EITM interviews Rue McKenrick

EITM interviews Rue McKenrick

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Rue mckenrick.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good to hear you again.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Elliott, Hey, good morning to you. How are you doing, dude?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh, you know killing It's like.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Just living the.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Backpacker's life, you know. So uh, still riding the bicycle,
still bike commuting, still trying to save the.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
World, one step in, one pedal at a time. God
bless your room, God bless you. I drove in with
the windows down today.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, the windows are always down in.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
This area, you know what too shake then how many
windows exactly?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Now?

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Can they be up? How can they be up?

Speaker 4 (00:53):
So Rue, I'm just just for for brevity's sake.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
The last time, the last time.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
That you and I talked, I mean we we covered
a ton of stuff, including the fact that obviously I
don't think you've had anything but a bike for the
last five thousand years. But we talked about We talked
about the American Perimeter trail, right, and how it was
it was it was your you were your idea that
you were going to connect everyone in the country to

(01:21):
create a trail system, if you will, that would kind
of connect everybody in the country and make a like
a national trail system. And we talked about that a
little bit. I don't feel like we got as deep
into it as well. So now now you wrote four
volumes of this book, you were nice enough to send
me the first volume. Can I ask you this though,

(01:42):
real quick? Why why are we why are we separating
it into four volumes? And when do I start getting
more volumes?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, you know it's just I sometimes read thousand page books,
but this is the way that I prefer to consume
my own reading. So I just wrote it the way
that I would like to read it. So that's why.
That's the reason that it got split.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Up, Rue, and a great idea, because I'll tell you this,
like I got volume one and thoroughly enjoyed it. If
you would have sent me a thousand page book to
preview before being able to talk to you, we would
not be talking.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, So so yeah, I'm really excited for this first
one to come out, And like you mentioned, there's there's
three more and it basically, you know, each book is
a couple thousand miles of the fourteen thousand miles track.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Hey did I did I know from the last time
we talked, Rue, where the where the actual idea for
the for the perimeter trail came from that.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
It was while riding on a ski lift at a
ski resort.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, I you know, it was just a normal day.
Everyone wants a genesis story of like this kind.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Of uh light bright light.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Moment, and I mean it was just a normal day
at the skiel, and uh, I suddenly this idea came
to my mind that, uh, that America needed a perimeter
trail and an interconnected trail system, and that not only
could I hike this, but I could also be the

(03:28):
one who started the organization that was going to actually
put it on the ground.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
And build it.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
And you mentioned, you mentioned early in the book, and
and you alluded to it that you know, you're still
riding a bike and and and backpacking, and that that's
that that's your life, that's that's your way of life.
But you talk about early in the book how you
were like you you were you were dressed like a
ninja in all black, riding your bike. But you worked

(03:55):
for a billionaire who owned like this large, large pot
plot of land. What were you what were you doing
working for this billionaire?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, it was just one of those situations, Elliott, where
I was over the years taking different seasonal work and uh,
making sure that I had time out of the year
to travel. And it was just a situation where I
was just working seasonally and I was too hard of
a worker, and I worked myself into a supervisor position, right, yeah, So,

(04:30):
I mean it wasn't ever really intended to be that way,
but it was a great way to spend time outside
and and uh, you know it was I mean, it
was something to do for the time and make a living.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
But you also make it sound like he owned all
this land, but the land was being sold off and
chopped up, and it was just going to be house
after house, like mega mansion after mega mansion after mega mansion,
and that, I mean, that's really not your cup of tea.
That's not your that's that that's not your view of
of of land and being outside. And well, by the way,
do I know who the billionaire was? But I know
the name if you told me, oh.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
I can't tell you the name, but uh, or I
don't know that you would know. I don't think you
wouldn't know the name. You wouldn't know the name. But really, yeah,
I mean it wasn't my cup of tea. We all
find ourselves in places of lives and I was kind
of going through a journey of It was the biggest
green space in the area at that time, and so
I enjoyed managing it. But then it's you.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Know, as it went away, then I went away, Hey,
what is the triple Crown of backpacking?

