At age 5, ‘Buddy Backpacker’ hiked the entire Appalachian Trail

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Dion Pagonis and Andrea Rego come on the podcast to chat about Christian “Buddy Backpacker” Thomas. Earlier this Fall Dion and Christian received their Triple Crown awards at the ALDHA West gathering in Colorado.

Christian is now 9 years old, though he was much younger — 5 years old — when he completed his thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. Dion, Christian’s stepfather, hiked every mile of the three major trails with him.

The family hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2012, Pacific Crest Trail in 2013, Colorado Trail in 2014 and they split the Continental Divide Trail into two summers 2016 and 2017.

Listen to the podcast here:

Rudy Giecek of Arlington is the host of the Cascade Hiker Podcast. (More about Rudy here.) You can find the entire archive of podcasts and support his work at his website. Or email him at rudy@cascadehikerpodcast.com.