Author Jeff Alt discusses his adventure hiking the Appalachian Trail and his new series of books about the national parks aimed at children.
Staying in Contact with London Mitchell
Guest: Jeff Ault, Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone
Staying in contact, I'm London Mitchell. My guest today is author Jeff Alt, whose roots are in the Toledo area. I met Jeff about 20 years ago what he hiked the entire 2,160 mile length of the Appalachian Trail as a he did it as a fundraiser and promotional campaign for Sunshine Communities. Sunshine's annual walk, run and roll promotion draws its inspiration from Jeff's adventure. The adventure hiking the Appalachian Trail resulted in Jeff's first book, the award winning a walk for Sunshine. And let's face it Jeff, hiking the Appalachian Trail is just not for everyone. It was a boyhood dream of mine and after hiking and camping with my family in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. And as I started to realize I could do this and I had a window of time to do this I couldn't think past my brother Aaron who was born with cerebral palsy and is cared for by Sunshine Communities in Mommy Ohio and I decided to dedicate my journey to him and unbeknownst to me that turned out to be the biggest inspiration that kept me going all the way through. So this was a fundraiser or you were hiking the trail just to call attention to Sunshine? Yeah and what originally I thought you know I want to I want to share my journey with my brother that's how this started and I shared the idea with at the time the director Douglas Sibidaller at Sunshine and we panned out a fundraiser. So in my mind okay this is a one-time event you know as I walk along we're gonna use the publicity we were getting from my journey because it was well publicized and and educate folks about the need Sunshine has along the way but it it turned out to be an annual charity that went on for 26 years. You wrote a book about it I've read the book the audio version is one of my favorites but that was your first book. That was yes but it wasn't your last so I know spurred what a secondary career for you? It sort of has it's it's funny you never know when one door closes another one opens and one journey ends and new one begins right and the my first book has done so well it's still in print today it's in its fifth edition it's sold over a hundred thousand copies and I continue to get bookings to go publicly speak do keynotes and things like that but I pitched the idea based on a dream of mine I wanted to reach out to the youth to help inspire them to get out get you know enjoy the words realize the power of nature and I realized that you need to do this young before we get so ingrained in our our routines that we don't realize you know the potential there so in the middle grade ages is a key age where kids are learning in school about national parks and I thought you know if I could tie in some cool fun facts and stories about some of my favorite parks and some of the most popular ones this could help families and kids become inspired so I pitched the idea to my publisher about writing a book series called The Adventures of Bubba Jones a time travel book series which is really historic fiction so everything's real except the characters are fiction so everything you're learning about it is fact-vetted by each park and lo and behold the first one came out 2015 that that's sold I think seven thousand units to date and then we went on and did the second one in Shenandoah then Acadia in Maine and then out to Grand Canyon and then my latest book just released this past year is based in Yellowstone so it's been wonderful you've got me intrigued I'd like you say they're books for children but I'm intrigued I'd like to read one you know and that that's the funny thing I would caught me off guard a little bit was well a lot of grown-ups love history and I noticed what I do based on the books is I'll do living history talks and walks in each park and I started to notice that there seems to be a lot of adults without children here and and so I'll embellish characters from the past when I'm explaining them like holding up a pretend mustache or putting on a fedora hat or what have you and that just helps engage not only children but adults too and they get they get a kick out of my impersonations and so it's growing now and so yeah it's it's been a fun fun journey to move forward with and the books are available where anywhere books are sold the Amazon Barnes and Noble all of that yeah so there the cool thing is you don't have to read all five books to follow the story we realized on book one that these are probably gonna place and gift shops in the national parks and you don't want to have to go to six parks just to follow the story so we I front-load the the background story in each book so you can pick up the book about Yellowstone or the book about the Smokies and and I did that so you could help build excitement before you go with your family on an adventure to that specific park and so it and I'm glad I did that because some people read book one and then book five but skip the middle three and or they're reading as they go to each park with a lot of people so let me ask you Jeff when you're putting these books together or you're thinking in your head about getting out and and having children experience the out of doors you're not you're not pushing children in middle school to start walking the Appalachian Trail but it's just to get out there and and experience something yeah I I focus on the fun exciting adventure aspect of the outdoors because that at that age that's what kids that's what motivates kids so if something looks exciting you want to do it you want to witness it experience it and I learned that if you just take that first step out there then that plants the seed and it did for me so just getting that first experience in and making it fun so you do so it wasn't a harrowing disaster it was actually really fun you learned all these cool things you were with your family