¶ Altitude Sickness and Encouraging Outdoor Activity
Okeek Greg Sakowicz .
How are you ? I'm doing great . How are you doing today ?
I'm doing all right man , I'm doing all right . This is a little busy . I'm finally doing a photo dump on Instagram and you know my trip with Whitney and recovering from the burnage of that mountain . A lot of reflection burn , more than I thought that I would ever get in my lifetime .
It almost seems like I went to Everest and I'm in my second month of recovery . Wow , you know what I mean . I'm recovering . Whitney's not that bad , but definitely got some wind , some undercarriage , burn yeah .
As a pale guy with blonde hair and a red beard . I burn everything , so it just there's no in between . So I know you're paying , Trust me .
Yeah . I never thought I'd blister in my lips , though Never , never or have altitude throw . You know , just never , never thought I , never thought I'd even have that . But have you heard of that ? No , I haven't heard of altitude throw . Yeah , Never , never heard of that , until I looked it up and like man , what's up on my throw ?
And then there's altitude throw .
So yeah , what is it ?
So basically it's like a sore throw . It almost feels like strep .
Okay .
Cause it's mostly on the tonsil and it is the the . The tonsil is so flaccid that it gets stuck anywhere in in between the walls of your throw and it hurts to swallow , it hurts to cough , it actually hurts to talk spit .
You spit up some blood first off because you're like what is going on , because you're trying to clear your throat and it's just nothing but blood . And yeah , it's from the pressure and the air , the different points of air cold , warm , heat and yeah , it was 103 degrees at two . I was on the tree line by then .
So yeah , that's , that does not sound fun .
No , no , no . It's all the moisture . And then when you're sucking wind at 13,000 to 14,000 feet , you know you're just destined to get some kind of dryness somewhere and say the throat .
That's why I try to stay under 13,000 feet . It's safer down here .
Yeah , yeah Well , you got a bunch of 14ers there and you guys are known for this the 14er state correct , colorado .
We do we do we have 68 , I think something like that I've . I've hiked one and it was about 10 years ago before I started my hiking journey . Yeah , I don't know , Like I feel like it's the name of Fat man . I can't really hike up to the top of a 14er and still keep my target audience going .
You'd be surprised , man . You'd be surprised . I mean , let's just go with titles , man . You're a blogger and influencer , especially on Instagram . You're hot right now . You're hot . That's why . That's why I was surprised that I was able to get you on this podcast , man . You got me on the upswing . You're an adventurer and a podcaster , but you stopped that .
I think you should go back . I think you should go back for maybe once a month . You know , just fill people in , because a lot of people like to hear things while they're on a hike or jog or , you know , doing whatever they do .
I love doing the podcast and I really I've actually met people who they've become friends now because they listen to my podcast . A couple they live out in Utah and they did the John Muir Trail and they listened to me on the John Muir Trail and we ended up becoming friends because they reached out .
After that it's just like the podcast of me and you sitting here talking isn't very hard , but for me it was all the prep and finding you know the guests and like people don't understand how much goes into a podcast and I just ran out of time doing too much , right ?
Yes , yes , and I'm going to say this man , your last title that I caught on to is a comedian man . I'm trying , you're quite funny . You're funny because it's relatable and you just tell it how it is . And you know , I'm not the average size and I wouldn't say you're fat at all . You know people would say that I'm fat , but I'm just tall .
On a good day I'm six one , on a bad day I'm six , six and a half , you know . But I weigh two , 15 , very manageable . But if you're able to go up those mountains or trails and do everything else as an average person , average person , you know why call yourself fat .
Well , part of it for me is one I am fat and I'm okay with being fat because what , what ? I realized ? Your six , one , two , 15 , and I'm like five , five , two , 40 . I have a stock year . I have a stocky build , you know , and I had muscles when I was younger and they're still in there somewhere . I haven't found them in a while .
But for me it was like I got really out of shape . I had a lot of . I had more surgeries on my shoulders , so like I stopped working out and I got really out of shape and I was like okay , I'm going to go hike . And it all started with . I was like my very first hike .
It all started during the pandemic , where I live in a tiny apartment downtown Denver , which is great . I can walk to the course field , I can walk to the basketball stadium , I can go to all the bars , restaurants , theaters , I can do everything you want .
And then everything shut down during the pandemic and I'm like , okay , now I'm in a tiny apartment with nowhere to go and the only thing that was open was the outdoors . So I was like I'll give it a shot .
I went out there and I hadn't been in the outdoors in like 10 years and the way the name came was I'm walking up this first hill that's got like a 10% grade or something like that Nothing big , you know , by today's standard , but the first time I'm doing it it was hurting and I sat down on a log and these two little kids come running by me and they're
wearing like flip flops or sandals and crocs and and sipping on Capri Suns and they're literally just running up this trail that I have to sit down because I'm breathing so hard and I just looked and I'm like I'm just a fat man on this little trail right here and that's how it was born , and but you know , I'm a bigger guy and one of the things I want to
do is try to encourage other hefty hikers or unlikely hikers to get out and do it .
