Preparation and Insights

Did you know that American knowledge of geography is one of the worst in the world? A National Geographic-Roper Study that surveyed young Americans showed that 88 percent of those questioned could not find Afghanistan on a map of Asia. Sixty-three percent could not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia…

One of the basic principles of Trekking the Planet is a preference for travel that is “closer to the ground”. One benefit of ground travel is the reduced “carbon footprint” over airplanes.

Part of the mission of Trekking the Planet is to promote an active lifestyle as we undertake a series of hikes during our 14-month journey. Our hope is our example will encourage others to find ways to become more active as well.

In September 2003, my wife, Sandy and I, left our full-time IT jobs and took an around-the-world trip with our two daughters. At the time, Kristen (age 10) and Lauren (age 12) were in 5th and 7th grade, respectively.

Clothing is a major component of our around-the-world journey. We need to have items that are lightweight and versatile, as well as sturdy, to last for a 14-month trip.

Because of our need to carry all of our trekking gear in a rolling duffel bag, we have no choice but to go find equipment that is small and light. Read about our choices in this story.

One of the most frequently asked questions we receive when we are out presenting to students is: “How did you plan such as long trip? “ Read further to learn about our planning.

We have spent many hours researching the technology that we will need to capture the sights and sounds from our trip.

During our 14-month, around the world trip we will be in some remote places and basically ‘off the grid’ for communicating. However, we want to send more information, more frequently.

We are going to some of the most remote and unspoiled places in the world and have documented the steps that we have taken to improve our chances of having a safe trip.

This story documents some of the steps that we have taken to remain healthy while on the road.

We can’t believe that it has already been two months since we left on our Trekking the Planet journey. We take a look at what gear has made the grade and what has failed, and in some cases, already needed to be replaced.

One of our biggest challenges on this trip is finding Internet. Through experimentation, we have been using local country SIM cards to help us stay connected. Read more to learn about how successful we have been to date.

During the 4 1/2 months of our journey we have received questions such as, “What is it like to be traveling all of the time?”, “How do you keep up with everything at home?” and “Do you get enough rest?” In this story we share our answers to…

One of the challenges for Trekking the Planet is how to make the sometimes dry subject of geography come to life. Because people respond to different forms of media, we chronicle our trip both in written form (with photos) and video form.

The Third Lane refers to an imaginary path in the center of a road between the two directions of opposing traffic. It is used by impatient drivers to pass cars even though they are overtaking vehicles on narrow mountain roads. Darren writes about some of our most memorable road experiences…

In the second “The Third Lane” series post, Darren writes about some of our most memorable road experiences while at Karakol Natural Park in Kyrgyzstan.

In the final “The Third Lane” series post, Darren writes about some of our most memorable road experiences while driving from Bukhara to Khiva in Uzbekistan.

We have passed the six month point of our trip and are checking in on our packing strategy. It became clear, when we looked at our packing requirements, that we needed to pack for four different types of trips during the journey.

Scandinavia is one of the most beautiful areas in the world. It is also one of the most expensive places to visit. Darren writes about our tips on saving money in this region.

There are a few unusual things in our bags that we have brought on our journey. Read on to learn about the eight most surprising items in our luggage.

Now that we have passed the eight month point of our journey, Darren writes about our favorite destinations on our trip… so far.

Sandy writes about using her iPhone and how it has helped us while traveling internationally, especially during our recent time in Europe.

Darren provides an overview of our “quirky” methods to ensure that we do not leave items in hotel rooms.

Sandy highlights some of our travel ‘horror’ stories that we have experienced on our journey to date.

Sandy writes about those times when strangers have come to our aid and helped us out during our journey.

Sandy writes about hiking lessons learned during the treks we have completed. Part 1 presents the first five lessons learned.

Sandy writes about hiking lessons learned during the treks we have completed. Part 2 presents the second five lessons learned.

At the one year milestone of our journey, Darren writes about what he has learned so far from our around-the-world expedition.

In Part 2 of this story, Darren shares some of the ways he has grown personally during our Trekking the Planet journey and his reactions to what we have seen and witnessed to date.

During our expedition we have made it a priority to travel to some of the most remote places in the world. When staying in these remote places the conditions can be less than optimal. Sandy discusses the balance we have used in ‘roughing it’ on this journey.

Darren recently completed a Q&A interview on how he works, given our continual travel while we are Trekking the Planet.

Sandy writes about why we use local guides and how we chose them for this journey.

In Part 1 of this story, Sandy shares the first five tips for successful travel with children of all ages.

In Part 2 of this story, Sandy provides five more tips for successful travel with children of all ages.

Darren writes about the state of our clothing and gear now that we are nearing the end of our journey.

In this follow-up story, Darren features more favorite destinations from places we visited during the second half of our trip.

Sandy features more travel ‘horror’ stories that we experienced during our journey.

One of the great pleasures of traveling is the culinary journey taken in trying food from the places you visit. While on our expedition, we wrote several articles about our food experiences. Read all six stories here!

It is hard to believe that it has been six months this week since we have returned home from our 424-day global journey to raise geography awareness. Sandy writes how we inevitably receive questions about what it is like to be home after being away for so long and whether…

Sandy details some of our preparation for the Pacific Crest Trail trek.

Camping is a main component of our U.S. National Parks journey, as we travel to 27 parks over four-and-a-half months. In fact, we plan to camp over 100 nights while driving round the United States. We decided to simply convert our 4Runner into a camper van (of sorts), giving us…

We recently completed an interview, summarizing our favorite parks, challenges we faced, what worked well and our final thoughts from our Trekking the Planet National Parks Roadtrip Adventure. If you missed any of our stories from the parks, you can click on any of the map icons below to read…

Darren writes about five mistakes we made last year while hiking 1,828 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in California and Oregon.

Darren writes a companion story to the post about our Pacific Crest Trail mistakes, detailing the things that went well for us, and other factors for potential PCT hikers to consider.

One of the practices that Darren and I follow is to maintain a master packing list. This practice makes it easy to tailor our list for a particular trip, including backpacking, international travel, car-camping, or simply an overnighter at a friend’s house.

Sandy writes about creating our travel itinerary and the unique planning challenges associated with our new Europe adventure, starting in June.

Sandy details our packing and training strategy for this summer’s Trekking the Planet Europe journey.

As with any international trip, staying connected while being on the road has had its own set of challenges. Whether it be hiking on the Camino Portugues in Portugal and Spain or with our more recent travels through Spain and Andorra, we have had to deal with the challenge of…

Two months into our Trekking Europe journey, Sandy writes about how our gear has held up to the goal of keeping our weight to a minimum, yet satisfying all of our hiking and traveling needs.

This summer, we trekked over 500 miles on four different long distance hikes in seven European countries. Even though we have now trekked over 3,000 miles in the past six years, I am always learning new things while hiking. So I wanted to share the twelve things I discovered this…

As we prepare for our Trekking the U.S. West adventure this summer, we have been focused on our gear. Taking into account the lessons we learned from hiking the PCT three years ago, we have strived to review every backpacking item to lighten our load. If we aren’t going to…

We entered 2021 having hiked over 4,000 miles in the past eight years. During that time we have completed a variety of treks throughout the world. One thing we have learned is to tailor our gear to the conditions of each trek.

During our time of Trekking the Planet, we have taken several extended trips. So we know what it is like to plan and pack for a long journey. But planning and packing for this year’s Trekking the British Isles adventure is much different.

During the past few years our travels have evolved into alternating between wilderness backpacking treks and long distance hikes between villages and towns. While they may seem like totally different trips, they require similar planning and preparation.