The Mile Family: The Backpacking Bennetts Achieve the Triple Crown

By Kristen Flowers

Mindi and Adam Bennett had a big announcement. The couple sat down in their living room with their four children, Sierra, Kaia, Tristan and Ruby to explain to them their 5-year plan. The bomb they dropped was that they planned on completing the “Triple Crown” of hiking, which is the complete length of the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

Each trail would take months to complete.

While this adventurous goal might not have been a complete surprise to the kids, the next part was: All the children were expected to do it too. “I asked my cousin if she would hit me with her car,” says Kaia. “I was like, please just run me over! I don’t want to go.”

Sierra had a more, I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it attitude. “I was [thinking], that’s hilarious, Mom and Dad. But slowly, we got closer to the date, and every birthday or Christmas present leading up involved hiking gear.” That’s when she realized this was happening.

“I grew up backpacking,” says Adam. “I went on my first real overnight backpack when I was 12 and fell in love with it. It was up in the Cascades at a place called Spider Meadows. It was just beautiful, and I [thought], ‘This is fantastic.’ I have loved it ever since.”

Preparing for the Journey

Completing the Triple Crown had always been Adam’s dream. Growing up in Washington, he had hiked parts of the Pacific Crest Trail and always loved the experience, but now he set his sights on doing the whole thing. He wanted to hike the Appalachian and Continental Divide trails too.

But life moved forward, and he met and began a family with his wife, Mindi. “Of course, you have kids, and it’s like, well, that’s it, no more dreams, they’re all crushed,” he says, laughing.

It took going to a lecture on ultralight backpacking by famous hiker Andrew Skurka in 2012 for Adam to have his epiphany. He rushed home to Mindi to tell her the news. “Wait, we can do this with kids. This is doable.”

There is a difference, though, between desiring to do something that daunting and actually doing it; the commitment needed to continued on next page continued from previous page make it happen is significant. “We reprioritized our lives and really got down and dirty as far as shrinking everything down and getting thrifty,” Adam explains.

While the family prepped, the kids, ages 16, 14, 12 and 9 at the time, home-schooled through River HomeLink in Battle Ground to get their studies in before leaving formal education for months to complete the hikes. Mindi emphasizes that the kids’ teachers and principal were very supportive. The family also had to develop a minimalistic lifestyle and move to another home to better prepare for what they were about to do.

In the beginning, not all of the Bennetts were on board with the plan. “I really didn’t want to do it,” Kaia remembers. “I’ve always been a really social person, and I didn’t want to leave my friends behind. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to hike. I didn’t want to be away from everyone for so long.” Despite her trepidation, she went along with the family planning, which was constantly evolving. “It’s not like you can train and do a 500-mile trail to get ready for a 2,650-mile trail [the length of the PCT],” says Mindi. “We did a lot of prep hikes, and we would do 100-milers and dial in our gear.”

Hiking gear is costly, but so is leaving your job for months. “It’s hard financially to say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to take time off, and we’re going to go and do this, and I’m going to be able to keep health insurance and be able to feed the family and everything else,’” says Adam, but he had a valid reason for attempting this incredible experience now. “I just remember someone saying from the time that your kids are born, you have eighteen summers with them, and I said, ‘Wow, eighteen, that’s a very real number, and we are already halfway through these with our oldest.’ I’m not going to get those summers back, and I just know how life gets once you’re off at college and dating, getting married or starting a career. If this doesn’t happen now, it will never happen.”

Starting the Trek

After preparing as much as the family could, the Bennetts and their dog, Muir, set out one day in 2019 and began their trek through the Pacific Crest Trail.

As far as mental preparation, Mindi says you just have to do it. “You just have to go out there and start doing it, and the best thing we could have done was start slow, which we did with 7-mile days and built up to 20-plus mile days. We took that very seriously, and we went very slow. We saw other hikers around us who were just crushing miles, going fast, who had to go home early with injuries, and we were so fortunate that we could just keep plugging along slow and steady.” continued on page 24

Feature: The 8,000-Mile Family (cont'd) continued from page 23

Each morning Mindi would wake the family up by shaking the tents. Then it would be time to get changed, pack everything up, get the food from the bear protection bags, eat a granola or protein bar for breakfast, say morning prayers as a family, then start the next day of hiking. The family would take breaks to drink or eat when needed, then around 6 pm, they would get the tents set up again, eat together as a family, possibly watch a show on Netflix and call it a day. “By the time the sun went down, we were asleep because it was so tiring,” laughs Sierra.

Day in and day out, the family followed the same routine, even eating the same cold-soaked Ramen with peanut butter and honey, which the youngest member of the Bennett family, Ruby, quickly disliked. “That got really old, and none of the girls would eat it, and eventually Tristan wouldn’t, so we changed to tortillas with spinach and tuna.”

Despite the repetitive nature of their adventure, the boredom never kicked in, and something extraordinary started to happen: The Bennetts began to have fun. They saw cool stuff, met hikers worldwide, and united and bonded as a family.

Even Kaia began to enjoy it more. “After about a week of being out there, I [realized], no, this is awesome. I was so worried that we would be isolated and away from other people, and I didn’t want to spend so much time with my family, but now they are my best friends.”

They also got to get unique and special hiking nicknames.

The tradition of nicknames for hikers began on the Appalachian Trail. There were so many hikers that it became easier to remember a nickname that told them more about their personality than their names could ever do. How one goes about getting a hiking handle is part of the fun. Some choose their name, like Mindi, who wanted to be called Wildflower. She had purple hair when the family was hiking the PCT and a passing hiker remarked that her hair looked like one of the nearby wildflowers, so Mindi asked if that could become her nickname. She didn’t mention that the wildflower nickname was the one she was hoping for.

