Announcement of my intentions for an awesome adventure.

[Curtis]

Ha, perhaps it is still too soon to really 'announce' this seeing as it's 18 months away, but i'm tired of thinking about it and i'd rather talk about it.

Anyhow, in March of 2013 I plan on stepping foot on the Appalachian Trail ontop of Springer Mountain in Georgia and hiking northbound to Mount Katahdin in Maine. This is a 2,100+ mile hike that will last 5 to 6 months and take me through 14 states and 8 national forests. It's still a long way away but i'm already getting myself pumped up about it.

Now, as a web-based business owner it will be an interesting journey as I still plan on packing along a 'mobile office', if you will. Within 18 months things at Surmounted will be at a point where my presence can be lessened to the degree of me checking in as i'm able to.

For what it is worth, 'Surmounted' (the name of my company) is defined as:

1. To overcome (an obstacle, for example); conquer.
2. To ascend to the top of; climb.
3. a.) To place something above
   b.) To be above or on top of: The church steeple surmounts the square.
4. To surpass or exceed in amount.

I don't just want a brand by that name. I want to live, I want to do it. In regards to our brand image, it certainly can't hurt

Why does this matter? Why should you care? Well, I think it may very well be a quite interesting journey to follow. I plan on taking pictures and blogging along the way, bringing technology into the wilderness; my two favorite things.

I'm interesting in learning how I can obtain some sort of 'sponsorships' for this. Ideally I would like to raise $1 per mile I hike to help fund young entrepreneur's business start-ups by hosting some sort of contest afterwards. I'd like there to be a cash prize for startup funding, but also other products/services involved to help contribute to successful startups for several of the winners. The more attention this gets, the more likely I could do something of that nature.

I'd like to do something positive for myself by going on this journey, and would like to give something to others as well. My reward will simply be the sunrise and sunset everyday and the satisfaction of hiking my own hike. I'd like to keep everyone 'in the loop' as I do this, including my friends, family, online acquaintances, customers, staff, our upstream providers, and businessmen (and businesswomen) alike by maintaining an active photoblog, tweeting, and I would ideally like to host some sort of Q&A at some point through the trip either via a live-stream (depending on internet availability) or text based where those I mentioned above can ask me questions and I can answer them.

The more interest I can create in this the more motivation i'll have to successfully complete it.

Questions? Feel free to ask. I'll just list a few facts below:

--I will be sleeping in a tent, however there are 'shelters' (more or less) spread out on the trail about a days hike between each other. I don't want to stay in critter infested smelly shelters.
--There are bears, though they know not to mess with humans. Humans are dominant on the trail and bears will only approach you to attempt to obtain the food in your backpack. (Which is why you hang your food in bearbags high off the ground)
--Small towns border the trail throughout it's length every 30-50 miles or so. There is only one point where you can not access a town for over 100 miles, so therefore I would bring 10 days worth of food with me before trekking that section. In these towns i'll have access to post offices, electricity, hot food, communications and the supplies needed to continue on.
--It takes most people 4-6 months to hike the trail. I suspect this will be the same for me.
--If I successfully complete the trail, it would not surprise me if I decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington at 2,600+ miles in 2014.

Please, follow me on Twitter with the link below in my signature. It's still a long way away, but i'd like to spark up some interest sooner than later.

[JacobPenn]

That sounds like so much fun. I would not hesitate to keep up to date with a photo blog and your tweets while on this adventure. I like how you can incorporate your adventure into the brand and vise versa. This is actually a good example of how the brand is you.

As for the Q&A idea, I would encourage. Personally, I can think of many questions I would ask (and that's just off the top of my head). Hopefully the anticipation and excitement isn't too unbearable for the next 18 months, Jacob Penn.

[Curtis]

Thanks! I'm really pumped about this. I love being outside and in nature, will be a great experience for sure. Meanwhile i'll have plenty of time to thoroughly think-out what is next. You can bet i'll be carrying a small notebook/pen to jot down thoughts as I they occur to me.

[lilc800]

So you gonna hike for 5-6 months.. You gotta be kidding.. I mean that's a long time ..

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by lilc800

So you gonna hike for 5-6 months.. You gotta be kidding.. I mean that's a long time ..

I love being outside, I love hiking, I love camping. These are things I can't really do much anymore, so i'll enjoy every day of it.

One thing I don't talk much about on here is my love for self-sustainability and some of my future plans in life. I'm not conventional by any means. I do what I do now more or less as a building block to do what I really want to do with my life. Which is to build a small self-sustainable earth-friendly home by myself on some acreage that's located off the beaten path, and living within my means by working for myself and providing for myself. My goals in life aren't to have a the biggest house in the neighborhood, I don't even want to be in the neighborhood. I just want some acreage paid for, a small self-built and energy efficient home paid for and a cheap car paid for. After that, I can just live easily within my means while having all the time in the world to work on my business and do the things I want to do.

I'm 23 now, i'll be 24 when I start this and i'll turn 25 on the trail. I can't really think of a better time in my life to do this. My company will have matured much more than it has already and will function swimmingly without my constant 'being there'. When I return I believe I will be ready to really turn things up a notch and take it even further, to the next level. Being on the trail will allow me to, hopefully anyway, SAVE a lot of money. I'll be living as cheaply as you can. When I return from the trail, i'll be putting that to good use

[Sterlingenuine]

This is intriguing. I watched a video kind of like this but the difference was the guy (Benjamin Jenks) was hitch hiking across the USA. I love projects like that and yours definitely peaks my interest. Plus the fact that your super excited and it's 18 months away, the ideas are endless really. Honestly, one thing I have learned from social networking is that theres thousands of people just like me. You just got to get creative and find them.

