Providence man begins cross country journey for climate change
On Thursday, Mark Baumer left his house in Providence to go for a walk. He won’t be back until January of 2017, after he’s finished his walk across the country ending in Los Angeles. In 2010, while Baumer was on summer break from graduate school at...
On Thursday, Mark Baumer left his house in Providence to go for a walk. He won’t be back until January of 2017, after he’s finished his walk across the country ending in Los Angeles.
In 2010, while Baumer was on summer break from graduate school at Brown University, he did his first walk across the country, for no real reason he says.
“Something about walking across the country, I was like that’s a good challenge, I’ll try that,” said Baumer.
But after Baumer successfully arrived in LA after that walk, he never planned on doing a cross country walk again.
“The previous walk it took me two months to recover from, I couldn’t even run when I was done. I just felt really beaten down,” Baumer said.
After completing that walk, Baumer said he felt he had fulfilled his itch to walk across the country, and was ready to start working an office job for the rest of his life. But now that Mark has an office job working in a Brown library, he felt that itch to be outside again. In preparation for his second walk, he’s been running 15 miles at a time. Barefoot. That’s one difference between the two walks. This time, he’s decided to go entirely barefoot, saying it’ll force him to walk more softly and treat his body better. Baumer said he’s hoping that he won’t feel the same exhaustion and soreness he felt after the first walk because of going barefoot.
But going barefoot is only one difference between this walk and Baumer’s first. Another major difference is that this time, Baumer’s walk has a greater purpose.
“The first time I didn’t have a cause or anything and I feel like I missed a big opportunity. So I am doing this walk to raise awareness about climate change. It’s highly unlikely that one person walking across the country can defeat climate change, but maybe he can raise some money and help organizations,” said Baumer.
Baumer is blogging his entire trip, and plans on raising money throughout. Some of the money will go towards an organization fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the rest will go towards the local organization Fighting Against Natural Gas. Baumer has worked with FANG on various projects, like protesting the proposed natural gas power plant in Burrillville and protesting at Textron earlier this year when they were producing cluster bombs. Fighting climate change is Baumer’s main goal, but he has personal goals for the trek too. Baumer said he hopes the walk makes him feel more alive than he’s ever felt.
Baumer’s plan is to head south from Providence immediately, so that he can avoid the cold. Along the way, he’ll stop at friends’ houses in New York and Washington DC, before starting to head west. He has a hammock he can sleep in when he doesn’t have a place to stay, but says he’s willing to accept help along the way, remembering how exhausting his first trip was.
“Just about every day at the end of the day you get beaten down from the entire day and you’re like, ugh, what was I thinking? Especially at the end of the day you’re so lonely because you’ve just been by yourself all day and you’re tired. But then you sleep a little and you wake up and forget all that and say, oh this is great, back out here.”
On his first trip, there was one day in Arizona that Baumer said was hot, the hottest day he’d ever felt. When he was sitting there feeling drained, a local woman drove by and picked him up. She had him swim in her pool, made him dinner, and let him sleep at her house before dropping him off the next morning right where she found him. “The road can be good at providing like that,” said Baumer.
Baumer plans to get to LA sometime in early January, in time to make it back to his job, which starts up again on January sixth. But until then Baumer says he’s planning to just take the journey day by day.
“It starts to get stressful, when I put timelines. I think it’s just going to be fun. Next Thursday I’ll leave my house, go for a little walk, see where I end up.”
If you’re interested in checking out Baumer’s updates on his trip, you can do so here.
Baumer on his cross country walk in the summer of 2010. He wore white clothing that covered most of his body to protect himself from the sun, and pushed a cart carrying food and water. This time, he’s only bringing a backpack. Credit:Mary Baumer.