Franks Walk Status Change

Hello to everybody!

I would like to start out with a sincere thank you to everyone who has contributed their support in any form to the Franks Walk endeavor. The kind words of encouragement, the tips and recommendations, and the monetary help cannot be valued enough. 

Unfortunately it is with a heavy heart that I have to inform all of you of my decision regarding this season's hike attempt. It seems that all things considered, this was not the year for me to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. First my health became an issue, then trying to find the right time and place to begin again became a difficult task. The weather this year has been unusual to say the least, and this has had some effect on my decision. To be honest there are more factors than I can list; but the main factor that has lead to this moment is myself. I was simply not prepared enough. 

It is always difficult for someone to admit that they were wrong, or to accept culpability. In this case it really does lie entirely on my shoulders. External factors aside, I could have been more prepared. 

However, I do not see this as a failure. If anything I am more determined than ever to hike the PCT in its entirety. How this will be accomplished and what it will take is still in the air. I do have a few things figured out though;

1) Effectively immediately, the paypal option will be discontinued and all of the money that was not used in the initial attempt will be donated to the two non-profit organizations (CFRI, CFF) as per the original intent of Franks Walk.

In the future any support will be limited to donating to CFRI and CFF in the spirit of the hike and in memory of Jessie Franks. it is a possibility in the future that there may be a Franks Walk store, but that is still in the air.

2) The hike attempt will need to be reformatted. Whether I will attempt a complete thru-hike next season, or will pick away at the trail incrementally season by season, it is clear that the original parameter of: Thru-Hike the PCT during the 2011 season has changed. 

3) I will spend the time between now and next hike season training, and trying to get some of my personal affairs in order to ensure a long term success of the Franks Walk PCT endeavor.  

4) Attempting to accomplish something that has never been done before by someone with Cystic Fibrosis (in this case, hike the PCT with Cystic Fibrosis) is always going to be more difficult than originally anticipated. 

I would like to express a deep and sincere apology to anyone who may feel slighted in the least about how this has all turned out. It was never my intent for things to go the way that they have, but that doesn't change the fact that they did end this way.

I began Franks Walk for a few reasons, the first and foremost was to fulfill a promise to my late sister Jessie to carry her ashes with me as I hiked from Mexico to Canada. This goal has not changed and I intend to complete it regardless of how long it may take me to do. 

Second, I wanted to help bring awareness to and raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research. And even if it was only one person, or one hundred who made a donation to research/spread the word/or heard about CF for the first time, I feel that that goal was a success. 

When one really looks at a charity event or fundraising attempt, one must address the question of, "What is my goal as a contributor/or fundraiser?" I feel that there is only ever one answer to this question, and that is a resounding, "Help People." in fact, that is the only real answer to anything. I am a veteran of numerous pharmaceutical studies. Each time I was approached to do one there was only one question I ever considered before I said yes, "Will it help people?" If the answer was Yes, then I really had no choice but to go through with it.  I believe the same applies to Franks Walk. Let me reassure you, Franks Walk is not over. Not by a long shot. It is merely going on a brief hiatus necessary to ensure a long term success of not just the goal of walking 2,650 miles; but of the long term goal of making a difference in other peoples lives. 

So in summation, I am halting the Franks Walk attempt on the PCT for this season. Next season I hope to either thru-hike or begin tackling sections of the trail. All money that was not used in my initial aborted attempt WILL be donated between CFRI and CFF as per original plan. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone involved with my support crew, as well as my sincerest thank you's to all of my contributors who tried to help me fulfill my promise and dream of hiking the PCT. 

Until next time,

Live, Love, and Thrive.

-Cody Franks

Status Update.

Hey everyone!
So trip to the doc's went alright. The idea of Diabetes is off the table now (thank god!), and I am just waiting for some blood work results to come back.
I have formulated a possible plan of action. The hike will no longer be a thru-hike attempt. Such a thing really is beyond the scope of successful ambitions for myself at this point. Rather, I will be breaking the hike up into sections that will be attempted in consecutive hike seasons. I will be spending the next few weeks here at home doing day hikes and walks to build up stamina with two goals in mind: First, is that in two weeks time I will be doing the Skyline To The Sea Trail just to make sure I am ready to head back out to the PCT. Second, is that shortly after the Skyline To The Sea, I will head up to the high sierra around the Tahoe area and begin heading north from there.
Then the following season I will start tackling the rest of California.
I have had to reassess my approach and goals these last few days. I have been asking myself the big question of, "What needs to happen to ensure a long term success?" note that I did not ask, "What I would like to do..." But rather, "What needs to happen..."
And right now there are certain things that I don't necessarily like, but that need to happen in order for all of this to be successful.
I will post more updates as they become apparent.
-Cody
p.s. Again any feed back is highly encouraged and appreciated. Just send them to frankswalk@gmail.com

