Thru-hiking
A long way to walk
Thru-hiking is walking a long-distance path from start to end. In most cases, you will cross multiple
regions or maybe even several countries. However, this is not necessarily the case, since some long-distance
paths
comprise smaller regions. The aim is to hike the trail in one season and in one go.
Sometimes this will mean that the hiker needs to deviate from the route, for instance, to re-supply, but
they will return to the
trail to
continue. Often only long trails are thru hikes, such as the Pacific Crest Trail (4,265 km) or the Santiago
de
Compostela (780 km).
Despite this, the length of the trail does not determine whether a trail is a thru-hike or not. Shorter
trails, like the Haute Route (180 km) or the West Highland Way (153 km) are also considered to be
thru-hikes.