One thing about Colorado , where I'm based there's a lot of really in shape people out here and it intimidated me for a long time , like I didn't want to go out and be out of shape and watch these people run up and down the mountain where I'm sitting there leaning against rocks and just , you know , trying to figure out which way is up because I'm breathing so
hard and it kept me off the trails for a long time , and I knew that there was other people out there that was like that as well , and I didn't want them to Dude .
I didn't want them to miss out , because there's so many benefits to being outdoors that I figured that if I could go out there and make a fool of myself but still do it , it would encourage somebody else to get out there and do it too . And I've gotten messages from people saying like hey , man , because you do it , I did it , so that's a great feeling .
I was gonna mention that . I'm pretty sure you've touched a lot of people , inspired a lot of people and continue to inspire .
I hope so . That's the goal is to try to encourage people to get outdoors because it's amazing .
¶ Hiking and the Outdoors Experience
Well , you said you had 7000 to start . Now you're at 20 something , k . I mean , come on , man , you're doing something and something caught on . I don't know what it is , but I think it's the comedy with the realism of size and a lot of people think things . You can't do certain things , but you're doing it .
I would like to think it's my raw sex appeal that brought all the followers on to Instagram , but I don't know that . That's true , yeah , but I'm on a hot streak . I've gained like 20,000 followers in the last month . I started instead of just showing nature because what I realized was I would get to these amazing places .
I'm like no one would believe that I'm here , so I would take video of the place , but nobody realized that I was there . Nobody cared . It wasn't a big deal , because other people have been there , but it wasn't a big deal that a guy over 40 pounds overweight made it to this place .
So , then I was just like well , let's just talk about things on the trail , and that's what I started doing and taking a comedic look at it and hopefully entertaining a few people .
Let me throw you a curveball Right now . When you go on a trail , what's your favorite part of the trail ? There's there , is it ? I noticed the waterfall video that you have . Is it the , the structure , the mountains ? Is it ? You know the smells ? Is it the scenery ? What ? What is it ? What's your favorite part of the being on the trail ?
It's definitely the lunch after .
I do have a story about that , but for me it's kind of just the . I like the seclusion of it , I like the quiet . Like I said , I live downtown Denver , so there's sirens and horns and honking and people yelling and throwing parties all the time , you know .
So Rockies are horrible .
Yes , yeah , well , they , they're horrible , but they still sit off fireworks during home runs that wake me up in the middle of the night . But OK , for me it just gives me a chance to kind of reconnect to myself and just kind of it's all of it .
It's the smells , it's that you know the feeling of like dirt under your foot , it's the views when I get up there . I'm definitely a water guy over a peak guy . I would rather go to an alpine lake than to a 14000 foot peak , because to me that last thousand feet just looks kind of the same . It's all rocky .
And then you get up there and the views are great , but like , if you go to go to a lake , it's kind of like they're all unique , they're all different shape , they all run out , you know , run down to a waterfall .
They have different mosquitoes too .
Yes , yeah , I think the same ones follow me everywhere I go because they're , they're out there and they love me for some reason . I taste sweet , I guess , but that's . But yeah , like it's hard to pinpoint one thing . It's just kind of like in each hike is kind of unique , in in that , you know . But yeah , I definitely , I love it all .
If I had to visit or somebody that's listening , had visit in Denver , what would ? What would the , what trail would you suggest them go on ? And just For , I mean just fall in love with the scenery , the , the hike , the area .
Well , the last two people who came to town and visited me , I took them to the same place , which is really gone . It's on fire right now . Now , it's not literally on fire , it's been on fire before , but right now it's all . The wildflowers are blooming and it's just an amazing place and it's called Silver Dollar Lakes . You hike up to two Alpine Lakes .
You get it to like , you get it to like , feel like you get to about 11,000 feet , but you start at like 10 . So it's not that hard of a hike . It ends up , depending on where you can park , four miles or six miles out and back , and you end up having like three Alpine Lakes that you can see to .
That you actually go to and it just it's in the mountains . It's kind of right under Mount Beersat , which is our most popular fort , tina well , our most used for Tina . I don't know if it's the most popular , but it's closest to Denver , so people love it .
Yeah , it's just it's a beautiful area and it's rocky and then you've got lakes and wildflowers and it's great and it's way overcrowded already . So if everybody goes up there , it'll , it'll help that problem for sure .
My buddy just got done with it and he considers himself fat , Dan the man . He's been on there , he contributes every now and then and a dear friend , but he just did beer stat and his tagline and Instagram or is at is BMI 32 Ultra Runner . So yeah , yeah , yeah . Shout out to Dan and the man so you mentioned when you started .
You started 10 years ago and you did one hike . What got you to do that one hike ?
Embarrassingly enough , it was work . I worked for a TV station and we were trying to do a live shot from the top of a 14er and we had to test it somehow . And at that time I was like I was a gym rat .
I was at the gym all the time and I lost a bunch of weight and I thought I was in great shape and I'm like , okay , I'm going to go climb beer stat for work and see if this works . And I went up there and it took me like five hours and I thought I was going to die .
And that's the first time I realized that gym shape and hiking shape are not the same thing . But the mountains test you in way different ways than dumbbells , it's true . But I made it up and I was pretty excited about it .
