Baxter man with cochlear implants hikes 500 miles in memory of departed friend

Brady Geilenfeldt was 900 miles away from his hometown of Baxter, embarking on one of the most challenging journeys of his life, but even when the rugged terrain, lonely nights and intense feats of mental endurance tested him on his 500-mile hike of the Colorado Trail, he could feel the presence of his loved ones.

When he sat down for a campsite dinner after a difficult 30-mile day and enjoyed a rehydrated freeze-dried meal prepared by family members, the warmth of that home-cooked platter of biscuits and gravy or cheesy breakfast scramble very easily brightened his spirits. Nothing better than the tastes of home.

When the aches and pains were almost too much to bear, pressuring Geilenfeldt to just give up and call it quits, he was reminded of the person who inspired him to make the long trek to begin with. There were times he could hear the voice of his college roommate and dear friend, Ethan Rhodig, telling him, “Keep going!”

It was just like when they would work out at the gym and Geilenfeldt was on the verge of giving up on that last rep. Keep going! There was no way Rhodig, a classic “gym rat,” would let him get away with that. Keep going! Similarly, Rhodig would have never let his roommate quit at any point on the trail. Keep going!

“I was summiting my first fourteener, which is a mountain that’s 14,000 feet, and I was just talking to him,” Geilenfeldt said. “I was telling him, ‘I’m doing it! I’m thinking about you, my mom, my grandparents.’ It felt like everyone in my life was there with me in that moment as I was going up that mountain.”

By the time he met up with and accompanied a group of fellow hikers and reached the end of the trail one month later, Geilenfeldt was welcomed and embraced by those same loved ones who supported him. He left the trail exhausted and accomplished, and ready to take on the next challenge.

To keep going.

THE FIRST STEPS TO A LONG JOURNEY

Geilenfeldt, 23, graduated from the Baxter Community School District in 2018 before studying industrial technology at Iowa State University, earning his degree in 2022. For the past two months, he has lived in Denver, Colo. Prior to the hike, he held a job as an engineer at Vermeer, all the while saving his money.

“I knew I wanted to relocate to Colorado, and went into that job knowing that; I also knew I wanted to do this trail,” he said. The idea to go on a backpacking trip on the Colorado Trail came to him in spring. “I looked up ones to do in Colorado, and that one pulled up as one of the most difficult ones to do.”

The Colorado Trail is considered “one of the nation’s premier long-distance hiking trails,” spanning from Denver to Durango. The trail is home to more than eight mountain ranges, five river systems, six national forests and six wilderness areas. The trail’s length and altitude can take hikers up to six weeks to finish.

Comprised of 33 segments that range in length from 9.8 miles to 32.9 miles and elevations between 1,447 feet to 6,122 feet, the trail would certainly pose a formidable challenge for Geilenfeldt. Even with a few “practice” hikes under his belt, it would be difficult to prepare for this month-long journey.

Telling family members of his plan to quit Vermeer — a longtime manufacturer with more than 3,000 employees — and go on a 500-mile hiking trip went over rather well, all things considered. But his mother, Cami Wright, initially thought to herself: “What the hell? Are you serious? How are you going to do that?”

Saving up $1,200 for the trip itself and about $15,000 for the relocation to Colorado was a good starting point. But thinking about the logistics of how her son, who is deaf and has cochlear implants, would hike such a long distance on unsteady ground only made Wright nervous. Is this really safe?

Geilenfeldt did his best trying to answer most of her questions. Still, Wright knew her boy was headstrong. No amount of protest would stop him.

“I just knew this was something that I wanted to do,” Geilenfeldt said. “I wanted to challenge myself further than I had before in my life.”

ALL ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS

Geilenfeldt was no stranger to outdoor activities. He and his buddies embarked on a week-long canoeing trip on the Boundary Waters in Minnesota in college, and he would frequently go camping with family members as a kid. But nothing to the extent of the Colorado Trail.

“The longest backpacking trip I did was a shakedown hike before I started the trail, and what was about 20 miles over three days,” Geilenfeldt said.

His mother added, “And it was two weeks before the trail.”

Which probably did not help to ease some of his family’s concerns about the Colorado trip. But Geilenfeldt allowing relatives to track his movements through an app on his phone certainly did. Of course there was some worry when they noticed he took a detour over a mountain.

Hiking the Colorado wilderness areas with little to no light pollution gave him the perfect view of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Perseids meteor shower. When the sun was just below the horizon, Geilenfeldt could see the massive silhouettes of the mountains while walking on the ridge of a mountain.

“We got to the high point of the Colorado Trail right as the sun was coming up the mountain,” Geilenfeldt recalled with a wide smile. “It was so sick!”

Starting out, Geilenfeldt forced himself to hike solo about 10 miles a day. In hindsight he regretted going so slow in the beginning, and if he could do it again he would have picked up the pace. Eventually he did, and the pace would only increase when he met a group of people to tagalong with about halfway through.

Over time his fellow hikers would ask him: “Why are you doing this trail?”

It’s a sensible question. No “normal” person takes on a 500-mile challenge without a good reason.

“Everyone has a reason of why they’re out there,” Geilenfeldt said. “And if you don’t have that reason, then you’re probably not going to finish the trip.

“You have to have a reason to push yourself.”

FROM STUDENT TO MENTOR TO ROLE MODEL

Before Geilenfeldt set out on the trail, he made sure to pack the essentials and make preparations to refill on supplies. In his backpackwere a few changes of clothes (washed in nearby streams), a sleeping pad, a tent and a cooking stove with a small butane fuel tank, among other things.

