All He Wanted Was a $235 Grubstake

How a Visit to a Eugene Newspaper’s Features Editor Launched a Writing Career for William ‘Bill’ Sullivan, Who Went on to Become Oregon’s Preeminent Trail Guide

By DEAN REA/Chief Correspondent/The Herald

The young man made an appointment, took a seat in my office and made a pitch to grubstake a walk across Oregon.

William “Bill” Sullivan said he needed $235 (mostly for food and a bus ticket home from Hells Canyon) to make the 1,361-mile trek. He agreed to write three articles about his two-month experience for the features section of The Register-Guard, which I edited.

(Editor’s note: Please see Sullivan’s story below on Diamond Peak — an example of his widely praised outdoor writing that he contributed at no charge for the inaugural edition of The Herald.)

As Bill recalls his visit to my office four decades later:

“You offered to pay the entire amount on the condition that I write three articles about the trek. I was dumbfounded. The most I had ever earned for an article was $50.

“But that 3-part series enabled me to get the story on the cover of Oregon Magazine, and that enabled me to get the story on the cover of Sierra Magazine (with a circulation of a quarter-million), and that enabled my agent to put the book up for auction to 16 New York publishers, one who offered a preemptive

bid for the unheard-of amount of $15K. That was more money than I had earned in my life, combined. Whew!”

Bill, who pictured himself as a full-time author rather than as a high school English teacher, had a book in mind when he began making this epic hike across Oregon in 1981.

During the solo backpacking trip, Sullivan was held at gunpoint by a marijuana grower, poisoned himself with mushrooms and hiked 40 miles a day through Hells Canyon trying to outrun October snowstorms.

He and his wife Janell Sorensen, a preschool teacher, had scrimped enough savings together to stake their future on the book based on this trek, “Listening for Coyote,” which was published in 1988. The book was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and earned the $15,000 advance that fueled his writing future.

Bill, who appears to be genuinely interested in everyone he meets, has been hiking since the age of five. Over the years he has walked most of the public trails in Oregon and has written detailed books about most of them.

He has written and published books that describe 500 hiking trails and that are beautifully illustrated with photographs. Bill updates these hiking guides and draws maps of each trail to help make sure you don’t get lost in the middle of nowhere.

No doubt in my mind that Bill has hiked more of Oregon than any person who has ever set foot in the state since the beginning of time.

The Sullivans, who live in Eugene, have traveled widely sharing illustrated shows and talks about their hiking adventures and their interest in wilderness conservation.

They spend most summers at their log cabin in an isolated area along the Siletz River in the Oregon Coast Range. There he also writes. That includes six novels, three books on Oregon travel and adventure, two books on Oregon history and two adventure memoirs. My favorite is “Cabin Fever: Notes From a Part-Time Pioneer.”

This intrepid adventurer also serves as an advocate for libraries large and small and has been a leader at the Round Table Club of Eugene.

I suspect you will notice that Bill has submitted an outdoor feature for publication in this initial Highway 58 Herald. Granted, I invited him to help launch this on-line publication. I also know that he’s interested in the health and welfare of the Highway 58 community, which he visits while gathering information for the books he writes.

All of which reminds me about the importance of a grubstake.

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member and senior writer for The Herald.