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.

The Triple Crown of hiking is the label for hiking the big three thru hiking trails in the US. The Pacific Crest Trail on the west, the Appalachian Trail on the east, and the Continental Divide Trail in the middle -ish.

The big difference for mine other than prioritizing the somewhat seldom done red line in the CDT was the AT. When you look at the Triple Crown map the AT always stuck out and rubbed me wrong because it didn’t actually cross the country like the other two but started and stopped somewhat arbitrarily. So I fixed it by starting down in Key West and continuing up to the northern tip of Nova Scotia doing the Florida Trail, Pinhoti Trail, and several sections of the International Appalachian Trail along the way.

As far as overall Triple Crown stats:

And with that a goal I would have never thought I would actually achieve is done. After a 25 foot fall during a mountaineering trip in 2013 lead to knee surgery in 2015 walking without pain was a real challenge. Fortunately my not so secret super power has always been stubbornness and the inability to take a hint.

I benefited from help and support from family, friends, near countless trail angels, and just random kind strangers I encountered along the way. I might prioritize camping alone and staying out of towns whenever possible but I really do enjoyed all the people.

So what now? I’m doing the only logical thing and jumping headfirst into planning an east west hike across America for spring. Because there are a whole hell of a lot more adventures out there.

After having thru hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2020 and the Appalachian Trail (plus a bit more) in 2021, there was really nothing to be done but go for the third of the big three US hiking trails aka the Triple Crown of Hiking. So in summer of 2022 I set out to do the Continental Divide Trail southbound from the Canadian border.  

Things could have gone a bit smoother.

It took us 60 days to reach Old River Lock where the route diverges with two outlet options

It took us an additional 5 days to reach the gulf via the Atchafalaya ending at Burns Point

It took an additional 10 days to travel from the junction to the end of South Pass going by New Orleans

We were on the river for a total of 75 days

We resupplied 15 times

It cost us roughly $187 per person per week to be on the river excluding equipment costs

2,133 miles paddled from the headwaters to the gulf via the Atchafalaya

2,309 miles paddled not counting the Atchafalaya just headwaters to end of South Pass

2,450 miles paddled total in 75 days

Our longest day was 58 miles which was in the Big River section where we had some current and no obstructions.

The fastest current we measured was 3 mph which was after the Missouri came in.

Out fastest recorded speed was 6 mph but we weren't able to measure the wind sail day on Lake Pepin.

In 2021 I hiked the Eastern Continental Trail all the way from Key West Florida to the northern tip of Nova Scotia. I covered roughly 5,000 miles over the course of 302 days making this the biggest hike I'd ever attempted. And it was done just 3 months after finishing the Pacific Crest Trail.

While I wasn't meticulous about tracking every aspect of my hike I did keep a daily mileage spreadsheet (linked above) and thanks to credit card statements I was able to compile general cost numbers.