A marathon running hermit & strawberry chocolate chunk bread

The Outsiders by Brent Popplewell paired with a sweet summertime loaf

Part 1: Good Book 

The Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain, and the Search For a Hidden Past by Brent Popplewell (2023)

In a nutshell

The Outsider is a nonfiction book about Dag Aabye, a reclusive ultramarathoner in his 70s living inside an old school bus deep in the British Columbia mountains. Born in Norway, Dag moved to Canada as a young man, and is regarded as one of the world’s first extreme skiers. After his skiing career, he became a logger and a family man, but eventually that family unit fell apart and he retreated to the woods. 

Author Brent Popplewell follows Dag over several years as he runs dozens of kilometers each day on hand-cut mountain trails near his school bus, interacts with the natural world around him, and confronts the realities of aging with unrelenting positivity. Dag’s present life as a running hermit is fascinating, but then Popplewell also digs into his traumatic past as a child adopted under mysterious circumstances in Norway during Nazi occupation. The book evolves from a glimpse into the life of someone on the outside of society to a search for who Dag really is and where he came from. The Outsider is full of adventure and history, but is also an exploration of the importance of knowing who we are. 

The Outsider in three words 

Heartbreaking, gritty, unbelievable 

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Why I was drawn to this book

I love adventure memoirs, and when my sister-in-law sent me a link to The Outsider, I was especially interested to read it as Dag lives just a few hours west of me in the Okanagan. 

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Three things I loved about The Outsider 

1. Brent Popplewell got so many people to talk to him 

Popplewell gracefully inserts himself into the story, a choice that adds to Dag’s mysteriousness as we see the author trying to get in touch with him, gain his trust, and eventually, worry about him. We also see Popplewell struggling with how to understand and believe some of the stories Dag tells about his life, like that while living in London, he was an extra in Goldfinger, a body double for Donald Sutherland, and a stand-in for Michael Caine. Popplewell was able to get many of those who used to be close to Dag to speak to him for his book. This included Dag’s ex-wife of 20 years, and his children, including his estranged son, other family members, and many old friends. This made the picture of Dag so much fuller, and the differing views they had of the mountain recluse added to how complicated of a character Popplewell conveys to the reader.

2. That Dag is both a recluse but interested in the outside world 

One striking thing Poppelwell notices when he visits Dag’s camp is that the older man follows what is going on outside his small forest bubble. He reads the New York Times, and follows current world events closely by listening to his radio. He is a voracious reader, and loves learning. Despite his love of solitude, Dag shares that after a few weeks alone at his camp, he starts to feel weird. At this point, he will run on his trails down to the highway, hop on a bus and spend a few hours in town among other people. I think this duality speaks to the overall struggle Popplewell has throughout the book in being able to define Dag.

3. How Dag travels to an ultra marathon

The Outsider is full of details about Dag that blew my mind. The chapter that really convinced me he was superhuman was about Dag competing in the 2016 Canadian Death Race. The Death Race is a 125-kilometer ultramarathon trail race in northern Alberta that traverses three mountains, drawing only the fittest and hardiest competitors. 

For the past fourteen years, Dag has travelled the 760-kilometres from his school bus home to the race start line by bus, hitchhiking, walking, and running. Despite being 75, the race year chronicled in the book is no different. Over three days, Dag takes a bus, then runs and walks on mountain highways, occasionally getting a lift, until he finally reaches Grand Cache, Alberta. Then after a dinner of lasagna and beer, he sleeps before competing in the race the next day with just a backpack of boiled potatoes for sustenance. I think this chapter more than anything else in the book emphasized just how unique Dag is in running for the love of it, not for recognition or any other extrinsic motivators. 

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Notable passage 

“He had gone from being someone I longed to explain to someone I wanted to understand. There was a magic to his outlook on life that I wanted to explore even if I never got the chance to tell his story. He had no interest in the trappings of modern society and was so in tune with his place in nature that it sometimes seemed as if he had more in common with the animals of the forest than he did with the rest of humanity.”

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Part 2: Good Bread—Strawberry and chocolate chunk bread  

Why this bread for this book?

Dag lives near Vernon, a town in the Okanagan area which is one of Canada’s best fruit-growing regions. The Okanagan’s 300 days of sunshine a year, hot summers, and arid climate produce fruit that isn’t grown in a lot of the rest of British Columbia, like peaches, apples, plums, nectarines, and my favourite—strawberries. While it’s a tad too early for Okanagan strawberries to make their way into farm stands and grocery stores near me, I still wanted to make a sweet bread with some frozen Perfectly Imperfect ones I got a great deal on. This bread was awesome, and I bet Dag wouldn’t turn down a slice after one of his epic runs. 

Recipe

I used this recipe and as mentioned above, I substituted frozen strawberries in place of the called for fresh cherries. 

How I ate it

Fresh from the oven, still warm. My partner had his topped with Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream.

Looking forward

Book I’m looking forward to reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 

Music I’m looking forward to listening to: Could have done anything by Charlotte Cornfield 

Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Honey jalapeno cornbread muffins, here