Transit trekking evangelist Kim Huntress-Inskeep’s trying to make transit-to-trails a thing. It’s working.
After one double-decker , one train , two unlike intercity cycle paths , seven 24-hour interval , and or so 400 miles , Kim Huntress - Inskeep was exhausted . New York City toPittsburghis usually no big deal , but in 2012 she and her cooperator adjudicate to skip the airport , eschew a rental car , and take the gear the opposite steering to Washington DC — all beforebikepackingup to the Steel City .
“ I was like , ‘ We ’re not bicycle for like a hebdomad . I do n’t want to ride my bike anymore , ' ” she remembers .
alternatively of a triumphant last lap to her supporter ’s wedding locus , the couplet read the motorbus . But that also became an important journey for Huntress - Inskeep ; it was the first in what would become a lifetime of auto - free out-of-door adventures . In 2021 , she started ablogon reach the outdoors inWashington Stateusing only passage ( and occasionally a bicycle ) that consists of a combination of crowdsourced info , meticulous inquiry into regional transit maps and timetable , plus her own personal adventure .
Kim Huntress-Inskeep has never had a driver’s license, but that hasn’t stopped her from seeing the outdoors by transit trekking with her bicycle.|Photo courtesy of Kim Huntress-Inskeep
While she is by no means the first person to engage in “ transit hiking”—her blog ’s resources varlet is full of state - specific web page , ancient theodolite - to - trails PDF maps , external passage hiking nonprofits , and local meetup groups — she is one of the concept ’s loud evangelists . And having dispatch “ countless ” day trip-up , “ about three XII ” multi - day backpacking trips , and four epic “ misstep of a lifespan ” ( plus a couple equally larger-than-life failures ) sweep several states and at least two countries , she ’s also quite perchance one of the most well - traveled passage tramp alive . She even does multi - day backpacking trips using only the bus .
These days , she ’s known around Seattle as the Transit Trekker .
It ’s a gray , chilly , and intermittently rainy Tuesday , and Huntress - Inskeep and I are — with the exclusion of one brave adult female enjoy a 9 amcold plunge — the only mass at the Dockton Marina on Puget Sound ’s Vashon - Maury Island . I experience on this island for intimately three years yet ca n’t recall a unmarried time I was at the marina before twelve noon .
Transit trekking means taking everything from day trips to multi-day backpacking trips using only the bus.|Photo courtesy of Kim Huntress-Inskeep
Now 55 , Huntress - Inskeep front like any other semi - active Seattleite , favoring a blue Patagonia cap , warm legging , hiking boot , and breathable shirts straight from the sale wheel atREI . In a city where everyone wait like they ’re about to do a six - mile daylight salary increase , lugging a trekking pole around town means she fits right in . But while our unforesightful jaunt around theMaury Island Marine Parkis not exactly what you ’d call challenging , what she ’s doing is in an entirely different category than what your average Arcteryx - clad Pacific Northwesterner gets up to . Rather , she ’s exploring one of the last real frontiers left in America : car - free out-of-door refreshment .
From the parking pile of the marina , we cross to a crushed rock pullout where a lowly , scantily detectable trailhead transports us by from the traffic noise of belated commuter train and into the deep stillness ofDockton Forest . From there , we boost to the top of what I ’ve always called the Gravel Pit , a decommission crushed rock mine that is now one of the region ’s estimable beach cost increase — and serious hold closed book . Instead of derive down among the quondam mining conveyor to the beach , we continue along the upper portion , through a bombastic standstill of madronas and past what would be the undisputable best survey ofMount Rainier , if only the mountain was n’t obscured by fog .
I still ca n’t conceive we sire here on a bus .
The route 123 Strait Shot runs all the way to Bainbridge Island in Seattle.|Photo courtesy of Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
Huntress - Inskeep grew up in exurbanSan Diego , where tangency with the outside universe required her to hike up down the long , winding dirt driveway from her Fatherhood ’s holding to the nearest bus stop . “ I literally walked uphill both ways to get to the coach full point to go to high shoal , ” she jokes .
She later moved to New York without having ever visited ; all she knew was that she could live there without a car . After moving back to Seattle in 2015 with her partner Rod , she began work on theTransit Trekker Manual . Today , its mesa of subject hold almost 300 pages of item-by-item treks , spanning nine region across Washington State and 16 subregions . Some of them are crowdsourced , but the huge majority are hikes or overnights that Huntress - Inskeep has been on herself . “ My job has to be to communicate the advantages of theodolite trekking , but as somebody who ca n’t drive because I ’ve never had a driver ’s license , it ’s actually work , because the benefit seem so obvious to me , ” she enounce .
Not to overemphasise the obvious , but she gets out there .
“ I take the ferryboat to catch theStrait Shotto Port Angeles , ” she says , trying to remember the many wooden leg of a more notable journey that took situation during the notorious 2021heat noggin . “ I got a cheap motel room overnight , which did n’t have air conditioning — I found that out when I get there . Got up the next sunrise at like , five , to catch the busbar to Forks to catch the coach to La Push . I got off at Morrow Road and hiked five miles to the Rialto trailhead . ”
In short , she expend a few days “ chilling out and relish the breeze ” atRialto Beach — well one of the most arresting of Washington ’s many rocky Pacific beaches — while the rest of us roasted .
Zone Out on the Loneliest Road in America
Nevada’s Route 50 was once considered a dangerous passage with “no points of interest” until a group of cyclists rebranded it as a life-altering grand tour.