Here are some of my ideas:
1. Create video journals, leading up to your big day. You said your excited about this, get others excited with you.
2. Maybe create a challenge or something people can do along with you.
3. Get the media in your hometown stirred up. They like when young people or when anyone does something extraordinary. Work outwards from there. target media outlets of the towns or cities you will be hiking through.
4. Maybe make a daily video journal while you're hiking. You could release it during or after the hike.
5. Target companies like Arizona Green Tea or companies like that. Companies that are into health and nature and have a huge following of teen and young adults.
6. Maybe even create a whole campaign out of this and sponsors will find you. I don't know if you have heard of the "Where the Hell Is Matt" videos but the guy traveled to 40+ different countries and danced. People caught on and that video, now, has almost 40,000,000 views.

I mean all of this will just full your fire for your Pacific Crest Trail hike.
I think the ideas are endless and you have 18 months.

[lilc800]

Originally Posted by Curtis

I love being outside, I love hiking, I love camping. These are things I can't really do much anymore, so i'll enjoy every day of it.

One thing I don't talk much about on here is my love for self-sustainability and some of my future plans in life. I'm not conventional by any means. I do what I do now more or less as a building block to do what I really want to do with my life. Which is to build a small self-sustainable earth-friendly home by myself on some acreage that's located off the beaten path, and living within my means by working for myself and providing for myself. My goals in life aren't to have a the biggest house in the neighborhood, I don't even want to be in the neighborhood. I just want some acreage paid for, a small self-built and energy efficient home paid for and a cheap car paid for. After that, I can just live easily within my means while having all the time in the world to work on my business and do the things I want to do.

I'm 23 now, i'll be 24 when I start this and i'll turn 25 on the trail. I can't really think of a better time in my life to do this. My company will have matured much more than it has already and will function swimmingly without my constant 'being there'. When I return I believe I will be ready to really turn things up a notch and take it even further, to the next level. Being on the trail will allow me to, hopefully anyway, SAVE a lot of money. I'll be living as cheaply as you can. When I return from the trail, i'll be putting that to good use

I would like to watch that.. It would be cool if you could get a reality TV show I think it would be interesting to watch you do something like that.. But as we know Reality TV isn't all reality so they are most likely gonna throw something crazy in there

[jkaykin]

To raise some money, you could try indiegogo or kickstarter.com

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by Sterlingenuine

This is intriguing. I watched a video kind of like this but the difference was the guy (Benjamin Jenks) was hitch hiking across the USA.

Haha, awesome video. A good friend of mine actually did this too, going from Indiana to Florida, then making his way to California then to Nevada where I flew out and worked on a business for a bit. Though i've picked hitchhikers up, I'd be kind of afraid to actually hitch hike, haha.

Originally Posted by Sterlingenuine

Here are some of my ideas:
1. Create video journals, leading up to your big day. You said your excited about this, get others excited with you.
2. Maybe create a challenge or something people can do along with you.
3. Get the media in your hometown stirred up. They like when young people or when anyone does something extraordinary. Work outwards from there. target media outlets of the towns or cities you will be hiking through.
4. Maybe make a daily video journal while you're hiking. You could release it during or after the hike.
5. Target companies like Arizona Green Tea or companies like that. Companies that are into health and nature and have a huge following of teen and young adults.
All great ideas, i'll comment on them individually.

1.) This is something I've considered, but it'd likely only be one video with a lot of effort put into it as opposed to multiple videos. But we'll see, still a lot of time to plan.

2.) Hmm, i'd have to think of something everyone could do.

3.) Good idea, I never really thought about this. Thing is, I don't live in my hometown anymore and where I do live I'm not sure the paper would care. But, we'll see. The more people I have behind this the better.

4.) I do plan on keeping an active photo/video/text based blog, but i'll be restricted in my ability to keep things charged so I doubt it'll be updated daily. Weekly at best

5.) I love Arizona Green Tea, if they want to sponsor this that'd be awesome. When I know exactly what i'm doing i'll have to attempt contact.

Originally Posted by Sterlingenuine

"Where the Hell Is Matt" videos but the guy traveled to 40+ different countries and danced. People caught on and that video, now, has almost 40,000,000 views.

I mean all of this will just full your fire for your Pacific Crest Trail hike.
I think the ideas are endless and you have 18 months.

Cool video, I checked out his site and I wish I knew how much all that cost him before Stride came into the picture. Lucky lucky guy to be able to travel like that.

Originally Posted by lilc800

I would like to watch that.. It would be cool if you could get a reality TV show I think it would be interesting to watch you do something like that.. But as we know Reality TV isn't all reality so they are most likely gonna throw something crazy in there

I'll certainly have some viewable media but probably won't do anything that serious. Probably just a short 5minute video or so released once a week. And "reality tv" is mostly not all that real like you've mentioned.

Originally Posted by jkaykin

To raise some money, you could try indiegogo or kickstarter.com

Thanks, i'll check those sites out now!

[meel]

that's awesome man! i live ~10-20 min away from a few entry points to the appalachian trail, and i've hiked small portions of it. i don't think i'd ever be able to do the whole thing though hahaha