Setbacks and Slight Changes

Hey everybody.
There have been some minor setbacks. As you know from the counter I left on May First. What some of you don't know is that I ran into trouble shortly after starting. I apologize for the break in information, but here is a complete telling of what happened:
One of the main symptoms of Cystic Fibrosis is the body's inability to retain sodium. If you are the athletic type you know the value of sodium as an electrolyte. Without electrolytes one can suffer a condition called hypotonic dehydration. That is exactly what happened to me.
On the second day of the hike I was drinking plenty of water and covering ground. At around 11:30 in the morning I replenished my water reserves at a spring (using water filter of course) and hefted on my incredibly heavy pack (56 lbs. I know because we weighed it at the hospital) and continued on my way. Shortly afterwards I began to feel sick.
Now when I say "sick" I use the term in a loose way. Loose in that I can not adequately describe exactly how I was feeling beyond saying; nauseous, tired, short of breath, numbness in my extremities, and incredibly fatigued. I knew that something wasn't right.
As I continued on my way the feeling of illness and not being right continued to intensify. I looked at my map and picked a spot a few miles ahead as my next rest point, at which time if I was not feeling better I would call for help. I never really got the opportunity to make that decision, my body made it for me.
As soon as I arrived at my checkpoint (which was at the crossing of the trail and a county fire road) my legs collapsed under me and I began to vigorously vomit. Even though I had eaten, I was primarily vomiting very sour water. At this point I became very cold despite the 90+ heat and started to shiver uncontrollably. I knew that I needed help. As luck would have it I did have slight phone service and so I called 911.
On call to the county sheriff, there was some confusion. Even though I knew where I was on my map, it seemed that the sheriff could not find my location on his map (it later turns out that the county fire road has three different names on three different maps...), so they sent the helicopter out to find me.
The next few hours are very dreamlike for me. The helicopter had to make six passes over my general location before they were able to spot me waiving a red bandana as a signal. By this time the winds had picked up to a point where they could not safely make a landing. They were able to locate the road I was at however, and radioed the location to ground crews. I had just about passed out when I was awoken some twenty-ish minutes later by the sound of a big forestry truck and a sheriff come to my rescue.
I was loaded into the sheriff's SUV and taken down the mountain (I was at roughly 2,979 feet) to a waiting ambulance. Then by ambulance to Kaiser in San Diego.
I was treated for hypotonic dehydration in the emergency room, and then just sort of turned loose into the streets of San Diego. At the time it looked as though I would have a ride out to a spot further out on the trail where I could begin again, but that fell through. After two days of trying to figure something out down in San Diego it became apparent that the best course of action would be to return home temporarily and figure out a new strategy. It seems that I had bitten off more than I could chew.
So here is where we are currently: I have an appointment with my doctors today for a full physical, as well as to get checked for diabetes (seems that the shock to my system was so great that I may have actually given myself diabetes), and after hearing their conclusions I will go from there. What I would like to do is to start again but further north in the Sierras, and go from that point on into Canada. Then return next season and start at the same place but work southwards. But this is still up in the air. What is certain is that I am going back. Even if it takes me multiple seasons, I will complete the PCT.
My goal is long term success of the mission. Even though I had wanted to thru-hike the whole thing, it seems that with my condition I should focus more on what it will take to complete the hike in the long run.
If in the event that I am not given the okay to return to the trail this season, and the hike needs to be put on hold, all money in the hike fund will be split between the two non profits as planned.
I apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment that this might have all caused. Believe me, it doesn't make me happy that this is how things are unfolding. Yet as I have always found in life, things don't always unfold how you want them to. But they do unfold how they are going to unfold, and it is all we can to do to just roll with it and make the best of it.
I thank everyone for their support and am as always welcome to input and suggestions from everyone.
Wish me luck.
-Cody

Updates!

