Lockport Native's 5-Month Hiking Odyssey Moves Toward New Boundaries

LOCKPORT, IL — Tyler Shattuck will be the first to admit that he has always played life by the book, rarely allowing himself to venture too far off course or to push a proverbial envelope farther than he thought it should be pushed.

Not that long ago, the 27-year-old Lockport native believed he knew where his life was headed, again following a traditional path toward marriage and parenthood. But when life happened and his plans changed in a way he didn’t anticipate, Shattuck figured if there was a time to test his limits, it was now.

On Monday, Shattuck will take the one-way plane ticket to San Diego that represents the first step in what he expects will be a five-month, life-changing journey. Shattuck, who has always loved the outdoors, will devote himself to conquering the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile trek that begins along the U.S.-Mexico border and that will end in Canada with plenty of unforeseen obstacles and challenges in between.

Shattuck has mapped out his journey as much as humanly possible. The Pacific Crest Trail trip is one that most adventure seekers often spend a year or two planning. But Shattuck’s journey will be his own and will test him in ways perhaps he never expected — all in the name of experiencing life like he never has before, save for the occasional week-to-10-day trips to National Parks that first opened his eyes to the world that awaits those who are willing to tackle it.

Going in, Shattuck knows this trek into the unknown will be nothing like anything else he has experienced before.

“I was looking at very different things a few months ago,” Shattuck told Patch on Friday. “It’s a strange place to be.”

Last month, Shattuck put his journey to this moment into words in a lengthy, carefully crafted blog post entitled “Meaning, Connection, Wonder and the Pacific Crest Trail” which explains how a boy who once spend his day Army-crawling across the lawn and building forts grew into an adventure seeker that will enter a new phase when Shattuck ventures west on Monday.

The online journal entry of sorts explains his fascination for all things natural and thrill-seeking, and how that ultimately led him to meet a fellow adventurer who became the love of his life. Plans got made and life seemed to be moving in the traditional direction it always had for Shattuck, until suddenly, it wasn’t.

When the relationship ended, rather than wallow, Shattuck’s lightbulb moment came in the form of realizing that this was the time he needed to do something big for himself, which pushed him toward tackling the Pacific Crest Trail in what he characterizes as a “now or never thing.”

“I haven’t pushed boundaries very often,” Shattuck said Friday. “I’m from a South Chicago suburb, and everything’s been cushy and practical and logical. I did everything by the book, but now I want to push boundaries. … I want to see what I can do.”

That will start almost from the start of the trek that will take over the next five months of Shattuck’s life.

Shattuck’s previous outdoor adventures have always been glorious, but never long enough. But with his next adventure, Shattuck will — by his own calculations — need to average hiking 17 to 20 miles per day for the next five months to reach his goal of finishing the Pacific Crest Trail before his next adventure begins.

The trek across a variety of elevations and weather conditions will provide Shattuck with unadulterated solitude that will allow him to take a deep inward dive of self-understanding while also spending time with others who will begin the same journey but in their own way. Along the way, Shattuck — who has spent time juggling a full-time job with FedEx, gym training sessions, performances as a drummer in a local rock band, and online schooling to complete online training to become a firefighter who gets called in to battle wildfires — figures that this new chapter of life will allow him to live life in ways he never has before while seeing parts of the country that each present their own set of challenges.

His research is now complete and now, Shattuck says, “it just comes down to doing the thing” and accepting what comes.

The desert in Mexicali where he will begin the trek is now getting up to 5 inches of snow just as Shattuck is preparing to start his journey. The highlands of the Sierra Nevada mountains are 200 percent above the normal precipitation rates for this time of year. There will be avalanche risks on every trail he will need to traverse, with no markers to help hikers navigate what is around the bend.

If that isn’t enough, Shattuck’s research has told him that there will be torrential and dangerous river-crossings that will test his swimming and hiking skills that will allow him to get to that night’s camp outside his trail.

“The focal point will be the unknown,” he said. “I’m just trying to embrace that.”

“I’m going to learn my limits. I’m going to see my old ones and hopefully find some higher register for the new ones.”

Much of the journey will be spent on his own. The Pacific Crest Trail is one each person must take at his or her own pace. Shattuck has always been quick on his feet, he says, which will allow him to stay ahead of bigger groups of hikers. But he also looks forwards to the times of camaraderie that will come around campfires when those who share the commonality of taking on this level of adventure will come together to swap war stories of where they have been and where they are going.

The ever-changing nature of the journey will dictate who he meets up with and how long he will remain connected to them — at least for the time being. This world not only allowed Shattuck to meet the woman he believed he would marry and share children with, but has also introduced him to people that all share the bond of wanting to see what they are made of and where this sometimes-unexpected journey will end up taking them.

The commonality of the journey, Shattuck says, is the difficulties that come along the way and the manner in which each person copes with pushing their own envelope.

“It’s the first day of the rest of my life,” Shattuck told Patch. “It’s a segue.”

With his 40-hour FEMA group coordination training to one day fight wildfires, Shattuck believes this journey will just be the first step toward something more. In August, he is scheduled to begin work with the Dust Busters, an Oregon-based organization of first responders that specializes in emergency response. In addition to the Pacific Crest Trail, there are two other major North American treks — the Appalachian Trail (Georgia to Pennsylvania) and the Continental Divide Trail (Texas-Mexico border up through Montana) — that each presents their own challenges. Hikers who complete all three become known as Triple Crowners in the adventuring world; a title that Shattuck has started to investigate for himself.

But for now, he will focus on the next five months, ready to tackle whatever comes his way – whether he’s ready for it fully or not. While this may represent a major step in a new direction, Shattuck is convinced that the journey does not represent some sort of bucket list moment, but instead, perhaps the start of a whole new life.

“This trail isn’t the only thing,” Shattuck said Friday. “I’m not done. … Who doesn’t love a good odyssey? I want to earn this.”