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
So the triple Crown of backpacking is the twenty one
hundred mile Appalachian National Scenic Trail. That's so you hiked
the entire trail, and then it would also be the
completion of the Continental the three thousand mile Condinental Divide Trail,
which goes through the Rockies from Mexico to Canada. And

(05:57):
then also the twenty seven hundred mile Pacific Crest Trail,
which goes through California, Oregon, and Washington, Mexico to Canada.
So it's the completion of those three trails. Is the
triple crown?

Speaker 1 (06:11):
And you've done all three? Correct?

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah? I've done all three and have gone back for
some more since.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh wow, how many people have done that triple crown?

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Though?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
You know, I'm really not sure. I just kind of
not a person that really pays attention to like the
resume like milestones.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, for me, it's more about the experience than it
is just kind of like the resume points. But I
was fortunate enough to have that experience, and I was
lucky enough that I got to do it like twenty
years ago, right, even though I'm not that old of
a person, but I was, you know, I was able

(06:56):
to do it when I was younger and before you know,
the trails were a lot less populated at that time.
We didn't have smartphones there, so it was a little different.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Hey.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
So, so in order to do the American Perimeter Trail,
you knew that it was going to be a hike
that was going to take you years in order to
to complete, like a several years hike, if you will,
in order to in order to get through you know that,
I guess the part that I never thought of or
and and by the way, shame on me, because I

(07:28):
should have. But when you start talking about like getting
ready to and I don't mean like, oh, I put
my shoes on and I'm leaving, but like what it
takes to get ready to start out on a hike
like that, the training that goes into it, where you
are hiking every single day just to be ready to

(07:50):
hike on the trail, having to sell off all your stuff.
You're going to be gone for years, like you're I mean,
it's not like you you know what. I don't know
how long it took you to do the Appalachian Trail,
but you're going home after that.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
This you're going away for years.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, you make it sound like a sentence like you
get to put it away for years and going to
the big house. But it's it's very cerebral. So yeah,
I mean you mentioned the physical part of it, so
though I had, yeah, physically had to be ready to
go from day one, and I was ready to do

(08:26):
thirty and forty mile days from the beginning, But really
the cerebral part of it was the knowing that not
that you're just going to be away for a couple
of years, but you may be spending a couple.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Of years alone when I did.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, And I think that was probably you know, that
aspect of it is something that I don't know that
you can really prepare for. Maybe you're just kind of
built for it in some ways.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Hey, can we can we talk about your friend Sean
for a moment.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, the so Sean.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Was going to hike the first uh, the first part
of the of the trail with you.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
He was going to go out there with you.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
And then he he ultimately ends up dying before before
the hike ever gets underway. But did he die and
maybe you can explain this to everybody, rue, did he
die on that day that you had been kind of
quote warned about in the future.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, okay, so thank you for letting me talk about
my friend Sean. So yeah, you know, there's this part
if you read you know, if you get the book
and you read about this, there's a there's a part
where I have this premonition, very strong premonition about a

(09:53):
date and a journal about it, and I, for some
reason had.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Had this kind of like.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Horrible ceiling around a specific date on a calendar that
was right before I left for the trail. And I'm
not really necessarily a person who ascribes to any kind
of supernatural beliefs, but on that day I woke up
and I just had this ceiling of dread, like, oh no,

(10:26):
it's that day, because I had been thinking about this
for a month or so, and ultimately, like I almost
got through that thing and thought, oh see, that was ridiculous,
and unfortunately received a phone call at the very end
of that day that my friend Sean, who was going
to be hiking with me, had had just passed. So yeah, and.