And then I really didn't hike again for probably another seven years , eight years , and then three years ago is when I really went gung-ho on this whole the Fat man , little trail stuff . Okay .
So then , let's go there . Then , what got you into the outdoors game ? What got you to be like all right , I'm going to hit this . I'm going to continue to hit this . I've found my stride Sure .
It was after that first couple of hikes during the pandemic , you know , like I said , everything was shut down . So I went outdoors and the first one I did I was like , okay , that's all right , whatever I've got , like you know , 10 issues on and like my work backpack , you know , and like it just not prepared for it at all .
And the second one , I was like , okay , this isn't too bad , let me try it again . And then , by like the third hike , I was like this is amazing . At that time I like I ended up getting laid off from that job right before the pandemic started and so I wasn't working at the time and I was like , you know , the pandemic is stressful for everybody .
Plus , I didn't have a job , you know , and I didn't know what I was doing and it was a really stressful time .
But I went outdoors and I hit the trails and I did a hike , you know , maybe two , three times a week and I realized that I wasn't stressed out , like other people I talked to were stressed out , they were really worried about stuff and I was like everything's going to be okay . I don't know why , but everything's going to be okay .
And once I got that feeling of you know , kind of that calming feeling of being in the outdoors . I realized I just needed that feeling again , so I just kept going . It was almost like a drug at that point where I was like oh , give me more , give me more , give me more .
You know , and Colorado luckily has about seven million trails that you can choose from . Oh , yeah , and I got . I tried to hit as many of them as I could and really learned a lot about myself in that first year . Are you keeping count Somewhat ? So I track it all on my website .
I , I , I , the wonderful people at all trails keep track of all my stats because I , I record all of my stats . I'm closing in on 2000 miles in three years . No thanks , congrats , thank you , and I'm closing .
I may have passed 300,000 feet of elevation gain at this point over the , and I think it's probably two or 300 hikes that I've done over the last few years . So my goal is to hike in every county in Colorado and I'm I'm about two thirds of the way there .
So Okay , so found out your why . What keeps you out there now ? Just the solitude .
Well , yeah , and now I ended up getting a job , so now I only hike weekend , so it's very the opposite of solitude now . And now it's shoulder to shoulder with 10,000 of my closest friends on each trail , it seems like . But it's just that feeling .
It's just getting outdoors , getting away from everything and seeing something beautiful every day and being able to take my brain from work brain and city brain and turning it into , you know , just enjoyable wildflowers , alpine lakes , trees , breeze , sun , you know all of that stuff . It's just that feeling it's . It's kind of like it's probably a dopamine thing .
If I was a doctor , but I've at least said into an altitude threat was definitely not a doctor , but I just feel like there's , there's something about it that just wants me coming back every single time and it's .
You know , I'm to that point now where I was always a city guy and now I'm like , on by Tuesday , I'm thinking about where I'm going to go hike on Saturday , whereas before it was like , oh , let's just hit the bars again . Okay , no big deal , yeah , it's , yeah , yeah .
And now I'm like , well , I'll drive six , six hours and then , you know , we can sleep for like 15 minutes and then we'll do this hike and go to the waterfall and then turn around and be back six hours later , you know . So those are my plans now . It's just the world has changed for me .
Yeah , you caught my eye on that one , like saying a three hour hike , what do I do next ? And I was like just go on to the next one and then the next one , and do you do that , or do you just stay on one hike one day and then maybe possibly do another one on Sunday ?
I am a day hiker , so every hike I've done so far has been a day hike . I'm supposed to go backpacking here in about , or at least camping here in about , three weeks and I'm pretty terrified about that .
So it'll be a fun first camping trip , but one of the things I like I've done a lot of road trips , so what I'll do is I now plan road trips where , like if I'm driving to Salt Lake every two hours , I'm stopping and finding a hike somewhere locally and then back in the car two more hours doing it .
Yeah , but I kind of like around here it's usually like drive hour and a half two hours do a four or five hour hike and then I always go and get lunch afterwards . Part of my website the fat man part of my website is I find a locally owned restaurant near each trailhead .
And I put that on my website as well , and that started in the pandemic too , because I just wanted to let people know what was open at that time man , because a lot of restaurants were closing .
We have similar stories when it comes to what you do and why I started the podcast , so it makes sense . Okay , all right , absolutely .
And I figure if we're going to enjoy and recreate in these small towns , then we should probably support that some small town as well , and I've met some of the coolest people . Like going into a grandma's diner in some small town and you just meet the best people and you have the best time . And greatest food too , and the food is so good .
My doctor doesn't agree , but I love it . That's funny .
So your cluster trail guy you do them in clusters when you do travel .
Well , I'd say it's kind of a cluster , but they're usually like two hours apart , because I just , every time I need to break , instead of stopping on the side of the road and getting a soda or something , I stop and get a trail .
Okay , just a great way to break up the and .
I'm old now I can't be doing these eight hour road trips anymore .
