View Full Version : Sad news
I just got a call from a friend that "Recycle" has passed away. He was just starting a PCT attempt and was found on the trail. No word on what happened or any other details.
This is "Recycle" the retired Court Judge from Minnesota.
He will be missed by many hiker friends.
I don’t mean this to be “smart,” nor to diminish your sentiment, someone once posted something like, “Would you rather die surrounded by nature, or in the city.”
Those aren't the only considerations, of course, but there is a valid idea in there.
I regret your loss.
Very sad news, but hopefully he died a happy hiker, doing what he loved. My thoughts to his friends and family.
Here is more information on what happened to Recycled from his son-in-law.
Last Monday Recycled took off to do the Pacific Trail. He went to San Diego and stayed with his sister, starting the trail on Wednesday. Late in the day Saturday, hikers found his body. He was just below a hill, lying near a creek. It didn't appear that he had fallen. His backpack was at the top of the hill with water in it. Pending autopsy, the cause of his death is all supposition.
Many of you knew him from 2000, when his thru-hike was cut short by injury. He returned to Springer again the next year for another attempt, but was again hampered by injury. He returned yet again the next year to Springer and completed his goal of an end to end thru-hike of the AT.
KirkMcquest
05-16-2006, 10:49
Anyone know how old this guy was?
Frolicking Dinosaurs
05-16-2006, 12:56
May he rest in peace and his family and friends be comforted. As others have noted, he died doing what he loved - it sounds like he died fairly quickly and from natural causes given the circumstances under which he was found. My guess is he was 'camelling up' with water to hike on when he hiked on to the great beyond.
Lion King
05-16-2006, 13:38
Oh My God...he was starting right behind me, I had heard he was back there...it has been brutally hot out here this year. I am Warner Springs right now...man...you just never know.
Apparently another hiker just died on the PCT, No Way Ray, who fell to death near Deep Creek. Unless it's the same guy, but I'm pretty sure it's another person.
That's two in the space of a week, plus the discovery of Donovan's campsite. Odd.
Jan LiteShoe
05-16-2006, 14:35
I am sorry to hear this, and please keep the updates coming.
I hiked with Recycled in '03, the year he acheived his goal of an end-to-end AT hike, and deeply admired his gentle humor and grit. A classy guy. He summitted with my '03 buddy Itchyfoot. I hope he had a peace about him when his time came.
There, but for the grace of god, go I.
Be careful out there! And take care of youselves and each other!
May he rest in peace and his family and friends be comforted. As others have noted, he died doing what he loved - it sounds like he died fairly quickly and from natural causes given the circumstances under which he was found. My guess is he was 'camelling up' with water to hike on when he hiked on to the great beyond.
Sounds like a plan to me. A friend who died cross country-skiing at age 79 has always struck me as choosing a wise exit -- though a bit young.
I'm not sure I can squeeze in all I want to finish in just two years.
Weary
KirkMcquest
05-16-2006, 16:19
I'm not sure I can squeeze in all I want to finish in just two years.
Weary
I'm not trying to be a wise guy, weary, but you'd better get started. My father has only a few weeks to live and he's only 70. He lived his life for a tommorow, that, in my observation, never came.
I hear alot of people talking about 'life starts after retirement', and '60's the new 40', and alot of other crap. Death looms near to us all, but even more so as we get older, and most people are surprised and not prepared when it happens to them. Just my opinion, but, at 77 you should be ready to go and living life like there's no tommorow.
I'm not sure, but I think Recycled was 69, maybe 70.
RestStep
05-16-2006, 18:53
I just heard the sad news about Recycled, an old hiking friend from our 2003 Thru Hike. I first saw him the day I left Neels Gap and we ran into each other a few more times as we went up the trail. The last time was at Ten Mile River Lean-To when we hiked together into Kent, Ct. the next morning. Being that Kent was as far as he ever made it in his first two attempts to hike the A.T., he felt this was a big accomplishment, and he called his hike from Springer to Kent his approach trail for that year, and we celebrated that night at the Fife and Drum. We hiked together the next two days until I left him at Salisbury with a friend. Those that knew Recycled knew he had many, many friends up and down the trail from his attempts in 2000 and 2002. I'll miss our conversations along the trail.
