It took Alex Wright just a month to move to California.
The Lincoln musician visited friends there in 2008, fell in love with the place and immediately headed west out of Lincoln. He had no job, no home, no real plan -- and, ultimately, no real reason to worry: He found a studio, and then a gig touring with Disney singer Demi Lovato, and then he joined an up-and-coming indie band.
But leaving California wasn’t as easy. He spent a year planning his departure -- mapping his route, dehydrating his dinners, testing his gear, cutting his ties.
Then, in April, he started walking.
And he didn’t stop until October, when he stepped across the Canadian border, all 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail behind him.
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By the time Alex Wright was a sixth-grader, he was already called Piano Boy. The 11-year-old could hear a tune and repeat it on the piano. He had played at a wedding, and at a restaurant in Kansas City.
He wanted to be like Mozart when he grew up, he told the newspaper in 1996.
The East High grad studied civil engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln instead, but hadn't finished his degree. Then he visited friends in California, and that was it for Nebraska.
“Within a month, I moved out there with nothing lined up.â€
And within a year, he was playing keyboards for Lovato, opening her international tour in Madrid before 25,000 people. He played closer to home, too, at Qwest Center Omaha.
“That was awesome. At sound check, you can have your friends and family come hang out. I had like 30 family members, my own little cheer section.â€
After the tour, he joined the Orange County band Kiev. They spent most of their time in the studio, he said, but they weren't releasing much music, and they weren't performing as much as he wanted.
It took him some time to realize he wasn’t happy unless he was out backpacking during the few breaks the band took.
“I'd come back feeling so fresh-minded. It was a good way to clear my head. I was interested in the lifestyle of living simply, and being happy doing it.â€
In early 2015, he decided he was done with Kiev, done with California. He wanted to come home, decide his next step, maybe finish school.
He also wanted to take a long backpacking trip first, maybe the 210-mile John Muir Trail through the Sierra Nevada.
The idea, and the distance, grew from there. If he'd be spending a month on the Muir, why not take four or five more and hike all the way from Mexico to Canada?
In Lincoln, Kathy Wright gave her son some advice.
“If you're going to do something, you'd better do it now. You might not get another chance.â€
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His mother was his lifeline. At least once a week, Kathy Wright would take a box of granola, trail mix and dehydrated dinners -- either Inca stew or vegetarian chili -- to the post office near Gateway Mall, and send it to some stop on the Pacific Crest Trail for her son to pick up.
“I got to know the post office people pretty well,†she said. “They'd say, 'Here she comes again.'â€
Alex Wright and his family had planned all of this. He spent a year getting ready for his long walk. He studied trail maps and calculated each day's destination, logging it all on a spreadsheet, letting his mother know when and where to send his next meals. He learned to cook, settling on the pair of dinner recipes and preparing enough in advance to keep him fueled.
“I ended up never getting sick of those two meals every other day, which was a surprise.â€
He refined and field-tested his gear -- his backpack, tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad. Like most travelers, he packed too much, he said.
On April 13, 2016, Alex Wright posed for a photo at the Mexico border, and took his first step north. And then his second.
“I wasn't really nervous, I was excited,†Wright said. “With this trip, I had done so much planning, I knew exactly what to expect.â€
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But his plans changed constantly. At first, he covered 15 to 20 miles a day, but he grew stronger and was soon averaging 25 miles, even through the tougher terrain of the Sierras. He and his mother had to keep revising the care package schedule.
“We were always updating, adjusting the food,†she said. “It was quite an undertaking. I’d be afraid if I missed the deadline, he’s not going to have food.â€
An estimated 4,000 hikers cover stretches of the Pacific Crest Trail annually, and about 600 walk the entire distance. Wright often traveled with others; in fact, he covered the first 750 miles with the same group of 10.
“There’s kind of a family vibe or feeling to the trail,†he said. “It doesn’t matter where you get put in. I found I was always meeting good people and making fast friendships.â€
They gave each other trail names. His was Willy Wonka, because he ate, and gave away, so much chocolate.
Among his new friends were Mr. Clean, who never missed a chance to wash, even on the coldest days; Backtrack, who kept taking the wrong trails; Shorts, who wore very short shorts; and a Canadian couple, Early Bird, who always woke first, and Worm, her husband.
He settled into a routine, waking just before sunrise, making oatmeal and coffee, walking and snacking for 10 or 11 hours -- he tried to consume 4,000 calories daily -- and then finding a place off the trail to pitch his tent.
“I’d be so tired by the end of the day, I’d set up camp, cook and eat, and just go to sleep.â€
He took breaks. He was forced to wait two weeks for snow to recede in the Sierras. He was sidelined briefly by a bug bite. He took time to run, and recover from, a high-altitude ultramarathon.
But he kept returning to the trail, eventually wearing out four pairs of shoes.
His family visited him in August, after he reached Oregon.
“He hadn’t had a shower in two weeks, and he was really dirty and dusty,†his mother said. “But it was good to see him.â€
He reached the end Oct. 8, hiking nine miles into Canada to catch a 3 a.m. bus to Vancouver and, ultimately, a flight back to Nebraska.
“That was kind of a rough last day,†he said. “Hiking all day, having to wait up until all hours of the night.â€
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The trail changed him. Physically, he gained weight, grew stronger, more active, more restless.
“There’s an interesting feeling,†he said, more than a month after moving back to Lincoln. “You kind of wake up and you feel like you need to move. You need to walk or run something because you’re so used to doing that every day.â€
He’s not suffering from what others call trail depression, but he feels a loss. He misses setting his own pace, the other hikers, carrying all he needed on his back.
“You meet so many great people and make so many great friends from all over the world, and you know you’re not going to see some of them ever again.â€
The trail gave him time to consider his future. He spent nearly six months without an instrument, without making music, and he realized how deeply he needed it.
“All you do is think all day while you’re walking, and I would think about how much I wanted to play.â€
He plans to return to school and earn his degree in piano. He plans to move to Colorado to teach.
And he plans to take another long walk.