Hey Everybody!
So a lot has been happening this past week as I gear up to the final week before the hike. First is that Franks Walk has been approved for a kickstarter page (www.kickstarter.com). The planned project through kickstarter is a feature length documentary to be created out of all of the film footage after the hike. We hope to have the kickstarter up within the week.
Second is that the GPS tacker is up and running (albeit not linked to the page just yet). You can check it out for right now by visiting http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0zJcuRoNA25uyizG1nn08zn9lddbid3YM .
Third: The Ghost Of Wrights has a show tonight at 9:00pm at Carrie Nation's bar in Los Gatos to launch our second EP.
Fourth: I will be in the NBC11 studio tomorrow morning to film an interview that will air Saturday morning at around 7:00 am. Hooray for more exposure!
Other things that have happened in the last week: The original departure date came and went, and I turned 25 years old.
Also, Franks Walk items are coming soon. The first item that will be available will be foam "Can Koozies" with the Franks Walk logo on them. These will be given to anyone who donates (or already has donated) to the hike fund. We hope to have T-shirts available as well in the near future.
Until next time;
-Cody

Correction:

Just wanted to let you all know that the location of The Ghost of Wrights show has changed from Orchard Valley Coffee in downtown Campbell to the patio of Borders Books in Los Gatos. The date and ti e are the same though.
-Cody

Come see the band!

Hey everyone,
The Ghost Of Wrights (that's the band I play mountain dulcimer for) has a show next friday (April 15th) at 8pm at Orchard Valley Coffee Co. in downtown Campbell. It will most likely be my last performance before I depart for the hike. You should all come out and see us. To check out some sample songs check out our website here.  I look forward to meeting a lot of you at the show!
-Cody
p.s. We are tentatively calling our style "neo-folk rock" So if you like folk/rock and Americana type music (think KPIG) you should come and give us a listen.

Indy

Just took my dog, Indy (short for Indiana "We called the dog Indiana."), down to the Jolley's in Morgan Hill. She will be staying there while I am away. It is her first time away from home without me since she was a pup. I can tell she was really sad and confused when it came time for me to leave her there. Luckily, this time it is only for the weekend so she can start getting used to her new temporary home. There are also a bunch of new dogs for her to make friends with.
When I drove into the drive way at home and she didn't run up to greet the car, it really hit me how much I will miss her while I am away. Just as she will miss me too.
Maybe I can get someone to bring her out to meet me somewhere on the trail.
Pets: another thing that the PCT hiker needs to consider.
-Cody
p.s. Thanks to the Jolley's for taking care of Indy while I am away. I know they will take good care of her and make her welcome in their family.

Wow! News Coverage!

Howdy Y'all!
So it looks like the San Jose Mercury has picked up the story now! Which is totally exciting because I was also (in a round about way) on the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle today. I say that it is "a round about way" because the story is actually about a recent dig that I was associated with. I was part of the initial team representing Santa Clara University working under Dr. Timothy King at the Castroville Mammoth Dig. So that is three papers in one week! Not too shabby.
Also, in the wake of the Los Gatos Weekly and Mercury articles I am receiving an amazing response from people. It is such a good feeling to see that Jessie's story and my promise are touching so many peoples lives. It would make Jess smile to see how this whole thing is progressing. I even received a donation all the way from Brooklyn NY! I don't even know any one in Brooklyn!
Things are really rolling now!
Also I have decided to delay my departure officially until May first to allow for some melt time. I have also received similar advice from a few people who have hiked the PCT before.
Until next time,
-Cody

Updates!

Hey Y'all,
The clock is ticking! According to the countdown as of now I have eighteen days left. However that may change... Due to the recent storms and the subsequent snow pack that they have left in the Sierra (allegedly the most snow the Truckee-Tahoe area has seen in 50 years)  I am considering delaying my departure by two weeks to allow for some extra "melt time" before I expect to reach that area in late June. This extra time is also needed to give my coffers a chance to fill up a bit as well. So the departure date may actually be moved to Sunday May First: May Day. Which is traditionally considered a good day to begin new endeavors.
Website Updates: Check back soon for new the new V-Blog page on the website where videos and journal entries will be posted, and also check back soon for the launch of the "Where's Cody?" map.
In other news: I was in The News. The Los Gatos Weekly just ran a story about my hike, and I am very excited for the help it will give me in getting the word out.
Gear Updates: My gear list is almost complete. I just purchased the MSR Whisperlite backpacking stove and I hope that it lives up to and surpasses the expectations I have for it. Still left on the list is my Tent, water purifier, and hiking poles. I already have them picked out- I just need to purchase now.
Personal Stuffs: The band (The Ghost Of Wrights) is scrambling to finish our second EP and get it released before my departure. The guys will continue playing shows without me, but will be sans dulcimer for five months. You can check out out album blog and show updates at our website www.theghostofwrights.com 
Lastly for this update I want to give a special specific shout out to my wonderful girlfriend Alison who has been supportive enough of my seeming insanity to let me go for five months. I love you Alison! Go buy stuff from her at the Borders Fixture Sale.
Until next time,
-Cody

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