A U.S. Marine Corps veteran is believed to be the first person to complete the 500-mile Alaska Long Trail.
Though the trail itself is not yet officially complete, Bradford Bartels says he made the trek from Seward to Fairbanks in 47 days, finishing in early August.
Bartels was born in Alaska and is an avid thru-hiker, having completed the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and many other long routes. But he says the Alaska Long Trail stood apart.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Bradford Bartels: All the things that make thru-hiking great — the adventure, the backcountry, the wildlife — all that stuff is just intrinsic to Alaska. So one would kind of assume that the coolest thru-hike you can go on is in Alaska. So I've had my eye on this project for a while, but, you know, life short. It was time to pull the trigger. So I just kind of showed up with a backpack and started walking.
Casey Grove: As far as I know, it hasn't officially become its full self at this point. What made you want to do it now, as opposed to maybe later?
BB: Just kind of that whole life is short thing. I'm 32. I really don't want to live the dirt baggy thru-hiker life. You kind of make a lot of sacrifices for these longer hikes, and I'm just kind of leaving this chapter of life.
I'm always going to get out in the backcountry, don't get me wrong. But this kind of seemed like my way of kissing this life goodbye. It seemed like my kind of hike, too. If I look at all the available places to hike, the thing that would certainly appeal to me most is this mysterious trail in Alaska.
CG: Yeah. It's probably pretty tough to boil that down into just the time that we have here. But what were some of the highlights for you?
BB: It just feels like every portion of it was just like a different flavor of my favorite thing, so it is hard to quantify. I think the Talkeetna (mountains) were really special. I really enjoyed my time in the Talkeetnas. You know, it's obscenely beautiful, just glaciers, it snowed, it was kind of scary at some points.
I was absolutely elated for the majority of it. the The views are absolutely breathtaking. I mean, everyone knows Alaska is beautiful, but just experiencing it firsthand in a day-to-day, waking up outside kind of way, just that that slow burn of beauty, just really, really took my breath away on a moment-to-moment basis.
CG: It sounds like, in some ways, the highlight is that it was this big, long thing that lasted that long, and that, like you said, you woke up every day outside and it stretched for such a long time.
BB: Totally, totally. I think a good long-distance backpacking route is almost like a song, you know. It has an appropriately timed crescendo and whatnot. And this trail, although incomplete, one thing it has that I believe it has more than any other trail is just kind of a certain flow to it. Just, chef's kiss.
CG: Some parts of it, too, are not unknown to people, right? Like there there are sections of that that get hiked and are kind of popular backpacking routes around, especially around Southcentral and on the Kenai Peninsula. But what about the parts that are kind of more unknown? I wondered about the Talkeetnas, like you just mentioned. Were there parts of the trail that that were just truly unknown to you that you hadn't really heard much beta on them and stuff?
BB: Yeah, yeah. To give some context, I was born in Alaska, I'm from Alaska, but my family moved around a lot, so I had zero backcountry experience in Alaska up until this hike. I had never spent a night outside in Alaska.
So yeah, a lot of it was sniffing out trail beta. The majority of it was sniffing out trail beta, and so that looked like calling a lot of different people. Like me being in a town resupplying and see someone wearing a bunch of camo, I'm gonna pull out the map and be like, "Hey, does it get bushwhacky through here?" Stuff like that.
And there really isn't that much unknown when you start sniffing out trail beta. You know what I mean? Alaska gets outside really hard. Wherever you're at, someone has hiked on before, so it was less venturing forth into the unknown and just more like asking a bunch of questions to a bunch of strangers.
CG: Yeah, that's interesting.
Tell me about your kit. I know probably for covering that amount of distance in that time, you've got to travel somewhat light, right? So how do you how do you do that?
BB: Yeah, there was a a weird kind of medium-ground compromise. Obviously, for these longer trips, weight is one of your primary concerns. It just is. But more so than for speed and ease, for me, it's about longevity. I put things in a backpack and walk around a lot. So just taking like a pound out of the impact on my knees is really important to me.
By nature of doing this a lot, my kit is already pretty dialed. I do make a few gear choices that I really don't even recommend for the average person. Like I sleep in a one-person bivy sack, as opposed to a tent. I had a 70-liter Dyneema roll-top pack by Hyperlite, closed-cell foam sleeping pad and a little isobutane camp stove. I think maybe you might be able to get away with using a bear can, but I had a Dyneema Ursac bear bag that would generally be hung. A lot of synthetic insulation because it insulates better while wet.
CG: And I forgot to ask, too. You said you were in the military, right?
BB: Yeah.
CG: And what did you do in the military?
BB: So I was in the Marine Corps, and my job title was a machine gunner. My (Military Occupational Specialty) was 0331, and, yeah, that means belt-fed weapons. It was a good time.
CG: Oh man, that sounds heavy, too.
BB: Oh yeah, yeah. There's a saying: Everybody loves shooting machine guns until it's time to clean them or carry them. So yeah, whenever I'm walking with a big backpack outside, and I'm like, "Wow! I have a full food carry and enough water to last a couple days. This is really heavy." I kind of let out a sigh of relief, and I'm just like, "You know, this could be a Mark 19, and it's not. So it's it's not that heavy."
CG: Did your military service, do you think, contribute to your desire to do these long hikes like this?
BB: Desire, not so much. In fact, I feel like a lot of people get out of the military and feel a certain aversion to the word "hike," because they have such a negative connotation with it. Because they just go on these like death marches in the military.
But it certainly facilitated my ability in some ways. I feel like my superpower in the backcountry is I just never really get uncomfortable. You know, it could be wet, it could be cold. I'm aware of the fact I'm losing dexterity, but I'm not really miserable. You know, I could I could have a really heavy pack, and I'm just I'm really not that upset about it, just because of the setting you're outside with in the military. Just how you get outside of the military is such a not fun way.
So it kind of set my bar for fun outside super low. So now that I get to pick out my own gear and pick my own route, and there's not a someone who's a rank above me yelling at me or something, I'm just like "This is awesome. This is great. Relatively, I'm having a blast."
CG: Yeah, it must be, comparing the two, it must be much nicer to be out there doing it on your own on your own terms.
BB: Oh yeah. Ohhh yeah.
CG: Is there anything else you want people to know about why you think that this trail in particular is special, and and that this project to make it a continuous 500-mile trail, why it's worth doing?
BB: I think to say that this project isn't special and isn't cool is to say that Alaska isn't cool, in a way. You know what I mean? There's all these things that are great about thru-hiking. The adventure, the time outside, and Alaska just has the greatest backcountry, arguably, on the face of the earth. And all a thru-hike is is kind of just an immersive experience in the backcountry. So I think it's defined by where that trail is.
And you could say this is 500 miles, some trails are 2,000, 3,000 miles, but it's got plenty of challenge per mile, and it's just arguably more beautiful than anywhere else in the world. And that's kind of why people do this stuff. They love being outside. They love seeing cool scenery. You know, the biggest mountain in North America is not in like Ohio. You know what I mean? If you like being outside and you like natural beauty, a lot of people have found themselves in Alaska, because this is kind of just where it's at.