Speaker 4 (10:52):
You know, you read that in the book, and you
do you set that up or you're and you say
the same thing, like I don't believe in any of
that stuff, to the point where it's almost like I
don't want to say embarrassing, rue, but where it's almost
like you can't believe that this date is like sticking
with you and like you said, it's been it's been
you know, a month, six weeks, and you're like, why

(11:14):
why is this date? I swear to God when I
got there and you were talking about about Sean and
the two of you being ready to go, and it's
on that date, I was like, you gotta be freaking
kidding me.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, well, I mean I thought the same way, right,
But you know, I was committed to this trek, and
I was committed to this writing. So this book, you know,
unapologetically gets very intense right from the beginning, and and

(11:47):
so yeah, I yeah, I'm putting out like feelings and
thoughts there about stuff that might be kind of like
against my own sen abilities, are embarrassing or seem ridiculous.
But you know, my mind is often that way. So
I just wrote the way that my mind thinks it is.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
It is raw, but I mean it's it is very
and I mean, listen, it's not everything is is like Sean.
I mean, for example, the day that you have, the
day that you're supposed to start the hike, you end
up getting a ride because what are you gonna do
park your bike there for the next four years while
you're out hiking.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
So you get a ride.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
You get a ride with with with Bob to go
to the to the to the start of where your
where your hike is going to start. It's going to
start in some place, and then you're you're in a
road rage incident. There's there's the people yelling at you
in the parking lot, Bob's yelling go around. It's like
you can't even get out of the car to get started.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, you know, you hear this. You know the beginning
of every journey, every thousand mile journey, starts with one step. Well,
I was really thinking that I wasn't even going to
get to the one step. I've been thinking of this
day for a long time, and there was a lot
of kind of energy and even anxiety building up to it.

(13:10):
And we get to the trailhead and unfortunately the you know,
the person who's giving me a ride, and someone else
at the trailhead decided to get in a pissing contest
with their vehicles. And so, you know, I'm in the
passenger side. Bob is trying to parallel park. He's running

(13:32):
the truck. You know, he's so insistent on it and
not going to let the guy behind us go that
he's like running the truck up the side of a
tree so that it's just taking on damage with just
full resolves. And the gentleman behind us is screaming and
yelling at us, and I was like, this is one

(13:53):
heck of a way and I haven't even stepped onto
the trail and I think we're gonna end up in
handcuffs here.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
All you want to do is get out of the car.
I'm going walking for the next four years. Just let
me out and I.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Will say this, get me away from this craziness.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Rue you do. You do such a great job.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
I want to give you a ton of credit for
for for something that is quote nothing. You do such
a great job of saying so you get out of
the car.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
And all that gets situated.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
You get out to the trail or the trail yead
and you're gonna start, and again you haven't done anything.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
But yeah, nothing's happened.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
You do such a.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Good job of building up the anxiety, the the the
the anticipation of as soon as I take one step,
I've started and it's gonna go on for years. That
anxiety and that anxiousness of just getting ready to take
that first step like that, it doesn't cross my mind right, like,

(14:52):
I don't I've never done anything like that, But boy,
you make that first step sound so intense.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Well, I think there.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Is probably so many there's probably more adventures and more
experiences that people haven't had in the world because of
that moment. That's that's the crux. It's the breaking moment.
And trust me, I wanted to ditch several times leading

(15:21):
up to this where I wanted to talk myself out
of it in some way, and I think probably that's
just that's the difference between hiking the American Perimeter Trail
and not is getting through some of those tough stretches
and the first I mean it was brutal leading up

(15:42):
to it, and really if I had, if I had
stalled and boughked it starting the trail, the pandemic hadn't
started yet, right, and we would have ran into a
global pandemic, and I would have probably never.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Started, would have never gone. Hey, one of the on
one of the first.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Things that you do when you get out on the
trail is you you.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Throw the rock? Can you? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Can you? No?

Speaker 2 (16:10):
No? I was hoping you weren't going to bring that up.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
I read the book Rue, Come on.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
You can you tell the brief story of the rock?

