Liz Thomas is among the most experienced female hikers in the country; she is known for backpacking light, fast, and solo. In 2011, she broke the women’s unsupported speed record on the 2,181-mile long Appalachian Trail, besting the previous record by almost a week. She has completed the Triple Crown of hiking and has backpacked over 15,000 miles across the United States on twenty long distance hikes, including the pioneering traverse of the Chinook Trail across the Columbia River Gorge and the pioneering traverse of the Wasatch Range, which she did solo. Liz is affectionately known as the “Queen of Urban Hiking,” having pioneered and completed routes in five cities across the United States.
In her time not on the trail, Liz attained a Masters in Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the prestigious Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship for her research on long distance hiking trails, conservation, and trail town communities.
Liz has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Women’s Health, Men’s Journal, Yahoo! News, Outside online, and Gizmodo. She gives presentations about long distance hiking around the country, especially to college outdoor clubs, like the one where she first learned how to backpack. Liz is honored to serve as Vice President of the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West and as one of four ambassadors for American Hiking Society. Liz is the instructor for BACKPACKER magazine’s six-week online course, Thru-hiking 101, and wrote The Best Hikes on the Continental Divide Trail: Colorado with the Continental Divide Trail coalition. When not hiking, Liz splits her time between Denver, Colorado, and Los Angeles, California, and works as an outdoor staff writer for The Wirecutter, a part of the New York Times.
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