In the decade before starting graduate school I had an active career as a long-distance backpacker and thru-hiker. Thru-hiking is the practice of walking the entire length of a long-distance trail, usually end-to-end, in a single hiking season. Between 2004 and 2014 I thru-hiked six long distance trails in the United States and Nepal. On each of my hikes I walked a continuous route from one end of the trail to the other, while carrying all the necessary equipment and supplies, and almost exclusively camping out in the backcountry.  In total, during this period I backpacked approximately 13,000 miles, or 20,000 kilometers.

My first backpacking trip of any kind was the Appalachian Trail in 2004. Starting on Springer Mountain in Georgia, I walked 2,174 miles along the crest of the Appalachian mountains to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The hike took me 177 days, and by the time I reached Katahdin in early September my backpack, which started out at 63 pounds, had lost about 40 pounds. I had personally lost about 55, net of beard and hair. 

In 2005 I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. That season was an especially high snow year in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and although I started rather late (in early May), the High Sierra portion of the hike, which crosses eight major passes in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon backcountry, was a very serious adventure, with snowy passes, swollen river fords, and challenging navigation. Having made it through that crux, I completed the hike before the new snow hit in the Washington Cascades in late September. In total, I walked 2,663 miles on the PCT over 141 days. 

In the summer of 2006 I hiked the Continental Divide Trail from Canada to Mexico through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The CDT is generally considered the most challenging of the three major American trails, and completing it required contending with heavy snow in northern Montana and southern Colorado, difficult daily route finding, consistent altitudes over 10,000 feet, close encounters with bear and moose, remote resupplies, and waterless stretches that sometimes exceeded 50 miles.  In all,  my route consisted of approximately 2,500 miles, and took 115 days to complete.  In 2007 I received the Triple Crown Award from ALDHA-West, in recognition of my completion of the AT, PCT, and CDT. 

After the CDT I took a break from thru-hiking to start college, though I did not stop backpacking. In the summer of 2009 I worked as a ranger in Sequoia National Park, and managed to backpack over 800 miles in the Sierra Nevada backcountry on my weekends. In the summers of 2010 and 2011 I worked as a wilderness ranger in North Cascades National Park, and backpacked hundreds of miles in the park and surrounding wilderness areas in Washington. Towards the end of college I started thru-hiking again. In August of 2012 I walked the length of the Colorado Trail, 486 miles from Denver to Durango. Upon graduation in 2013 I thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail again, except this time southbound, from Canada to Mexico.

In April of 2014, a few months before starting graduate school, I flew to Nepal to thru-hike the Great Himalaya Trail, widely considered to be the hardest thru-hike in the world. Together with my hiking partner David Vanneste, I walked that spring from Kanchenjunga base camp in the east of Nepal to Simikot in the west through the Himalaya mountains. Our route, which mostly followed the GHT high route,  took 61 days to complete, spanned over 1,000 miles, and involved an average daily altitude gain of over 7,000 feet. In the course of the hike we traversed 15 high passes over 5,000 meters and crossed three major glaciers, always one step ahead of the monsoon rains. We completed the hike entirely unguided and unaided, while carrying all of our own equipment and sometimes in excess of two weeks of food. 

Since starting graduate school in 2014 I have found that the opportunity cost of my time has steadily increased. As a consequence, in recent years I have substituted away from thru-hiking and towards outdoor activities which can be enjoyed in shorter time spans. In my off time these days I enjoy shorter hikes and backpacking trips, skiing, bouldering, swimming, and travel.