I have had many jobs in the course of my 48 years on planet Earth...stocker, retail sales, roustabout, technician, merchandiser. And that, of course, was after my stint in the United States Army where I served as a Light Infantry Soldier in the 10th Mountain Division.
I was born in 1970 in Houston, Texas and placed in the DePelchin Faith Home for adoption. The family who adopted me, the Mitchell's, took me in when I was 2 years old and adopted me at age 4. I guess I have always had an incurable case of wanderlust because I would constantly be roaming the neighborhood...much to my mother's horror. And if I wasn't wandering about I was up a tree. Needless to say I'm sure she would be justified in claiming that all of her gray hairs were because of me!
In 1976 we moved onto a 127 acre forested lot 16 miles north of the small town of Silsbee in southeast Texas. For our first year there we lived in campers while our house was being built, hauled our bath water in pails to be heated over a fire and dumped into a corrugated tub, and dug trenches in the woods where we would use a portable toilet seat chair to do our business. By Houston city standards we were roughing it. To 6 year old me...it was paradise! I had a whole new forest to explore with my older brother and sister, Teddy and Deneen.
Throughout my entire youth, I was constantly outside roaming the woods and roads around our land. Our nearest neighbor was 4 miles away, so it was safe to say that I never actually bothered anyone doing this. I was always curious...always exploring what was over yonder. In high school, had some friends that rode the same school bus as I. During the summers it wasn't uncommon for we to walk the 6 - 8 miles to their houses to hang out or go fishing at Beach Creek nearby...and then walk home again. And then I'd do it again the next day.
After graduating from high school I joined the Army as a Light Infantry soldier. This kicked my wanderlust into new gears. I got to travel to places like Germany, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Panama, California, Virginia, Georgia, and New York. It was truly awesome!!!
When I left the military, I kind of left all of that behind. I traded it for jobs that still let me travel, like being a Technician for a company that cleaned condenser tubes in nuclear and fossil fuel power plants and a Set Team Associate working a company that performed new store sets and re-sets for Walmart. Yes, I got to travel, but I couldn't explore what I was seeing. It was maddening! It was like having a cookie dangled before you as a 4 year old child and then having it thrown in the garbage. It felt akin to the torment of Tantalus...the man in Greek mythology who was cursed by Hades to stand in water that receded every time he tried to drink it...everlasting temptation with no satisfaction.
I eventually decided to go to college, so in 2010 my wife Michelle, our three kids, and I moved to San Marcos, Texas where I could study Geography and Sociology at Texas State University. At this point I only need 1 credit to graduate but do not have to financial ability to make that happen. I have exhausted all my avenues of Financial Aid. I guess that is why I am currently working as a Merchandising Associate for Sam's Club making $12.50 an hour while my wife, who has a B.S. degree in Nursing, makes more than double that. It's enough to make someone feel like a complete and utter failure.
Three years ago it happened...I started watching a series of videos on YouTube.com by a guy named Joe Brewer from Backcountry Banter. It was a vlog of his thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Oh my God, I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! I had obviously heard of the Appalachian Trail, but I had never even given it a second thought. It was a place were mountain men abducted young women who were never seen again...at least that was what I had always heard. His journey was nothing like that though...it was AWESOME!!! The next year Joe decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which I had never even heard of, so I had to watch it, too. I was completely blown away by this new trail! Walking the trail through the desert, the Sierra Mountains, Yosemite, and the Cascade Mountains....pure eye candy! Then he finally decided to hike the Continental Divide Trail, which I had never heard of either. It ranged from the Mexican border in the deserts of New Mexico, up through the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, through the Great Basin and Wind River Range in Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and Glacier National Park to the Canadian border. By doing this, he would complete his Triple Crown...that's what hiking all three of these National Scenic Trails is called. It was about this time that I learned that there were dozens of the long distance trails in the US and even more worldwide!!! I was absolutely hooked! I started watching other peoples thru-hikes on YouTube...Dixie from Homemade Wanderlust, Reddmage from Target Katahdin, EarlyRiser71, Bigfoot, Darwin, Apache, Google from Saunter Beyond, Chocolate Balls from Sloanybones, Nightcrawler, and many, many more....I loved them all!!!
That was when I decided that I must experience these trails for myself...and someday I will. I love to catch and play with lizards and geckos...I always have. My wife started to affectionately call me her "Leezerd" and that kind of morphed into calling myself Gecko and eventually Cosmic Gecko on all of my hiking related posts on my very own YouTube channel "Gecko's Trails". This is where I video myself hiking the local trails here in San Marcos, Texas at the moment, but eventually I want to vlog my own thru-hikes of the Triple Crown and more. That's what this blog is going to be all about. I'm going to chronicle my goals, thoughts, and adventures for you guys...the rabid readers. The topics will range from hiking and travel to sustainability, permaculture, biotecture, and intentional communities. Those are my more prominent interests and goals.
I hope you guys stay with me for the journey. It's going to be a wild ride!!!
