days. “I got used to hiking with one arm pretty quick,” she said. “The worst part was that it was hard to eat and do things like email my mom.”
Continental challenge
In southern New Mexico, on the opening stretch of the Continental Divide Trail, Reed and Eric Gjonnes trekked through a desert where the only sign of trail was a series of stacked rock cairns and water was almost nonexistent. “Following the trail was a little bit like an Easter egg hunt,” Eric Gjonnes said. “In some places the only water was at cow tanks. We’d scoop out this greenish-brown water and boil it, treat it and filter it, and even then we were still pretty skeptical. “But we never got sick.” Thus began the final leg of the Triple Crown, on a trail with a reputation for being tough, wild and difficult to follow. Beginning in New Mexico and following the Rocky Mountains, the trail is only 70 percent completed and attempted by just a handful of people each year. “The reputation is that it’s this impossible challenge,” Eric Gjonnes said. “There’s a lot of fear-mongering about it, a lot of people who say it’s almost impos-
sible to do in one season.” Eric and Reed began last April 15, and after trekking through New Mexico entered Colorado in early June. Although the price of admission was high, the spectacular views, solitude and wildlife stunned both of them. They saw more animals in one week than during the rest of their hikes combined. Reed recorded elk, deer, moose, buffalo, bears, mountain goats, antelope, big horn sheep, badgers, porcupines, one wolf and even wild horses. “There was so much incredible wildlife,” she said. “It was so cool.” They made their way below the geysers of Yellowstone National Park, into Montana and finally into Glacier National Park and the finishing point on the Canadian border Sept. 5. “It’s really hard to explain how I felt about it,” said Reed, who at 13 became the youngest known person to finish the Continental Divide Trail. “It was a big sense of accomplishment, but it was also kind of sad. Just knowing it was done and that there’s nothing like it left.”
What next?
Reed said she never intended to become the youngest person to finish the
W N C PA R E N T. C O M
Triple Crown, at least starting out. She just wanted to go on another hike, to follow her father into some of the most beautiful county in the world. “I’m not sure when it became a goal,” she said. “It gradually happened, but it was always the actual hiking that motivated me. The whole ‘youngest’ part of it was just a bonus.” The process has made her something of a celebrity. The journeys of Sunshine have been featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Washington Post, American Girl magazine and numerous blogs. “Lots of people really look up to her,” Eric Gjonnes said. “We get hundreds of letters from girls who she’s inspired to hike more. A lot of fathers have said our trip inspired them to go hiking with their daughters.” After hiking 7,925 miles, crossing 22 states and wearing out six pairs of shoes, what could she possibly do for an encore? “I really don’t know what I’ll do next summer,” she said. “I’ve tried to plan it out, tried to remember what I used to do during the summer, but I haven’t been able to. Right now I’m just concentrating on homework.”
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