Doug Walsh began his personal journey as a long distance hiker one day in 1987 when he was bored. He happened to pick up a book, "The High Adventure of Eric Ryback", an account of the first ever "thru-hike" of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. After studying other books on how to survive in the wilderness, Doug began purchasing gear and was ready to tackle his first long distance hike of 300 miles. He started the hike with 72 pounds of gear, lots of granola and 10 pounds of hiking boots. He lasted 3 days.

Doug has literally "come a long way" on foot since that early hike. He’s climbed the 100 highest peaks in Colorado, and in 2001, he completed the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) on a raw foods diet. On April 22, 2005, Doug will begin hiking one of the most difficult long distance trails in America, the 3,000-mile Continental Divide Trail. His diet will consist exclusively of 100% raw plant-based foods.

Doug says his goal is "to become a healthy cell in the body of the Earth". He believes that immersing oneself in the natural world is an important key to discovering one’s soul path. Doug also believes that eating foods still alive with the earth’s healing energy is a homeopathic remedy that supports this process. Doug plans to enroll in a program at Naropa University in Boulder, CO; where he will study for a degree in transpersonal psychology with a concentration in eco-psychology. He intends to use those credentials, along with his qualifications as an experienced hiker, backpacker, guide, and facilitator to help others discover and actualize the gift they came to this planet to give.

We interviewed Doug about his long-term goals, his commitment to eating raw foods and his experiences in hiking long distance trails.

"I’ve realized that a long distance hike is where I experience the strongest metaphor for my life. Walking along a trail for many miles, I stay in the present moment and am thus able to be successful with my goals. Everything in nature is in the flow of life, and it’s magical. I want to help others experience the transformative power of nature and how it can help us discover our soul purpose."

There are emotional ups and downs in life and there are highs and lows on the trail. Through it all, you just keep walking, one step at a time, in the direction your heart wants to go. The obstacles that come up on the trail allow me to practice keeping my attention focused on my goals. Life in the modern world offers us many distractions that tend to pull us away from focusing on our heartfelt goals. The simple life on a trail in nature allows me to practice focusing on my goals, to live life with intention, one step at a time, and that is incredibly powerful."

For me, it was a natural progression. I’ve always been fascinated by nature, so eating as close to nature as possible just made sense. I had some health problems in college, and when I read Diet for a New America in the 80’s, I became a vegan. After I read Conscious Eating by Dr. Gabriel Cousins, raw foods made sense as a way to eat even closer to the Earth. I became a raw foodist in 1996 and haven’t looked back.

I’ve always felt happiest and most fully alive when I am in nature. Eating raw foods enhances those feelings. It such a gift to be out in nature surrounded by the healing energy of the Earth, while eating foods that are still full of this energy as well. Before I started eating raw foods, I noticed that the feeling of well-being and bliss I had out in nature would slip away when I re-entered "civilization". Now that I eat raw foods all the time, I find it is easier for me to maintain my equilibrium when I go back out into the world. It’s like I get to partake in the healing energy of nature every time I eat a meal. Although eating raw food is an enormous support for experiencing joy in my life, however, I find that eating raw food will not produce happiness if I’m not also following my heart and making courageous decisions in my life.

The minutiae: all the details that need to be covered to make it all work. If you eat cooked foods, especially convenience foods, you can easily go into tiny towns and buy tortillas, peanut butter and cheese- but to do the hike eating 100% raw vegan foods, you need to receive shipments of organic, raw foods regularly. I literally figure out how much mileage I will cover each day and then how much food I will need for each section of the trail.

I lived a very simple lifestyle for several years and sold most of my possessions. I had a very small apartment and found a job that suited me in the produce dept of health food store. I made decent money, received free produce when it was available and was able to save about $5,000.

My favorite trail meal is raw pizza- I carry a dehydrated crust and sun dried tomato powder. I add water, garlic, oregano and salt to the sun dried tomato powder, then I make a ‘cheese’ pate of soaked sunflower seeds in my magic baby food grinder. I add dulse for a salty taste. What a treat!

