Mass. man hikes coast to coast

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bobmak

New member
Joined
Sep 8, 2003
Messages
296
Reaction score
11
Location
Georgetown, Ma.
From Outside Online:

Massachusetts Man Completes First Transcontinental Trek

By Sara Blask

July 13, 2005 Andrew Skurka walked and walked. And walked. He wore through 15 pairs of hiking shoes and trekked for 301 days to complete the 7,708-mile transcontinental Sea-to-Sea Route, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through a patchwork of long-distance trails beginning at Cape Gaspé, Quebec, and ending at Washington State’s Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous United States.

A crowd of family and friends chanted his name Sunday, July 10, as Skurka, 24 , ran towards a finish line made of surveyor’s tape, pulled taut between two trekking poles on a remote beach on the Olympic Peninsula. When he arrived, he dumped a 2.8-ounce flask of water from the Atlantic into the Pacific, marking the official end of his 11-month journey to become the first person to traverse North America on foot.

“I had a sip of it, dumped it over my head, and filled it back up with water from the Pacific,” Skurka said. “Every day the flask was kind of a symbolic reminder of why I was trying to do all of this.”

He averaged 25-35 miles per day on his 339-day mission, which included three “zero day” breaks on the trail—where he covered no trail-miles at all—and a few weeks at home with his family when he was “way ahead” of schedule, was to raise awareness of the long-distance hiking trails zigzagging the continent and to inspire others, simply, to get outside.

“It’s so easy to get outside,” he said. “And you don’t need much.”

During warmer temperatures, Skurka’s pack weighed eight pounds, not including consumables like food and water. He managed to shave further weight by cutting tags out of his shirts and using trekking poles to support his poncho-tarp shelter. When traversing through northern Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan during January, February, and March, he added snowshoes and warmer clothes to his pack, making his arsenal not quite as light and fast.

Skurka was inspired to complete the journey after reading an article about Ron Strickland, the founder of the Pacific Northwest Trail, which connects Glacier and Olympic national parks, and the visionary of the Sea-to-Sea Route, which has only two breaks—one 850-mile gap on the North Dakota-Montana border and another 30-mile gap at the New York-Vermont border. Skurka, a 2003 Duke University graduate, took six months to plan his trip, and departed from Cape Gaspé, Quebec, on August 6, 2004. Strickland was among the crew standing by when Skurka arrived at the Cape Alava terminus, presenting him with a flag from the Explorer’s Club.

Roughly every ten days, Skurka received a package in the mail from his mother, which contained the next week’s ration of food, fuel, toilet paper, and, a clean set of laundry—socks included.

But mail wasn’t one-way. Mom got to wash the dirty clothes.

“I always felt bad when I dumped my dirty clothes in the box, especially when it would rain on me the day before I’d send the package home,” Skurka said. “And the further I moved west, the longer it would take to get home. And if I sent it home on a Saturday, my clothes had an extra day to ferment.”

His mother, Karen Skurka, was one of his biggest supporters, not only washing his socks, but also updating Skurka’s travel log on www.andrewskurka.com when he could find a phone.

Having intentionally bulked up before beginning his trek, six-foot-tall Skurka weighed in at 175 pounds prior to departure. After expending far more than the 3,500 to 4,000 calories he consumed per day, he now tips the scale somewhere in the high 150s. On average, he consumed eight Balance bars a day but embarked upon “feeding frenzies” when his kind-hearted followers welcomed him into their homes en route.

A couple from Richmond Dale, Ohio, heard about his expedition through the local Buckeye Trail organization and tracked down Skurka’s family in Seekonk, Massachusetts. He ended up at their table for Thanksgiving.

“Maybe the weirdest thing about this trip was how nice and generous people were,” said Skurka. “There were times on this trip when people were so generous and so trusting that I was uncomfortable because of how indebted I was to them.”

His short-term plan is to spend time with his family and maybe start planning a slideshow to take on the road. But that’s in the short term.

“I’d love to look my mom in the face and say this is my last real adventure,” he said. “But I have a hard time thinking that the greatest thing I’ll do is at age 24.”
 
bobmak said:
Skurka was inspired to complete the journey after reading an article about Ron Strickland, the founder of the Pacific Northwest Trail, which connects Glacier and Olympic national parks, and the visionary of the Sea-to-Sea Route, which has only two breaks—one 850-mile gap on the North Dakota-Montana border and another 30-mile gap at the New York-Vermont border.

