From Engineer to Ultralight Pioneer - A Journey of Curiosity and Contentment - Glen Van Peski : 159

Glenn Van Peski shares his journey from free-range kid to ultralight backpacking pioneer and accidental entrepreneur. His experiences include a cross-country bicycle adventure at 17, surviving an airplane incident, and founding Gossamer Gear, a multi-million dollar company, without ever taking a salary from it.

Glen, known by his trail name "Legend," is celebrated for his significant contributions to the backpacking community. A native Californian, his backpacking journey began when he led his son's Scout troop in their backpacking program.

• Growing up as a "free-range kid" in Southern California before moving to Massachusetts after parents' divorce
• Cycling 4,200 miles across America after high school graduation in 1976
• Finding civil engineering career through chance encounter
• Learning to sew from his mother as a basic life skill
• Starting Gossamer Gear by making ultralight backpacks for himself, then reluctantly for others
• Keeping his day job as a civil engineer rather than relying on his gear company for income
• Meeting Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey, who purchased majority stake in Gossamer Gear
• Writing "Take Less, Do More" after years of encouragement from Mackey
• Being influenced by his mother's generous spirit and motto "noblesse oblige"
• Practicing contentment while maintaining curiosity about new possibilities
• Donating all profits from his book to the Pacific Crest Trail Association

To connect with Glen: https://www.glenvanpeski.com/

Chapters

• 7:20 From Free Range Kid to Cross-Country Cyclist
• 18:30 Engineering Career and Plane Crash Survival
• 24:20 The Birth of Ultralight Backpacking Gear
• 33:40 Accidental Entrepreneur: Creating Gossamer Gear
• 43:10 Contentment, Curiosity and Life Lessons
• 52:15 Take Less, Do More: Book and Philosophy

Transcript

Daniela SM: 0:01

Hi, I'm Daniela. Welcome to my podcast, because Everyone has a Story, the place to give ordinary people's stories the chance to be shared and preserved. Our stories become the language of connections. Let's enjoy it, connect and relate, because everyone has a story. Welcome.

Daniela SM: 0:21

My guest is Glen Van Peski, a retired civil engineer, entrepreneur, lifelong inventor and adventurer. From an early age, Glen has been creating, exploring and embracing new challenges. He is also someone who deeply values generosity, finding ways to share his blessings in both traditional and unexpected ways. His story beautifully connects the idea of minimalism in the wilderness to living a more abundant, intentional life. In his book Take Less, do More, Glen dives into how the wisdom of ultralight backpacking extends far beyond the outdoors. You pack weight isn't the only thing you can lighten in life. Glen's philosophy is refreshing. Contentment and ambition can coexist. Generosity leads to true abundance and curiosity doesn't have to bring discontentment. I recorded this conversation while spending seven weeks in Malaga, which felt like perfect timing. With Dave and I on the road for the past five months, Glen's insights really resonated with me. It was an absolute pleasure to have him on the podcast and I hope you enjoy our conversation. Welcome, Glenn, to the podcast.

Glen Van Peski: 1:40

Thanks, Daniela, pleasure to be here.

Daniela SM: 1:41

Yes, I am super excited that you are here and that you are a hiker, a traveler and all these things that I'm actually looking at in your website.

Glen Van Peski: 1:50

Yeah, I was thinking of you. Actually, last night we were watching some dumb movie on Netflix, someone that moves to Italy not Spain but buys a one-euro house, and it made me think of you. Know, you living in a what's to me a foreign country and adventures there.

Daniela SM: 2:07

Yes, it was his father and a daughter.

Glen Van Peski: 2:09

Yes.

Daniela SM: 2:10

Great, All right. So my first question is why do you want to share your story?

Glen Van Peski: 2:15

I love the title of your podcast because everyone has a story, because that's been my experience. You know people sometimes say, oh, glenn, it seems like your story is so interesting or you have an interesting life, and it doesn't seem that way to me because it's just my life. But I find that if we take the time which we usually don't have the time to really listen, you know, to sit down with someone for an extended period of time, everyone has an interesting story. Mine might be interesting to some people, and if some people can learn something from that, brings them some ideas to make their life better, well then that's great.

Daniela SM: 2:54

Yes, and also because you have a book.