When I tell people what I ate on the trail, they just don’t believe me. I ate the same thing everyday for months and never tired of it: almonds and dates for breakfast, figs and almonds for lunch, nori rolls with sunflower pate for dinner, and for a special treat I made pizza. Raw foods nourish the body much more effectively than cooked food, and satisfy the desire to eat tasty food at the same time. Cooking food destroys many on the nutrients in the food, and therefore the body will crave variety and demand a tremendous volume of food in an attempt to get the nutrients it’s lacking. Cooked foods also take more energy to digest, so a thru-hiker has less energy to devote to hiking.

Definitely the green superfoods like spirulina and Vitamineral green from Healthforce Nutritionals. These foods contain the minerals that keep my body tuned up (alkaline) when exercising hard. When I eat superfoods, I don’t get food cravings or dizziness and I am able to maintain stamina between meals. I used to have problems with my pancreas; I was slightly hypoglycemic. I have absolutely no blood sugar issues since I started eating raw foods.

I eat about 3,000 calories a day. The amazing thing is that hikers eating a "normal" diet eat about 6-7,000 calories a day and still lose 20 or 30 pounds on a long hike. I’ve seen some hikers eat a half-gallon of ice cream at one sitting in order to replenish lost calories. On raw foods, I ate far fewer calories than most hikers and yet I lost only about 5 pounds on the PCT hike. A body nourished on raw foods is simply more efficient. Also, some hikers ‘crash’ after extended periods of hiking-their bodies aren’t getting the nutrition they need to keep going, but I just kept getting stronger and stronger. I hiked 42 miles one day, and felt a little fatigued, but I got up the next morning and started hiking again and hiked another full day.

Of course, I get stressed sometimes. Different weather systems come in. If it’s snowing, I wonder if I’ll be socked in, or how my tent will withstand heavy winds, am I too high so that I’ll be vulnerable to lightning, is that animal walking towards me in the dusk really a dangerous bear? But since I feel connected when I am in nature I am able to deal with fear as an emotional response to a thought that I am focusing my attention on. I am able to change the thought to relieve the fear. It is really practice for the rest of my life; a mind mastery training course. Fear helps me step back and become an observer, a watcher of my thoughts and feelings. It may take days for me to shift my thought patterns, but it helps me realize that I am in control of what I’m doing with my life. I really do believe we create our reality with our thoughts. I know it’s important to focus on thoughts that bring us joy. Of course there is a difference between our imaginary fears and the real fear we experience when we are physically threatened-then we are completely in fight or flight-our adrenals are working at heightened capacity. One time there was a bear on the trail, and my body automatically responded with lightning speed. I started hitting my two ski poles together and the jarring metal noise made him run away.

Some days I want to linger at a beautiful spot, but since I am traveling in a temperate zone I need to make good time in order to avoid the snow season. Sometimes the aloneness is hard, because you want to share the soulful experience in nature with another person.

Being in nature alone is where I’ve discovered who I am and what I came to this world to do. I want to connect with the rest of the world-to be both of service to humanity and a part of the bigger picture. I know it’s time to share the gifts I’ve received from my solitary time in nature.

There are two websites that I am familiar with: www.organicathlete.com a website for vegan and raw athletes, and Doug Graham’s website, www.foodnsport.com

I heard this phrase one time: "Your calling is where the world’s hunger and your joy meet." When you give the gift you were meant to give, you absolutely love doing it …it is an effortless, joyful experience. Being of service is not a burden, but the deepest joy we can experience.

My ultimate vision is to create my own program to bring people out into nature so that they can have a truly life-changing experience. An experience where people begin to tune in to what it is they came here to do-to what is in their heart. I can’t climb the mountain for them, but I can help people feel more alive, both with the experience of being in nature and with the experience of eating the food directly from nature.

I also know that our struggles are a clue to where our gifts lie. I know all about not following my heart and having to deal with the negative emotions that come up when I block myself from my soul path. I know that my personal struggles have allowed me to feel very compassionate towards others while they are on their journey to wholeness and right livelihood.

Going deep into nature promotes an extraordinary opportunity to learn what you are meant to do with your life. As you start to spend large amounts of time out in nature and eat more raw foods, you get charged with Life Energy. This Life Energy makes your feelings more intense, and you thus start to feel more and more uncomfortable if you’re not following your path and making courageous decisions. Aligning with your true purpose is the natural outcome of this process.