Yearlong walk across the U.S. ends in Washington, D.C.

Holden Minor Ringer’s family was incredulous when he first pitched the idea of walking across the United States, the 26-year-old recalled. He was determined, but even he was starting to get skeptical of his own plan.

But in March 2023, he packed some of his belongings into a backpack and kicked off his hike from Second Beach near La Push, Wash. The trip was labeled “Walk2Washington,” with a goal of walking all the way to the U.S. capital — and then up north along the East Coast.

After a year of walking, he finally stepped foot in D.C. on Sunday.

“I had this dream,” Ringer said in an interview at the National Mall.“I had maybe some kind of expectation of what was going to happen, but I definitely couldn’t have imagined what has happened.”

The idea first popped into Ringer’s head in 2021 while he was studying for an international finance final at Emory University. He explained he was daydreaming about going on a walk, and then wondered,“What would it be like to walk across the country?”

The quickest way to travel across the country is up north — through North Dakota and South Dakota. But Ringer wanted a path that included stops in cities where he knew people, so he headed south instead. He traveled through 14 states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

“I feel the experience has been so much more fulfilling and enriched by the people who I’ve known and gotten to connect with,”Ringer said.“It’s also just fun to say you just walked to your friend, especially from the Pacific Ocean.”