THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL, Maine — A hiker at the end of the Appalachian Trail on Saturday became the first to traverse each of the three U.S. National Scenic Trails in a single calendar year.
Averaging about 30 miles per day, "Flyin' " Brian Robinson, of San Jose, Calif., had already completed the Pacific Crest Trail in the West, the Continental Divide Trail in the Rockies and most of the Appalachian, which runs from Georgia to Maine.
Robinson finished the Appalachian Trail on Saturday atop mile-high Mount Katahdin — Maine's highest peak.
After completing the Continental Divide on Sept. 27, he returned to the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail where heavy snow had forced him off the route in April.
Tackling hiking's "Triple Crown" — 7,400 miles through 22 states since he embarked Jan. 1 — took Robinson through hip-deep snow, scorching heat, more than 1 million feet of elevation, loneliness and bouts of self-doubt.
He also suffered a case of Bell's palsy that paralyzed the left side of his face for six weeks. Eating every two hours — usually on the move — Robinson's high-calorie diet of Snickers bars and peanut butter has kept him from losing weight from his 6-foot-1, 155-pound frame.
Only two dozen people have achieved hiking's Triple Crown in their lifetimes. In 1999, two men became the first to hike two of the trails in a single year.
Robinson hiked the Pacific Crest — 2,645-miles from Mexico to Canada — in 84 days and six hours, averaging better than 31 miles a day before covering 2,588 miles of the Continental Divide, which has no fixed route over much of its length.
Robinson, on a leave of absence from his job as a systems engineer for Compaq, saved $10,000 to pay for the venture.