Thru-Hikes

What happens when you feed 2,000 actual hikers' trail names into a neural network? We'll let you see for yourself.

Benton MacKaye's original proposal for the Appalachian Trail came out 100 years ago. While the trail may have changed, the appeal hasn't.

I tallied the waste I created for a month of my thru-hike. It was embarrassing. Now I know how to begin fixing it.

Electronics can make our hikes easier and more safe. But we may have gone too far.

Plot out a long hike too much, and it starts to feel like work. But there’s a better way.

Patricia Cameron set out to hike the 486-mile Colorado Trail to raise awareness for her nonprofit. She ended up finding out even more about her personal strengths.

Some hikers prepare for years to thru-hike the AT. Others do it on a whim.

What does hiking 800 miles in less than two weeks do to your body? Ultrarunner and FKT holder Joe McConaughy hit the Arizona Trail to find out.

Thomas has thru-hiked more than 20 long trails, including the Pacific Crest, Continental Divide and Appalachian Trails (the Triple Crown). On top of that, she set a fastest known time on the AT for an unsupported woman and has completed dozens of urban thru-hikes as well. Now, she's joining Backpacker as a contributing editor. Here’s some of Thomas’s best advice and insight fed by more than 20,000 trail miles.

Nearly a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us are ready to say goodbye to stay-at-home orders, shoulder our packs, and head out on a multi-month hiking adventure. But with transmission rates still high and vaccination efforts stretching into late summer, should we hold off?

Rue McKenrick would hike the perimeter of the country to demonstrate our nation’s unity—if only he and the country could hold together long enough for him finish.

Thousands of people hike the Colorado Trail every year, but India Wood had a bolder idea: Hike a 732-mile diagonal, from corner to corner, straight across the state. It would take dozens of maps to do it—and help from a few new friends.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail with four kids is tough; figuring out how to do it safely and legally in a pandemic year might seem insurmountably so. But for Olen and Danae Netteburg, two physicians who have spent the last decade working in Chad, it was just another challenge.

When they wake up broke, broken, and far from home, how do thru-hikers find the will to go another mile?

Getting back to "real life" after a long hike can be rough. But if you feel low after coming home, you're not alone.

With travel plans cancelled due to COVID, one hiker makes the most of staying close to home.

With races around the country canceled, an unprecedented number of ultrarunners are testing themselves on the trail.

When you’ve stepped onto a long trail, you never really leave it.

As she nears the end of her journey on the Colorado Trail, our writer reflects on some of the people she’s met along the way.

A chance encounter with a group of friends on an annual, women-only backpacking trip leaves our Colorado Trail correspondent reflecting on how her own life changed her attitude towards the trail.

What do hiking the Colorado Trail and childbirth have in common? Sometimes, you just need to trust your body to get you through it.

After a series of mistakes left her dehydrated on the Colorado Trail, our writer learned that making it on a long trail is about more than guts or skill.

Hiking a long path is hard. As Patricia Cameron discovered while getting ready for the Colorado Trail, doing it in the era of COVID-19 adds a whole new level of difficulty to the process.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, hundreds of long-distance hikers paused their trips on the Appalachian Trail and headed home. Now, as states begin the process of reopening, the wisdom of getting back on the path is up for debate.

A would-be thru-hiker hit the trail to change her life. She knew about the natural hazards. It was the human threat she never saw coming.

When a father-daughter team tackles the Pacific Crest Trail over the course of seven summers, they learn something about long-distance hiking—and each other.

I wasn't ready for an emergency—but my gear was.

For early thru-hikers, steep hills and long distances were only part of the challenge.

In 2018, Anish became the first woman—and sixth person overall—to hike the Triple Crown in a single calendar year. Doing it would take a lot of sweat, and 8,000 miles on the the trail.

From big fish caught to big mountains summited, kids can do the darndest things.

Are hiking dresses, skirts, and kilts more than a novelty? I freed my legs to find out.

When five-year-old Christian Thomas set out with his family to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, some skeptics said he couldn’t—and shouldn’t. But like a lot of kids, he wasn’t listening.

Has the AT’s party culture gone too far? Bill Donahue joins the trail’s biggest blowout to find out.

Fifty miles a day for 45 days. No crew. Joe McConaughy’s AT thru-hike was one for the record (and history) books.