What is the name of the hiking trail that starts at the tip of South America and ends in Alaska?
Question by Jo ♫♪: What is the name of the hiking trail that starts at the tip of South America and ends in Alaska?
I read about a man that hiked that trail for many years. I think it took him 7 years. Do you know what it’s called?
Best answer:
Answer by chris w
The Pan-American Highway, although a series of roads and not a trail it is the only route that fits the description. Several countries Canada and the USA have trails that traverse the different ranges like the PCT and APT.
The Pan-American Highway (French: Route panaméricaine, Spanish: Carretera Panamericana, Autopista Panamericana) is a network of roads measuring about 47,958 kilometers (29,800 miles) in total length. Except for an 87 kilometers (54 mi) rainforest break, called the Darién Gap, the road links the mainland nations of the Americas in a connected highway system. According to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the world’s longest “motorable road”. However, because of the Darién Gap, it is not possible to cross between South America and Central America by traditional motor vehicle.
The Pan-American Highway system is mostly complete and extends from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in North America to the lower reaches of South America. Several highway termini are claimed to exist, including the cities of Puerto Montt and Quellón in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina. No comprehensive route is officially defined in Canada and the United States, though several highways in the U.S. are called “Pan-American”.
The Pan-American Highway passes through many diverse climates and ecological types, from dense jungles, to arid deserts, to cold mountain passes. Since the highway passes through many countries, it is far from uniform. Some stretches of the highway are passable only during the dry season, and in many regions driving is occasionally hazardous.
Famous sections of the Pan-American Highway include the Alaska Highway and the Inter-American Highway (the section between the United States and the Panama Canal). Both of these sections were built during World War II as a means of supply of remote areas without danger of attack by U-boats.[citation needed]
Jake Silverstein, writing in 2006, described the Pan-American Highway as “a system so vast, so incomplete, and so incomprehensible it is not so much a road as it is the idea of Pan-Americanism itself…”[1]
Add your own answer in the comments!
The closest thing that fits your description is the Pan-American Highway. Its a series of interconnected roads not trails. 7 years sounds about right. I rode a bicycle from Alaska to Seattle down the Alcan (AK Highway) which took 7 weeks.