My respects to his family....he'll be missed.
I'm not trying to be a wise guy, weary, but you'd better get started. My father has only a few weeks to live and he's only 70. He lived his life for a tommorow, that, in my observation, never came.
I hear alot of people talking about 'life starts after retirement', and '60's the new 40', and alot of other crap. Death looms near to us all, but even more so as we get older, and most people are surprised and not prepared when it happens to them. Just my opinion, but, at 77 you should be ready to go and living life like there's no tommorow.
I agree 100 percent. That's why I'm active in three land trusts. And why I keep reminding folks that our efforts to buffer the narrow AT corridor in Maine is critically important.
We need donations for:
www.matlt.org
if we are to protect the last wild places along the trail corridor in Maine before I'm no longer around to remind you.
Weary
Just recieved this:
Dear Friends:
I want to first thank each of you for your support and prayers over the last few days. My father’s passing was so unexpected and shocking to us all. As many of you know (and for those who may not have known) dad (trail name – “Recycled”) had prepared and gone to great lengths to hike the Pacific Crest Trail out in California. He spent months planning out meals and where he would stay, etc and had an itinerary for each day he would be out.
Dad flew out to California on Monday, May 8 and took Tuesday off to get his equipment in order for a Wednesday morning start. On Wednesday, he began his hike towards Lake Morena campground – his next stop would be Mt. Laguna. Unfortunately, dad was found by two hikers on Saturday about 11 miles SE of Mt. Laguna. We have gathered that he had probably stopped along the trail to visit a stream and possibly fell during his approach. The cause of death is “multiple blunt force injuries” – rib fractures which punctured a lung or lungs. I have been told it is likely he passed quickly and I am comforted to know that my father did not likely suffer.
Upon contacting many of you, I have learned that my father was a very lucky man to have so many wonderful people (true friends) in his life. Many of you have shared your stories with me of times spent with my father and it has touched me and my family greatly to know he was so dearly cared about and loved by you all. I have personally found great comfort in having you share these stories with me. My father was a wonderful man who embraced life, loved to be challenged and was someone anyone could always count on. I am very proud of him!
We are planning to have a service and many of you have expressed wanting those details. I hope to have that in the next couple days and will be in touch.
Sincerely,
Jenny (Twyman) Menke
Frolicking Dinosaurs
05-16-2006, 23:19
Thanks for posting the email. Very sorry to hear multiple blunt force injuries caused his death. As his daughter states, Recycled was "a wonderful man who embraced life, loved to be challenged". We all know that we are taking a risk when we enter the woods, but we go anyway because the woods call to us.
Sad news indeed. In a way, I'm glad it happened while he was hikeing, & not in a car wreck or (even worse) a nursing home.
20 years ago, "69 or 70" seemed so very OLD!, now, someone who is 70, was only 19 when I was born, & now to me a 19 year old is "Just a baby".
Anyway, condolences to the family.
Doctari.
Apparently another hiker just died on the PCT, No Way Ray, who fell to death near Deep Creek. Unless it's the same guy, but I'm pretty sure it's another person.
That's two in the space of a week, plus the discovery of Donovan's campsite. Odd.when did they find donovans campsite?
Alligator
05-17-2006, 13:02
when did they find donovans campsite?Try starting here Wanderer.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=14864&highlight=missing+hikers
Does anyone have a good picture of Recycled that they can upload to our gallery?
CaptChaos
05-17-2006, 18:26
My heart goes out to the family of recycled.
A point was brought up in this thread and I want to tell a story that I learned.
When I was first married my wife and I moved into an apartment in Tampa next to a man who was hitting 80 years old.
