To say that long-distance hiking has blown up since Backpacker started publishing would be the mother of all understatements. In 1973, the year our first issue went out, just 8 people completed the ...

The greatest hurdle to completing the Pacific Crest Trail may no longer be the physical challenge of traveling its 2,650 miles. Not only is scoring a permit for the thru-hike nearly impossible these ...

That said, most folks just aren’t able to commit the time it takes to tackle a thru-hike, as much as they might like to. Kids, jobs, mortgages: So many factors pull people back home after a shorter ...