Another one of her more memorable hikes wasa 2022 trek on bus and foot to Dosewallips State Parkthat involved a thick mantle of December snow .
She again fix out from theBainbridge Island Ferry Terminal , but this time move around via local buses rather of the more direct Strait Shot . Her destination wasPort Townsend , itself one of the Olympic Peninsula ’s most idyllic destination Ithiel Town , wedge full of cute shops and quaint straight-laced homes . However , besides a stop at her pet local business , Better dwell Through Coffee , she was hellbent on having a calendar week to herself in a primitive cabin . The local bus she require to get through her net destination skip over her stop .
Still , she was undeterred . Transit trekkers can usually carry a few hiccups — that ’s all part of the fun .
Photo courtesy of Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
“ I ’d delay my trip by a day already and I was n’t move to let a few minutes of possibly having to walk on the shoulder of Highway 101 hold on me from enjoy my planned week of respite and work , ” she wrote in ablog postabout the trip . After an undeniably dicey walk along the shoulder of the main road , she was rewarded with a workweek of solitude in one of Washington ’s most scenic province parks .
Huntress - Inskeep can easily rattle off several legal argument in favor of others leave their cars at home , too . necessitate theodolite to natural areas propose one other major reward over drive : You do n’t have to keep your eyes on the road . Instead , you may bask all the natural beauty available to you , something she urged her readers to do ina late postoutlining five of her favorite Seattle - area scenic passage trip . There ’s also the uncomplicated widget of not having to occupy about parking or the cost of fuel .
Beyond that , driving is , of course , dangerous . According toNational Park Service datum , 668 people pop off in motor vehicle crashes in national parks between 2007 and 2023 . Only drowning killed more visitant . While those numbers could include people riding on buses , the National Safety Councilreports that a person is 20 prison term more likely to go in a clangoring in a rider vehicle than on a bus . Then , there ’s the environmental impact : “ tire are dreaded for salmon , ” she enjoin . “ That affects the full food chain , including orcas . And I do n’t think I know a single person who does n’t consider orcas with awe . ”
Maury Island offers a stunning view of Mount Rainer.|Bob Pool/Photographer’s Choice RF/Getty Images
Anna Zivarts , a longtime personal acquaintance and the conductor of Disability Rights Washington ’s Disability Mobility Initiative , where Huntress - Inskeep was a fellow , tells me there was by all odds a need for better accessibility in most of the rural area ’s outdoor offerings . Zivarts know with depressed visual sensation and can not take . In New York City , where the two met , Zivarts had no trouble get to the open air . There were hourly buses , and Metro - North halt Upstate . “ Whereas , here , it ’s a face lift , ” she says .
The Transit Trekker Manual could help brighten that load , Zivarts said , by cajoling policymakers and parks departments into let in more information on availableness on their websites , and even pull in improvement to the physical spaces in parks . They could find a wad of that information in Huntress - Inskeep ’s book , whose entries include highly detailed data about everything from the grade of track to whether or not there are public toilet and whether or not those restrooms areADA compliant . Where most places providing information about the outdoors assume that masses in wheelchairs merely are n’t concerned in move hiking , Huntress - Inskeep ’s guides take not only that they are , but that they deserve to be able to do it as comfortably and safely as possible .
Beyond impairment rights , there ’s also the matter of racial fairness , something the out-of-door diversion sector has never been know for . According tothe National Equity Atlas , in 2020 , 18 % of dim family did not have access to a auto , compare to just 6 % of white household . While there areother very valid reasonsBlack families tend to be excluded from outdoor activities , difficulty in getting there is certainly a constituent .
Jessica Pitre - Williams , a Black cleaning woman who , along with her six - year - old son , unite Huntress - Inskeep on a trek last November , is not part of that 18 % . However , she prefer to repulse as little as potential , and was thrilled to discover a new agency to enter the outdoors sans car . While the Transit Trekker blog was n’t exclusively responsible for getting Pitre - Williams on the lead — she’d previously used and enjoyedKing County Metro ’s ( KCM ) Trailhead Direct omnibus table service — she believes that resources like it had the potency to improve Black involution in outdoor activity . She also believe paper flier might be a good way to contact people who are n’t on the reckoner all twenty-four hour period for work .
“ You need to advertise where people are , ” she says .
While our wage hike extends into the Maury Island Marine Park , one of the largest undeveloped shoreline in Washington State , Huntress - Inskeep becomes increasingly animated , outlining big transportation trek programme . She has her sights set on a multimodalAlaska tripthat would commence on Amtrak , switch to the famousAlaska Marine Highway(where travelerscamp on the pack of cards of a ferryfor days at a time ) , and reason out inDenali National Park , before doing the whole route in turnaround , of course . The agency she sees it , while there are some places that are but impossible to get to without a car , the single that you could get to via transit are bounteous enough to spend a lifespan in .
Ultimately , I ’m a little embarrassed that as an avid COVID - era Vashon day - hiker , I had n’t taken transit once to the same hike I ’d been on almost 50 times . I would n’t have even had to take the foot ferry , let alone the bus to get to it . She made a trip to the south shore of Maury Island look slowly even coming from the mainland — we were back downtown by 2 promethium . But while weekend warriors like myself might admire her track commitment to the ( jalopy ) route less traveled , she ’s ready to shrug off applause .
“ I do have a problem embracing the cool factor , ” she say . " It ’s my realness , so I ’ve never thought about it that path before . "