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (16:22):
The brief story of the rock is that I've mostly
been a single man most of my adult life, but
through my twenties I was in a committed relationship. And
I was with this person for yeah, like all my twenties,
and we did a lot of backpacking together, and so

(16:43):
we were going out on an adventure at three thousand
mile Trek and I just decided when we started the
trek that that I wanted to marry this person. And
so I didn't really have money for a ring, and
I knew like my partner wasn't probably into the bling anyways,

(17:08):
being a little bit more non traditional, So I picked
up a five pound rock and put it in my
pack and just decided I would carry that from Canada
to Mexico. It's kind of like a symbol of my love,
and then present that at the end of the trip
instead of instead of a ring, I would present the rock,

(17:29):
because you know, backpackers, we don't even have a piece
of gear that weighs five pounds.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
You know.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
All of our stuff was like weight. So it's like
the heaviest thing in my pack. And so I got
to Mexico and I presented the rock, and we got
engaged and we started planning the wedding. And it was
a couple of months later that she told me that
the affair had started before the trail with my friend,

(18:00):
and then that it continued after we got engaged. In returned,
so I had this rock.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
She gave the rock.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Back like you give the ring back. And I had
this rock, I know, and so I had I don't
know why, but for all these years and traveling, I
for some reason, this rock followed me. And the first
step onto the American Perimanter Trail was above above this beautiful,

(18:29):
huge waterfall, and so I finally took out the rock
and then threw it down into the waterfall as a
way of just symbolically moving on, you know, turning.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
The page not so fast, not so fast? What did
you What did you say to the rock? Or you're
not going to tell.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Me, oh, Elliott, maybe I would tell you off air? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
before I before I threw it the rock and I
had just a little talk and I whispered something into
the rock and then I threw it.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
All right.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
A couple of other things there is There is one
thing that you say in the book which I thought
was really really great. It's a saying that comes out
of the book where it says you were afraid of
the same thing that every human is afraid of, and
that's not getting what you want.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
I thought that was a fantastic saying.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah. I actually had said that to someone the other day,
not even thinking about it. But and I always I
don't use that very often.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
That's a once a year, but.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's people always give me like a strange look, as
if I'm saying that they're selfish because they're not going
to get what they want and that's what they're afraid about.
But even like wanting the help of your child, it's
something that you want so whether it's just like the
help of a child or or if it's like you

(20:07):
want to be a billionaire, all of us are afraid
of not getting what we want.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Sure, sure, yeah, I thought it was a great saying.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
All Right, I got to start ripping through some stuff
before it gets way too okay, you know what I
was You know what I wasn't expecting to learn. I
wasn't expecting to learn that for people who hike, mosquitoes
are such a massive problem.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Oh my, yeah, Well just imagine, like, so you work
with people there, and we don't always get along when
we work with other people. Right, so every once in
a while you have like a person and you're like
you come into work and you're like, oh gosh, there
they are again. And then they come up and they're

(20:47):
like talking to you. You really don't want to interact,
and maybe you avoid them a bit as you go
throughout the day. Well, this is no different than like
the mosquitoes. They are just there, you're at work, You've
got to deal and manage them, and it's it's relentless

(21:08):
and it's brutal depending on the snow season. And this
just happened, you know, the time that I started the
American Perimeter Trail. Just happened to be a really horrible
season for it, right, Yeah, I mean it'll change your
entire life.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
Hey, So during the imagine yeah no, I was gonna
say so. During the course of this, like we I
learned about mosquitos. Also, you ended up stitching. I mean
literally stitching, like the way I would go to a
hospital and get stitched up. You stitched up your own feet,
You cut sutures out of your own mouth. All that
is fine. What the hell was that rash on your crotch?

