{"id":25761,"date":"2024-09-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/with-no-phone-wallet-or-car-he-died-in-the-colorado-wilderness-leaving-30000-to-the-food-bank\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:27:16","slug":"with-no-phone-wallet-or-car-he-died-in-the-colorado-wilderness-leaving-30000-to-the-food-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/with-no-phone-wallet-or-car-he-died-in-the-colorado-wilderness-leaving-30000-to-the-food-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"With no phone, wallet or car, he died in the Colorado wilderness, leaving $30,000 to the food bank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Stewart
Stewart \u201cStew\u201d Scheppegrell spent 20 years living in the Weminuche Wilderness outside Durango. His body was discovered by a horseback rider in August. Left: Scheppegrell in an undated photograph provided by his family. \u201cHe liked the solitude,\u201d said Backcountry Experience Owner Ben Rockis. \u201cHe liked being with himself far more than he liked being with people.\u201d Right: Scheppegrell had an ID on him, although it was at least two decades old. (Courtesy of Leslie Scheppegrell)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As long as Cheriese Carrasco has worked at the Budget Inn Durango \u2013 over six years now \u2013 Stew Scheppegrell would appear every 12 days during the summer.<\/p>\n

He restocked on food, collected his mail at the outdoor store he used as an address and then returned to his reclusive lifestyle in the Weminuche Wilderness north of Lemon Reservoir.<\/p>\n

Stew did not own a phone, or even a wallet. He communicated with his younger brother John and sister-in-law Leslie Scheppegrell through brief letters mailed to and from Backcountry Experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to be hiking and backpacking and camping out in the wilderness, and so that\u2019s what he did,\u201d Leslie said.<\/p>\n

When Stew\u2019s body was found<\/a> near his tent off the Burnt Timber Trail north of Lemon Reservoir on Aug. 24, he left behind no will but had named the Durango Food Bank as the beneficiary of over $30,000 in his savings account.<\/p>\n

Stew\u2019s cause of death is undetermined, County Coroner Jann Smith said, but the manner was natural. He was 79.<\/p>\n

\"Stewart
Stewart \u201cStew\u201d Scheppegrell, 79, lived a reclusive lifestyle in the Weminuche Wilderness north of Lemon Reservoir. He camped in warmer months and spend the winter months in a Durango motel. Scheppegrell was found dead in his tent Aug. 24. He left $30,000 to the Durango Food Bank, his family said. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Stewart James Scheppegrell was born in Baltimore on Feb. 17, 1945, and grew up in New Orleans. He had six siblings.<\/p>\n

Although he got a degree in accounting, Stew\u2019s foray into the profession was brief.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe decided that wasn\u2019t the kind of life he wanted to live,\u201d Leslie said.<\/p>\n

Stew moved first to Boulder and eventually on to Prescott, Arizona, where he worked at a mountaineering store. Sometime in the early 2000s, he retired and moved to the mountains outside Durango.<\/p>\n

The reticent man had just three haunts: Backcountry Experience, where he found a kindred spirit in the store\u2019s owner, Ben Rockis; the Budget Inn; and the Weminuche.<\/p>\n

He did not speak on the phone, but Stew would respond to letters from his family in scant words.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually the card would say something very simple like, \u2018Peace, love, joy, sunshine and the flowers of living in the Weminuche Wilderness. Love, Stew,\u2019\u201d Leslie said.<\/p>\n

Stew was quite cared for by the few business owners who knew him and the drivers who gave him rides into town and back out to the trailhead near Transfer Park Campground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind, he was part of my family, he was part of the family here at Backcountry Experience (and) we liked seeing him,\u201d Rockis said. \u201cHe did bring a smile to us because we knew he was doing what we wished we could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two met when Stew arrived in town around 2005. He wandered into the shop looking for gear and bonded with Rockis over their shared experience in the outdoor industry.<\/p>\n

Despite an aversion to sharing personal stories, Stew once proudly told Rockis of the night a bear impressed its face through wall of his tent.<\/p>\n

\u201cStew was just like \u2018Whack! Leave me alone!\u2019 And the bear wandered off,\u201d Rockis said. \u201cHe was very happy to tell me that story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrasco, the Budget Inn\u2019s general manager, said Stew appeared with a smile and kept his room impeccably clean \u2013 it didn\u2019t even collect dust. He had few needs or desires, aside from a proclivity for solitude and open space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he really, just hiked for the last 20 years of his life,\u201d she said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to go back to a desk job.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lived a cyclically simple lifestyle.<\/p>\n

When snow would fall and the hotel began monthly room rentals in mid-October, Stew would return and stay the winter unless conditions were particularly mild that year. He left for the wilderness as soon as temperatures allowed, sometime in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hated being inside all winter long,\u201d Carrasco said. \u201cHe would sit in the hotel room and just stare out the window, and on nice days, he would go out and take a hike and then come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrasco noticed last summer that Stew\u2019s habitual arrival and departure times were growing erratic. He would show up a few days early or a few days late but be under the impression he was on schedule.<\/p>\n

So this year, Carrasco blocked out room 108 \u2013 Stew\u2019s favorite \u2013 for most of the summer so it would be available when he appeared.<\/p>\n

The room was still marked \u201creserved\u201d on Friday.<\/p>\n

When Carrasco said goodbye to Stew in mid-July, she had a feeling it would be the last time the two saw each other.<\/p>\n

\"Stew
Stew Scheppegrell was camped about a mile north of Transfer Park Campground. <\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Stew didn\u2019t appear well; he was looking older, grayer; he loitered for his ride back to Lemon a day earlier than scheduled and although he always stayed in room 108, he left his trekking poles outside someone else\u2019s door thinking it was his own.<\/p>\n

But no one was going to try to engage in a futile effort to prevent him from going back into the woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told one of his younger sisters at one point a few years ago that when he died, he wanted to die in the wilderness and have wolves eat him,\u201d Leslie said.<\/p>\n

In the end, his wishes proved borderline prophetic.<\/p>\n

Stew died in his tent, it appeared, and was pulled out by a bear. His body was found about a month later by a horseback riding outfitter.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t leave a trace except a savings account at TBK bank that contained over $30,000, the remainder of a family inheritance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made the beneficiary Durango Food Bank because we wanted to help seniors and homeless people,\u201d Leslie said.<\/p>\n

John and Leslie scattered Stew\u2019s remains in the Weminuche Wilderness.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scheppegrell, 79, spent 20 years living alone northeast of Durango. His body was found last month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1712,28,976,1924],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-forests-and-wilderness","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-weminuche-wilderness"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79085,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25761\/revisions\/79085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25761"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}