Double-Triple Crown Hiker Just Stepped Off the Capitol Reflecting Pool to Walk Across America

This morning, Bernie Krausse walked away from the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. and started heading west. He won't stop until he reaches Washington State — 3,800 miles from now.

Bernie isn't new to this. He finished the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail — the Triple Crown of long-distance hiking - twice. He hiked the American Discovery Trail in 2022. When he finishes the Great American Rail-Trail, he'll have logged more than 60,000 miles of hiking since the age of 30.

Bernie Krausse

Great American Rail-Trail - Westbound
Started: March 28, 2026
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What makes today's departure interesting — beyond the sheer scale of the undertaking — is where this trail sits in the hiking world. The Great American Rail-Trail is already well known in the cycling community. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has been building toward a coast-to-coast corridor for years, and it's a genuine achievement. But among long-distance hikers, it's largely uncharted territory. Very few people have attempted it on foot. Documentation is thin. And the practical planning resources that hikers depend on — verified water sources, service waypoints, gap route navigation — are still being developed.

That's exactly why Bernie's hike matters to Hiking America.

As he moves westbound through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and beyond, he'll be doing something more than completing a personal milestone. He's field-verifying our GPS data in real time. Every water source he confirms, every gap section he navigates, every service stop that turns out to be useful (or not) — that's information that goes directly into the navigation resources we're building for future hikers on the Great American.

I want to be clear about where things stand: our GPS tracks for the full route are complete and available now, as are thousands of services waypoints. The turn-by-turn guide work is still in progress. Bernie's hike is the field test that will help us get that right. That's the honest version of what's happening here. 🥾

For those of you who've been asking about planning your own Great American Rail-Trail hike, Bernie's journey is going to be the most useful thing we can offer you over the next several months. We'll be sharing regular updates — water source intel, gap navigation notes, real conditions on the ground — as he moves through each state.

You can follow Bernie directly on Facebook, and we'll be publishing trail intelligence updates here and on Substack as the data comes in.

If you want access to the current GPS tracks while Bernie verifies the route, you can grab those here. They're ready to load into Gaia GPS today.

While the Great American Rail-Trail doesn't have a lot of hiking-specific documentation yet, Bernie is helping us change that — one westbound mile at a time. ⛰️