Speaker 3 (21:51):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
So I had a situation where I got some heat
exhaustion and and with in a day or two of
the heat exhaustion, I felt like I got stung.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
In the middle of the night.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
I felt like I got stung, like right in the
scrotum by something.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
And I woke up.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
The next morning to kind of investigate, and there was
you know, it's called flick delightis It's like a hot
tub rash that was all around my mid section. But
it really freaked me out because I had no idea
what it was. It was like these boils and it
was disgusting, and there are custularis all over my mid section,

(22:36):
and of course, like I have to walk with this
which is just constant, like a torture chamber between your
between your legs, and you know, there's no relief. I
have to walk out and walk through this. And I
ended up ended up going to a clinic which I

(22:58):
wasn't even sure if it was for human or not,
because there was a man standing outside with a chicken,
and so I was not They told me that was
the clinic, but it was a like an agrarian farming
society town, so like I wasn't sure it's the animal clinic?
Was the vet or where I was going? And I

(23:21):
got to this clinic and and you know, I talk
about how there's the nurse practitioner. She comes in and
she wants to examine the area, and I, you know,
it was a beautiful young lady, and it was a

(23:41):
little bit uncomfortable. But she says to me, she's like, well,
I don't want you to feel uncomfortable, so I'm going
to go get some more people. And she comes back
with these two other beautiful women. So now I've got
so now I've got three. And I don't know why
she thought that was going to make get more comfortable.

(24:01):
But but then but then you know they were having
issues that they were you know, examining, and she said,
you know, Katie, you get the flashlight, I'll get the handle,
and Sarah you manage the apple bag.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
And by the way, all this is going on, the
suture feet, the sutures in your mouth, the.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Apple bag, like all of that's going on. We're still
very early in the height. Most people would.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah, we haven't even really, I don't even know that
that rocks hit the bottom of the water yet.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
And you're still you're still going.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
And then you know the other the other thing that
there there there is a point where where ru and
again this is still very early on where you you
you literally almost die early on, early on in this
and there's a there's a couple of hikers and you
do meet you meet a bunch of interesting people out
on the trail, and you're kind of going in the
opposite direction of everybody, so you're not going with them,

(25:10):
so you're kind of just passing them. And some of
them are very interesting and some of them are just
you know, kind of just quick in interactions and meetings.
But you do almost end up dying and it turns
out the group of people that ultimately helped save you
originally kind of forgot about you while you were just

(25:30):
laying there on the ground, and eventually they remember late
in the day they were like, I think we passed
that guy just laying on the ground dying.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, well, marijuana affects short term memory, so but yeah,
I mean, I had a situation where I was talking
about the heat exhaustion and I was in a really
bad way with a fever, and I wasn't sure if
it was an infection coming from my mouth that I
had just had oral surgery on, or if it was

(26:01):
where I stitched my toes together where I did.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Some stitch work there.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
But I was but I was very sick and to
the point where I was getting like delirious. And there
were some hikers that came past, and they I was
begging them, like get help, you know, send for help.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
There was a dirt road nearby.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
And they went into town. Later that night, a van
came and picked me up and they were in it.
And the next day I was just so grateful and
thanking them for going and getting help, and they and
they told me they actually had gotten into town and

(26:46):
completely forgotten about me and we're just forgot about it.
And they were talked to this guy and they said,
you see anything neat today, see anything cool? We're like, oh, yeah, well,
now that you mentioned it, we saw like this guy
eyeing on the side of the trail. It was like,
we probably.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Ought to go get him.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
And they were like, that's a great idea.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
Yeah, but you know, you know what that does turn
into though. There's a blurb in the book after that,
and they come back, and obviously they come.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Back and everything starts to turn for the good.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
But you do say that on the trail, and you know,
I don't know if it's if it's the you know,
the Appalachian or what the other two are, or in
the American Perimeter trail, but you do say that there
is the dilemma of do you help or do you
walk by? And a lot of people find themselves being
I don't want to say guilty, but being able to
check both of those boxes at different times.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
I think if we're honest with ourselves, we can check
both boxes. I mean, I can think of the time
when I'm the good Samaritan and the time where I'm
just the passer by. And so in the book, you know,
I try to be honest as much as I can