He came over one day and asked if I would deliver his rent checks to the apt manager for the next 6 months. I told him sure and asked him why. He was going to Greece to see what it was like and then come back home.
Months later I got 6 more checks in the mail and Bob asked me to keep taking them to the apt mgr he had signed on as a cook on a boat and was working his way back to the States.
When he got back home he sat me down and told me the following:
"I worked all my life, never was home, pushed myself and was away from my wife because we would relax when I retired and see the world", "Well, I retired after 40+ years and the next month my wife died. Can you believe it, I planned my whole life to be with her in retirement and she ups and dies on me". Now he looks me in the eye and says to me "John, do things with your wife now because the future or retirement might never come, look at me, I pushed to the end and I have to do it all by myself".
Well, I have taken my friends advice and for the last 26 years of our marriage that is what we do. That is why I backpack today at 49 as well. Someday I wont't be able to but I can still tell you the stories of what it was like.
Recycled should be an example to us to never give up until we are called home. I have pains and my sinus is a mess but I am not going to miss any of this as long as I can get up there to see what is on the next mountain top.
Again, my prayers to recycles family.
John
Frolicking Dinosaurs
05-17-2006, 18:47
Great post, Capt Chaos. I wish I hadn't pushed so many things aside to retirement. Now that it's come I'm not able to do many of the things I had planned.
Blissful
05-17-2006, 22:09
Wow, what a moving post, Capt Chaos. You never know what the future holds. That's why I'm doing the AT next year, God willing. It's now or never.
Thanks so much.
Downunda
06-02-2006, 00:12
I was told a few weeks ago about Recycled and was deeply saddened by the news. In 2000 I hiked out from Amicalola Falls just behind him (we were both hitting the AT for the first time) and met him on the approach trail at a lunch stop. We had a good chat and on parting he said "see you later on down the trail Downunda" and from that day on I had my trail name.
Recycled had just retired so I assume he was 65 in 2000, so that would make him 71 at his passing.
I then hiked with him on and off for about 2 months and we became good friends. He was a very engaging person and was always up for a laugh. He had to bail out in 2000 at Front Royal due to a foot injury.
If I remember correctly he hit the trail again in 2001 at the southern terminus to commence all over again, and yet again had to bail due to a foot injury.
He returned to the trail again in 2002 to commence at the southern terminus and this time was successful in completing his thru-hike. Unfortunately I was about a week behind him and never maganged to catch up with him.
Clearly he was a very determined person (in his own words stubborn) as many of us would recommmence our hike from the point we had dropped out, not recycled. To meet his standards he had to hike the trail in one go from beginning to end.
He loved life and his family and he died doing what he loved. RIP from Downunda.
MedicineMan
06-02-2006, 00:45
in his successful year....i pushed a hard day getting away from a kook, this somewhere between Little Wolfe Creek and Pearisburg. Wound up at the same shelter as Recycle..next thing you know the kook shows up there. Recycle and I left the next morning at 5:30 to get away from him. I tried to keep up with him but there was no way. Sad to here of his passing, he was a wonderful person.
Although I never had the privilege of meeting him, my condolences are with his family.
I have to agree with Captain Chaos... about living your life now and not waiting 'until retirement' or some other future date. My father hiked the AT when I was little, he travelled all over the world by himself and later with his family, and he never put off his dreams for later. His life was a great adventure. He died of cancer at 54. I often think, what if he had decided to 'wait' to do all of those things? He would never have had the chance.
It sounds like Recycled had the right idea about how to live his life, and he died living his dreams. I hope that gives his family and friends some comfort.
Mindi
'60's the new 40', and alot of other crap.
Our take on that saying around here is that '60 is the new 58'. Although the spirit stays strong, even youthful, all those injuries and wear and tear take their toll physically. We've told our boys (still in their 20s) to do things while they're young enough to both enjoy and recover from them.
As to the loss of the gentleman hiker, as sad as it is there is some consolation that he lived life as he wanted, even to the end.
Tom