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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.”
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.”
