Man Crosses Country on Foot, Loses 100 Pounds

May 9, 2006 — -- He's gone through 14 pairs of sneakers and 50 pairs of socks. He's had stress fractures and blisters.

But after a year spent walking across the country, Steve Vaught has gone 2,800 miles, lost 100 pounds and tried to find himself.

"For me, the scales, the miles, they mean nothing," he said as he closed in on his finish line, the George Washington Bridge that connects New Jersey and New York. "It's been the journey, it's been this experience that has really counted, really mattered."

Vaught, 40, is from Oceanside, Calif., where he said he left a supportive wife and two great kids.

But he was also running from his ghosts. Fifteen years ago, driving into a brilliant California sunset, he ran over and killed an elderly couple. He spent 10 days in jail and years in deep depression.

He drifted from job to job. The family finances dwindled. His weight spiraled to 410 pounds. He referred to himself as Forrest Lump. Co-workers gave him a hard time about seeming listless and sitting down too much.

"When something like that happens to you," he said as he passed Teaneck, N.J., "you think you can wrap your mind around it and move on. And you can't without help. I just descended to a point where I didn't care. If someone stole my car, I didn't care. If I ballooned to 410 pounds, I didn't care."

One night he finally decided to walk it off. His wife, April, was eager enough to see him better that she agreed to back him.

Vaught acknowledged he did not plan his trip very carefully. He wound up crossing the deserts of California and Arizona in the heat of summer and the Midwest plains in the dead of winter. He stayed in cheap motels when he could afford it, which was not every night. Many days, he said, he was more depressed than he had been back home.

"I think that most Americans want this to be a simple thing," he said. "You leave San Diego sort of Rodney Dangerfield. You wake up in New York, you're George Clooney, and everything's perfect. But that's not the real world."