Hiking Humanitarians stop in Crested Butte on way across America

Working with people better than working for people…

This past Monday in Crested Butte was a Labor Day filled with tourists, but one couple passing through town arrived in an unusual manner—by foot. They started the morning by waking up at Emerald Lake, and six days from now hope to be in Leadville. Nine months from now, they expect to be on the east coast of America. And they will walk every step of the way.

Kirk and Cindy Sinclair, known as the Hiking Humanitarians, are hiking from Point Reyes, California, where they started a year-long trek on May 25 to their home in Norfolk, Connecticut. They expect to arrive home May 24 of next year. That is a journey of approximately 5,000 miles or, according to the website thewalkingsite.com, about 10 million steps. But each step has a purpose.
“We are walking to raise awareness for a cause and that is the humanitarian causes of housing, health and hunger,” said Cindy.
“Those are three major problems in this country right now,” explained Kirk, a writer and musician, “and we see a need for people to look at ways to address these problems with people, not necessarily for people.”
The Sinclairs contend that some local communities demonstrate ways to tackle the housing, health and hunger problems but overall, community or civic involvement isn’t that strong in America. They say while volunteerism is on the rise, people rolling up their sleeves to tackle community problems together must be increased.
“That strengthens community,” Kirk said. “We are getting inspired by communities. In fact we just came through Redstone and it is a very vibrant community.”
Sinclair said Redstone was inspiring because it is an unincorporated community and everything is done there on a volunteer basis.
“The people there are paying attention to each other and doing things,” said Cindy.
They cite Locke, California and Antimony, Utah as other communities they have passed through that stand out. He said Locke is aggressively addressing housing issues and utilizing community gardens, while the people in tiny Antimony put in wireless capability at the community center in an effort to assist residents to telecommute and not have to leave the town.
“This is inspiring but it is also a bittersweet journey,” said Kirk. “You meet great people but move along pretty quickly. You hear some wonderful stories, and in fact I can see a book coming out of this journey.”
“People are so nice,” added Cindy. “They have been great.”
“That’s what it’s all about. We are nomads and you see how social people really are,” said Kirk. “We are meeting them under the best of conditions and we have a message we are trying to communicate with them, but the vast majority of people are very helpful.”
Kirk tells the story of walking down the Mt. Crested Butte recreation path and being stopped by a woman with a condo in town. “She could tell we were on a serious hike and asked where we were coming from. That gave us a chance to talk about our project. She was very interested in what we are doing so she asked us to dinner and to stay at her place. It’s great and while that doesn’t happen all the time, it happens quite a bit.”
While on the road, Kirk has lined up speaking engagements at local Lions Clubs and is trying to talk and play music at colleges.
“Young people are idealists,” he said. “If we can reach them at colleges we can tell them how important it is to start doing things with people and not just for people. I used to be a teacher and I can see they are interested in the message.”
The Sinclairs have hiked the Continental Divide and Appalachian Trail. This journey is taking them on the American Discovery Trail. The fit, tanned couple have left their house in Connecticut in the care of their daughter. They carry packs weighing 30 or 40 pounds and both have brimmed ball caps and walking sticks. Kirk shaved his head before starting and now has a full beard and semi-full head of hair.
“This is a four-season journey,” said Kirk. “We started out in California and with the late snows we had some wet feet in California and Nevada. We hit the height of summer in Nevada and Utah. In fact Hanksville was really hot and Kai [the support driver] said Cisco, Utah was 111 degrees. We were looking for anything to get a bit of shade. Now we are here and it is a perfect fall day in the mountains. Soon enough we’ll be heading into the Midwest and it will be winter. We’ll continue with winter hiking. That should be interesting.”
Kai drives around with a white trailer carrying supplies and meets with the couple two or three times a week. In Utah, it was a few times a day to supply them with water and keep them hydrated.
“We’re a good hiking team,” said Cindy. “I look at the flowers and follow him.”
The Sinclairs admitted that when they thought of the idea for the journey, “the economy was bad for us,” said Kirk. “So it was a good time for us to do this. I’m a musician and a writer so this is also a way to build an audience. I did cash in a small retirement account to fund this but we are getting donations along the way and also selling books and CDs and t-shirts.
“We are meeting people face-to-face and they are starting to follow us on our website, hikinghumanitarian.com,” Kirk continued. “There are so many people with stories. We hope to raise their awareness and we are learning new things all the time. But we really want people to realize that while things might seem bad in the areas of housing, health and hunger, community involvement can be an effective means to make things better.”
The Sinclairs were in Crested Butte for Labor Day and were planning on heading up Brush Creek Tuesday morning on their way to Leadville and ultimately the other side of the country—one step and one message at a time.