Trailblazing at 72: Rand Timmerman's Journey of Recovery and Adventure

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with Curveball. If you believe, you can achieve. Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast. A show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today I am joined by author and retired attorney. Rand hiked the appolescent trail at the age of 72 with his younger brother, who is 71, is a recovered alcoholic. And he wrote a book with 500 pictures. So we're going to be talking to Rand about his story and what it was like to hike that trail and everything that he's up to and gonna be up to. So Rand, thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Absolutely, Curtis. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Well to start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Uh yes, I uh grew up in a very rural area in upstate New York in 1946. Um my family was very poor. My father had been a Mustang pilot in World War II, and he had polio and was paralyzed from the waist down, and that caused uh a lot of hardship for our family. But uh, we actually had a good childhood. It was tough, and we all learned how to work hard. Um I actually was the first person in my family to go to college to Oswego State for a little bit. My younger brother Ron, who hiked the trail with me, went off into the army and went to Vietnam. And uh I followed him a few months later. Um I quit college and enlisted in the Marine Corps and ended up in Vietnam with the 1st Marine Division and uh fought there for 13 months and came back and uh I guess they said I did okay. They made me a Mustang lieutenant for the last couple of months. I was a corporal, I had enlisted. So a colonel talked to me like just a couple days before I left, and he said, Well, you can go back and get out as an enlisted man, or you can go to OCS and become an officer, Curtis. So uh I did that, and that changed everything. I had no clue what I was gonna do when I grew up, but um, and then by a fluke, I ended up being a JAG officer, a judge advocate general, which is a legal officer in the Marine Corps. I found out at my uh 50th reunion with some of my um fellow Marines that I was probably the only JAG officer in the Marine Corps that did not even have a college education, let alone a law degree. But I found out I was pretty good at it, and I liked doing it. I liked helping people, so uh it ended up being my career. I came back to uh Syracuse, New York after over four years in the Marine Corps, and then um went to got my BA and then I got my law degree, Sumakum Laudi, and I ended up being a private attorney in upstate New York in uh four of the most rural counties with more cows and people. So I had a really great uh you know legal career, mostly criminal justice for a while, and then I got into litigation and in Supreme Courts and other courts in the counties up there. And uh it was very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Well, I'd like that. First thing I'd like to do is thank you for your service. And next thing I'd like to do is talk to you about uh hiking the Appalachian Trail. You know, kinda kinda tell us about that and why you decided to do it and if you believe you could actually do it.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Uh I did not think we could do it. Uh but we did. Oh my god, it was so amazing. It changed my life again. Um so you know, I by the time uh I got into my well, by the time I hiked the Appalachian Tree, I had an artificial knee in my left leg, and I had uh my right leg was a half inch shorter on my left, so I limped really badly. And uh but I was in pretty good shape for a 72-year-old because I had rent I was a runner, uh, I did 72 marathons or six 26 marathons, excuse me, and uh a bunch of cross-country ski races in the wintertime. That was we did that up here a lot, and uh 50k races, 32 miles. And my brother was also in very good shape, and he'd hiked all over Utah where they lived. But anyway, how that happened was so when we came back from the war, Ronnie uh met our mother's best friend Edie, who was 14 years older than Ronnie. And on their first date, she showed up with her three youngest children. She was divorced with seven kids, and Ronnie fell madly in love with her, and they got involved in the Mormon Church, the Church of Latter-day Saints, and they moved to Utah, and they had a great life. Edie unfortunately had a massive stroke in 2011, and she was not in good shape after that, and then she had a bunch of mini strokes. You know, Curtis, a lot of people, when they have strokes, some of them come back, right? They get therapy and all that kind of stuff, but it didn't work out for her, unfortunately. And Ronnie, uh, being, you know, the really highly principled man that he is, he took care of her the last seven years of her life, even though she was paralyzed. He wouldn't let anybody else. And uh when she passed, he thought he was ready for it. But she left him with seven kids, 27 grandchildren, and today 30 great-grandchildren. That is one huge family. And so I was talking to him uh after she passed in November of 2017, and he mentioned something about hiking the Appalachian Trail. And I thought that's insane. And then I went out in January to hang out with him. I had never been out there in 40 years. And we were hiking in the desert in Utah, um, outside of St. George, beautiful uh redstone canyons, and I mean it's right out of a movie type of uh environment there. And and he brought it up again, and I said, Well, how are you gonna do that, Ron? And he says, Well, um, I've got it turned out he'd gotten maps and he'd gotten all kinds of gear. I mean, he was prepared. He had done a solid job of getting ready, you know, this is gonna be a mission for him. And uh and he said, Well, I'm gonna get on a bus to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and I'm gonna start walking the 2200 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Um, and I said, That's really not a good plan, bro. How about I go with you? And we did. I asked him when he was gonna start. I was thinking, like, oh my god, maybe next year or something, right? He goes, March 22nd, 2018. I was 72, Ronnie was 71. We were at Springer Mountain, Georgia, and uh March 22nd, 2018, in a blizzard. That's how we started walking the Appalachian Trail. And uh it was an amazing experience, but I really didn't think we could do it. I had done a fair amount of hiking in the in the Smoky Mountains and parts of the Appalachian Trail. You know, I was one of those weekend warriors we came back. Ronnie and I both were traumatized by the war. We both saw a lot of action, and uh and I suffered, we never talked about it or anything like that, because that's what veterans don't, right? But um I had a horrific nightmare as I began to medicate medicate myself a little bit with too much alcohol at times, try to put that stuff away, and uh, you know, I had that problem going for me. And um, but I had gotten sober four years before in 2014. I actually got sober. And when I wrote the book, it's called A Spiritual Passage about Ronnie and I hiking the Appalachian Trail. But it's called a spiritual passage because Ronnie was dealing with grief, and we both, you know, he had some pretty amazing experiences on the trail. I did too, but I also, in the book, I realized that it might help a lot of people not only be inspired by what we did hiking the trail, but also how I recovered from alcoholism. And I did it with a 12-step program and I had a sponsor, so I talked about how all that went down too. And, you know, Ronnie was always a spiritual man. He was a bishop in the Mormon church. I never, you know, after our childhood and everything, I just I didn't believe in a higher power. I didn't believe in God. I thought, right? But then when alcohol became my God, alcohol is spiritus, right? That's Latin for alcohol. It comes in a bottle. Well, I I believed in a God, not the right one. And I couldn't, I couldn't stop at the end, so I needed a higher power. And I went into this 12-step program, and I I managed to do I had a really good sponsor, and uh, and I did what they told me to do, and darn, I made a connection with a higher power, and the obsession went away, and my whole life changed amazingly. And then, of course, the whole trail thing, too. But um, yeah, I didn't think we could actually do it, but we did. We did. I didn't do the whole thing, Curtis. I gotta be honest. I only did 1,863 miles.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Well, that's that's good enough.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

