A WALK THROUGH THE COUNTRY

By Malee Oot

In the summer of 2019, Rue McKenrick set off on an epic hike. His plan was simple: walk a counterclockwise lap around the continental United States. His mission, however, was a bit more complex: map a 14,000-mile route, dubbed the American Perimeter Trail (APT), that would become the country’s newest long-distance trail. With everything he’d need packed efficiently on his back, McKenrick headed south from his home in Bend, Oregon. “When I left, I had $400, a dream, and gear older than me,” McKenrick said.

A longtime trail advocate, McKenrick has worked for a handful of non-profits, including the Appalachian Mountain Club, Outward Bound, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which is headquartered in Harpers Ferry where the Appalachian Trail runs just four miles through West Virginia.

These days, McKenrick considers himself a professional backpacker. Now in his early forties, McKenrick’s hiking resume is quite impressive. He’s completed America’s so-called Triple Crown of Hiking—a trio of long-distance routes that includes the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail, the 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail, and the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.

He hopes the APT, which links portions of these iconic routes to some of the country’s lesser-known footpaths, will be added to the roster of National Scenic Trails. “I love backpacking; I love the recreation aspect. But the base of our mission is actually a conservation effort to create this corridor that goes around the United States,” McKenrick said.

The inaugural mapping trip took McKenrick a little more than three years to complete, but not all that time was spent hiking. He was forced to suspend his trek a handful of times, driven off the trail by perilous weather, medical emergencies, and unimaginable personal tragedies, including the sudden loss of his brother, Michael, in spring 2021. When McKenrick finally completed his loop around the country last October, he’d racked up nearly 25 months of continuous hiking and traversed 22 states. Most of that time, he was hiking alone. “It’s just you out there by yourself; this was definitely a solitary trip,” he said.

McKenrick’s isolation was, in part, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic that began to unfold about eight months into his journey. In spring 2020, while trekking across the lower south toward the western edge of the Appalachian Mountains, statewide closures paralyzed travel and changed the trajectory of his route.

In the midst of the uncertainty wrought by the pandemic, trail organizations—including the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Pacific Crest Trail Association—were advising backpackers to postpone their trips. “It looked it was over,” McKenrick said.

But instead of quitting, he devised a strategy that would minimize human encounters by avoiding towns and relying on mail for resupplies instead. “I would see a postmaster every one or two weeks, and that was it,” he said.

As he approached the Southern Appalachians, McKenrick made another pivotal choice—he would cross the elongated mountain range into West Virginia to avoid a significant portion of the Appalachian Trail, meaning trail communities and creature comforts would be scarce.

In May of 2020, almost a year into his trip, McKenrick walked into the Mountain State along the western flank of Peters Mountain, a windblown ridgeline that helps funnel more than a dozen species of migrating raptors southward every fall. On the crest of Peters Mountain, he bid farewell to the Appalachian Trail and began his journey on the Allegheny Trail—a rarely-traveled 330-mile path that traverses the Alleghenies all the way to the Pennsylvania border.

Trekking north, he entered the southern edge of the Monongahela National Forest near Neola. He walked through ceaseless rains along the cave-riddled shale barrens of the Greenbrier Valley, skirted a 13,000-acre National Radio Quiet Zone near Green Bank, and meandered through one of the state’s remaining stands of old-growth red spruce atop Shavers Mountain. After following the Cheat River northward, he finally reached the Allegheny Trail’s northern terminus near the town of Bruceton Mills.

By the time McKenrick walked into Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands, he’d charted a 400-mile route through West Virginia, cobbling together segments of the Allegheny Trail and the Great Eastern Trail across a journey that took him a little more than a month to compete. “I was bushwhacking every single day in Appalachia,” McKenrick said. “No showers for months. No hot meals for months. I used a map and compass because I couldn’t charge my electronics.”

At times, he said the loneliness was crushing, adding a mental burden to the physical toll of consistently hiking more than 20 miles a day. But McKenrick considers his unforeseen route change a tremendous blessing because it sent him away from the crest of the Blue Ridge and through the Allegheny Mountains instead. “On the Appalachian Trail, I’ve probably done 5,000 miles over the years, but West Virginia is just a small section,” he said. “I was grateful for this experience because I hiked the whole way through West Virginia. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet a lot of people, but I saw places that people don’t go.”

Beyond the Mountain State’s stunning landscapes, McKenrick recalled profound and visceral experiences. One night, a tree fell on McKenrick while he slept. Another time, a mysterious peppering of insect bites caused his face, arms, and legs to balloon for several days. There were moments of sublimity, too: technicolor sunsets on the Cheat River and a day travelling with an Eastern Swallowtail sitting on his backpack.

After winding his way through West Virginia, he continued toward the Midwest, hiking steadily westward toward his home in Oregon. Although McKenrick officially completed his circuit around the country in October 2022, the APT is still evolving. Right now, he’s walking across Florida, plotting a southern extension of the trail. Next, McKenrick hopes to extend the APT through New England to the Canadian border. “It’s a life’s work,” he said. w

For updates on McKenrick’s progress, check out americanperimetertrail. org and stay tuned to Highland Outdoors.

Malee Oot is a freelance outdoor writer based in Falls Church, Virginia. She spends as much time as possible hiking, biking, paddling, or trail running (usually with her hound dog Ruth).