Glen Van Peski: 2:56

Yes, I ended up writing a book, was pestered to do it by a friend of mine. You know, I am, as you pointed out, a backpacker. I mean, many people have done a lot more backpacking than I have. But to your average ordinary person that probably seems like I've done a lot of backpacking because I'm an engineer.

Glen Van Peski: 3:14

I want to backpack with the least amount possible because it makes it more enjoyable when you're carrying less weight, and I know you and I have talked about applying this to other travel adventure travel and around the world and I realized that, after call it, 50 years of working to minimize the amount I take, backpacking, that there were a lot of lessons that apply to the rest of life also, and so that's why I wrote take less, do more.

Daniela SM: 3:40

Wonderful, so we will talk about that too. And so when does your story start?

Glen Van Peski: 3:44

Well, the story starts for me when I was born, grew up in Southern California, was lucky enough to grow up as a free range kid. Before the internet was invented, we were just gone on our bikes, digging, climbing, playing all day, as long as you were home for dinner. My parents had no idea where we were, which was, you know, so great to grow up like that. We're just outside, being active and having using our imaginations. That kind of came to a screeching halt when I was in fourth grade my parents announced at the dinner table they were getting a divorce kind of a shocker and we moved. We left sunny Southern California and moved to Western Massachusetts in the middle of winter.

Daniela SM: 4:24

Oh wow, that show was shock.

Glen Van Peski: 4:26

You know, went to school there, graduated high school and decided it would be a fun adventure to ride my bicycle across the United States. So spent that summer in 1976, riding 4,200 miles across the country, getting back to the West Coast. And then got offered a job when I was out here and, you know, kind of never left the West Coast been up and down the West Coast ever since.

Daniela SM: 4:52

Okay, I was reading your fun facts. In 1976, after graduating high school, you rode your bicycle 4,200 miles from Massachusetts to California.

Glen Van Peski: 5:04

Yeah, and people ask me like, oh, were you always an adventurous sort? And I really wasn't. I was kind of a book, you know, graduated with like almost straight A's. I don't know, I wasn't like an adventurous person. So I have no idea why I got this into my head that this would be a good, fun thing to do, but it sure was. And actually I'm in touch with the three other guys that went with me and we're talking about next year, the 50th anniversary of our ride, getting back on our bicycles and riding back the other direction. So we'll see if that happens.

Daniela SM: 5:40

Oh wow. So you said that you were an adventurer, but what made you decide, okay, I'm going to ride my bike I?

Glen Van Peski: 5:44

I enjoyed languages in high school I took Latin, greek, french and, briefly, german, and so I had some vague thought of doing something with languages, maybe being an interpreter, but you know I hadn't really done anything on that. And then rode the bicycle across the United States with my friends, ended up staying with my dad who was still in California, had remarried.

Glen Van Peski: 6:34

Friend of theirs who had a small civil engineering firm, offered me a job and so I took that and that set me on my 50-year career as a civil engineer. I know it seems strange how things have worked out and I'm an engineer, I'm kind of a planner. Yeah, you know for not really having a plan. Things worked out pretty well.

Daniela SM: 6:54

Well, you didn't know that you were a civil engineer and maybe you're a very well-mixed, that you can plan and not plan and still be an engineer.

Glen Van Peski: 7:02

I guess, yeah, plan and no plan and still be an engineer? I guess, yeah, and I have. You know I have have become more intentional, uh, since I was 17,. You know about thinking ahead and thinking like, okay, uh, yeah, I'm an engineer, but you know I should work to develop some other skills. You know public speaking and writing and, uh, leadership and management. So you know I have been more intentional as I got older, luckily. But yeah, it's worked out.

Daniela SM: 7:31

There you go, well-rounded person. I think these days people are actually thinking more of that to be, not just to know one thing, that you have to know many things. Especially some people have this desire of learning. You know curiosity in you. This is part of your book. You know the lessons are for generosity and curiosity, right?

Glen Van Peski: 7:53

yes, yeah I think it's important, curiosity is important yeah, it's always good to, I think, be curious about things and notice things, because that's where opportunities lie, you know, wondering about things. And of course, engineers, I think, are kind of inherently probably curious, always thinking like I wonder if there's a better way to do that. Or you know, what would I do if I was in that situation? But yeah, I always when I, you know, talk at schools or something like that to engineering students and especially, you know, these days, with AI and having being really good at one technical skill might not be the most stable, long-term career. So I think it's great to kind of branch out a little and be more well-rounded, like you said.