2200. That's good enough. I fell down Wilcox Mountain in Massachusetts on a rock slide, and I should have died, but I didn't. My foot got caught between some rocks and saved my sorry butt. But um, we went off the trail for 30 days. I couldn't move after that, and then but I didn't get any medical treatment and started walking again within a few days, and then Ronnie called me up after about a month, said, You want to try to finish it? And I said, Yeah, and we went back. So I did another 300 miles after that, but problem was, and we got into the whites. I went up past uh Washington Mountain, did Moose Loch and Wolf Mountain. There's 600 mountains on the Appalachian Trail, it's 2,200 miles long, it goes through 14 states, it goes over 600 mountains, like I said, 300 of them are named. Every state has a bear mountain, seems like, and there's 465,000 feet of elevation changes. That's a half a million feet of going up and down. I mean, I could tell you stories all day long, Curtis. It was just the most wonderful and difficult thing I ever did in my life.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

What was the best part of the hike?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Being with my brother and having my mantra was I could do this one step at a time, right? The idea we averaged 11 miles a day. The idea of of guys in their 70s, I mean people in their 20s and 30s, of hiking 11 miles a day with a pack in the mountains is extraordinarily difficult, almost unmanageable. And uh, but that's what we did. We averaged 11 mountain miles a day. We start at daybreak and um usually get done about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. I fell every day. Um, I took 5,000 pictures. Ronnie took maybe 500. Ronnie was doing it a whole way different than I was, Curtis. He was he was like on a military. Were you in the service?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

