Artist Joe Pagac strolls up Sweetwater Trail west of Tucson in a hot dog costume on Jan. 19. Pagac was testing out the costume for a 100-mile hike to raise money for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

 Rick Wiley, Arizona Daily Star

Tucson artist Joe Pagac isn’t just talking about the problem of food insecurity. He’s getting his buns out there and doing something about it.

Pagac has announced plans to hike 100 miles in five days through the mountains surrounding Tucson — all while dressed in a hotdog costume.

He’s calling it the Hotdog Hundred Hike, and he’s looking for a select group of fellow wieners to join him on the trail.

The stunt is a fundraiser for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, so he’s also trying to link up with a few sponsors.

“I feel like Tucson, more than most places, is really supportive of ridiculous stuff like this,” Pagac says.

He’s not messing around, either.

Pagac has launched a dedicated website for the event (hotdoghike.com), which includes a direct link to the food bank so “none of the money goes anywhere but to them,” he says.

Mural artist Joe Pagac is organizing what he's calling the Hotdog Hundred Hike around Tucson on March 15-19 to benefit the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

He has set a fundraising goal of $100,000 for the one-time event. “I like to shoot big,” he says.

Pagac plans to set out on March 15 from the northern end of the Santa Rita Mountains and cover between 15 and 23 miles each day as he meanders north and west around the Old Pueblo.

The 100-mile course includes dramatic ups and downs as it climbs the Rincons, curls over the Catalinas and finishes in Catalina State Park on March 19.

The four overnight camping locations range in elevation from about 3,000 feet on the desert floor to well over 8,000 feet on Mount Lemmon and the crest of the Rincons.

“There’s going to be some rough days in there. It’s not for the novice hiker,” Pagac says.

Art and leisure

The trek will be entirely self-supported. Each participant is responsible for carrying his or her own supplies and equipment, though Pagac says he has a couple of extra hotdog suits from Spirit Halloween if anybody needs one.

So far, seven adventurous souls have signed up for the hike. There’s room for 23 more, but he’s capping the group at 30 to keep from overwhelming the campsites along the way.

Pagac says he picked mid-March in hopes of hitting the “sweet spot” between too hot and too cold, but after looking at weather data from the last 20 years, he knows he has to be ready for anything.

“We’re doing it rain or shine,” he says.

Pagac is probably best known in Tucson for his jumbo-sized works of art, including the “Sky Islands” whale mural at Grant Road and Campbell Avenue and the desert critters on bicycles enjoying “Epic Rides” at Stone Avenue and Sixth Street.

The self-employed 42-year-old is also an avid hiker and cyclist, though he says he’s not particularly good at either activity. He just likes doing them.

Last year, he walked the entire Pacific Crest Trail — all 2,600 miles of it from Mexico to Canada by way of the Sierra Nevadas.

Artist Joe Pagac suits up in his hot dog costume at the Sweetwater Trail parking lot west of Tucson on Jan. 19.

He was on the trail from April 16 through Sept. 22, minus the three and a half weeks he spent supporting other through-hikers while he recovered from a knee injury.

He dressed up in costumes for his final PCT segments. In Oregon, he was a blinged-out “Gucci-North Face” character, and in Washington, he was a Davy-Crockett-style fur trapper.

That’s where he got the idea to hike around his hometown in a hotdog suit. Turning it into a fundraiser for charity seemed like the next logical step.

If you’re going to make a spectacle of yourself, he says, “why not take that and drive it toward something good?” 

Wiener wear

Pagac decided on the Community Food Bank after an informal poll of his Facebook friends. “I thought it was a really good fit with the hotdog suit,” he says.

The charitable pantry’s work is especially important right now, as high inflation and economic uncertainty take a toll on low-income households. “Being hungry sucks,” he says, and so does worrying about where your family’s next meal is coming from.

Pagac has some experience in the spectacle department.

Starting about a decade ago, the Tucson native organized several of what he described as “big crazy costume parties” downtown. There was a summertime event where guests were encouraged to show up in their underwear and a post-holiday alpine lodge party, featuring snow machines, lumberjack costumes and a forest made from people’s old, dried-out Christmas trees.

“I try to have fun with life,” he says.

The route for the Hotdog Hundred “basically wraps Tucson,” so Pagac says he is hoping for some “trail magic” like he experienced along the PCT, with supporters showing up at various road crossings to hand the hikers snacks and refreshments.

Pagac has worn his hotdog suit on a few test hikes in recent days to gauge its performance. Though he had to make a few modifications to make it fit around his backpack, he describes the costume as “shockingly comfortable” and well-insulated.

Plus, the suit comes with a big yellow splash of fake mustard on the front that can be used to signal a rescue helicopter in the event of an emergency out on the trail.

Pagac’s frank assessment overall: “It’s got good leg maneuverability, and it shields your head from the sun,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s going to be gross in there. That thing does not wick sweat at all.”

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Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean