsomeone else.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
You know it's.
It's so easy to do and it makessuch an impact.
Yes, Well, susan, you areamazing.
I so thankful that you came ontoday.
What would be the best way forlisteners to contact you?
I'll be sure to put yourYouTube channel in the show
notes.
But if they want to reach outto you, maybe for speaking or
you know questions about yourexperience.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
What would be, the best way for them to contact you
yeah, I think my email address,um susan, at susan otten
presentscom and that's url formy website, so they can.
Um, it's, yeah, and that wouldbe great.
If you know others that youknow want or need to hear this

(01:08:57):
story, um, I'd love to hear fromyou and if there's any ways I
can help with coaching, or youknow, it's one thing to hear it
and then, and if there's anyways I can help with coaching or
you know it's one thing to hearit and then go.
Oh, yeah, right, you know thatworked for you.
That's not going to work for us, or our organization or our
church or our this or all that.
Well, it it might.
You know, and maybe maybethere's a way I can help with

(01:09:17):
that, maybe there's a way asecond set of eyes coming in
from the outside can havedifferent vision and clarity to
be able to help problem solve orstrategize.
So be willing to help in anyway I can.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Awesome.
Well, I will be sure to putyour information in the show
notes.
I'm going to close with theanchoring verse for Hope,
unlocked it's.
May the God of hope fill youwith all joy and peace in
believing so that, by the powerof the Holy Spirit, you may
abound in hope, and that'sRomans 15, 13.
So thank you for being a bravevoice who's setting many, many
free.
I said many is free, many free.

(01:09:53):
I appreciate you sharing todayand I will be back with another
episode next week.
Thank you, susan.
Thank you so much.

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