No, I've never been in.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Okay. Well, in the service, you're trained to have a mission in mind, and then you figure out all the steps you have to take to do it, and then you kind of march, right? You do the deal. And so Ronnie was kind of that mindset. I was in a different space. Um number one, I didn't think we could do it. I figured a couple weeks and we'd probably bail. That did not happen. But um, but I was more of the line, I'm never gonna step here again. Every time I take a step, I'm never gonna step here again. And I would go around a corner and I'd go, oh my god, look at that. You know, and I'd take a picture, and some days I'd take four. I mean, the scenery, the things that we saw, the people, the animals, the bears, a lot of bears. Um, some of it was was really scary. Um, we both had some very strong spiritual experiences on the trail. Uh, we had some wonderful experiences with the people. We all had trail names. My trail name was Ranbo. Ronnie gave me that uh trail name, and his was Attitude Indicator because he became a commercial pilot after his military service. And an attitude indicator is an uh instrument in an airplane that tells you what the airplane's position is relative to the horizon, if it's tilted or up or down, you know. So, and but he was using it more like uh he needed an attitude adjustment, right? And uh in order to overcome the grief of losing his wonderful wife. And he he was not prepared for how hard that hit him. But he did have some uh amazing experiences on there's a picture in the book, Curtis, of looks like a halo in a dark forest. I mean, when I say a halo, I mean vertical, like a huge bright light, and like a circle in the middle of it. It looks like there could be a person there, like it could be like it's it looks spiritual. It looks like it could be Jesus, it could be a Buddha, it could be, you know, it could be whatever you want it to be, right? But Ron was so, you know, and he still grieves his Father's Day 2018, and he was thinking about eating, he was thinking about our dad, who's long gone, and uh, and then he just felt this connection with with her. At first, he wanted to run away, it was so overpowering that he he f he felt like maybe he was gonna go to heaven or something, right? Or die. And uh and but then he I don't know, he just had this conversation with with uh Edie saying, Ron, it's okay, you're doing the right thing. Dad's here with me, you know, you're gonna come here someday, but right now we're good, and I just want you to know that. And we're proud of you for you know doing what you're doing and helping people on the trail. And we helped a lot of people on the trail uh whenever somebody was having a problem, and um and it was an amazing experience for him.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Well, talk about your recovery journey, you know, uh what what made you decide to put it in the book and and how long ha have you been uh recovered and congratulations on that.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, uh May 6th of this year, so it's only a couple weeks away. I will have 12 years. And a 12-step program that's for alcoholics who who like to remain anonymous. So um, yeah, I retired uh because in uh 2011, 2012, because the drinking had not been a problem during most of my life. I drank night primarily, heavily a lot of times, try to uh you know avoid the nightmares and stuff like that. And then after a while it just becomes a compulsion that you can't control. Most people don't realize, Curtis, but alcoholics metabolize alcohol differently than regular people. Normal people go have a couple drinks, and their bodies are creating an excess of what's called acetone is a very chemically complex process. That gives them that they're not alcoholics, it gives them that feeling of like being a little light-headed and maybe a little bit nauseous, and they just stop, right? They don't they don't overdrink. When alcoholics create acetone, what happens in them is that they get thirstier, it causes them to feel, you know, I'd be on a two or three-day bender, and I'm thirstier than I was when I started, and I'm on my way to the hospital to a to a detox. How the heck does that happen? And for a long time, well, it didn't really start affecting me until my late 50s, early 60s, but when it started affecting me that way, I could I I was just totally baffled. I thought there was something wrong with me morally, right? That I would because I could do all these other amazing things in my whole life. And then when things were getting a little bit sideways, I would change, right? I wouldn't do something different. But with alcohol, it just overtook me. I mean, I'm the real deal. I'm a real alcoholic. And uh so I joined this uh recovery program. I'm in it today. I I I work with guys every day, I go to meetings every day. I don't ever want to lose this because I, you know, I had to make a connection with a higher power that could relieve me of the obsession. And I did everything they trained me to do, and it worked. And it was amazing, and I see it every day. I see people's lives change. People that you would think there's no way they're ever, they're just gonna die like you know, drunks. And then you see them totally change their mind their whole lives. And I realized that that was a higher power. That was a god, the creator of the universe. For me, it's the creator of the universe, right? 15 billion years. Whatever created the universe, it was 15 billion years ago, and they're still here, and it's all incredibly complex, way beyond anything my 80-year-old mind can figure out. And they've got 15 billion years of experience, knowledge, and wisdom that I don't have. But I learned if I give him my problems, that power, I call it a higher power, or God, doesn't matter. Then he he took away the obsession and he's taken away other difficulties that I have. Maybe they don't go away, but he takes the weight away from them. And I can do what I need to do, and mostly it's helping other people these days, or writing books and and doing all that kind of stuff. And I have a great life. I have joy in my life every day, you know? And I still I have some problems. I have some medical stuff, and uh but and I still hike every day, about six, seven miles. My brother does too. We're gonna do another section of the EAT, the Appalachian Trail this fall. We've been doing section pretty much every year. They keep getting shorter. We're not gonna do 11 miles in one day, I'll tell you that. But it just changed my life, it changed Ronnie's life, it relieved him of the grief. He's moved on in his life and with that huge family. It's he's doing service work every day, helping out somebody, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Absolutely. We'll talk to the lists about about your book. Uh you got what'd you got, 5,000 pictures of that book?