You're funny man , so trail podcasting
¶ From Podcasting to Instagram
. You were a podcaster . What is making you do the content that you're doing on Instagram videos reels , that kind of stuff . What got you into that ?
So all the social media started as a way to help promote my website fatmanlittletrailcom . Look at that for a cheap plug . No , you're good . The website is what I like to do . I love to write , so that's where I try to direct the most people . I do trail reviews on it . I do the restaurant reviews . I do product reviews .
I have a whole section called Getting Started Tips for people who are their first time out on the trail .
Yeah , I saw that yeah .
Yeah , where I interview different experts and things like that . Then I have something called the Fat Man's Ramblings , which are my kind of comedic look at my adventures through the trail , which is fun . That was always my outlet and that was what I did this kind of why I did it and where my creative was for it .
Then I started the Instagram just to promote that and try to bring people back to that . Then I realized over the last month or so I'm like I can put some of the comedy on Instagram too . I don't have to be serious all the time . So I started that and that's when I kind of hit my hot streak here and we'll see how long it lasts . Funny is hard .
You can't do funny too , because if they find out that you copied or anything , then you're irrelevant .
Yes , I don't even watch other people's reels anymore because I don't want to throw anything off for me , but mine are all relatable back to kind of my own experiences .
Then also I think that's going to help with other people's experiences because especially anybody who started for the first time the one I did yesterday was something to the effect of it was like oh , why is it ?
You can hike 12 miles and never see a soul , but as soon as you have to pee it's like Mardi Gras and everybody shows up because that's just relatable to everybody .
I laughed .
Everybody's been out hiking somewhere and they're like , oh , I've got to find a tree . Then , all of a sudden , like a whole school bus full of children , you're like , what are you doing ? Where have you been ? I've been free for 12 hours and now my kidney's failed me , right yeah .
So it's just one of those things where I'm going to hopefully connect to people and again , it's goal is to get people to get back out on the trail or go out for the first time if they've never done it .
Would you ever go back to podcasting ?
If I had a producer I'd definitely do that . I've talked to a couple of people that I know who run nonprofits and stuff and volunteered my services as a host because I love this part of it , I love just sitting around talking to people .
But , like I said , I don't have the behind the scenes stuff of finding guests and getting schedules worked out and doing the research and all that . I just don't have the time for it right now . So I would love to go back to podcasting if I had either a producer or somebody who would help me with some of that stuff .
Okay , besides being a weekend warrior , that's not a bad thing . Do you go out during the week as well and get like ? Cameron Haynes has his mountain ? Where I live , we have a couple mountains and everything else to train on . Do you train on a daily basis , every other day , or you just do everything on the weekend ?
Heck . No , I can't train every day . I might lose weight and then I can't call myself fat man anymore . Really , what I do is like during the week is when I do my writing . Now , so when I wasn't working it was flipped so I would hike for like three or four days during the week and then I would write on the weekends .
But now that I've got my day job , I've started writing at night after work and then I would all just go out and hike during the weekends . I did finally go out on a hike on Monday night of this week and of course I locked my keys in the car and had to wait for a tow truck until about midnight .
That made it kind of was like my karma for not going out in the evening slightly . I forgot how to do this . Yeah , locked the keys in there . So , yeah , I saw that video . Yeah , I just I couldn't win . It was just one of those nights , you know right
¶ Trail Hiking and Overcoming Trolls
right .
So you doing what you do since you started to , have you lost weights , inches , have you slimmed down or you just steadily just stayed the same and enjoy what you do .
Even worse . I have gained weight , but I still enjoy what I do . I think it started with me gaining muscle . And then the restaurant thing I always order a special and it's usually like oh the cheeseburger , yeah and uh .
And the problem is is like when I was doing 14 mile hikes and you could have a triple bacon cheeseburger , but when you're doing like two mile hikes then you probably shouldn't do the triple bacon cheeseburger .
But I've also slowed down a little bit because , like I said , I got the job so I can only hike on weekends now , and during the week I need to be more active , Um , but I'm just so busy with the website and the social medias and all that , but I just haven't gotten into a good routine of of staying active during the week .
Makes for the weekend , Makes the weekends really interesting , because after not doing anything for a week and then you're trying to climb like 3000 feet of elevation and you feel every step of it .
Right . So so for me , all trails . I don't record my stuff . I hate Strava . I hate all trails when they say , hey , record it . I just hate stats in general . One thing that gets me going , though , when I when I'm on all trails how I pick my trails always go for hard and strenuous . How do you pick your trails , or do the trails pick you ?
I do a little bit .
I do a little bit of both , because I do the website and again I'm trying to encourage other people to get out . I do all sorts of trails , so I'll do easy , I'll do moderate , I'll do hard , because I want to be able to have a mix on the website .
The reason I record my hikes is because I actually put my recording onto the website so people you know if you go to all trails . One thing I don't like about all trails is it'll be like , oh , it's four miles and it's you know , we did it in 10 minutes .
And then , like you know , my , my chubby body goes out there and that same four miles is really four and a half and it took me three hours instead of an hour . So people that are looking at my stuff are can compare me maybe better to them .
