July 12, 2003   Miles Today : 0 Total Miles : 0

I don’t know how many people read these journals, or how much of them they read, but I do know one person that has read every single entry – my grandfather, William “Bumpy” Butler.

I always had a good relationship with my grandparents on my mothers side, but our typical conversation always seemed to revolve around the same topics: work, home and love interests. We kept each other up to date on things, but we rarely had in-depth conversations. Then, just over two years ago, my grandmother died of a stroke. Of course a ton of things went through my head, but the one that I didn’t expect was regret. I never really shared anything of great importance with Nana, and all of a sudden I felt like our conversations were just so much small talk.

This is far from the actual truth of the matter, but her death did make me realize that I hadn’t shared nearly enough with my grandparents in those semi-regular conversations. The fortunate thing about this revelation that I had was that it appeared Bumpy had the same one. We spoke more often after Nana died and talked about more than how things were going.

One of the things that we had really never talked about was my love for backpacking and the outdoors. When I told him that all of my journals were online, he immersed himself in them. We had some conversations about the places that I have been and how much I really love being in the backcountry.

He would always tell me how much he enjoyed my writing and how he was excited at how much I was excited about a given trip. And this was not just small talk – he got it, he understood my love for this maybe better than any other non-hiker. This meant a lot, not just coming from my grandfather, but from a man that I respect. He came from nothing, started a business (which is still in operation), married his true love and had a successful marriage for over 50 years, taught himself how to read and use a computer, and most of all loved life.

On Saturday, July 12th, Bumpy finally lost a 12-year fight with cancer. He handled that challenge like every other challenge in his life, with 100% effort and all of his energy. For most of those 12 years he lived a completely normal life, and never missed a round of golf. Mercifully, the cancer caught up with him quickly and he was not confined to the hospital for long. It moved so quickly, in fact, that he never knew just how bad the cancer had gotten.

So I dedicate this journal to William “Bumpy” Butler, my grandfather and biggest fan. Thank you, Bumpy, for the last two years. Thanks for reading all of my ramblings and for understanding my passion. I can only hope to be as happy and successful in my life as you were in yours.

-Tim Scott

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