Wow, amazing!

I see the Sea-to-Sea trail goes thru the ADKs. Has anyone ever seen a marker for it ? I assume (?) it goes on mostly established trails ?
 
Tom Rankin said:
Wow, amazing!

I see the Sea-to-Sea trail goes thru the ADKs. Has anyone ever seen a marker for it ? I assume (?) it goes on mostly established trails ?

From his log it looks like he went over Mount Marcy and then connected to the Northville - Placid Trail.
 
I think I read where he followed the Finger Lakes Trail through central & western NY, I wish I had caught up with him as he passed through here. It is quite an accomplishment.
 
Last edited:
Very intereting indeed! I followed him for the last half of his trip through trip reports passed through by his mother and forwarded to all on the Finger Lakes Trail group - part of yahoo groups. He really put in a great effort and had many rewards!!
 
BrentD22 said:
I wonder if anyone has competed the Bay Circuit Trail in Massachusetts? It's not vey long or very interesting, but I'm interested for some reason. Could be because I'm bored right now!

Another thought. Is there a patch for competing the Mid-State Trail in Mass?

Took a look at that... is it even finished? Looks like a lot of missing links and closed sections.

Anyway... That was an awesome article on Skurka.. what a life changing experience it must have been.
 
Did anyone catch the article in this years Farmers Almanac? "The Man who couldn't stop walking" Edward Weston.

NYC to San Fran 3.892miles, 104d 7h.
Santa Monica to NYC 3,600 miles 76d 23h

Oh ya he was 70 years old at the time and it was 1909-10.

In 1867 at 28 Portland, ME to Chicago 1,326 miles 24d 22h 40m

In 1871 at 32 on the "St Louis Track" 200 miles 41 hours

In 1913 at 73 NYC to Minneapolis 1,546 miles 51d

in 1922 at 82 Buffalo to NYC 495 miles 29d that's just over 17/d
 
A note from Andy - Coast to Coast hiker

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had been part of an active listening group regarding Andy's continental traverse. Here is a note from Andy that I just rec'd today:

From: Andrew Skurka
To: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:00 AM
Subject: Final C2C Update

Andy here. I finished up the hike on July 10 and have been back home in Seekonk for the last week and a half, after vacationing for a few days in Port Angeles, WA, and then catching up with some friends in NYC, where I also had a live interview on FOX News Channel.

The final stretch of the hike - through the Olympic Peninsula - was one of the absolute best. Aromatic alpine flower gardens, thousand year-old spruce and Douglas fir trees, massive alpine glaciers, eight-inch long banana slugs, 250 species of moss, starfish and anemones, long above-treeline ridgewalks, whale-sized driftwood, people-friendly mountain goats and deer, seastack-studded coastlines, glacial powder-choked creeks and rivers.The Olympics seem to offer a lifetime's worth of backcountry adventure and surprises.

At Cape Alava there was a crowd of about 30 people to cheer me on as I jogged in the last quarter-mile. I found it appropriate that most of my biggest supporters were there at the end: my parents, two sisters, and brother-in-law; representatives of Montrail and Balance Bar, and the co-founders of GoLite; a dozen members of the Pacific Northwest Trail Association (which kept with the tradition of other trail associations by offering great hospitality all along their trail); and Ron Strickland.

As for the question, "What's next?" Starting in January 2006 I plan to go on a 5-month, 100-stop nationwide road tour in order to share the best stories and most important lessons of the hike. The tour will be sponsored by GoLite (and hopefully one or two other companies); details will be posted online when they are finalized; and I will probably send out an e-mail, too.

In the more near term, this Monday I am leaving for a 10-day trip to Glacier National Park in order to hike some of the trails that were closed in early-June; there might also be one other reason for going (wink, wink). From Glacier I'm heading to Salt Lake City for the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show. After I return I will probably pack up the car and head west towards a more mountainous state, where I will work on a book proposal, find an expense-covering job, and wait for the tour to begin.

Now that it is over, I would like to thank all of you for being part of the hike. It was always uplifting to hear funny, encouraging, or exciting e-mails from you; and I was always able to find more strength by remembering that a few hundred people were regularly receiving Mom's e-mails or checking out the website. I hope I have given you something in return.

The website has been completely updated with my pictures: www.andrewskurka.com. Plan to spend an hour (or two or three) experiencing a branding party, following the route of Lewis & Clark, and penetrating the most remote backcountry in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy.

Andy
 
Top