So but that's that's why I record , but also the reason I do the different varieties because I want somebody to feel comfortable when they go out on the trails and not everybody's comfortable with a hard hike right now .
Right .
You know , and they need the option of being able to do an easier one , and hopefully I show them that those are possible as well and give them a good assortment .
Since your jump and fame popularity on Instagram . What's the number one compliment you've received so far ?
Oh , I don't know . I think a lot of people have told me that I'm a good storyteller . I think I got that one today where I was telling the story of locking my keys in the car but still was laughing during it . So people enjoyed the fact that I could kind of keep a positive attitude towards that . Yeah , mostly it's just about you know .
Hey , you're so funny , you know you're so relatable . I like the relatable one because , again , I told you earlier , a lot of the times when I was bigger and before I started hiking , I was afraid to go out on the trails because I didn't want to embarrass myself .
But now that I'm relatable , you know that means that we're all doing the same thing and we're all going through the same thing , you know . So that one's a fun one . I've gotten some pretty fun insults too , though , you know that's . I feel I'm finally big enough to get trolls . I was like so excited my first time somebody trolled me .
I was like , oh , that's hilarious , thank you ?
Yeah , and one of those things , man with the trolls , I was going to say , before you said anything about the trolls , one thing that will hopefully help you down the road and others my daughter down there , do you hear her ?
I heard her a little bit yeah . And those you're talking to an internet celebrity here . Right , yeah , exactly .
She's , she's , she was a staple of the show . She's hold back though a few , but uh well , you can never judge a book by its cover . There are some Jim Good Rats that are the biggest and best in the weights , but when it comes to cardio or elevation or dirt or anything , you know , they , they , they suck . So , um , I really feel that .
You know , you understand that and the people that you inspire understand that . Hey , you know what . You're out there kicking butt , slay the trail . Don't even worry about what people think .
Man , you know every dog has its day and I tell you what most of the people that are trolling and judging are the ones that are the dog , and they do have their days , more than we do , because that's why they're insecure , they're uncomfortable in their own body and you know what Someone or something is making them go out there and they're not having fun .
If you're not having fun , you're doing it wrong , man .
Exactly , and it's hard to it's hard to troll a guy who calls himself fat man . You know like they think I've already knocked out like 90% of their arsenal against me . So but , like the other day some guy . He wrote on there , I said something about running and he took offense to it and I wasn't .
I was making fun of hikers , I wasn't even making fun of runners . And he was like you know , do you think you're better than me ? And I said no , I don't . I don't think I'm better than you because I don't keep score . I'm out there for me , bro , I don't really care . If you can run 150 miles , good for you .
Like I'm very proud of you , but that doesn't affect me at all . Like I'm going out there for myself , to just have fun , enjoy it and cause I know that it helps my you know mental and physical health . And if you want to run 500 miles a day , go for it , knock yourself out . That's what you want to do . That's not what I want to do .
They're just mad because you thought of it first . They're not creative and they lack creativity , just in in all . So you know , forget the haters , forget the trolls , do what you do , continue to do what you're doing , man .
They don't bother me at all , and in fact you know some of it . It makes me feel good that somebody is so upset because I'm doing something and they're like you shouldn't , you're fat , you shouldn't be able to be on a trail . Yep , guess what I'm out here , you know , and it'll be fun , you know .
So yeah , that's what it is . When you're out there for a day hike five hours or longer , four hours or longer what ? What's your intake ? What's your go to ?
Snack wise .
Yeah , I gotta tell you I've got this new one that I actually met these guys at a couple of trade shows and they're a great team like I think it's husband and wife , I don't know man and woman team , and they make this product called Nakey Butter and it's like it's like peanut butter infused with , like chocolate , and 12 different plant proteins and sold .
Mct oil or something MTC , I don't know . It's like it's extracted from coconuts and it helps you focus and it comes in these little tubes and it's amazing .
I'm gonna check them out .
Hold on one second . If we put this on YouTube , I've got a . I've got a pouch of it right here .
You have me at peanut butter , so that will lead to my next question . Okay , it's upside down . Nope , you had it right the first time I had it right Okay . Yeah , nakey Butter , n-a-k-e-e Butter .
Yeah , it is . It is a delicious snack and can't really read it , but there's a ton of protein in there and that's a really good one . I also am obsessed with white chocolate . Macadamia nuts , cliff bars those are big ones , oh yeah .
Yup , until you eat enough of them . And then they dry your mouth at altitude and then when you try to swallow them without water , it just cut your inner throat . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah yeah . I'm sorry for being so graphic , but cliff bars are good until that happens .
That's how you get altitude throughout right there . Well , that's what I like about the the Nakey Butter is you got your tube and it just you , just squeeze it out and you know it's a nice soft thing to swallow . A lot of times I'm too tired to chew , you know , so I'm just like oh , give me something .
Just a hit in the back of your throat .
Yeah , that is kind of what happened to me with beef jerky . Like I used to bring beef jerky out with me and everybody's like , oh , it's so good protein . I'm like , yeah , but like you got to chew it for like an hour , you're just , you're tired , you're dehydrated .
