Trekking 2,650 miles border to border

By Fleur Bailey
The Guardsman

In an effort to raise money for a local school and to gain a little personal enlightenment,
David Durandet has decided to take a 2,650 mile walk.

Carrying food, water, clothes and shelter on his back, Durandet, 44, will step away from his life in San Francisco on April 15 to begin a six-month journey spanning the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail. He will walk from Campo, Calif. on the border of Mexico to Manning Park in British Columbia, Canada — through California, Oregon and Washington.

“I am at a stage in my life where I feel mentally and physically strong enough to take on this expedition,” he said.

Although Durandet is walking for his own personal achievement, he is also using the opportunity to raise money for the Pacific Crest Trail Association and the Claire Lilienthal Alternative School, part of the San Francisco Unified School District.

The Claire Lilienthal Alternative School includes both Korean immersion and general education programs. The school is focused on parent participation, improved instructional programs and racial integration, according to its Web site.

Durandet is using his journey as a fundraising initiative to aid the school’s physical education program next year.

“I had the idea that this might motivate the children to maybe one day do something similar,” he said. “I want to motivate them to get outdoors instead of watching TV. This country is so beautiful and it’s so easy to see it.”

Durandet said learning about the landscape and appreciating the beauty of nature on foot was a big part of his childhood in France. In 2007, he went on an 800-mile, two-month hiking pilgrimage with his mother from the border of Switzerland through Italy to Rome.

“Since then I have wanted to do something bigger alone,” he said.

Durandet has been planning this trip for a year and expects it to take him up to six months. He has taken a snow survival course in South Lake Tahoe and said he feels prepared and in good physical condition for the journey.

“I know there may be a time where I want to stop,” he said. “But I am just going to take one day at a time and give myself small goals.”

According to the PCTA Web site, fewer have walked the entire trail than have climbed Mount Everest, suggesting it might be tougher than climbing the tallest mountain on Earth. The trail has the greatest elevation changes in any of the United States’ National Scenic Trails, climbing nearly 60 major mountain passes and descending into 19 canyons.

The PCT passes through three national monuments, seven national parks and 24 national forests as it runs through six out of seven of North America’s ecozones — including high and low desert, arctic-alpine country and old-growth forest.

To save carrying extra weight, Durandet will be sending food and clothes in advance to collect at specific locations on his journey.

He will experience many different environments, from sweltering desert valleys in Southern California, to rain forests in the Pacific Northwest and snow in the mountains. In parts of the trail in California, hikers can often expect to walk 20 to 30 miles between water sources.

The trail covers some of the most beautiful landscape in the West — the Mojave Desert, the Sierra Nevada and Mount Whitney, Yosemite National Park, Marble Mountain, the volcanoes of the Cascades including Mount Shasta and Mount Hood, Crater Lake, Columbia River Gorge, Mount Ranier and the remote Northern Cascades.

Durandet said he has tried not to think too much about the possible dangers or threats of taking this trip alone, adding that he will focus on being smart and listening to his body, nature and his surroundings. He said he is excited to push his physical being to its limit — to see how much he can endure and what he can learn from being on the journey.

“It is important for me to reach the end, to experience and enjoy every day, to get away from society, and to learn more about myself,” he said.

Durandet has a blog that he will update throughout his journey, and is accepting donations
through his Web site http://frogonthetrail.wordpress.com/