Move & Explore
Extraordinary effort
13-17
Salem 13-Year-Old Becomes Youngest to Hike the Triple Crown
Photo and reporting by
PRP.fm (Portland Radio Project)
Reed Gjonnes finished the Continental Divide Trail at 13, which meant she'd also finished the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail, all three of the longest trails in the country, for 7,925 miles total. The previous record for youngest person to complete all three was 24.
The parent worked alongside
Her dad, Eric, hiked next to her the entire way and scouted every river crossing first. He didn't carry her pack or her food. She cooked her own meals, set up her own tent, and voted on the route same as he did.
Why we picked this one
Start with the part everyone skips past: she was four years old with a butterfly sleeping bag and a Barbie fishing pole before any of this was a plan. Nobody signed Reed Gjonnes up for a record. She just kept wanting to go one more mile than last time, and her dad kept saying yes, until yes added up to three trails and a fractured arm in a Gore-Tex cast and 7,925 miles logged by the time she was 13. You don't need the Continental Divide for the shape of this. You need a kid who wants to go a little further than last time, and a parent who doesn't decide in advance how far that is.
Pitch the tent in the yard tonight, not the living room. Sleeping bags, headlamps if you've got them, breakfast cooked outside in the morning. One rule, the same one that applies at 14,000 feet in Colorado: once the flap's zipped, nobody comes back inside, not for the bathroom, not for a bad dream, not because it got cold.
Read the full story at
PRP.fm (Portland Radio Project)
Where it happened:
Salem, Oregon
There's a tent in your garage that hasn't been out of its bag since somebody bought it. Reed's dad never carried her pack, not once in three summers. See what your kid carries for one night, ten feet from the back door.