WARNING: This story contains information about suicide. If you or a loved one are thinking about suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) at 1-800-273-8255. The NSPL provides 24-hour, free support to those in distress, as well as prevention and crisis resources for you or loved ones.
By the time Clinton Baker had reached Franklin, he had walked a long way both in miles and in months.
“I don’t even want to know,” Baker said recently when asked how many miles he has covered on a journey that began in early February and eventually placed him in a room at the Richland Inn in Columbia for a few nights of rest. “I’d say we’re averaging about 20 miles a day.”
Clinton Baker
The math adds up. Baker left Inlet Beach, Fla., on Feb. 2 and made his way across the country to the coast of Washington. Along with his dog, Watonga, a stray he came across in Oklahoma, the two travelers came down the Pacific Coast all the way to southern California. From there they turned east and went back across the country before ending up with family in Nashville just before Thanksgiving, covering a distance of nearly 6,000 miles over the course of about 300 days.
The fact that Baker, a native of New Hampshire who has lived in Florida for the past five years, traveled that far on foot with just $1,500 to begin with and through a pandemic-laden land is, by most measures, quite impressive indeed.
What inspired him to make the arduous walk — and how he ended up staying with a Franklin couple who happened to relate to the purpose of his journey — is rooted in tragedy, but immersed in hopefulness.
Culmination of tragedies
Baker, 46, a carpenter by trade, is walking to bring awareness to suicide prevention, especially for teens and young adults. His decision to do this came as a reaction to trauma Baker has endured over the years.
On New Year’s Eve, just a few weeks before embarking on his journey, Baker had lost a brother to what his family believed was suicide. Two other brothers had previously died, one in a car wreck and the other from liver disease.
And nine years ago, Baker’s 6-month-old son died from what appeared to be sudden infant death syndrome.
The culmination of tragedies finally caught up to him, and right after his youngest brother died by throwing himself from a moving car and breaking his neck, Baker decided to take his own life — and nearly succeeded.
“I was gone,” he said, “and had to be revived and brought back to life.”
Baker had driven into a remote area of Virginia, where he attached a hose to his Jeep’s tailpipe and waited until he lost consciousness. Hikers from a nearby trail found him and took him to a hospital for treatment. He spent three days under mental evaluation, and upon release drove to Florida to begin the walk he knew he had to take.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Vital Statistics Reports, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, with 48,344 suicides reported in the US in 2018.
“I believe God sent me back for this, maybe to repay me for what I did [in attempting suicide],” Baker said. “That’s why I’m back here and I’m walking. Maybe I can save some lives.”
A chance encounter
After spending Thanksgiving with family in Nashville, Baker began walking south with the intention of reaching Key West, Fla., and then turning northward back to his native New Hampshire. He made it to Spring Hill on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and that’s where Franklin resident Alicia Girardeau saw him with his backpack, his sign stating the mission of his walk, and his dog pulling a cart with his supplies.
Clinton Baker and Alicia Girardeau
“It was pretty hard to miss him,” Girardeau said through a post she made on Nextdoor. “After driving past him I continued on for about a mile before pulling over and turning around in a church parking lot. I thought about continuing on, but it just seemed like the right thing to do was to turn around and get this guy’s story.”
With rain in the forecast the next day and possible snow Monday and colder temperatures, Girardeau put out feelers through Nextdoor to see if anyone could put Baker and Watonga up for a night or two. Franklin resident Vickie Johnson (not her real name) saw the request, and immediately contacted Girardeau to let her know she and her husband had a vacant rec room and would be glad to welcome a visitor and his dog.
Vickie knew nothing about his walk and his mission, but soon enough learned that she and Baker shared a bond in having endured tragic loss.
“I was feeling really down,” she said, “and to find out the next morning that someone needed a place to stay — well, it gave me so much more than he could ever know.”
Vicki lost her brother to suicide six years ago on Mother’s Day. At 7 years old, she watched as a friend was hit and killed by a train while the pair were playing around the tracks. And in the last couple of years, one of her sons opened up about his intentions of taking his own life.
“When my son sat there and explained all the ways he could do it and then cried and yelled and screamed, it was the hardest conversation, the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through,” Vickie said. "I wanted to get up and hug him and tell him how much I loved him, but I knew if I did it he would bolt."
“He just wanted me to know that’s how he was feeling. He was looking for help, and I had to be patient. But had he not opened up and said anything, I may not have my son today.”
The journey continues
Therein lies Baker’s purpose — his mission, his calling — for walking. He has come across others with similar stories to Vicki’s throughout his travels, and he’s hopeful his message can be resounding and lasting.
“That’s what I’m aiming for,” Baker said from his room at the Richland Inn in Columbia, where another Nextdoor member had arranged for him and Watonga to stay a couple more nights before he resumed his journey southward. “It’s not a once-a-month or once-a-year thing. Suicide prevention needs to be daily, because people are dying daily, especially nowadays with everything going on. The age range I’m aiming for is 15-18 years old.
“My aim is to get parents to talk with their kids about suicide, and to be blunt about it.”
Fueled by his rest with family in Nashville and newfound friends in Franklin, Baker had made it to Garden City, Ala., by Monday morning. He still has a ways to go to reach his destination on the southern tip of Florida and then northward to New Hampshire, but he feels certain his journey is making a difference.
“I’m trying to inspire people that even though they lose somebody or whatever the circumstance, they can still get up and go,” he said.
“God has been with me every step. He said he’d take care of me when I was hungry and take care of me when I was tired. He said don’t worry about a thing.”
Be sure to follow Baker’s journey on his Facebook page.