(28:06):
about not just talking about others, but usually when I'm
speaking about others in the book, it's just a reflection
of myself, and I point that out. But but both.
I mean, I think that we all like to think
of ourselves as the hero, but really, given any circumstance

(28:32):
and situation, who knows how we'll truly react. And that's
you know, that's a great part of getting to for me,
getting to do something like the American Perimeter Trail is
because I got put into so many scenarios where I
actually got to find out what I would do instead
of just what I like sitting at home thinking I
would do, you know, like sitting on seeing them on

(28:54):
the couch, being like, well I would do this, of
course look at them. You know when I when people
TV and they're like, oh, they're so stupid.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
How why would they do that?

Speaker 2 (29:04):
And it was nice to put myself into some some
tough and stupid situations and see, uh, which person I
was at that time.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
Hey, so let me ask you this in total. Remind
me how long did it take you? How long did
it take you to do the Perimeter Trail. It took
me three years, three years, Jesus Christ. And then how
like we meet we meet some people or we learn
about some people in volume one, do we like do
we get recurring characters?

Speaker 1 (29:35):
I mean, these are all real people.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
I don't want to call them recurring characters, but and
I also don't want to give everything away, but there's
certain people that we meet. Do they pop up again
later on in the book or in the in the yeah,
now we're.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Talking, they do, Yeah, they do. There are some we
call them characters. I would call them friends, but I'm sorry.
They they they they do pop up later. You know
what starts to happen and the other volumes is uh

(30:07):
so as far as storytelling, uh, the other volumes it
gets pretty bare. I mean, it's just me for weeks.
But there are characters that that come in and out
because as you'll find out in volume two, that's where
the gunplay starts, right where there's no gun play in

(30:29):
volume one. But there are some people who who come,
come and go, uh throughout the journey, and even when
I've finished, there's some people who I met along the
way that were there at the end.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
That's awesome. Hey, last two, last two things.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
Number One, if people, what is the easiest way for
if people were interested in in in learning more about
the American Perimeter Trail, in helping out with the American
Perimeter Trail, in being a volunteer donating to it, what's
the easiest way for people to do that real quick?

Speaker 2 (31:08):
So, the American Perimeter Trail Conference is the I'm the
executive director of the American Premier Trail Conference, which is
the five oh one c three nonprofit which is building
the American Perimeter Trail. And you can contribute or become
a member at ww dot Americanperimeter Trail dot org.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
And then the last thing, I don't know if you
have Volume one in front of you, do you rue?

Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (31:33):
I have it here, page twenty if you don't mind
page twenty.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Okay, I don't even know what's on page twenty, Lie,
I do.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
I wrote it down. I wrote it down. I can
help you help eight. Okay, I'm going to read one
little blurb from page twenty. Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
I am ready.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
People told me.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
I should write a book. I was not interested in
that either, aren't. In hindsight, you're kind of glad you did.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
I am yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah, hindsight, I'm glad I did. I had a lot
of attitudes going into the American Perimeterive Trail that weren't
anti social, but I just the attention was kind of
like getting attention, I don't know, just having a little
bit of like I don't know, I'm like just a

(32:23):
personal person. Just didn't want to kind of put my
life out there. But I'm glad that I did. And
it's been carthartic for me in a lot of ways.
It's not only like documented what happened. I've had some
fun with it, but also like I hope that people
just reading about the adventure of it, that they they

(32:47):
learned some more about the greater implications of the conservation
project that we're doing.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
Well, I'll tell you what, I'm thrilled that you did.
The Volume one was so good, Rue, honestly, American Perimeter
Trail Volume one west a fourteen thousand mile journey. Rue,
I appreciate the time, I appreciate the book, my friend.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Thank you so very much.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
We'll talk to you again.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Absolutely, Thank you, Rue.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Okay, take care