There's nothing worse than being dehydrated at all and then trying to suck down some beef jerky that is , you know , salty and and cheery , and it's like , yeah , so I learned my lesson on that one .
You mentioned peanut butter , peanut butter jelly sandwiches .
I don't actually not even on the trail . No , the only peanut butter I eat is Nakey Butter now , and it's and it's just because it comes in the tube form and I just I just finished it off like that .
Like a gogur .
It's like a gogurt , but it's so much better .
So no peanut butter jelly sandwiches .
I'm not a peanut butter and jelly sandwich .
And that's one of my stable questions . Can I all right , since you are a funny man , I'll ask you this one , Okay ? Favorite Adam Sandler movie .
Oh favorite , Probably happy Gilmore .
You're sticking to it .
I haven't watched an Adam Sandler movie in quite some time so I did like Mr Deeds , I thought that was good . Ok , I did like him in that uncut gems movie , but I would say like Happy Gilmore kind of hit me in the prime of .
I think I was probably like 21 when that came out , maybe I don't even remember when it came out , but that was one of them that I that I enjoyed . I was more of a Chris Farley guy than Adam Sandler .
All right , all right . Yeah , well , billy Madison should be your one then , because he was the bus driver , the crazy bus driver .
Billy Madison was pretty good .
Yeah , yeah . Ok . So what gets you pumped before an outing , before , before we hit in the trail , what gets you pumped ?
It's . I don't , I don't really I don't need like the hype . You know , I just kind of go , I'm just so excited to be outdoors that I don't , I don't listen to music , I don't really I don't . I don't do anything to hype myself up . I'm just so excited to get there and step out onto the , the dirt and and the grass and just start walking .
You know , I don't do , I don't use anything to really pump myself up . I don't even drink coffee . I'm that guy . So I wake up , I wake up and I have some ice tea and the natural dopamine , like you said . Ok , that's all I need and I hit the . I hit the trails and just get excited .
¶ Trail Preferences and Bucket List Goals
What's the worst part of the trail for you People ?
No , I don't mind people , I don't like , I don't like the crowds but and I like people who respect the trails . That's really important to me . So you know , you see the people that are like playing a speaker .
You got their speaker playing too loud or their you know dogs off leash and you're you know there's moose and mountain lions around and you're like , come on , man , if this hit , this thing comes back at me . But my least favorite part is any time that I walk uphill . As a heavier guy , I don't enjoy the ups , I don't .
I like , I like the flats , I like the downhill . I just don't like going uphill very much . I had a conversation with somebody the other day and I was like how important to you is the workout in your hike ? Yeah , and I'll ask you , I'll ask you , I'll ask you that question how important is it to get a good workout at when you hike ? 100 percent ?
For me it's like 10 percent OK . For me it's getting outdoors , seeing the world , seeing the beautiful nature and if , if I do a hike , that's all work . Like out here in Colorado , especially in like the town of Boulder , colorado , they have all these amazing trails but they're all like workout focused .
I need the view at the end , I need something to pay off the hike . Like if I do a hike and it's like 20 miles and 8000 feet of elevation gain and all you you're in a tree canopy the whole time and you never get to , you know , an overlook or a lake or something like that , it's not a good hike to me .
To me it's got to have something to pay it off at the end . And yeah , so for me it's like I could do it . I could do a 20 mile flat hike and be just as happy as I am . You know an uphill hike that got me that I burned 8000 calories .
It took me a long time to just take it in . Sometimes , you know , actually take a break , smell the roses , as I used to say , or still say . But I would say maybe 99 is the workout , 99 percent is the workout 1 percent , or point zero , nine or point nine is just the scenery .
I've actually stopped in and you know taking pictures , but the reason why I take my pictures is not to show people that I'm doing it , it's actually to get my in-laws the love of the outdoors , you know .
So one's , you know , struggling with cancer right now and the other one is getting too old to do things , you know , and I just try to bring them along with just a snap , snap , snap , snap and that's it . So .
Well , that's really so . I started taking a ton of pictures because I was tired and I was embarrassed . So I would be like look at this great branch . Have you ever seen a branch like that ? Let me take a picture . And I was really just trying to catch my breath . But now I take all the pictures and I put them on my website and it's for again .
It's to let somebody know hey , there's cool things out here . You know you should get off the couch and come see all these things , but yeah , I definitely would . It used to be . My stall tactic is like oh , I have to take a picture of this one blade of grass that no one's ever seen before , because it's shaped like a blade of grass .
But yeah , for sure it's . I don't know , for me it's , it's , it's being out there , though . Yeah , the views are are definitely 100 percent for me .
OK , what's your best mountain range over there Favorite ?
I'd have to say , like the Indian peaks , yeah , the Indian peaks are . I volunteer for a group that we patrol the Indian peaks wilderness , so I've got it . I've got to say that I'll probably get kicked out of the group , but it is one of it is one of my favorites . It's , it's beautiful , there's some great trails around them and all that stuff .
I love getting up to Rocky Mountain as well , but the Indian peaks , I'll say , is my favorite range . The Gora range is also beautiful out and by , like the Breckenridge . So the area is always another one that I enjoy a lot .