Daniela SM: 8:49

Yeah, I read once that curiosity is when you know something a little bit and you want to know more. But if you don't know about it, if you're not curious and so that was quite interesting because it's true I mean, if I don't know that something exists, I wouldn't be curious about it. But then you know, when you know a little bit, you're like maybe curious about what is that? How do I do this? And I don't know if you agree with that, because now that I'm saying it, I'm not too sure if that is correct.

Glen Van Peski: 9:15

Well, to me, I think part of that is the noticing. To me, I because many people you know, will walk by something and not notice it, and if you don't notice it, I think it's the first step of noticing. It's like I wonder how that works, or I wonder what that person is doing, or you know that to me, then you can be curious. But if you don't notice, if you're too focused on I got to get to my next appointment or I'm worried about something, or you don't notice, and then you can't be curious.

Daniela SM: 9:48

So you went to university in California and graduated as a civil engineer and stayed there all your life. You had a family. What happened next?

Glen Van Peski: 9:56

Well, I worked for a couple of years, first in engineering, then went to school and graduated from California State University, northridge which fun thing. I'm going down next month give a presentation there university. I haven't been there for 50 years almost now, so that'll be fun to see how it's changed. Yeah, yeah, the Dean of Engineering is a backpacker, so he found my book, so that'll be fun. But yeah, I graduated, I moved to San Diego, got married, moved to San Diego to start working, worked for other people, started my own company, had some kids, was almost killed in a plane crash, shut my company down, went to work for a big company and then went to work for the city that we lived in, you know, accidentally started a gear company along the way and then retired and moved up to Oregon. So still on the West, but not California.

Daniela SM: 10:56

Another fun fact from you was that you're a pilot. Yeah, actually, basically no injuries.

Glen Van Peski: 11:00

I had some scratches, but no injuries. The pilot was killed. And I have been thinking about this because just this morning that plane flipped upside down while crash landing in Toronto. It seems like there's been a lot of plane crashes recently, so, yeah, it always makes me think about my plane crash. When you get a pilot's license, you always have a license. I'm not currently certified.

Daniela SM: 11:23

But you're still a pilot.

Glen Van Peski: 11:25

It didn't affect you, I'm not current and I don't fly small planes. After the crash I didn't want that to be my last experience in a small plane. So a buddy of mine from Toastmasters had his pilot's license and I said, hey, why don't you take me up? So I decided you know, I had a young family engineering business. Like I'm probably not going to spend a lot of time flying, I wanted to go up one more time in a small plane. So I went up with my buddy from Toastmasters and we flew over to the desert and had breakfast or something. We were coming back.

Glen Van Peski: 11:59

The tower is sequencing him kind of behind a larger regional jet. If you're too close behind another plane, the plane creates turbulence which can well it can flip you over if you're too close. And so they were telling him to slow down to get more distance between this jet that was landing, and so he was dumping some flaps and trying to slow the airspeed down. He was still too close. So he said, ah, we're not going to make it. And what he meant was, you know, he was too close and he wasn't going to be able to land. He was going to have to go around in the pattern another time. But I said I said I'd appreciate it if you'd pick different words, then we're not going to make it. So yeah, we landed safely and that was the my last time in a, you know, really small plane.

Daniela SM: 12:54

Yes, yeah exactly.

Glen Van Peski: 12:56

I knew what he meant, but the power of words, yeah, I mean it's more funny than scary.

Daniela SM: 13:04

I mean I knew what he meant so, yeah, yours was pretty scary, for sure. Oh, you knew what he meant. So that's another another thing. Okay, okay, good, good, all right, and so you were in San Diego. Yeah, and that's something I always recommend to people Toastmasters is such a great program.

Glen Van Peski: 13:25

I mean, I think public speaking is something that what's they say? It's like people are more afraid of public speaking than of dying. I mean it's like the number one fear. But I always figured that, you know, no matter how smart you are, how hard you work to accomplish really most anything is going to involve other people, and so having that ability to express your ideas and motivation to others through speaking and writing, I think is, you know, super important skill that everyone should have. Oh, I haven't done it for years and years, but I was in it for probably 10 years.

Daniela SM: 14:07

How many years have you been with Toastmasters? 20 years ago, so. When was the last time you were there? Okay, so then you were Toastmasters pilots when our oldest son, brian, was old enough.