Some nicknames develop from a hiker’s personality. Tristan got the name Turtle, but not just because of his green backpack. “I have a habit of whenever we stop, just flopping down against the nearest hill and trying to take a quick break even if it’s only for 15 seconds, and sometimes I get stuck there on my turtle shell backpack.” Kaia has an edge to her when she hikes. She gets hangry, gets stuff done and earned the nickname, Honey Badger. Sierra got her nickname by how she tackled the challenge. After reaching 100 miles on her first trail, she still had the energy to lift a heavy cooler. Another hiker mentioned that she must be an Amazon with all that strength, and the name Amazon stuck after that. Ruby got the nickname Ladybug from another hiker because continued on next page continued from previous page of her sunburned face speckled with dirt. But when it comes to nicknames, Adam might have the most unique and somewhat terrifying one. “It’s Kidnapper!” He laughs. “Because I have the most kids on the trail!”

Connecting with Nature and Building Life Skills

Taking kids out in nature is important to Adam because he believes they can learn much about themselves during the experience. “I feel as a parent, it’s OK to push them to go ahead and say, ‘This is going to be hard, and you’re going to get snowed on, and it’s going to get cold, and your fingers are going to freeze, but you’re going to love it.’ They will not believe you at first, but they get to that point where it’s just, ‘Wow, this is what we do.’”

That tenacity was a big part of Mindi’s Triple Crown experience too. “Hopefully, we taught the kids that they can do hard things for the rest of their lives. Something will come up, and they can say, ‘I’ve got grit. I know that I can do this and just be able to plow through.’”

The whole Triple Crown took four years, between 2019 and 2022, to complete: six months on the Pacific Crest Trail, five months for the Continental Divide, and five months for the Appalachian Trail. They also threw in the Pacific Northwest Trail, which took two and a half months.

More Miles to Come

What’s next for the Bennetts after accomplishing such an impressive goal? “We have a long bucket list of hikes all over the world, actually,” laughs Mindi. But this summer, the family plans to rest at home in Battle Ground. Tristan and Ruby asked their continued on page 26

Feature: The 8,000-Mile Family (cont'd) continued from page 25 parents for a typical summer, and Mindi and Adam obliged. But just because they opted out this year doesn’t mean the whole family is resting.

Kaia plans to hike the Colorado trail with Sierra and her cousin. “I definitely want to go out there and hike more with anyone who enters my life, future partners, future children. Getting outdoors with children is very important, and I want to continue the tradition. Maybe not do it as much as we’ve done with 8,000 miles in the last four years but continuing to get outdoors and backpack for the rest of my life.”

As Adam learned, big hiking goals are doable if you have the right mindset. “You take it one day at a time. You take it one resupply at a time. I just always tell people, you just plan your hike as one 100-mile section, one resupply, so maybe [the] 80 miles between towns, and that’s one section, and you just do that, then you just do the one right after that.”

The baby steps mentality has helped the Bennetts beyond hiking trips. “Life is tough, but I can do today, and I can do this week and this month,” Adam says. “[The kids have] taken the idea of one resupply at a time, and now it’s one semester at a time, one section of my class at a time, or one whatever. And I think that’s a skill I’m really glad they’ve picked up on, and it will stick with them.” The Bennetts invite anyone to reach out with questions about backpacking with kids. Their website, kidsoutwild.com has links to their YouTube channel and Patreon page with Q&As, sharing many things they learned along the way.

“I’ve always looked at the outdoors as this amazing place to center yourself,” Adam says. “It’s a spiritual experience to me, to just be out there and see all the amazing things Mother Nature offers. There are just a lot of good things that come from being outdoors and being in nature, whether it’s the fresh air or whether it’s touching the grass. There are just not that many negatives.”

Kristen lives in Vancouver with her husband and daughter, Lilly. You can hear the whole family on 99.5 The Wolf during the Nick and Kristen Morning Show. When she is not working and writing, Kristen loves crafting, watching documentaries and going to escape rooms.

1 Thursday

Ridgefield Raptors baseball opening game of the season at Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex (RORC), 3101 S Hillhurst Rd., Ridgefield. Tickets $8-$20 at ridgefieldraptors.com. 6:30 pm

“A Search for Acceptance: The Joys and Challenges of Clark County’s LGBTQ+ Community from Early Contact through Today” Speaker Series at Clark County Historical Museum, 1511 Main St., Vancouver. From the life and times of Kutenai spiritual leader, Kocomenepeca, through waves of public “hysteria” over homosexuality throughout the 1900s and the tragedy of Nikki Kuhnhausen in 2019, Clark County’s LGBTQ+ Community population has long found themselves the target for criminalization, victimization and erasure. Yet, in spite of the challenges they have built a strong and vibrant community in Clark County that celebrates its rich history. With each setback, they have continued to persevere and push for the protections and rights afforded the “straight” community. In this talk, April Buzby will look at the history of the LGBTQ+ community in Clark County – both their struggles and their victories. Tickets $5 at cchmuseurm.org. 7 pm

Journey Theater presents “The Velveteen Rabbit” at Crosspointe Baptist Church, 9180 NE 76th Ave., Vancouver. “Once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.” A stuffed toy rabbit’s quest to become real through the love of a child drives this adaptation of Margery Williams’ timeless tale that celebrates the power of love to transform our lives. Join a boy and his rabbit in a world of strange and wonderful magic with talking toys, wild adventures, and secret burrows, as they come to discover the true meaning of what it is to be Real. Tickets $16-$19 at journeytheater.org. 7 pm