No , ok , thank you for that . What's your ultimate goal and the game , what you're doing now ?
My ultimate goal would be to make enough money that I can quit the day job and do this full time and continue to just motivate people to get outdoors . You know , really that's that's what it is for me is . To be outdoors Myself is great , but you know , if I can see somebody else I got outdoors .
That wouldn't have without hearing me or seeing me on Instagram or read my website , I don't know . Each one of those is a lot more valuable than a dollar to be , because it's just so cool that somebody else is trying to do what I found out I could do OK bucket list on social media .
What's your bucket list ? My bucket list on social .
I don't really have a social media bucket list . I got followed by my favorite state park the other day and that was like the coolest thing . Like other people are like , oh , celebrity , celebrity , celebrity . I'm like nope , stoughton State Park followed me Like that's the coolest thing that's ever happened . I don't know , I don't really .
I know like I'm on fire on Instagram right now and I say that facetiously a little bit because I'm not that guy , but I don't really love social media . Like I think it serves a purpose and I love that people are finding me and and they're they're laughing along with me and I hope or I hope they're laughing along and not at me .
But I don't know , like if it all went away tomorrow , like I wouldn't be upset of social media , like just cease to exist and everybody had to go back to reading books one day . But for now , I'm just having a lot of fun with it , trying to try to influence . Not , I know , I just said influence . I feel you are an influencer man .
I know I hate that . I hate it . I'm a content creator .
That's what I'll say . I'll get , I'll get all . I'll get all funds , I'll get all fancy for it . But you're positive , you're not negative .
So , yeah , I try to be positive , I try to , I try to encourage people and I try to have fun with people and , like I said , I've had , I've met some great people through Instagram and you know , that's the , that's the benefit for me . So I don't know if I bucket list now , bucket list like hiking wise . I was going to ask that .
Well , that's the next one , my weird one is I want to get out to the the Redwoods in California . I desperately want to see those . Yeah , I believe it , like I hear about it .
I've done like I went down to point in the Grand Canyon and I thought that was pretty cool and I like maybe I'd go down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon one day would be pretty cool . I haven't been . I went to Yellowstone when I was a little kid Yellowstone in the T tons , probably when I was like seven years old .
Yeah , I haven't , I haven't hiked in there . So I want to get back up to those . Yeah , yeah , I've done a lot in Utah . I've been lucky . I've done a lot of hikes in Utah , a lot of hikes in Colorado , new Mexico , arizona . So I've kind of knocked out a lot of my bucket list already .
But I just kind of want to expand on some of the stuff I've done . It's been fun .
Top of the list never been even tempted . You got it . It's going to be there until you actually do it . What's the top one , number one on your bucket list ? The number one hike , number one ? Anything .
Travel .
It can be . It can be the hike .
I want to go hike in Hawaii . Actually , like one of the things I want to start is Fat man Little Beaches , so in the winters I can go to you know all these beaches and do that . So that would be , that would be high on my list of things to do .
I don't know , the bucket list keeps changing , but I guess , like I'm not into the 14ers totally , so I guess probably it would be to man I don't even know , back door man .
It's right out your back door and I've been to .
I like I love that . I'll be honest , I love 13ers . I do a lot more 13ers than 14ers because there's not as many crowds . And True , tell me , like the last , especially out here , they're ridiculous .
anymore You've got to get to a 14 or like 2 am and you get to a third , you can get to a 13 or like six and there's nobody there and you go up to the top and I think I think a lot of the places that 13ers are have better views . So I do enjoy those . Okay , I would like to . I would like to climb the collegiate peaks .
That that's not going to be an end game bucket list , but that's definitely a top lane line bucket list . So they're beautiful down there .
Last adventure of the summer . Do you have a list of what you're doing this year or season ? Just go with the flow .
I'm about a month out . Usually I'm just a go with the flow guy .
I know I'm doing a camping trip with a good friend of mine in August and that'll be my first camping trip , so that's ever for first , like in a tent , backpacking , in the woods , camping You're going to have a blast as a kid we camped , but like we were like the motorhome people and like the trailer people , so never did like the just straight up camping in
the wilderness where you've got to hide your food from bears . So so I'm excited about that . Oh , let me go back to the bucket list question . Here's the big one that I've always wanted to do . I've always wanted to do . I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights .
I've never , I've never seen them .
So I finally figured out what my bucket list , my number one bucket list thing is .
Okay .
Doing a hike , like at night in Nebraska or Montana or something , and seeing the Northern Lights .
That'd be pretty cool .
Sweet . How about sweet let's . We're living big . Let's dream big .
Yeah , we're almost done so , and I appreciate your time , greg man .
Oh , absolutely .
How long do you see yourself doing this , man ? Just you know creating content .
As long as my body holds up and as long as people want to consume that content that I'm creating .
What about just hiking in general ? Do you see yourself doing it throughout , you know , until you're old and gray and possibly can't walk anymore ?
Um , yeah . Yes , like I said as , long as my body holds up . We'll see how long the body holds up , but I don't think I'll do the hikes I'm doing now , uh , 20 years from now . But I think that I will still be trying to get outdoors as much as I can in 20 years , like I said , because the the exercise portion of it is the least important to me .