Glen Van Peski: 14:24

he joined Boy Scouts and so then I joined as an adult leader. It was a very active troop, did a lot of activities summer camps, week-long canoe on the Colorado River and a lot of backpacking, including the capstone trip was a week in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. We were preparing for this and I didn't have my gear from when I was in Boy Scouts back in Massachusetts, so we had to go get new gear. It was all pretty heavy About this time. My buddy, reed Miller, who I met through Toastmasters and also through the civil engineering he was a land developer. He read Ray Jardine's book, the Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook, which was talking about ultralight backpacking, and he had gear lists in there where his base weight, which is the weight of all your gear except for food and water, weighed around eight pounds. And that was unbelievable to me because the backpack that I just purchased at REI weighed seven and a half pounds empty before you put anything in it. But it got me to thinking. Since I knew how to sew, I started sewing some gear, and I had I'd actually sewn some gear way back in 1976 for that bicycle trip. I sewed myself a tarp, a little mesh liner to keep the bugs out. So I'd already done some sewing. My mom thought every kid should leave home knowing how to cook, bake and sew. She just considered those basic life skills. Whatever you're going to do in life, you should know how to do those three things. So all three of us kids know how to do those three things. So I started sewing gear. I sewed a pack, used that and then, being an engineer, I couldn't help thinking like, well, how could this be a little better? So then of course, I saw another pack and my buddy Reed Miller started calling them, you know, the G1, cause my name starts with a G and the G2. And finally the fourth pack. I'd gotten it to where I it really fit, where I was at that point, my gear. I think I think some of those they weighed under a pound and so that was a big weight savings right there compared to my seven, seven pound backpack from REI.

Glen Van Peski: 16:40

This was early internet days and I put the plans on the internet so that other people could make them. Other people's moms hadn't taught them how to sew, so I would get emails saying hey, I don't know how to sew, can you sell me a pack? And at this point I'm working 60, 70 hours a week doing engineering. It's like no, I can't sell me a pack. And at this point I'm working 60, 70 hours a week doing engineering. It's like no, I can't sell you a pack.

Glen Van Peski: 17:04

But eventually I got enough emails that I felt bad for these people, that they didn't know how to sew, and so I was talking to the people the sisters in Florida that that I got materials from, and talking about this problem, and they said well, you know, there's someone in Seattle that does sewing, contract sewing. And so I checked them out and decided to. I wanted to get 25 packs made because I thought then everyone who was emailing me would have a pack and I could get back to the engineering. So I started talking to Monty up in Seattle and he says oh, our minimum order is a hundred. A hundred packs, oh my gosh. So we finally went back and forth and finally settled on 50. And I thought, okay, they'll be in the garage for the next five years, but I'll eventually get rid of them, no big deal.

Glen Van Peski: 17:50

So our son, brian, the oldest one, who was in scouts, then put together a very rudimentary website that would send me an email. People could fill out a little order form with their name and address, and then it would send me an email with their order, and then they would mail a check. That's how sophisticated we were. And so I'm working at my desk one day doing engineering and then suddenly I get an email. I go, we have an order. I hadn't thought that far ahead, so I just grabbed a pad of yellow paper and wrote down the order. I still have that yellow, those sheets yellow lined paper with those early orders. So anyway, before I even got the first shipment from Monty, I had 86 orders, more than the 50 packs that I thought was going to take me five years to get rid of. So we had to order more fabric. And then things kind of snowballed from there.

Daniela SM: 18:42

And where was your mom all this time?

Glen Van Peski: 18:44

Oh, my mom was back in Massachusetts still.

Daniela SM: 18:47

Did you call her and say thank you for teaching me how to sew?

Glen Van Peski: 18:50

She was proud that you know my sewing skills had launched. You know what's now a multimillion dollar business.

Daniela SM: 18:57

Yeah, wow, it's true. People don't know how to sew these days.

Glen Van Peski: 19:00

Yeah.

Daniela SM: 19:01

I am glad I learned how to do it, yeah.

Glen Van Peski: 19:03

I think everyone should know how to do it. It's just basic skills and it's fun. I know some people that are trying to bring that back. We have a lot of friends in Japan. There's this cool place they call it Miog make your own gear movement and they have a place that has all the fabric and they have sessions where people come in after work or on the weekends and they'll have classes and they start making their own stuff sacks and simple stuff and people go on to make backpacks and tents and bags for their bike. And actually I'm going to give a talk here in Bend there's a local used gear store that wants to kind of start something like that, you know, to bring back teaching people how to, how to sew and just make basic stuff.

