Thru-Hiking Culture
2026 CDT Hikers: Submit Your Finish Photos To Be Featured on The Trek
Did you complete the Continental Trail in 2026? You simply MUST allow us to congratulate you. Finishing a thru-hike means one chapter of your life is ending and a new...
From a Homemade Tent to Custom Shorts, She Made All Her Own Gear for the CDT
A person's backpacking gear setup is among the more personal choices they make when planning for a thru-hike. No two hikers will have identical preferences, and the backpacking world seems...
Remembering Will Standish
One of the most beautiful parts of a thru-hike comes from the ebb and flow of the hikers around you. You'll spend two days with someone, lose them in a...
7 Future Thru-Hikers Share Their “Why”
Why do people thru-hike? Thru-hiking attracts people for all sorts of different reasons. So, we asked 2026 thru-hikers: Why are you hiking? What are you looking for? What are you
Man Skateboards From Mexico to Alaska on the Continental Divide: “It’s Honestly the Worst Way To Thru-Travel”
Justin Bright’s packing list looks like a typical thru-hiker’s: a fully loaded, beat-up backpack, a sun hoodie sporting its fair share of holes, Lone Peaks hanging on by a thread,...
Attempting One of the Most Difficult Thru-Hikes in North America With No Thru-Hiking Experience
Within the first 100 miles of the Continental Divide Trail, I learned that when you bump into other hikers, you often exchange trail names, trail logistics, daily distances, upcoming sections,...
The Triple Crowner Survey Is Here!
If you’ve completed the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail, you are backpacking royalty, and we want to hear from you. We have just released The Trek's...
Trail Correspondents 2026: Apply to Join the Team!
We’re thrilled to announce that we will be bringing back a fifth season of Trail Correspondents, a podcast dedicated to sharing the highs, lows, and everything in between that comes...
Elevation Anxiety
I used to love climbs. I never felt stronger, more beautiful or determined than when I was struggling up a mountain with a fierce determination that I belonged up there,...
Quitting a Thruhike: Are we Missing the Point?
I'm writing this from a cafe in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Potentially the most expensive mountain town I've ever been to in the USA, I'd planned to avoid it. But the...
