Hi! I am Chuck, also known as Orange Man. Welcome to The Retired Hiker, a blog about my life in retirement focusing on hiking, long-distance backpacking, and the adventures of Dana (a.k.a. Pitcrew) and Chuck in our Travel Trailer.
I retired after my wife died in 2021 and jumped into hiking and long-distance backpacking as a way deal with what I call “Life Part II”. I have thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and have a multi-year plan for the Pacific Crest Trail, the Colorado Trail, and numerous other long-distance trails.
As a reward to myself for completing the Appalachian Trail, we purchased a Travel Trailer in late 2024. I base out of the trailer on short multi-day hiking trips. Dana and I take the trailer on long weekends and week-long regional trips. Our plan is to tour the country in the trailer once Dana retires in a few more years.
Until a that time, I plan to do as many long-distance hikes as I can manage while not completely abandoning Dana for the trail! Hence our blog’s tagline “Side Trials of Retirement Bliss”.
Recent Trail Journals
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More burn area, PCT halfway point, loosing the trail , and a hitch into Chester California.
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Burn area, butterflies, and the 1300 mile mark!
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Down into Beldon and waaay up into the Cascade Mountain Range.
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Into the Dixie Fire burn area for the next week.
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Zero day in Quincy and a visit with Brad.
Recent Blog Entries
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After my wife died in 2021, I had to deal with that whole “mortality” thing and I did not like what I was seeing. I hadn’t done any exercise in 6 years and I got winded walking up one flight of stairs. I looked back on the past 30 years and realized that I had a lot of regrets. Add to all that the trauma of loosing my partner of 35 years and general depression around trying to figure out what the hell do I do with my life, and I decided that I needed to make some major changes. […]