Ohioan hikes U.S. ‘triple crown’
Columbus man among youngest to complete nearly 8,000 miles on 3 trails.
Eddie Boyd spent months preparing for a 2015 hike of the Appalachian Trail, only to confront a sobering realization just 20 miles in: He wasn’t ready.
At a shelter in Maine, three miles into the daunting Hundred-Mile Wilderness, dehydration and self-doubt had set in.
Boyd contacted his uncle, who was staying with his parents at a cabin in nearby Baxter State Park, to pick him up. A few days later, he was back home in Columbus.
“I remember being absolutely devastated at the decision to turn around,” he said. “I had been planning this trip for over a year, and I hated that it may end only 20 miles down the trail.”
Boyd didn’t give up, though. He just needed time to regroup.
On June 28, 2015 — 15 days after quitting the trail — he was back out.
Thus began a three-year cross-country adventure that ended in November in a rare accomplishment: The 20-year-old completed the triple crown of hiking.
“My self-confidence is just through the roof,” said Boyd, who lives in Columbus’s University District.
The triple-crown distinction is reserved for those who have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail, all three of which have been designated a National Scenic Trail by Congress. The three routes span 22 states and a combined 8,000 miles.
The American Long Distance Hiking Association-West, a volunteer-based governing body based in Portland, Oregon, is the only organization to recognize the feat. Since its founding in 1993, ALDHA-West has conferred 334 triple-crown awards, including 34 this year. (Boyd can apply for his this year.)
The total number includes some hikers who have earned the distinction twice and, in rare cases, three times.
“It is a pretty big feat of endurance,” said Whitney LaRuffa, president of the hiking association, a national group with 304 dues-paying members across the country. “It’s a nice way to recognize the hard work they chose to do themselves.”
For Boyd — who, according to LaRuffa, is among the younger hikers to complete the triple crown — the motivation to spend three years tramping through the wilderness is rooted in his childhood.
A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Boyd was seven when his family moved to Upper Arlington for his mother’s new job as executive director of Camp Fire USA Central Ohio Council.
The position allowed Boyd and his younger sister, Aubrie, to spend their childhood summers at Camp Wyandotte in the Hocking Hills, where they grew to love nature. Even when they weren’t at the camp, their parents, Dave and Amy Boyd, encouraged both their children to play outdoors.
“We really value having our kids spend time outside,” said Amy Boyd, 57.
Eddie Boyd didn’t seriously consider a long-distance hike until his freshman year at Upper Arlington High School, when a friend casually suggested the idea of attempting the Appalachian Trail after high-school graduation.
“It just really stuck in my head for some reason,” Boyd said.
During his senior year, he spent months researching and preparing for the hike for his capstone project, a requirement for graduation.
“I spent hours just pouring over YouTube videos, reading blogs,” he said. “Every time I read about it, I’d get more and more excited.”
Appalachian Trail: June 28-Nov. 21, 2015
Boyd’s family accompanied him to Maine to see him off for his first attempt, which began at Mount Katahdin, the northern end of the trail.
His sister joined him the first day for the grueling 10-mile, 12-hour hike up and over the mountain that ended at his parents’ cabin.
After staying the night there, Boyd set out alone the next morning from the Katahdin Stream Campground, hiking south 14 miles to the Hurd Brook Lean-to, a shelter about 3 miles into the Hundred-Mile Wilderness. He brought with him a 12-pound backpack carrying his sleeping bag, tent, clothing and a cook pot and stove.
The next morning, he woke up vomiting, a sure sign of dehydration.
He went home and took time to recover before giving it another shot. This time, he started at Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia, hiking north to Maine before backtracking south to Georgia.
Boyd kept in contact with his parents via a satellite device that allowed him to send text messages and log his GPS coordinates when he stopped for the day.
During the 142 days and 2,200 miles, he befriended more hikers than he can remember. By day, he hiked alone at his own pace; at night, he camped with new trail friends.
“It reinvigorated my faith in humanity and made me realize how many amazing people there are in this country,” he said. “I was helped by countless strangers and met countless people who I immediately became friends with.”
When Boyd ended his hike on Springer Mountain in northern Georgia, the southern terminus, he felt sure of one thing: “This is something I need to do more of.”
Pacific Crest Trail: May 1-Sept. 20, 2016
Boyd returned home to Upper Arlington and spent the winter and spring working and saving money.
In mid-March of 2016, he decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which, along with the Appalachian Trail, the National Trails System Act of 1968 designated as a protected scenic trail.
A month and a half later, he flew to San Diego before heading to the Mexican border.
The 2,650-mile trek began in the desert — “I saw tons of rattlesnakes,” he said — and ended in the mountains of Washington, in Manning Park on the Canadian border.
The trip represented Boyd’s first visit west of the Mississippi River and his first exposure to the mountain ranges of the West. He climbed Mount Whitney in California, which at 14,505 feet is the highest point in the contiguous United States.
“You’re always in the most beautiful country,” he said.
Continental Divide Trail: June 28-Nov. 10, 2017
After completing the Pacific Crest Trail, there was no question Boyd would have to complete the triple crown.
Again, he returned to Columbus, spending eight months working to save money to take on the last leg — which, in 1978, became the third trail to be designated a National Scenic Trail.
Each hike cost Boyd about $5,000, most of that for food along the way— grocery stores near the trails offer a plethora of options to satisfy “ravaging hiker hunger,” he said — and an occasional hotel stay. Most nights, though, Boyd slept in his tent or under the stars.
He began the final trek in Montana, in Glacier National Park near the Canadian border.
Proceeding south, the 2,750-mile excursion took him through Idaho, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and Colorado. He ended in New Mexico, at the Crazy Cook monument three miles from the Mexican border.
The trail was the most isolated of the three — at one point, Boyd said, he went 12 days without passing through a town. Although the population was sparse, “I saw every large mammal that North America has to offer,” he said.
He wasn’t completely alone, though. A film crew made up of his friends accompanied him to document his hike on the last trail.
The crew is editing 400 hours of footage and hopes to submit the film to various festivals this summer.
As parents naturally do, the Boyds worried about their son during his treks, particularly on his first hike. But by the third hike, they were confident in Boyd’s expertise.
“He used great wisdom in not taking too much risk,” said Dave Boyd, 67, a self-employed benefits counselor.
Boyd’s parents, who moved to London, Ohio, in June shortly before Aubrie, 18, left home to attend Ohio University, couldn’t be more proud of their son.
“I really think that he can do anything that he wants to with his life,” said Amy Boyd, now executive director of the Procter Camp & Conference Center in London. “He has just been very self-motivated through this whole process, and it’s been really exciting to watch him grow and develop.”
For now, Boyd said he will continue working for a catering business, with plans to study business in the spring at Columbus State Community College. His hiking days, though, are hardly behind him.
“I’m just out there to hike as much as I personally can and have fun,” he said. “I’m addicted to adventure.”