YouTube: First Church of the Masochist Hikes

Instagram: @mattonamtn

Email: matthew.hengst@gmail.com (or message me on Instagram)

I've been exploring offering one on one video calls discussing any outdoor / thru hiking / planning / gear type questions someone might have. If you're interested in that for $45 an hour reach out and we can schedule something.

Want to physically mail us something? Just ask!

If you've been following our adventures you know we are primarily thru hikers though we do enjoy a good long distance paddling trip when the opportunity arises.

 

Right in the middle of working my way through the Triple Crown of Hiking I found out about something I never knew was an option in the modern day: paddling the 2,300+ mile Mississippi River from the headwaters in Minnesota down to the gulf aka the Mississippi Source to Sea or MS2S.

Similar to a lot of folks I primarily associated the Mississippi with having read Huck Fin in school. Meanwhile I had the impression that in the modern day that traveling down it in any sort of a paddle craft wasn't really possible as it had become more of an industrial / shipping river.

 

Then I came across a random website while hiking the CDT that not only explained it was a thing but mad it sound amazing. 

 

Considering I'm someone who stays relatively well informed about all the various long distance outdoor activities I was surprised something like this existed and that I hadn't come across it. And now having done it myself in 2023 I'm really blown away that it isn't more popular. Because it's a really amazing trip. 

I own multiple smart watches and standalone GPS devices and yet I don't bring them with me when I'm doing long distance hikes. This is because they are a hassle to keep charged and I always seem to forget to start the track when I leave camp leaving my stats for the day off by however many miles.

 

My general advice to new folks is just get a new ish modern smart phone and use that. If FarOut exists for the trail it's everything you need to hike. If it doesn't exist I generally find a gpx for the trail and load it into Caltopo or GaiaGPS. Both applications allow you to generate waypoints every x miles along a track which I then use to make mile markers. I then use these mile markers in conjunction with a Google Spreadsheet.

 

Previously I made this spreadsheet by hand every year and it was bloody annoying. Being the lazy ex software engineer I am I've now created a template complete with a script to generate all the manual bits. Easy eh! See below the cut for how to use it yourself.

On March 27th, 2024 I set out from Cape Henlopen, Delaware along the American Discovery Trail in an attempt to walk to San Francisco.

The American Discovery Trail gets quoted as being 6,800 miles long but that is counting the section in the middle where north and south options exist. From my research the southern route is the default and generally considered better by people who have done both and that's the way I went. This makes the trail 5,000 miles long though few people stick to the actual route as countless shorter road walks can easily cut a coast to coast hike down to only 3,000 miles. Anecdotally I found a number of folks who went coast to coast in around 3,200 miles.

I tried to set an aggressive but manageable pace sticking to the actual route and everything went relatively smoothly until I reached Colorado at which point I caught the flu which apparently led to me developing some pretty severe planar fasciitis when I got back on trail. I also managed to break a rib through a random fall walking along a road in Utah requiring more time off trail to rehab.

Eventually I was forced to the season on October 25th, 2024 after 3,592 miles in Moab, Utah. This was after fighting severe foot pain for the last 600 miles. I ended there because the next sections involved remote areas with long food and water hauls and any exit or return would be a lot more complicated.

Due to medical issues by plan to return in 2025 had to be delayed for a year. I hope to return to Moab in fall of 2026 to complete the remaining miles.

That all changes after 1,992 miles when the Atchafalaya splits off the now massive main channel and heads down to the gulf via a quiet series of gator infested swamps. Meanwhile the main river gets even bigger and busier passing by Baton Rouge and New Orleans before it's own quiet finish out past Head of Passes. Both are considered by the community to be valid finishes to the Mississippi Source to Sea.

One might be excused for wondering why the Atchafalaya is considered a valid finish to something called the Mississippi Source to Sea.

As near as I can tell this is mostly due to concerns of the heavy barge and oil tanker traffic in the main channel past Baton Rouge. When we did our initial research we found most people seemed to take the Atch. Possibly influenced by occasionally over the top fear mongering about the main river just not being safe.

There is also the justification that the Atchafalaya is where the main flow of the river would be going if it wasn't for the Army Corp of Engineers waging their ongoing battle to keep the ports of New Orleans and Baton Rouge operational.

In actuality I'd argue it comes down to it's shorter, it's quieter, and it's an easier finish logistically.  

In the summer of 2023 we paddled 2,450 unforgettable miles down the Mississippi River from the headwaters in Minnesota all the way to the gulf.

Since then one of my passions has been spreading word about just how accessible, and seriously underrated, this trip is. For anyone interested in long-distance adventure in the U.S. the Mississippi River is truly a top tier experience.

Short version: get a used Souris Quetico '17 or similar type canoe and enjoy.

After completing the trip ourselves and comparing it to several years of posts from others attempting it one thing stands out: a lot of people make it harder than it needs to be. And a good part of that comes down to gear particularly boat choice.

I’ve seen countless posts about brutal portages usually paired with photos of overloaded heavy plastic or metal boats stacked high with too much gear. 

As someone who liked to do thru hikes that are more on the remote end and who uses my phone heavily for shooting / editing / posting videos on trail I am well versed in the ins and outs of how to keep electronics powered on trail.

The initial planning phase of any big hike can be daunting much less a 4,900 mile walk across the country on a loosely defined route of roads, sidewalks, and occasional trails that is rarely attempted much less done successfully.

When I started looking seriously into the American Discovery Trail I had some struggles even with a strong background in thru hiking. My goal with this post is to give you a place to start as far as basic resources. Other posts will cover what the trail is actually like, gear suggestions, and other topics.

This write-up can be considered a supplement to my pre hike planning and prep video which can be found here:

Welcome to another episode of my continuing search for good warmup trips to do before the main PCT / CDT / AT long distance summer hiking season. This year since I was tied to Orange County until early March due to volunteer commitments I started looking at one of the lesser known wilderness areas: San Mateo.

San Mateo Wilderness is basically the area south of Ortega Highway bounded in by various bits of private property and then the military base to the south. I've most commonly visited it to hike Sitton Peak from the Bear Canyon / Candy Store trailhead off Ortega but I did do an overnight Sierra Club trip backpack out there years ago to Fisherman's Camp which is actually a lot nicer than you'd expect considering the area. There are even swimming holes back there.

I set out to come up with the biggest multi-day loop that made sense. While overnight camping is legal the area is bounded on the north by a large no over night camping zone and to the south with a no entry allowed military base. I picked the San Juan / Hot Springs Trailhead to start at a short distance from Caspers Park because it was the easiest to access. 

This turned out to be my new favorite local conditioning trip. At least when fire closures don't get in the way.

Over the last four years I've spent months each summer running around outdoors. And one of the biggest ongoing challenges has been managing trail dinners that I haven't burned out on. And when you factor in the need to keep costs down and availability in the more remote sections of trail that's not been a trivial task.

The store bought backpacker meals I used to lean on heavily are now unsustainably expensive on the scale I need them. When I did the PCT and soon after the Eastern Continental Trail I did a lot of the cheap and ever avaliable Knorr sides but by the time I started the CDT I was burned out on pretty much every variety.

Fortunately I came across instant refried beans and they quickly became our favorite dinner.