From Wyoming to Easter Island: The adventures of Jeff Pearson

For some people, “retirement” means slowing down. For Jeff Pearson, it means just having more time to explore the world.

At 75, Pearson has paddled remote coastlines, crossed Wyoming on horseback and backpacked most of Wyoming’s mountains. His adventures have taken him from the Big Horns to New Zealand, from Montana’s Missouri Breaks to the mysteries of Easter Island.

Pearson’s journey began in Lovell, where he graduated from high school in 1968. During his years at the University of Wyoming, he spent his summers with the U.S. Forest Service, digging trails, fighting fires and developing a lasting love for the outdoors. Encouraged by a circle of geology student friends, he became increasingly immersed in wilderness life and, in 1973, graduated with a business degree he had no immediate plans to use.

It was photographs of New Zealand’s rugged landscapes that pushed Pearson across the globe. After graduation, he saved enough money for a ticket south, finding work through local contacts. He spent six months living and working in New Zealand, launching a five-year stretch of “knocking around” that included backpacking, uranium exploration work and perhaps most famously riding horseback across Wyoming in 1976 to celebrate the nation’s Bicentennial.

That trip, with a friend, began near Laramie Peak and wound through the Shirley Basin, across the length of the Wind Rivers and across Shoshone Pass. For nearly 100 days, Pearson and his companions traveled with three pack horses, resupplying only every couple of weeks.

“I’ve seen the Wind Rivers from one end to the other,” Pearson said with a smile. “It’s a very special country.”

When the ride ended, Pearson spent a snowbound winter as a watchman for a remote Wyoming ranch, then went “ski bumming” across the West and into Canada. By 1977, he had settled down back in Lovell to work at First National Bank and eventually becoming a certified financial planner.

He joked, “This is the worst place in the world to be a financial planner; nobody has any money.” But that left him with plenty of time to study the markets and make smart investments of his own, enough to live comfortably. Looking back, we probably all should have been knocking on his door in the 1980s and ’90s.

In 1990, Jeff slowed down long enough to marry Christine Skinner, beginning a wonderful new chapter in his life. They traveled widely, to Spain, Alaska, Canada, the Caribbean and countless destinations across the American West and cherished annual trips to their “home away from home” in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Jeff also introduced Chris, a self-described flatlander, to his passion for the local outdoors, sharing with her the beauty of Wyoming’s mountains and desert country. She brought her three sons into the marriage. 

The joy in his storytelling then changed into deep emotion as Jeff told me about a 2006 car accident that left Christine with severe spinal injuries, nearly paralyzed and in constant pain. Despite the challenges, her spirit remained unbroken, and she continued to travel whenever possible. In 2014, at age 64, she died from cancer unrelated to the accident, leaving a legacy of courage and grace. Pearson remains close to her three sons and five grandchildren.

“They all call me Grandpa,” he said. “They’re not step-grandkids in my eyes.”

Despite his grief, Pearson never stopped exploring. He has kayaked the Johnson Strait off Vancouver Island and paddled parts of the Missouri River following the ghosts of Lewis and Clark. He’s rafted the length of the Grand Canyon a few times and hiked countless mountain miles on his own. He’s grateful for a circle of friends spanning more than 50 years, and for his grandchildren, who often join him on new adventures.

Our conversation turned to our shared love of long-distance running, “much cheaper than drug rehab,” we joked and to great adventure books. We talked about “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer and “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” by Aron Ralston, and Jeff recommended two titles by Kevin Fedarko: “The Emerald Mile” and “A Walk in the Park” that I’ve added to my “must read” list.

Pearson beamed as he spoke of his passion for adventure history, proudly calling himself a “Lewis and Clark freak.” He described his ongoing effort to trace the entire Lewis and Clark Trail by car, boat or by foot all the way west to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, he has read most of the explorers’ diaries and numerous histories of the expedition.

Not limiting his travels to the Mountain West, Pearson recently spent three and a half weeks exploring Chile and Argentina with Overseas Adventure Travel, a journey that included a visit to Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

“Easter Island blew me away,” he said. “The story of how those people arrived there, 2,000 miles from anywhere, is incredible.”

Jeff has eased his pace as he endures the frustrations of knee replacement surgery and its painful physical therapy. He says that has given him more time to plan his next great outing and sharing Wyoming’s beauty with old friends. Each year, they reunite somewhere in the West, and next summer it will be in cabins above Dubois.

“We’re all 75 to 80 now,” he said, “so we do it out of a pickup with short hikes. But we’re still out there.”

I asked Pearson for advice to a young person about living adventurously, and he didn’t hesitate: “If you can get your toe into it, it’ll change your life. You have to have the desire and the freedom of spirit. It doesn’t have to be expensive.”

For Pearson, adventure isn’t about checking destinations off a list, it’s about building a life rich with family, great experiences, friendships and stories worth telling. And if someday he “craters” while watching a Wyoming sunset from a favorite backcountry spot, well, he thinks that wouldn’t be a bad way to go.

“I’ve had a great run,” Pearson said, eyes bright. “No, not everything’s been perfect. But I’ve made my efforts, and I have very few regrets. That’s a good way to live.”