He’s a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, only long-distance walker-hiker Jim Stoltz plants seeds of awe and appreciation during his Forever Wild shows, combining wilderness photography, stories and original songs April 24 in Seattle.
Stoltz performed songs before he developed the successful Forever Wild formula that he’s followed for 20 years. It’s an offshoot of a similar concert he intended to do one time only at a camp for children with cancer, but its success led to a career.
His interest in long-distance journeys started on a 1973 day-hike on the Appalachian Trail, where he met a man with a huge backpack who was hiking from Georgia to Maine.
“I got all excited, asked him all these questions. It was so romantic, to take off and follow the path for months on end.”
The next year Stoltz walked the Appalachian Trial, and in 1975 started a 1 1/2-year trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific, almost 5,000 miles on foot.
He began carrying a guitar on the third trek, Mexico to Canada along the Continental Divide.
“Music poured forth, songs about the things that were around me, the wilderness, the mountains, the desert. Those were the songs I wanted to sing.”
Although Stoltz is fit enough to walk 26,000 miles, not everyone has the physical ability or time to take backcountry hikes. But the nonhikers should care about wilderness, Stoltz said.
“The birth of our democracy was in the wilderness when pioneers first came to this land. It’s where they were able to stretch their wings and their mind. Anything was possible.
“Not everybody can go there, but it can still be a place in our imaginations. Even though we might be too old, too ill, our young people can go and we can teach generations to go and find their connection with the land.”
Before his long-distance treks, Stoltz was a shy man who lacked confidence. Weathering all the challenges built self-confidence.
“And there’s a great spiritual connection with the land, and time to think about things. I see a great clarity when I’m out there. You definitely learn your own weaknesses and strengths. You flow with the land and the day and the month and the season. It’s a very natural way to live.”
He’s had a few anxious moments, including being charged by a grizzly bear and twice by a moose. More frightening were natural obstacles.
On a Yellowstone-to-Yukon trek, he and a friend built a raft to cross a river.
“I had just taken my clothes off and tied them to the raft when the raft got away. We were miles and miles from any help. Everything we had was on that raft.
“My buddy was running alongside and I dove in after it and tried to catch up. Luckily for me there was a rope that was dangling and I caught up with it, and got to the other side and tied it off. It was a close call.”
Long-distance hiking is mostly a mental challenge, Stoltz said.
“There has to be a will, a desire to be outside and be living with nature rather than in spite of it.”
Stoltz, sponsored by several outdoors-related organizations, performs at 7 p.m. Monday at The Mountaineers Building, 300 Third Ave. W., Seattle; free; 206-284-6310, ext. 3029.
On the bookshelf: Grab a rock with David Whitelaw, who has gathered more than 300 moderate, traditional and sport climbs in “Weekend Rock: Washington” ($20, Mountaineers). Some are in the Leavenworth, Darrington, Index, and Mount Erie areas.
Photographs with marked climbing routes, sketches with more specific routes and tips and text on each route are part of the package.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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