Daniela SM: 19:45

Yes, no, it makes sense to to be recyclable as well, and sometimes you know it goes according to your needs, which, in a way, is what like really wealthy people do. I need this and I want it this way, so if you can make it yourself, then it is like made for you exactly.

Glen Van Peski: 20:00

You can customize it and you know how it was built. So if you know that the shoulder straps always wear, wear out, you can add extra stitching there. Or if you know shoulder straps on ready-made packs are uncomfortable for your frame, you can modify them so that it works better for you. So, yeah, there's so many fun things you can do when you know how to sew.

Daniela SM: 20:22

Yeah, that's true. So I'm glad that we're going back in North America and the West Coast. At least people will be interested in something like that too, not just in Japan.

Glen Van Peski: 20:30

You know, in Japan it's important to them because they want people to be connected to their outdoor adventures. You know, if you just go buy a bunch of stuff and take it outside, it's not the same as when you're going with something that you've actually made with your own hands.

Daniela SM: 20:44

That's true. I mean this goes to achievements too. The things that make me the happiest are those things that have been difficult, that I have managed to fix or achieve or do something. You know those are the ones I remember the most versus. You know, something easy that came along, yeah, when you make your own, that is just more special.

Glen Van Peski: 21:05

Yeah, you get to struggle with the. You know what are the choices. Do I want to make it lighter or more durable? Do I want to make it more comfortable or more functional? Or you know, you get to make all those choices and then, when you use it, I always tell people. Sometimes I have people come up to me after talking oh you know, I'm making my own pack. Or I made my own pack and I said, well, just just know that it won't be the last one. You know, when you make something yourself and use it, then you start thinking about well, I could make it a little better, a little lighter, different color, or something like that.

Daniela SM: 21:38

So yeah, of course. Of course, the possibilities are endless. Then you start thinking more and more Great, great, okay, so that company is successful. But you didn't want to deal with that because you still loved your job as a civil engineer.

Glen Van Peski: 21:55

Yeah, I never, never, quit my day job. Gossamer Gear is now a huge company. I never took a salary from the company. That's a different story than most people have. I mean, the typical story is you know you're working, you start your side hustle and then it becomes big and successful and then you do that full-time. I've told our sons this, both of whom have had side hustles is I think there's a case to be made for keeping the side hustle as the side hustle. I know people who they're a hiker. They do a lot of hiking. They make some of their own gear, then they start a gear company and then all of a sudden they're not going hiking anymore because they're running a company and they're hassling with distributors and trying to sell stuff and have enough money to buy supplies.

Glen Van Peski: 22:46

And you know, it's not the joy that it once was. They have to worry about getting health insurance and things like that. So I think there's certainly a case to be made and everyone has different goals and objectives but of keeping the side hustle as the side hustle, because it's very freeing. I always worked full-time as an engineer and so that paid the mortgage, put the kids through college, so I didn't need to make money from the gear business so I could make what I wanted to make. I didn't have to make what people wanted because I didn't care if it sold or not. I didn't need the money. So that freed me to make creative decisions on what I thought was important. And so you know, if you look at like our early, our early gear lineup was basically the gear that I used and I needed.

Glen Van Peski: 23:36

And so, as as my pack got lighter, the packs we sold got lighter and lighter, and people would call me up and say, well, you know, convince me, I should buy your pack instead of someone else's. And I said, well, I really don't care because I'm not paying myself from this anyway, so buy whatever you think is going to work for you. Um, I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you to buy my pack, and then people would call up and say, well, I think you should make it this way, or you should make this product. And I'd say, well, thank you, but that's not something I'm interested in, so why don't you go make that product? If you think that's something that's valuable, frees you up. You don't need to worry about what people want or what people will buy, because you don't really care. You're just making what you want, and if other people think that's great, then they can buy it, and if they don't, they can buy something else.

Daniela SM: 24:24

I feel like if you stay in your job, it's because you really like your job, because people usually don't like to stay in a job that they don't like. So you were doing something that you really enjoyed.

