Ep. 793: Thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail & Walking Across America…Barefoot - Ron Zaleski

Barefoot walking: Marine veteran Ron Zaleski's lifelong commitment to going shoeless since 1972 in honor of his fallen Vietnam squadron members, transforming grief into purpose after a child's question, then thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and walking coast-to-coast barefoot to raise awareness for veterans' challenges.

Back in 1972, Marine veteran Ron Zaleski decided to take off his shoes in honor of the fallen members of his squadron from the Vietnam war. He doesn’t know exactly why not wearing shoes was his answer of how to deal with the grief and guilt but the fact remained that he never put them back on and he had never told anyone why he went barefoot. That is until one day a little boy asked him why he wasn’t wearing shoes…

That boy was the first person Ron had told about why he was living barefoot in over 30 years. Ron immediately saw his dedication to ‘barfootness’ as a way to raise awareness and honor his fallen friends in a much more impactful way. Not long after, Ron set out on a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail and a coast-to-coast walk across the US with no shoes at all to honor and raise awareness for the many challenges veterans face when returning home.

His stories are endless, captivating, and amazingly told.

To learn more about Ron’s story and to buy his book, The Long Walk Home, visit his website, TheLongWalkHome.org, or buy it on Amazon here.

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