Mexico to Canada: A 4-month hike

The COVID-19 halted foreign trips around the world in 2021, causing millions of individuals to cancel their travel plans.

Tim Beissinger and Renee Miller were not among them.

The two are "thru-hikers," a word that refers to a type of hiking that begins and ends in multiple locations while traversing significant distances.

Rather than staying at home, the American couple decided to take advantage of the pandemic by embarking on a 3,149-mile journey along the Continental Divide Trail, which runs between the Mexican and Canadian borders.

Miller and Beissinger documented their four-month trek along the CDT on the social media platform TikTok, where they now have 1.7 million followers.

"We figured other hikers would be interested in seeing someone on the CDT," Beissinger added. However, the fact that so many people have been inspired and driven to think more about hiking has simply been enjoyable and fulfilling.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the CDT runs the length of the country from north to south, passing through well-known hiking locations such as Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, as well as the Rocky Mountains.

Followers tuned in to enjoy the magnificent views of the CDT and to track their progress on TikTok, and the couple grew in popularity.

"We didn't have to put in any effort to show how lovely it was,", Beissinger added.

The pair claimed they received notes from others who were motivated to begin trekking for the first time, some for the first time ever.

One man told them he was motivated to start trekking for health reasons, according to Beissinger.

"He lost 42 pounds," Beissinger remarked, noting that long-distance trekking requires no prior experience. "All you need is a burning desire and a burning passion."

Followers tuned in to enjoy the magnificent views of the CDT and to track their progress on TikTok, and the couple grew in popularity.

The couple's social media pages and online blog have all you need to know about hiking the CDT, from packing lists to meals.

Miller and Beissinger dried 100 cooked dinners and mailed them to the communities they expected to pass through on their walk to ensure they had enough food.

Miller said that it's extremely good to have a nutritious prepared supper at the end of the day, adding that these meals typically include a mix of carbohydrates, veggies, beans, and seasonings.

During their voyage, the pair didn't always have access to clean water and had to rely on streams, lakes, and rivers to stay hydrated.

It was critical that we had a water filter. She claimed that if the water supplies were tainted or contaminated with giardia, "we could have been sick. " "It may have thrown us off our game."

Beissinger described how they ran out of water while crossing the desert after a spring they were using dried up.

"We spotted a wonderful full cow pot after traveling backwards for 11 km and really limiting our water and being thirsty," he said, referring to a water trough. "I've never had cow water taste that good."

Miller and Beissinger's excursion on the CDT may appear to be the ideal way to get away from the 2021 lockdowns. However, they admitted that their voyage had been fraught with difficulties.

Traveling through rain for hours at a time was common due to rapid changes in weather.

"We had our rain coats, rain pants, and even rain gloves," Miller said, "but we constantly had damp feet. " "Every single toe on the bottom of my foot has a blister."

She claims the couple went through five pairs of shoes in four months.

Beissinger noted that the equipment packed to keep them warm and dry throughout the trip "might have been a question of life and death when the weather changed."

Because they were traveling during the epidemic, drivers were wary of offering them rides when they left the route to go into towns.

As Beissinger explained, "Normally the trail is up in the mountains." We generally hitchhike to a town where vehicles are maybe a little more hesitant to stop and pick us up.

Showers were also not always available to the pair. They went 23 days without bathing on the trek at one point.

Despite putting their professions on hold and encountering unexpected hurdles while hiking the CDT, Miller stated there was "never a time I thought about leaving."

"The desire to return home to a bed comes with the responsibility of not being on a trail and away from that beauty," Beissinger explained.

He said his favorite parts of the hike were when they were "in the middle of nothing."

The trekking duo is currently north of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, where they are experiencing "polar night," a phenomenon in which the sun does not rise for weeks or even months at a time, depending on where they are.

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#CDT #travel #trekking #Mexico #Canada

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