Glen Van Peski: 24:34

That's true. I mean I was working as a civil engineer and I like working as a civil engineer. I mean it wasn't my original plan when I was in high school solving problems, and it's great, because every piece of land is different, so there's different challenges of you know, where's the sewer going to go, where's the water come from, how does the rainfall drain? Um, how do you minimize the amount of dirt you have to move to create the project? So I enjoyed civil engineering, working for myself, I enjoyed working for other people, I enjoyed working for the city, um, you know, being on the other side, on the permitting side. So, and it, you know, it could just be. I'm an agreeable kind of guy. I could, I, I suspect I could be happy doing a lot of different things.

Daniela SM: 25:24

Yeah, that was my other question, that you probably are a content individual.

Glen Van Peski: 25:27

I think so, yeah, I'm, I'm pretty content.

Daniela SM: 25:30

You don't need much to be happy.

Glen Van Peski: 25:32

Exactly, and that's, and that is one of the lessons from ultralight backpacking is how little you actually need to be happy.

Daniela SM: 25:41

If you're curious. Curiosity makes you wonder more, and so sometimes it doesn't allow you to be content, because you want more.

Glen Van Peski: 25:51

I guess it depends on your curiosity. If you were curious like, well, what would it be like if I drove a really expensive car? Or I'm curious what it would be like if I had a huge house, or I'm curious what it would be like to fly first class, I guess the curiosity could lead to discontentment. But I don't know, I don't know if that hasn't been my personal experience. You could be curious about something without being obsessed with it. You know, you wonder, I'm curious like what is it like to be worth a hundred billion dollars? But I don't, I don't, I'm not going to be pursuing that.

Daniela SM: 26:28

Yeah, maybe people that are doers. They're more like doing, doing, doing all the time so you can be content. I have met a few people that are content, so I don't know what is the personality thing. I think I guess if you're a Buddhist, that's what you're supposed to go to.

Glen Van Peski: 26:42

Contentment yeah, and I'm not a Buddhist and I don't have really any helpful advice for contentment. I mean part of my contentment comes from my faith as a Christian. I think some of it could be personality, although that can change too. I mean part of my contentment comes from my faith as a Christian. I think some of it could be personality, although that can change too. I mean I was a very anxious child through junior, high and high school, not very content. It's your play between curiosity and contentment, and contentment doesn't mean you don't strive either.

Glen Van Peski: 27:14

I mean I'm contented, but I have a long to-do list of things I like to do and things that I want to accomplish. For a content person, I don't sit well. I don't just sit and be well. That's something I have to work on, because I tend to always be doing something.

Daniela SM: 27:29

You're a very interesting combination.

Glen Van Peski: 27:32

So I see your eyebrows. It's that tension between always wanting I guess always on the go and wanting to do things but being content with that well, you liked your job and that's the most important thing.

Daniela SM: 27:46

You have a career and you enjoy. And then you got more ideas and broad side hustles, but you're also not greedy. Generosity, isosity, is also a part of you.

Glen Van Peski: 27:57

Yeah, I mean, that was another thing actually from my mom is the importance of being generous. You know she would always say noblesse oblige. You know, if you have comes with an obligation of using that to make other people's lives better, it's not there just so you can buy a second jet and have a bigger boat. And so you know, we started small and today we give away a significant chunk of our income just because we have plenty. You know, more isn't going to make our life better.

Daniela SM: 28:33

So your mom seems to be an important person in this whole story that she was from South Africa.

Glen Van Peski: 28:39

Yeah, she was born in South Africa. For her time women were supposed to, you know, get married, have kids, kind of manage the household staff, play bridge and plan parties was pretty much the plan for women in her society at that time. And so she came over to the United States, to Wellesley College, and after two years her dad said well, I'm not paying for it anymore because it's a waste to educate a woman. You're just going to come home, get married and have kids. My mom was having none of that. Wellesley somehow found some scholarships so she could finish and get her degree in geography. And then she met my dad who was going to MIT he is an engineer also and they got married and she never went back to South Africa. I mean, she went back later for a to live for a while, but that was long after the kids were gone. So yeah, she was kind of a mold breaker for her time. For sure, she was more likely leading a protest march or playing her guitar at some hootenanny or something. Yeah.

Daniela SM: 29:50

That's fun, that's good. I guess it's so beautiful when our parents teach us beautiful things, especially generosity and gratitude, and your siblings are similar to you.

