The hike will begin on the 4600-mile (7402 km) North Country Trail, as Cornell walks west to east, starting in central North Dakota and ending in Lake Sakakawea State Park in New York state. From there, she'll travel south to Georgia to begin a thru-hike of the 2178-mile (3505 km) Appalachian Trail. Once that segment of the All-In Trek is complete, she'll move on to the Pacific Crest Trail, covering some 2650 miles (4264 km), once again going south to north. Finally, she'll wrap up the journey by walking the 3100 mile (4988 km) Continental Divide Trail, this time going north to south.
An experienced endurance runner, Breanna hopes to cover about 30-35 miles (48-56 km) per day, and expects to finish the entire journey in about 13-14 months. She is also an experienced winter hiker and camper, so she doesn't expect that the cold conditions will slow her down much on any of the routes. She'll be joined out on the trail by her dog sophie, who is a 4-year old husky-rotweiler mix. If successful, this will be the first time that a woman has completed each of these trails in succession, completely self-supported.
In addition to simply challenging herself with these long distance hikes, Cornell is also undertaking the expedition to raise funds for the impossible2possible organization, an non-profit that uses adventure experiences to educate children about a variety of important topics. To that end, she is looking to raise $30,000 throughout her trek.
This is quite an ambitious undertaking to say the least. Thru-hiking any one of those trails is serious endeavor but stringing them all together back-to-back-to-back-to-back would be an amazing feat. Hopefully everything goes well and Breanna will complete her mission. We'll be keeping an eye out for progress reports next year.
And thanks to my friend Rick McCharles of BestHike.com for sharing this story with me.