HEATHER ANDERSON

National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Heather Anderson is the only woman who has completed the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide National Scenic Trails each three times. This includes her historic Calendar Year Triple Crown hike in 2018 when she hiked all three of those trails in one March-November season, making her the first female to do so.

She holds the overall self-supported Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Pacific Crest Trail (2013). She also holds the female self-supported FKT on the Appalachian Trail (2015), and the Arizona Trail (2016). She has logged over 40,000 foot-miles since 2003 including 15 thru-hikes and many ultramarathons. She is also an avid mountaineer and peakbagger working on several ascent lists in the US and abroad. 

As a professional speaker, Heather speaks regularly about her adventures and the lessons learned on trail. She is the author of Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home (2019) chronicling her Pacific Crest Trail record and Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go on the Appalachian Trail (2021) about her 2015 AT record. She also co-authored a guide to long-distance hiking preparation with Katie Gerber called Adventure Ready: A Hiker’s Guide to Training, Planning, and Resiliency (2022). You can find her online at wordsfromthewild.net or follow her on Instagram @ _wordsfromthewild_

NED MACKAY

MacKay is one of California’s greatest ambassadors to parklands. As a 15-year member of the volunteer Trail Safety Patrol, he has spent more than 7,500 hours providing assistance of any kind to those in need, ranging from guiding them to safety, directions, water or interpretive information about parks.

He is best known at the East Bay Regional Park District, where he is one of a handful to have hiked all of the district’s 65 parks. MacKay has also participated in hikes of all levels, from easy strolls to ambitious backpacking trips across Yosemite National Park and much of the Sierra Nevada, and beyond across the western U.S. With a group of friends, he has rafted rivers in California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Alaska.

His outreach to the public includes writing stories in many newspapers that detail park programs and natural history. While MacKay’s scope of travel ranges far, his accomplishments in the outdoors come second to him: He seeks always to help anybody in need, and in turn, he has shared his love for nature and wild places with thousands.

TOM STIENSTRA

An American author, outdoorsman and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Tom Stienstra is the consummate outdoorsman and conservationists. He has written numerous guidebooks on the California outdoors including Moon's California Camping, the best-selling and longest running outdoor guidebook series in America. His Moon Pacific Northwest Camping is an Oregon best seller.

In 2018, the Outdoor Writers Association of America awarded Stienstra 1st Place, Outdoor Recreation Photo of the Year. In 2017, the National Academy of Television awarded the Emmy for Health, Science and Environment Special to Stienstra and co-producer Jim Schlosser for their PBS Special, "The Mighty T -- the Tuolumne River." The PBS Special also won the President's Award from the Outdoor Writers Association of America as the best outdoors television show of any kind for the year in America. At the OWAA annual conference, Stienstra was the organization's only member recognized for first-place awards in newspaper, radio and television.

In 2015, Stienstra became America's first outdoors writer to win "The President's Award" as "Best of the Best" for the fourth time from OWAA, when he won best story of the year in the Newspaper Newspaper/Website division at the organization's annual awards banquet in Knoxville. The winning entry was “Paddling with giants,” published in the August 5, 2014 editions of the San Francisco Chronicle. To become a finalist for the President's Award, that story won first place in the Outdoor Fun and Adventure Category of the Newspaper/Website Contest. He is one of OWAA's most awarded members, and in 2009, he won first place for best outdoors column in America.

BRIAN ROBINSON

The feat accomplished by this wilderness hiker is so profound that it is difficult for most to even imagine it:

In 10 months, he became the first person to complete the Triple Crown of hiking in a single year, completing the Pacific Crest Trail (2,650 miles), Continental Divide Trail (2,560 miles) and Appalachian Trail (2,160 miles). No one had previously completed more than one of these trails in a single year.

This adventure took 300 days, averaging 31.9 miles per day, crossing 22 states, 16 national parks, 57 national forests and 67 wilderness areas. He completed it despite chronic foot pain and being stricken with Bell's palsy.

By agreeing to interviews with People magazine, The Chronicle and other media, Robinson has done more to promote wilderness hiking than anyone since John Muir.

Robinson lives in Cupertino. He quit his job in Silicon Valley and completed the expedition without commercial sponsorship.

A personal glimpse: "I did it be- cause I needed a challenge. I wanted to do something I could be proud of for the rest of my life. Most people said it was impossible. It required 100 percent mentally, physically and spiritually."

FRANCIS TAPON

One of the world’s greatest hikers and wilderness heroes, Francis Tapon is one of a handful of Americans to have hiked the Triple Crown: the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail, and the 5,600-mile Continental Divide Trail. He has walked across the United States four times via its three mountain ranges, and across Spain twice. He climbed to the highest point in 50 of 54 African countries between 2013 and 2018 and has written Hike Your Own Hike and The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us.