Episode #63 - Nick Buchannan - "How did you find hiking buddies?"

In this episode, Courtney talks with Nick Buchanan, one of the founders of the Tri-State Events Hiking Group in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. They talk about why Nick chose hiking as a way to improve his physical health, the surprising hiking challenges that can be found in the tri state area, how “outdoor people” tend to be so friendly and Nick answers the question - “How did you find hiking buddies?”

More about Nick:

“I am a divorced father of one son that loves to spend time with his son. I am a mechanical engineer by trade but explorer by hobby.

I hiked as a kid with my grandparents but as life got busy busy I lost this hobby. Late 2019 I was the most out of shape ever at 245 lbs. I found myself with high blood pressure and I decided I needed to make some changes to my life if I wanted to live a long healthy life.

Around Christmas time 2019 I started hiking. I hiked mostly by myself early 2020 but I did find a few friends to hike with time to time. When Covid hit I was sent to work at home. I really started walking, hiking, and working out daily. It kind of became an obsession and I at one time was averaging 25k steps a day. I also got myself down to 190 lbs.

One thing i decided was I would like others to hike with when my friends were not available. I tried some hiking groups on Facebook and it didn’t seem I could get anyone together the first couple times.

Then I finally found a group of 4 to hike with for Fathers Day 2019. This led to a couple hikes and to a Facebook messenger chat where we could plan future hikes. This chat was getting crazy and it was mentioned why don’t you make it a group. I had no idea what that entailed so Holly now my fellow admin help put it together. Within a few days we grew to a few hundred members

This was the beginning of an amazing adventure. I have had a chance to explore many amazing places and met so many great people that are like my family now. This has also led to me meeting to the most amazing person to share my life with. This has led me and my girlfriend to many great adventures together too. The outdoor world is amazing and I have been so pleasantly surprised the amazing people I have met there in the last 3 years. I am feel so lucky to have an amazing group to hike and enjoy the outdoor world with now. We have now grown to over 20k members.”

Follow Nick:

https://instagram.com/tristate_in_oh_ky_hiking_event?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.facebook.com/groups/738968110186085/?ref=share_group_link

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-buchanan-4ab42218

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