Eastern Continental Trail

And so when I was looking up gear recommendations, I came across some videos on YouTube of people who were thru-hikers, and I was like, "You can walk from Mexico to Canada? That's insane." [chuckles] Uh, and so I did it, uh, the PCT in 2020, and then went to grad school, and then, uh, c- after kinda crashing and burning a little bit, I was able to salvage a master's from what was supposed to be a PhD, and, uh, that opened up a new opportunity to do, uh, the Continental Divide Trail in '24.

And then, you know, trying to get that Triple Crown, but not necessarily being drawn to the AT, it, on its own, uh, somebody told me about the Eastern Continental Trail that goes from Key West, Florida, all the way to the northern tip of Newfoundland, and it's like, "Oh, you shouldn't have told me that- [chuckles] ... 'cause now I gotta do it." So I, I did that last year in '25, and um, and then this year was Great Colorado Route.

Man- Wow ... 2027 better watch out.

Like, I don't know what's on the schedule, but it's, it's quite the precedent there.

And so there's a lot of beautiful parts of Colorado that aren't along the Continental Divide.

And, um, and so I started thinking, "Whoa, what if there was, like, a 2,000-mile-long hike that was just Colorado and hit all the best parts?" And so, um, started idly musing that for, uh, some time.

And then after the Eastern Continental Trail last year, this past winter was kinda when I sat down and really started piecing it together bit by bit.

Are you from Colorado, or are you just drawn to it, drawn to the state? [chuckles] Yeah, I, I mean, y- I grew up in Golden, uh, just outside of Denver.

The Continental Divide Trail, about 3,000 miles.

Something called the Eastern Continental Trail, 5,700, I think, 18 miles.

And he stood on top of all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners at least one time.

And he went out, he knew it was a slow snow year, and water was the thing he was worried about the most.

Um, he had hiked the, uh, Pacific Crest Trail, which a lot of people are, are aware of, and the Continental Divide Trail.

The one trail that he was telling me about that he had hiked that I, I didn't even know existed, didn't even know people took it on, uh, was the Eastern Continental Trail.

Uh, it goes literally from Key West, Florida, all the way up to Newfoundland.

Okay.