Man with local connections stops in Malad on cross country walk

Matt Bassett walked into town last week, which is usually a pretty innocuous figure of speech.  In this case, it’s quite literal, and one of the rules of the journey he currently finds himself making.  After many years of success in auto sales, and then some time pursuing degrees in Anthropology from ASU and Johns Hopkins, Bassett decided he wanted to try slowing things down and seeing things from a completely different perspective.

For most people, that might involve a two week trip to a tropical island, or at least a few days in Island Park.  For Matt, it meant selling almost everything he owned, buying a jogging stroller for only the most urgent necessities, and committing to walking across the United States with an unbroken footprint from the coast of Oregon to shores of the Carolinas.  By the time he reached Malad last Friday, Matt had completed just under 950 miles of his overall journey of over three thousand.  

“The change in people from Oregon to Idaho was night and day,”  Bassett says.  In his experience, people from Idaho have been extremely generous and helpful.  He tells the story of one man who followed after him outside of Malta.   “I was walking along in the literal middle of nowhere, and I noticed a guy coming up behind me,” Bassett says.  Unsure what the man wanted, Bassett kept walking and the man kept pace.  “There aren’t a lot of reasons someone would be out there in that place, and so eventually I know he was after me.  I got my bear spray ready and turned to him and asked ‘What do you want?’”  It turned out that the young man had been sent by his father after the two had seen Bassett walk past earlier.  He handed him a bag of bottled water and some MREs.  

“That is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me,” Bassett told him, and handed the sweating man one of the waters before taking a picture for Instagram with him.  He’s had similar exchanges with many people as he has made his way east.  Even the one woman in Pleasantview who interrogated him from her porch about what he was up to as he walked down the highway started following his Instagram page soon after.  While I spoke with him in Wendi Blaisdell’s living room he received a call from someone at the IRS.  It turns out that selling everything you own and walking across the country counts as an unusual life event from an official perspective.  In any case, by the time he was done on the phone, the IRS agent had started following his Instagram too.  “It happens every day,” he laughs.

While he hasn’t had any negative experiences to speak of yet outside the predictable weather and insect related things, he still has a majority of the journey ahead of him, and it will take him to places he is not very familiar with.  He is hopeful that people will remain as kind as they have been so far.  “The news makes it seem like everyone is constantly up in arms about everything all the time,” he says.  “But it’s not like that for anyone I’ve met.  No one is out there talking about politics on the side of the road.”  

Bassett admits that it might also be the result of his changed perspective.  As a successful businessman and then an accomplished academic, he has spent the majority of his life in the relatively fast-paced worlds of result-oriented action. When the main desired result is getting to point B before it gets too dark, the dynamics of the situation are humbler in complexity, but just as essential.  “When you’re going along at 2-3 miles an hour, things are just different.  You really see some cool things,” he says.

And while there are mostly positives along the track, there are of course also some less positive things to contend with.  “There are two things out on the road that are the most dangerous,” Bassett says, and in his experience it hasn’t been serial killers or wildfires or quicksand.  “Dogs—a lot of people don’t keep them contained, and I’m a walking target.  And way more dangerous, drivers who are texting.  I can’t tell you how many times people have looked up and swerved.”

Matt planned his route based on a number of factors, but once he makes it past the friends and family he wanted to see in Idaho and Utah, the route is TBD as conditions develop.  The only fixed point is Big River Crossing in Memphis, Tennessee.  That happens to be the only spot in the country where it is possible to walk across the Mississippi river on foot.  Bassett is absolutely committed to being able to say that his entire trip was an unbroken footpath from coast to coast.  As a result, he refuses rides except while at a stopover, and begins his daily trip at the same spot he ended the day before.  This requires him to sometimes have to backtrack in order to keep righteous with the system.

Originally, Bassett had planned for a trip that would end in February of next year.  This was based on his original plan to walk 15 miles a day and take a day off each week.  As he has progressed, though, he has increased his distance to around 20 miles a day and decided to give up the day off.  Under these conditions, he should be reaching the east coast sometime around Christmas Eve, although the date is not locked in.

So far, Bassett has lost 13 or so pounds, and has found getting enough calories to offset the thousands a day he is burning somewhat of a challenge.  Staying hydrated is of course an even more pressing challenge.  He has many stories about people all over the west who have flagged him down or walked alongside him long enough to offer water.  One time, a line worker came down off a power pole to give him some cold water bottles.  Another time, he was stopped by a man in an old truck who could speak any English but managed to convey that he wished him luck and gave him cold water for the road. 

While the routes are for the most part populated enough that he is within reasonable proximity to aid, and his phone and GPS are able to get signals most of the time, the unexpected generosity of passersby with water and other comforts is appreciated.  Bassett is limited to what he can comfortably push in his cart.  “I had to make sure I had everything I need, but I was limited to the capacity of the cart.”  The basics of what Bassett takes with him in his roughly 70 pounds of capacity are a tent, sleeping bag, head lamp, two shirts, shorts, first aid supplies, rain gear, a utility knife, pepper spray, food, and water.  

Bassett is chronicling his trip on Instagram, under the name @OregontoCarolina.  He makes at least two posts a day, in which he documents where he is and what he has seen that day.  The page also contains access to a mapping feature that shows his journey as it happens.

While most of his journey has been characterized by the people he has met along the way, one stretch was defined by the opposite.  The Warm Springs reservation in Oregon contains a 150 mile stretch where Bassett saw literally no one during some days.  

Some facts about Bassett make the whole endeavor even more surprising:  until this trip Bassett had never really been camping much, and he hates dirt.  As to the first part, he has become accustomed to a wide range of sleeping and resting arrangements.  He tries to stay in motels as often as possible, which gives him a chance to recover out of the sun and shower and shave.  “I shave as often as I can, because I don’t want people to think I’m transient.  Which of course I guess I am, but you know what I mean,” he laughs.  He has a few stops where he will stay with friends and family, like his stop in Malad with Wendi and Scott Alder, and his upcoming stops in Weston and Logan, where he grew up.

To the point about dirt, Bassett seems to have come to terms with it inasmuch as there is little he can do to avoid it walking across rural southern Idaho in July.  Still, some events—like sleeping in a field full of mice next to a desolate stretch of highway—do challenge his equanimity.    

Because Bassett sold everything he owned before the trip, including his home and vehicles, he has no particular plan about what he would like to do after he finishes his trek.  One plan is to move to Greece, where he has always wanted to live.  

“I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been and the happiest I’ve ever been.  This has been amazing so far, and I know it’ll make me a kinder person. When I come across people I’ll be sure to stop and ask them if they need any help, because I’ve learned how good it feels when people do it to me.”

Bassett is not walking in support of a specific cause, and explains his trip as his own “journey of self-discovery”.  He is not taking any donations, other than water.  His positivity and great conversation is more than enough payment for anyone who should happen to track him down to get a picture, hand him some water, or walk with him for a while on the American trail.