Glen Van Peski: 30:02

No, I am kind of the black sheep of my family, pretty much. I'm the only one that doesn't currently play a musical instrument. I was in the band when I was in high school, junior high and high school. Never really good at music, and that's a big part of my brothers and sisters lives still Well, I guess, to them. I'm living the alternative lifestyle. I'm the only one to graduate from college, only one to graduate from a traditional high school. So they've taken different paths. My sister has a farm. She does flower essences, sells them online and has a farm where she raises sheep and goats in Massachusetts. My brother went to Wooden Boat Institute. He's been a builder of boats and houses and buildings different lives. He lives in Maine.

Daniela SM: 30:55

Wow, yeah, oh, that's interesting. It's always interesting how siblings are different. They say that, even though they have the same parents, they didn't really, because they were at different times and there were different situations, so they were not really the same parents.

Glen Van Peski: 31:13

That's true, and you have to think, I don't know, looking at our kids, there's things beyond just the raw genetics and even the time and situation of the upbringing. I mean, there's just people have certain, seem to have certain innate bents and abilities and personalities.

Daniela SM: 31:32

Yeah, yeah, interesting. Let's talk about your book, because I can see it on the back there.

Glen Van Peski: 31:36

Yeah, the name is Take Less, do More. Surprising Life Lessons in Generosity, gratitude and Curiosity from an Ultralight Backpacker. That's been a fun adventure. It's been something I never thought I would do. And the basic premises you know as I worked for. And the basic premise is, you know, as I worked for 50 years to reduce my backpacking pack weight, I realized that a lot of those lessons had applicability to other areas of life besides just backpacking. So it's been interesting to me getting feedback from the book how it goes both ways. You know people. Some people pick it up because they're backpackers and they know me because I started gosh McGeer and they've found valuable lessons for the rest of their life. But some people pick it up through other circumstances. They're not backpackers, um, and they enjoy the life lessons, but it also gets them thinking about and they enjoy the life lessons, but it also gets them thinking about I wonder. I kind of want to do some backpacking now. So it really has been cutting both ways. It's kind of an interesting thing to see.

Daniela SM: 32:44

And what is the difference? I mean traveling with backpacking or traveling.

Glen Van Peski: 32:49

On a backpacking trip per se, you have problems to solve that you don't have when you're traveling. Like you're traveling. You're going to an Airbnb or something like that. So you're not worried about finding a place to set up your tent. You're not worried about carrying your food. You can buy something when you get there. You can go out to a restaurant. You don't have to figure out how to cook something. You're probably not worried about bears or uh, worried about squirrels stealing your food or things like that. So, backpacking trip, you have additional problems to solve besides just traveling. But I think some of the benefits of taking less accrue either way. You know, if you, I just a buddy of mine just got back from the Himalayas but his luggage is still in India, there's some problem there. Well, if you get your luggage down to where it's just carry on, well then your luggage is always with you, so you don't have lost luggage. So that's one immediate benefit.

Daniela SM: 33:53

I think that's the main one, and then the other ones, that you don't have to worry about carrying stuff or that it's not like a burden. What I noticed in the last five months that we've been traveling is that, oh, we could do this. And then I start thinking, oh God, but the luggage?

Glen Van Peski: 34:12

I haven't done six months. I've done two months in Europe. That involved hiking. We had to go to the opera, we were riding bikes, paddling canoes, and I did that in one very small bag.

Daniela SM: 34:23

So if you're going in summer, everything is super easy. Everything is light, everything is small. Yeah, and so about your book. How long did it take you to write it?

Glen Van Peski: 34:32

It was about a couple of year process, about a 10 year process if you count being bugged about it. So part of my story is Gossamer Gear. The gear company started getting bigger and bigger and bigger and it got to where I was working yeah, 60, 70 hours a week on my engineering business and another 30 hours a week on the gear business with small kids at home. It's like okay, well, this can't continue, obviously, and I was getting paid well for the engineering and it wasn't taking any money from the gear business. So I thought, okay, I'm going to have to close it down. But about that time I met John Mackey, the co-founder of Whole Foods Market, and he bought 75% of the company and hired someone to run it.

