Most of us have done this: We see something interesting on social media and decide to try it, buy it or go see it.
Bob Salem took that to a whole new level — 14,115 feet, to be exact. He saw that the Manitou Springs Heritage Center and Museum wanted someone to carry on the daffy tradition of pushing a peanut up Pikes Peak with his or her nose.
MSHC Board President Michael Maio had posted about how cool it would be to recreate the stunt as part of Manitou’s 150th anniversary celebration.
“I just simply typed in, ‘I’ll do it.’ And he was surprised. I was surprised,” Salem said, laughing, on Monday, July 18.
The 53-year-old Colorado Springs resident spoke to the Bulletin between interviews with Canadian, Australian and German media.
The Peanut Pusher labors on the last few feet of his journey.
In real life, Salem is a stay-at-home dad and the district chief of a national nonprofit called Together and Home at Last, which works to end homelessness.
Saturday, July 9, his first day on Barr Trail, was so hot he had to stop, recuperate from leg cramps and revise his plan for tackling the 11-mile journey.
“I hiked back up to where I left off and I did it at night because it was cooler. About two hours after the sun came up and it started to get hot, I just walked back down the mountain, rested at home and came back the next day,” he explained.
The original plan was for his wife to accompany him, but she had to take care of their 12-year-old son, who’d gotten sick.
So, for most of the quest, he would take his backpack, with water and food inside, ahead on the trail, then go back to where he left off and resume pushing the peanut with the contraption strapped to his face. Occasionally, hikers would come along and he’d ask for help with moving his backpack.
“I thought I was going to do this in, like, three days, because I was kind of dumb,” Salem said. Officially, he was aiming for July 17.
He took the precaution of coating peanuts with silicone since the shells are so fragile, but he still used more than two dozen in his trek to the summit.
Salem reached his goal around sunrise Friday, July 15, and then a ceremony took place at 10 a.m. Bystanders cheered as he received letters from the cities of Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs.
What kept him going?
“Not having to push a peanut anymore was a really good incentive,” Salem said.
For days afterward, he was craving protein and went out for a steak, along with three roast beef sandwiches at other times.
“I just could not stop eating,” he said.
This was Salem’s first time on Barr Trail, but it won’t be his last. He and his wife plan to hike it Saturday, July 23.
And no, they won’t take along any peanuts.