How many people have walked across America?

Feb. 27, 2006 11:40 AM


WASHINGTON - How often does someone walk from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific or vice versa?

A) Rarely.
B) Often enough that it's not a novelty.
C) No one really knows.

The answer: C.

And, perhaps A is correct as well.

Neither the American Hiking Society, nor the organizers of the American Discovery Trail, which is the nation's only official transcontinental hiking trail, said they know the answer.

"Let's say on average, since the `60s, five people a year do it," guessed Ed Talone, a trails expert at the American Hiking Society. "I'm sure a couple of hundred people have done it."

Talone uses the 1960s as his starting point because that's when lightweight hiking gear first came into use.

But that's not counting the 1920s, when hiking and biking were a national craze, or the 19th century migration to the West Coast by pioneers.

The 1979 personal chronicle, "A Walk Across America," by Peter Jenkins about his trek from New York to the Gulf Coast became a best-selling book. Jenkins later wrote another book about his hike to the West Coast.

Within a year of the publication of Jenkins' first book, 69 people set out on a group hike from San Francisco that was dubbed HikeaNation.

Thirty-six made it to the finish line in Delaware more than a year later.Susan "Butch" Henley of Haymarket, Va., was 45 years old when she completed HikeaNation.

"I made some good friends," Henley said. "It was like one big family with a lot of different characters. We didn't have a route to follow either. The route was decided day to day."

Their support vehicle - a Ford van with a 250-gallon water tank - drove ahead to the next night's camping area.

Henley's group arranged for national media coverage when they reached the Washington Monument on May 13, 1981. But many of the TV crews never showed up. It was the same day as the shooting of Pope John Paul II.

Marcia and Ken Powers of Pleasanton, Calif., attracted the attention of NBC's "Today" last October after they completed the American Discovery Trail at Point Reyes, Calif. Their eight-month trek began Feb. 27 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Del.

The Powers, who have two grown sons, began long-distance hiking after Ken Powers retired as a database analyst for Chevron in 1999. Marcia Powers taught the flute.

"We are not extraordinary athletes at all," Marcia Powers said in a telephone interview. But they are both type-A personalities, she acknowledged. They set a goal of 20 miles a day and did extensive planning, even burying water along stretches of desert in Utah and Nevada a year in advance and recording the coordinates with a global positioning device.

Marcia Power was 57 when she walked coast to coast. "Not having to go home at night and do chores is supreme," she said.
And the knowledge that there will be unexpected adventures is addictive.

"We were after a journey and an adventure; we mingled with a lot of people," said Joyce Cottrell of Whitefield, N.H., who walked the American Discovery Trail with the husband, Peter, from March 2002 to August 2003. The Cottrells stopped for four month in Pueblo, Colo.

"We worked at Wal-Mart and found an apartment 10 minutes away," said Joyce Cottrell. A family friend lived in their New Hampshire home while they were on the road.

Talone, of Silver Spring, Md., also has walked coast to coast. He was 41 when he started in 1999 and had turned 42 by the time he finished 277 days later.

Talone's walking companion, Sue Lockwood, suffers from diabetes and had received a kidney transplant prior to their journey. She brought along her guide dog because she is legally blind.

Because Lockwood was advised to not walk across the Midwest in the heat of summer for medical reasons, they began in Alton, Ill., and walked to Washington state. Then they came back to Illinois and walked east to the Atlantic shore in Delaware.

"She could have been the most famous hiker in America if she wished," Talone said. "She and I have walked 20,000 miles together."

Brian Tumulty:

Oshkosh Wisconsin

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