The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Retracing the footsteps of THE LEATHERMAN
New Haven man following path through Conn. of fabled itinerant
NORTH HAVEN — An accomplished British long-distance runner on spring break from Quinniapiac University is toward the end of a feat only a few have completed: retracing the steps of Connecticut’s fabled Leatherman.
Lee-Stuart Evans, 42, planned to hike for a week along a 365-mile loop that began in Ossining, N.Y. on March 13, and will take him through 41 Connecticut towns.
Speaking by phone while 4 miles north of North Haven on Wednesday, Evans, who has been written about by many media outlets, revealed exclusively to Hearst Connecticut Media his intention to create a race course along the entire route.
It’s a formidable challenge that will surely excite avid runners who would relish the opportunity to participate. It would also include shorter distances, he said.
The anniversary of the day the Leatherman died was Wednesday — when Evans had originally planned to finish. His route is taking a bit longer, he said Wednesday afternoon, 100 miles behind schedule due to an injury on his left shin, which he suspects may be a stress fracture, possibly cutting Evans’ journey short.
“I’m taking some painkillers and strapping my leg up, so we’ll see what happens,” he said. Meanwhile, he’s nursing the injury and adjusting his schedule for shorter daily miles and more rest time. He hopes to complete
his mission by Saturday morning.
Evans, a master’s degree candidate in education, originally from Guildford, a large town in Surrey, England, is living in New Haven on a 2-year visa.
The Leatherman was known for the leather clothes he made by hand, which he wore on the annual loop he traveled for six years, said Evans, who paused in his conversation every two minutes to check his phone for where to turn along the way.
Evans, also a pilot, diver and TEDx speaker, will only cover 1 percent of the 24,000 miles the Leatherman walked in his lifetime.
He was inspired by a time out running trails when he came across a note on a map that said “Leatherman cave.”
“I just assumed it was a tannery. Of course, what you do is go on Wikipedia and 10 hours later, you fall out the other side of a conundrum within a mystery. And the more you dig, the less you know,” he said.
“When he got to Branford, he’d go straight north, all the way to North Haven and Mt. Carmel, where Sleeping Giant is, and then avoid New Haven,” Evans said, of the Leatherman.
From about 1857 to 1889, the Leatherman, whose identity was incorrectly was said to be Jules Bourglay of Lions, France, was “an unknown vagabond,” Evans wrote his The Air Land and Sea blog.
The Leatherman’s route encompassed 41 towns in Connecticut: Ridgefield, Redding, Danbury, Woodbury, Watertown, Thomaston, Terryville, Bridgewater, Waterbury, Bristol, Forestville, New Britain, Berlin, Old Saybrook, Guilford, Branford, East Haven, New Haven, Stratford, Bridgeport, Trumbull, Norwalk, New Canaan, Stamford, Greenwich, Somers, Derby, Woodbridge, Naugatuck, Hamden, Southington, Burlington, Middletown, Meriden, Portland and Wilton. And in New York State: Brewster, North Salem, White Plains, Armonk, Chappaqua, Ossining, Bedford Hills, Pound Ridge, Yorktown, Peekskill, and Georgetown.
Evans said the only true and unbiased account of the local legend is “The Old Leather Man” by the late Dan W. Deluca, a former Meriden Record-Journal reporter.
“He was [5 feet, 7 inches tall], blue eyes, about 11 stone (154 pounds), the same description for me. I naturally see some of the parallels,” said Evans, who stopped for pizza in Salem the other day. He knew he was quite a vision for patrons there “with leggings on and a strange accent. As I sat down and people were looking at me, I felt quite uncomfortable.
“It dawned on me that must have been exactly how it felt for him. He was almost a freak show, but he’s not a freak at all, he’s just a product of his environment,” Evans said.
The Leatherman eventually died of mouth cancer, attributed to chewing tobacco. “Trail life defined him but also killed him,” Evans said.
Evans has discovered the Leatherman camped in caves close to water. He’s found flat stones he supposed the legend used for a table, and big piles of logs he used to stave off the brutal cold.
Evans has a theory about the Leatherman. “This isn’t a crazy man with a bottle of cider shouting at the pigeons in the park. This was a very adept man living in a very peaceful way. His beard was reasonably well-cut, he had a snuff bag, he always seemed relatively washed, incredibly meticulous,” he said.
The Leatherman, who avoided eye contact and talking, didn’t like to have his photo taken. “I would say there are lots of pointers there that might have been autistic, but I’m not a psychologist,” said Evans who has taken courses on teaching students with special needs.
“I feel like this is your first analog social media celebrity. He was #leatherman. There was an enormous hubbub, despite the fact he never said anything and they didn’t know anything about him — they didn’t even know his name,” said Evans, who added that the Leatherman spoke in grunts and very few words.
Evans has been astonished at the views on the trail. “It’s more stunning than anything I’ve seen in the world. It was something … I’m at a loss for words,” he said.
On St. Patrick’s Day evening, East Hampton author and historian Marty Podskoch checked the GPS map and decided he was going to find Evans. “I thought, ‘this is my chance,’” he said.
Podskoch found Evans and a Connecticut Forest & Parks Association volunteer from Berlin “two headlamps in the dark,” walking along Route 66 in Middletown. Podskoch bought him and his companion a meal at Starbucks in Middletown. “What a treat to hear of some of his adventures and his passion for the history of the Leatherman,” he said.
Doe Boyle, who is vice president of the Madison Historical Society, and has had “somewhat of a lifelong fascination” with the Leatherman, said, “What fun to see him coming along — just a lone man with a small backpack and a pair of walking sticks — no entourage, no camera crew, and not a bit unnerved to find a ‘hist-soc’ groupie coming at him with a big grin and a gift bag of trail superfood! “He’s quite an affable guy, I have to say: full of cheer and mountains of information,” Boyle said.
Evans is walking to raise money for three charities — the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Connecticut Forest and Parks Association and Connecticut Cancer Foundation. He’s set up three GoFundMe pages: Leatherman Cancer, Leatherman Trails and Leatherman Home.
For information, including a GPS track of Evans’ travels, visit theairlandandsea.com .