Published January 28, 2005 in the "Daily Advertiser"

EXECUTIVE TRADES WORKAHOLIC ROUTINE
Spears hits hiking trail to find balance

by Claire Taylor
and Sebreana Domingue

LAFAYETTE - A few months ago, Firefly Digital CEO Mike Spears grew tired of living vicariously through others who wrote about their adventures in magazines, and decided to go on an adventure himself.

He's never been to the Appalachian Mountains and, until recently, had never hiked. But Spears decided to shed his workaholic routine, strap on a 65-pound backpack, and spend four months hiking the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail. Alone.

"I need another adventure," Spears said. "Firefly was an adventure. I needed an escape or respite from the busyness I've engaged myself in."

But being the techie that he is, Spears developed a Web site, www.lucky cowboy.org, where others can follow his adventure and live vicariously through his Lucky Cowboy Chronicles.

Lucky Cowboy - Spears' trail name - will post a journal with anecdotes, observations and photographs illustrating his Appalachian Trail hike, recording his physical and psychological condition along the way. He'll be wearing a special watch and heart monitor to track his heartbeat as he ascends and descends the mountains. His medical information will be on the Web site for those interested.

Among those tracking his progress will be students in the Academy of Information Technology at Carencro High School. The academy, whose board Spears chairs, formed a partnership with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Appalachian Trail's governing body.

"This partnership connects three resources that will ultimately result in an Appalachian Trail Encyclopedia," Spears said.

The project will allow the conservancy to use its youth outreach educational department, in conjunction with Carencro High students, to expand its Web site to chronicle Spears' trip, said Kit Becnel, Carencro academy co-director.

Becnel and academy co-director Joel Hilbun will form a team of students to research, write and implement the Appalachian Trail content for the Web site. Students will compete for positions of student CEO, managing editor, graphic designers and more, Becnel said.

They will be using a new Web-based software application developed by Firefly Digital called MIND!SHARE that allows users to create their own search engine, a new way of building content for the Web, Spears said. He and Carencro High senior and academy student Casey Bienvenu - who has been working at Firefly Digital since he was 16 - created the application.

The information will be composed and structured like an encyclopedia, except visitors would find information using keyword searches, similar to Google and Yahoo!, Spears said.

The project has the potential to revolutionize the company's product, put Carencro High in the national spotlight and provide a tremendous resource for hikers on the Appalachian Trail, he said.

Spears expects to begin his adventure March 1, leaving from Springer Mountain, Ga., and concluding 15 states later when he reaches Mount Katahdin, Maine.

The odds are against him: Most of the 2,000 to 3,000 who attempt to hike the trail each year quit before the halfway point. But for Spears, the hike is more than a change of scenery. He said he hopes to reconcile the two sides of his personality: The workaholic perfectionist, which he calls Bizzy Bear, and the playful, easygoing guy - Lucky Cowboy.

At 40, he recognizes the need to balance the two. He spent his young adulthood in the military, then in college, then building Firefly Digital, with little time for fun and adventure.

Spears said he hopes the man who reaches Mount Katahdin, Maine, in May or June will be a better blend of Lucky Cowboy and Bizzy Bear, energized and poised to take on yet another adventure.

For more on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Carencro High School's Academy of Information Technology, visit www.appalachiantrail.org and www.carencrohighschool.org/AOIT.