your building memories and and so to me it it's a warm place in my heart and and if you're passionate about something you know you can look past like the cold weather or the rain or whatever you may experience and you're gonna remember the fun times so so part of this series has been my own boyhood experience mixed in which which helps with the fictional characters in the book series so you've got a grandfather like me who has a grandson who is just turning 13 okay I want to get him out there to experience the out of doors walk me through how I can make it exciting for him even though we're just going to one of the metro parks so age 13 that that's an age where you're into social like interacting with other folks you may want to allow him to bring his friend or whoever you want to give him some athletic leeway freedom of sorts because that's the beauty of nature is it's the one it's the one place in society where you know you you're out there you're you're you're at one you don't have to worry about traffic and things like that let them go ahead to the next trail crossing it helps build confidence hey I led this up and you just agree to meet up at certain points so you don't he doesn't get lost but at that intersection wait for me there go do your adventure you know it's a great time to talk and walk a lot of people see more relaxed when they're out in nature there this is proof positive - is we get tend to be more creative they say a 90 minute walk in nature can help prevent depression I mean there's so many powerful things that I knew as an Appalachian hiker but now the scientists are proving it through studies that that is so powerful but but just making it fun there were like hey let's let's take a walk or let's go on an adventure I always use the word adventure that way walk sounds laborious and then hey let's go to lunch afterwards so they know there's a reward at the end you know food food's very rewarding to most of us so yeah that sounds like like fun and I think especially living in the greater Toledo area we have these beautiful metro parks just everywhere that beckon you to commit and and experience the out of doors yes you know and growing up Wildwood Preserve was one of my favorites and there's some preserved history right in there with this the old Strandahan mansion and there's history in every park and that's what my book series brings out as well and if you can bring that back to life like imagine what it was like you know and that makes it more intriguing and fun too and then you forget you're even walking you're you're could because you're learning something new you don't even realize that you're actually getting getting a workout in is it okay to call you wrong foot sure there's a lot of people that only know me to this day is wrong foot which was my trail name based on a pretty painful experience but turned up to be a humorous situation in the end so yeah you were wearing the wrong inserts to your boots when you started on the trail I put him in the wrong boots thought I'd give him a try the arch supports around the exterior instead of the interior where there should be couldn't figure out why I'm getting all these blisters and come to find out I discovered my air but the damage was done I had I had a half dozen blisters on each foot one just once painful you know and so I was putting the this moleskin which helps prevent blisters on each blister I went through the whole pack in less than a couple hours I ended up wrapping my feet in duct tape and then I'm taking ibuprofen for the pain Wow but once I realized what the problem wasn't corrected the air it was much more relieving and but the damage was done so I gave myself the name wrong foot to remind myself to laugh and it turned out humor was probably one of the most powerful ways of getting through grim situations out there and and self-deprecating humor laughing at yourself and I did that almost daily to this day I do that now was it definitely a proven lesson when you're in a tough situation yeah yeah it it really is good to have that that sense of humor about yourself don't take yourself too seriously I understand yeah so tell me Jeff what's what's next another book another adventure on a trail yeah so book six is in the pre-planning stage we have one more one more in my contract right now I just returned from Yellowstone with my publishers so we're it's kind of fun we're actually going back to these parks revisiting them to gather and not only are we promoting books but we're doing living history talks where you know in some of the parks and I really enjoy doing that so it's more than a book series it's it's it's a whole adventure and experience so the as of late that's what we're doing right now the man is Jeff Alt his books are available on Amazon it Barnes and Noble and you mentioned even at the parks yes select parks I do a lot of book signings and events like Great Smokey Mountain National Park Acadia, Shenandoah and we're working on getting the books into the stores out west as well now you're from the Toledo area but right now you're living where I'm currently in a little town Lebanon Ohio I know the town well do you okay yeah really neat little full of history here that I can walk up town from where I live many of visits to the Golden Lamb yeah that's a great hotel good food I I entertain lots of visiting family there yes yeah a ghost or two in that building so they say yes I was like you've you've taken the tour well if you're back in the neighborhood hearing again you have to look me up in advance and show you around a little bit more we will do that we will do that Jeff thanks for spending some time with us this morning really appreciate it thanks for having me out I'm gonna appreciate it all right we will stay in touch yes sounds good Jeff Alt learn more about Jeff and his books at JeffAlt.com I'm London Mitchell inviting you to join us again next week as we continue staying in contact previous episodes of staying in contact with London Mitchell 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