‘I don’t smoke on the uphills’: Lazarus Lake walks across America (again)

Gary Cantrell, aka Lazarus Lake or Laz, completed his first trans-continental trek in 2018. He's now attempting his second, but this time against medical advice

Lazarus Lake is shifting in a straight-back chair, searching for the right spot to ease his pinched nerve. After days of steep climbs and steeper descents, the Capon Valley of West Virginia is a welcome oasis. The world is again mercifully flat, if only for a moment. Somewhere out there, the Alleghany mountains lie in wait. But Laz, the mastermind of such grueling endurance tests as the Barkley Marathons and Backyard Ultras, doesn't want to think about that now; the pizzeria is filling up with smoke.

A 20-year-old scurries from the back to apologize while the man sitting next to us is still staring. He's been speechless since Laz told him he'd just walked 17 miles over Timber Ridge to get here. Under a farmer's cap pulled down to his squinty eyes, the man grins, rubs his jaw, and finally says: Come again?"