Nice Article on my trip

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20080118/NEWS/699522342

January 18, 2008

Path to bliss: Man finds his passion on America's byways

Click to Enlarge Carrying a heavy backpack, Mike Daniel of Dallas walks down West Service Road In Evans on Wednesday afternoon. Daniel is hiking the American Discovery Trail across the United States and making a documentary about his 6,200-mile trip. ERIC BELLAMY / ebellamy@greeleytribune.com Browse Our Galleries

Chris Casey, (Bio) ccasey@greeleytrib.com
January 18, 2008


Forrest Gump, the movie character, hits an emotional breaking point and starts running. He runs from his Alabama home and runs for years, bumping into the coasts and starting back.

For Mike Daniel, it was kind of like that. He'd spent six years raking in cash -- another Gump parallel -- but hit the wall when he realized managing upscale restaurants wasn't his bliss. Plus, he hated the stifling south Florida heat.

Time to break free. Time to hit the trail.

He's been walking huge stretches ever since.

Appalachian Trail in the East? Done. Pacific Crest Trail in the West? Check.

Now he's trekking across the width of the country, on the American Discovery Trail. It's 6,200-6,800 miles long, depending on routes you take. He started in mid-June from the Atlantic-side trailhead in Delaware and hopes to be the first person to cover the trail's expanse -- including the loop between Denver and Cincinnati -- nonstop on foot.

He followed the trail via Interstate 76 into northeastern Colorado a week ago and skipped off-route to see the grasslands and small towns dotting Logan and Weld counties.

A chance meeting with Doris Williams, who lives 55 miles northeast of Greeley, led to lodging in her ranch house on Monday. They took a side trip that day to the Pawnee Buttes, where Daniel had planned an overnighter.

"I was going to camp out there but I'm glad I didn't," he said. "I was talked out of it (by Williams). She talked good sense into me is what she did. ... It would have taken me a full day to get out."

Roads to the Buttes are still drifted over in snow, and temperatures plunged this week.

"Anybody wanting to sleep out this time of year has gotta be a little bit crazy," Williams said. "I think it's quite an adventure (for Daniel). Being connected with the (Pawnee Pioneer Scenic and Historic) byway, it's kind of interesting what's really out there off the beaten path, not the tourist traps. It's the real beauty of the nation."

Daniel couldn't agree more. Since ditching his day job in 2002, he has filmed documentaries of his journeys on the Appalachian and Pacific Crest trails, selling 5,000 copies of the former and 1,000 of the latter.

Filming and writing are his passions, and he's finding just the material for his work -- including screenplay writing -- out on remote byways, in greasy spoon cafes, and under forest canopies of America.

"You can't get this kind of life experience any other way," he said. "Meeting people, experiencing a meal with them or even having a five-minute conversation with them, you learn a lot about people. You find out there are a lot more good people out there than people assume."

But the setbacks are many. Daniel has endured countless lonely stretches, the demise of his i-Pod after accidentally leaving it in the snow outside his tent in Nebraska, the strain of carrying a 55-pound pack in at-times brutal weather. But bright spots are numerous as well, including a Nebraska rancher who invited him to Christmas dinner, people who hand him bottled water, and folks like Williams who give him respite with a night's lodging.

On Tuesday, Williams ferried him into Greeley where he checked into a motel before hitting the trail for Denver. He will stay there for a couple days with friends, then head back east, on the southern portion of the Denver-Cincinnati loop. "Walking over the Rockies this time of year is not a safe idea, especially with the amount of snow they've been getting hit with this last week and a half," he said.

The Georgia native plans to reach Cincinnati in a few months, then fly back to Denver in May and begin the Rockies trek. It will take another seven or eight months to the end, just outside San Francisco.

Daniel, who turned 39 Thursday, reminds himself that it's better to be miserable on the hard trail doing something he loves than unhappy in something he hates.

"It struck me like lightning one day. Life is short," he said. "Time is short, and you've got to do things that are important to you."

Along his travels, and on his Web site, he encourages people to donate to the American Heart Association. Daniel lost his father, a couple of uncles and some friends to heart disease.

He's spent $12,000 on film, audio and camping gear for his travels, and it's all paid off.

"I'm bringing in less money, but all the money I make I put into the next project, which moves me ahead," he said. "I don't need to be a multimillionaire in film to be happy in it. I do it because I love it."