Use three months of seasonal work to finance a trip to every continent

As we reflect on the past six years of adventures together, we remember our “why.” Why we continue to design our lives around long-distance hiking. Why we choose seasons of simplicity instead of stability. Why the trail continues to call us back.

Friends first

Let’s go back to 1998. We first met in high school in Tallahassee, Florida. Even then, the outdoors played a role in shaping who we were, albeit in different ways.

We both grew up wandering the green spaces of our neighborhoods, disappearing for hours exploring the woods with neighborhood friends. Colleen started camping with her parents when she was six months old and has always felt more comfortable in a tent than anywhere else. Lane spent a few summers in North Carolina at an all-boys camp, building his own connection to the outdoors. His family backpacking trip to Thunder Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park is an experience he still talks about to this day.

Over the next two decades, each of us continued to find our own way back outside. Colleen backpacked through Europe in college and made it a tradition to go camping every year on her birthday. He worked for an airline, nurturing his love of travel while taking camping trips whenever he could. Lane hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2012 and became addicted to the hiking lifestyle, completing seven long hikes over the next seven years.

Although we lived separate lives, we reconnected occasionally at weddings or reunions in Florida, not realizing how closely our paths were silently aligning.

Adventure Partners 2nd

All of that history led to a pivotal trip in the fall of 2019.

Lane had recently purchased and converted a sleeper van and was traveling out west. Colleen needed a break from work and was looking for someone to explore Montana with. After a week of traveling together, including hikes along the PCT, PNT, and CDT, we had formed a solid foundation for a relationship.

That road trip became the spark that ignited the last six years of shared adventure.

Since that first trip, we have hiked Collegiate Peaks Loop, Continental Divide Trail, Arizona Trail, Potomac Heritage Trail, Benton MacKaye Trail, Tahoe Rim Trail, and Pinhoti Trail. We have worked as caretakers at Blackburn Trail Center on the Appalachian Trail and at Granite Park Chalet in Glacier National Park along the Continental Divide Trail.

For the past four years, we have taken seasonal jobs at remote camps in Alaska and Antarctica. We have built a life around the seasons. Working hard for a few months, always living simply and wandering in faraway places.

What’s next?

This year we turn 40 years old.

To celebrate the start of a new decade, we aim to do what we love most, on a much larger scale. We plan to travel to every continent and walk approximately 2,500 miles as we circumnavigate the world.

For almost six years, we have lived rent-free, car-free, and largely expense-free. Now we challenge ourselves in a new way: we finance a full year of travel to all seven continents using only what we earn during a stint working in Antarctica.

In our next post, we’ll go into detail about which trails we’ve chosen to hike and our travel plans for 2026.

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