Glen Van Peski: 35:17

So I'm still involved in the company, but it wouldn't have survived if John Mackey hadn't stepped in at that point. He does a lot of hiking, a lot of trips, and he likes to invite along people that he enjoys spending time with. And so I started doing a lot of trips hiking with John and he likes doing the hardcore backpacking trips, you know, on the Appalachian Trail or the Continental Divide or the Pacific Crest Trail. But he also likes kind of more of a pilgrimage trip. You know where you're walking all day, but you're staying in a town at night in a little hotel or in a hut, so he does both types of trips, spent a lot of time walking with John.

Glen Van Peski: 35:54

He's a big gear guy. So we'd end up talking about gear and he'd say, glenn, you should write a book. I think there's plenty of books out there. I don't really think I need to add my two cents. And he says no, no, no. He says you know, you have a unique way of looking at things. I think you need to write a book and I'll write the forward Next year. I'd be on a hike with him. He goes how's that book going? You know, I don't think I need to write a book. And then he started telling his friends, hey, yeah, glenn's going to write a book. And so I'd be walking with one of them and say, hey, I hear John says you're working on a book. No, I'm not working on a book.

Daniela SM: 36:28

Anyway, I finally decided well, Good strategy.

Glen Van Peski: 36:31

John Mackey did write a very generous forward to the book, so definitely delivered on his end of it. Was it difficult? It was difficult. You know it would have been a lot shorter book. Basically there's one chapter that is focused on kind of how I think about gear and backpacking and things like that. That would have been the whole book, I guess at that point if I'd just written the book on that. But along the way I realized that, you know, I think it has broader applications, some of the lessons I learned. So I expanded it to other lessons, trying to draw from the wilderness lessons and the gear lessons and applying those elsewhere in life. So it was a fun process. It was definitely. You know you talked about. We were talking about Toastmasters and kind of learning new things and going outside your comfort zone. And this book was definitely outside my comfort zone and, frankly, being on these podcasts is outside my comfort zone.

Daniela SM: 37:24

Really, I thought you were excited to be here.

Glen Van Peski: 37:28

I know, I know it's been a lot more fun than I thought, proud of how the book turned out, which is because of a lot of experts involved in it. But the most fun has been the people I've met along the way and the fascinating things they're doing. You know, after our like initial conversation, you know, and hearing about your travels all over the world, I mean that really got me thinking like gosh. I wonder if that would be fun to do.

Daniela SM: 37:54

I wonder if I could get a bigger suitcase. Didn't you say that?

Glen Van Peski: 37:57

No, no, no, I don't need a bigger suitcase. I'm convinced of that. I'm convinced of that. But you know, I've become friends with some of the people on the at Forefront Books. In fact, I was just talking to one the other day and she, she's leaving in a week or two to go live in France for a year. I thought, oh my gosh, how cool is that? That's amazing.

Daniela SM: 38:19

So I inspire you a little bit. Yeah, that's great.

Glen Van Peski: 38:22

Yeah, you do.

Daniela SM: 38:24

Yes, talking to people that are not in your circle, necessarily, again, everybody has a story. We don't believe that our story is fun enough for the other person it is, and you never know what you spark on the other person to do. I think that it is wonderful that you wrote that book and also the cover is beautiful.

Glen Van Peski: 38:41

It's a picture from you from which trip it was actually a company retreat we were doing in Zermatt. They just snapped that that's like an iPhone picture of me hiking in front of the Matterhorn.

Daniela SM: 38:53

So it's great that you have written the book and that you are going on podcasts and sharing your story, and your personality is amazing. You also are a very kind and generous person, so the book matches perfectly the title that you put in there.

Glen Van Peski: 39:05

I am donating all profits from the book. I'm not going to make a dime from the book, it's a way to just pass it on.

Daniela SM: 39:18

Did the Pacific Crest Trail Association you know, the Pacific Crest Trail runs through California, Oregon and Washington, goes between Mexico and Canada. Well, Glen, thank you so much for your story and for your time. I really appreciate it and we will put all in the show notes how to get your book description of everything.

Glen Van Peski: 39:28

Great Well, thanks so much for having me. It's fun to be inspired by someone living a life of adventure.

Daniela SM: 39:34

Thank you. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I am Daniela and you are listening to, because Everyone has a Story. Please take five seconds right now and think of somebody in your life that may enjoy what you just heard, or someone that has a story to be shared and preserved. When you think of that person, shoot them a text with the link of this podcast. This will allow the ordinary magic to go further. Join me next time for another story conversation. Thank you for listening. Hasta pronto.