Food was always a source that needed resupplied in nearby towns. Geilenfeldt got sick of oatmeal pretty quick and switched to Pop-Tarts. Protein bars and granola bars and tuna packets offered quick boosts. And he can’t even remember how many Snickers bars he went through on the trip.

He also brought with him a portable phone charger that could also be used to recharge his cochlear implants, which he’s had since he was a kid.

Cochlear implants are surgically implanted devices that improve hearing for people who have severe hearing loss. Oftentimes Geilenfeldt would wear them while sleeping because it would get too cold and compromise the disposable batteries in the external portion.

Geilenfeldt also volunteers at a week-long camp for kids who are deaf and hard of hearing called the Listen CI Camp. He, too, grew up going to the camp, which offers opportunities for children with cochlear implants to participate in activities they may not regularly get a chance to do.

Conquering the trail was a way for Geilenfeldt to extend his role as a camp mentor, and prove a person who is deaf or hard of hearing can do many things.

Families have since reached out to Geilenfeldt saying they now have kids with cochlear implants that want to go out for sports as a result of his hike. Which is precisely the outcome Geilenfeldt was hoping for; he wanted to show kids that a disability is not going to limit them for what they want to do in life.

“Just because you’re deaf doesn’t mean you can’t do something,” he said. “I got messages while I was on trail, and that kind of helped me push myself further.”

Betty Peterson, his grandmother and Wright’s mother, said Geilenfeldt has always been an amazing kid, and now he’s an amazing young man.

“We know he can do amazing things,” she said.

MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PAINS

The exhaustion of hiking 30-mile days almost made Geilenfeldt delusional during some parts of the trip, so much so he questioned whether he truly saw a herd of sheep in the middle of the mountain. Conquering the mental aspects of the hike was almost as difficult to overcome as it was climbing a mountain.

“Your body hurts so much, and you just have to push past it and question whether if I’m actually about to hurt myself or if I am just sore,” Geilenfeldt said.

Succumbing to self-doubt was a real possibility. But Geilenfeldt could not bear the idea of going all this way and putting in all this effort to just fail. He didn’t want to let himself down or the people who cared him. It almost motivated him, in a way, to keep going. Which is hard to do when you’re alone for four to five days.

“It was complete solitude, and that was honestly the point where I learned the most about myself,” he said. “It’s good to have those points alone, but really it’s best when done with people. I found that group after that point, and it was really cool to be able to talk with them and see they went through the same stuff.”

Wright said her son had to prepare for the physical aspects of the hike, too. Because he is deaf, Geilenfeldt “does not really have a vestibular system,” which is a sensory system that provides individuals with a sense of balance. Oftentimes people with hearing loss experience some form of vestibular dysfunction.

“He had a huge challenge in learning to walk, to run, to ride a bike, to do any kind of gross motor activity when he was younger,” Wright said, noting that it still has an effect on him to this day because he had to go to physical therapy a month or two before going on the trail.

Geilenfeldt said therapy, too, was a challenge because it showed him the imbalances he had in his body. The muscle imbalance was evident by his left leg shaking just from doing a single-leg squat; the patellar tendon was over-compensating and was causing him pain.

He began to doubt if he’d ever be able to hike the trail at all.

“Am I even going to be physically able to do this? To be able to stay healthy and live a life to be active when I’m 30? That was a worry as well,” Geilenfeldt said. “So I worked my butt off to actually have the muscles built up to the point where I could actually do this.”

Geilenfeldt was born with congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) and went through occupational therapy before he entered kindergarten. Wright said even then he did not have great balance as a kid and had a terrible time running; he couldn’t walk on an uneven surface without falling.

“I remember trick-or-treating with him when he was a child holding onto his hand and walking on uneven surfaces with a mask on,” Wright said. “And he was falling the whole time. And I’m like, ‘Are you ever going to be able to walk?’ So, yeah… Then he climbed a mountain.”

COMMEMORATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF A FRIEND

There was another reason Geilenfeldt wanted to take on this hike. The death of his friend and roommate two years into college came as a shock. As a fellow engineering student, Ethan Rhodig and Geilenfeldt were in many classes together and participated in the same activities.

Rhodig, 20, died on June 14, 2020, while training for a triathlon. The ISU student is remembered as “an avid cyclist, runner, swimmer and all-around fitness fanatic,” which Geilenfeldt confirmed after going to the gym with him numerous times. Rhodig enjoyed being active and outdoors and challenging himself.

Knowing that, Geilenfeldt felt even more motivation to follow through with his plan and complete the trail in commemoration of his friend.

“I’m going to do this in remembrance of him and being able to, I guess, in a way, heal from it,” Geilenfeldt said. “To be able to really have some solace. He was my friend and he taught me a lot. I realized through the trail that he really made a big impact on my life, and he’ll never be forgotten.”

While on the trail, Geilenfeldt would think about Rhodig, his philosophy on life and the legacy he unknowingly left behind.

Family members have since established and sponsored the Ethan A. Rhodig Memorial Triathlon, which has been going strong the past three years. In addition to awards being given out to the top three finishers in each age group for men and women, the event also presents the Spirit of Ethan Anderson Rhodig Award.

“He really did leave an impact on me,” Geilenfeldt said. “To the point where I decided I’m going to walk 500 miles. And it showed me how much support I’ve gotten throughout my life and how much support Ethan gave me throughout college, even just in our basic classes.

“I wanted to carry on Ethan’s legacy of pushing yourself farther than you ever thought you could … Now, after doing this, my question to myself is:

“What else can I do?”