I think that I can be doing this and enjoying it when I'm 60 , 70 years old , just , you know , taking a walk in the park , type of thing .
Okay , All right For the , for the people who watch your video real for the first time , right , Mm-hmm , they see you and what you were doing , but afraid to start and don't know how . What would you say to them on how to uh , get started ?
And any words of wisdom , man , just to help them get out of that , that negative thought process that they can't do it , that they're not able to do it because of their size , which I call BS , you know ? Um , but what ? Any words of wisdom that you could tell them , especially the listeners who are thinking about getting out and think they're too big ?
Or , you know , even BMI ultra runner thinks he's too big to do certain things , but he's not , he does it . I make him do it , believe it or not . Damn the man that is . I'm pointing at him and he doesn't know that , but he's going to hear this episode and he's going to thank me . But what can you tell ?
What can you say to the people who deny themselves the freedom of outdoors because of their size ?
Sure , the first thing I'd say is that you define what a hike is . So for you know , for for you , a hike is probably , you know , anything over five miles and everything , anything with like 2000 feet of elevation gain .
But for somebody who's doing it for the very first time , a hike could be walking from their apartment or their house to the park on the end of the corner , and then the next hike is a little bit longer and the next hike is a little bit longer . What's that ?
I think there's a quote somewhere that says the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step .
Yes .
Either that or I just made that up and I'm brilliant , but I think it's probably You're brilliant too , somebody way smarter than me .
¶ Building Confidence and Getting Started Outdoors
The hardest step you take to get into the outdoors is the first step , so you should not absolutely do not start with the hike that your friend said oh , this is easy because it won't be .
Start with a hike that you've researched , that you know can is doable , and and and build your confidence , cause once you start building your confidence , that's when it becomes enjoyable again . The first time you hike , if you go I think a lot of people do that they get outdoors and they're like , okay , I'm going to do this .
And you know we have people they fly in from like Nebraska and they're like I'm going to go climb a 14er and I'm like , no , you should not do that .
And they just overdo it and they end up injuring themselves or they don't , they don't enjoy themselves , they get themselves in a precarious position and I think what they need to do is just take it slow and find that first hike that will build their confidence and then build off of that and check out my getting started guide on my website , which will give them
a lot of tips and tricks on how to do it the right way .
It's almost like a couch to 5k . It is yeah absolutely . And where can people find you on Instagram ?
So you can find me on Instagram at Fat man Little Trail . You can also find me on TikTok , youtube , twitter , facebook at Fat man Little Trail . You can also find me on Fat man Little Trail , the podcast everywhere your favorite podcasts are . They're a little bit old , they're a little dated , but they've been a lot of fun .
And then you can always follow me at the website at FatManLittleTrailcom .
And if they haven't heard or seen of you of any way , they're just living on the rock . I mean , you're everywhere on Instagram , reels , tiktok . You are everywhere I've been seeing it and I apologize for that .
You're seeing my mug all over Instagram . People are probably signing petitions to make me wear a mask or something I don't know .
Nobody wants to see this .
Nobody wants to see this . First thing in the morning , when they're scrolling their feed .
That's funny , yeah , I was going to say .
it's been fun and hopefully people are laughing and enjoying my content .
So , yeah , I'm loving it . So I'm just going to tell them hey , you guys need to reach out and tell them how much he's inspired you , and also this episode , and how he's made you laugh . It's been a serious podcast lately . I've had a couple of serious content adventures here , and this is a breath of fresh air of just comedy . So I appreciate it .
And my last question did I miss anything ? Do you want to add anything ?
I don't think so . I think everybody you know just try to get outside . My motto is screw it , I'm trying , because you know so many times I'd look at it and be like , no , I can't do that . No , I can't do that . Now I'm like , yeah , screw it , I'm trying it and it's made a huge difference in my life .
You know , I've been out and the difference of me four years ago versus me now is I'm like two different people since I found the outdoors . So you can do .
it too , you can do it too Okay . Well , I appreciate your time , man , and I believe , since I didn't even think I would inspire anybody right , like seriously , I didn't think so .
¶ The Power of Inspiration
But the moment you make headway , the moment you think you're not , you are . And then the reports or you know the reviews not the reviews that you know some winky dink person could put on , you know Yelp , or you know on Apple podcast .
But people behind the scenes and Instagram say , hey , man , you inspired me to run more , you inspired me like last year I was walking . Next year , you know , this year I'm running and I'm running two more miles each week and I'm running five Ks . Now . That says enough . That is all I go for , that's all I .
I don't even ask for any of it , but to hear that kind of story , to know where people star or were before they , they heard my podcast , means a lot , and I know you're doing that , so keep doing what you're doing .
I appreciate it , and it is . There's no better feeling than knowing that you helped inspire somebody else to get outdoors right . To get off the couch or even to , you know , just take a walk with a dog or something you know . Like it's , it's all the roses .
Exactly , greg , it's been an honor . Thank you so much . Please stay in touch . I know I will go and continue to laugh on your Instagram page , so thank you .
Thank you so much for having me .