SPEAKER_00 20:43

No, I got 500. Uh yeah, it's 360 some plate pages long. It's uh it describes what we did every day, where we went from and where to. Ronnie was very good about keeping track, where we were, how far we went, elevation changes, all that stuff. I'm taking the pictures, so when I put our journals together, I could do a daily journal and say to the reader, we started here this day, and then where we ended up, and then as they read, you know, what we experienced that day, and it's not, you know, it's usually a few paragraphs, it's not long or anything, but they can also see pictures of what we saw. So somebody could buy so even if they're old, older, right? And they may they're not gonna go hike the Appalachian Trail, but maybe they like to go outdoors or just experience it vicariously, they can read it and they can see what we saw, right? And then every other chapter I talk about all the things that happened and how I got sober and made a connection with a higher power and and changed my life completely. And then the same for for Ronnie, and there's lots of funny things, and you know, there were funny stories and things. You'll laugh out loud. I guarantee it, you'll laugh out loud. Some of the stuff that went on.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

Well, tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Oh, I'm still writing books. I publ um a new one called The Syracuse Hitman versus the Shoe Repairman came out last Friday by uh Vandala Publishing, and um so that book is we're working on, you know, getting that out there, and uh I'm working on another book, some things that I experienced as a lawyer. I'm I'm I'm writing every day, and you know, I'm hopefully I can hang around another decade or so. I'd like to I've got 10 books that I could easily you know publish if people like my writing and stories and stuff. I have a website, rantimmerman.com. That's just it, my name, no punctuation, just rantimmerman.com, and um, a lot of that stuff will pop up. If you Google a spiritual passage, Curtis, I just did it a while ago because I had somebody asking me about how they could get the book, it pops right up. It's right there. If you if you go on Safari or Chrome or whatever, right, and you just put in a spiritual passage, there's my book, and a little bit about it, and so on and so forth. Or if you Google my name, you know, other I've done other podcasts and other things will pop up. So it's pretty I don't do a lot of social media. Stuff. I'm just too old to mess around with it, but that's how they can look at my work and get to know what I'm doing and enjoy the books and the pictures and everything. All right.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

We'll close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on. Any final thoughts you have for the listeners?

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Yeah, I would just like to say that I'm hoping I can inspire people who maybe like to hike and maybe are thinking about doing something a little bit extraordinary. Or even just people a lot of people are older and they, you know, I've got relatives that are dying and all kinds of stuff like that. And a lot of people don't go out gracefully, right? So I'm hoping that people will be inspired by my writing to think, well, you know what? Maybe I can do something a little different and maybe one step at a time, you know, whatever. Get off your couch, go do something. I have a lady friend in the program. She's elderly and walk her in an oxygen bottle. She gets up and gets dressed and goes out and goes to meetings and smiles and helps people, and and her life, life has joy. And one of these days she won't be with us, but that's not how she looks at it, you know. I'm just hoping that people will be inspired and uh they could they will get some relief from their difficulties and maybe get some renewed spirit and uh hope in their life and have some fun in their golden years, even ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Please go check out the book rantimberman.com and check out everything that ran is up to and gonna be up to. Follow rate with you, share this episode to as many people as possible. Rand is definitely an inspiring person and has an inspirational story. Also, to keep up with all things living the dream, visit www.curveball337.com. Leave us a review. If you haven't done so, sign up for the newsletter. Drop us a line, leave us some voicemail, might even play it on the show if you leave it. Give you a big old shout out. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Rand, once again, thank you for your service and thank you for all that you do, and thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yes, sir, Curtis. Thank you very much. You have a great podcast. I watch some of the episodes. You're doing you're doing some good work there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.curveball337.com. Until next time, keep living the dream.