I caught up with the owner of ElevenSkys and recent North Country Trail hiker Ryan “Constantine” Bunting, along with his hiking partner and fellow FKT record holder Dana “Magpie” Burkett. We discuss some of the big things coming from him and ElevenSkys including a podcast, registering National Scenic Trails, and what might be next. We talk about the origin of ElevenSkys, his story, and how someone runs a company while hiking 30 miles per day.
What is the North Country Trail and why did you choose to hike it?
The North Country Trail is the nation’s longest National Scenic Trail spanning ~4,833 miles. It traverses the country from Vermont, at the junction of the Appalachian Trail and Long Trail, all the way out to the middle of North Dakota. Continuity growing, changing, adapting, and evolving, sooner or later we have very little doubt that it will surpass 5,000 miles as the trail association and chapters try to move more and more miles off the road. I would say right now where it currently stands, it is about 70-75% single track and two-track trail with the remainder 25% connecting road walks, which honestly for a trail this long and how many land managements they have to get permission from, public, private, government, it is already an impressive ratio.
Whew, why did I choose to hike it? That is a complicated question, in all honesty, it did not necessarily feel like I “chose” to hike it but more so it was chosen for me. Don’t get me wrong, it is always a personal choice, but with the way I have been hiking and for the past few years wanting to explore and experience every National Scenic Trail, this was the last big behemoth to tackle and I was ready to give it a shot. Also, I love these “lesser-known” trails. Even though the NCT is an NST (say that 10 times fast) it is heavily underrepresented in the hiking community, specifically the thru-hiking community, due to its sheer size. Being one of the few who chose to tackle it lets you interact and educate in a way that popular trails do not. Sending positive ripples for the next hiker, thru-hiker, or whoever follows always feels like a privilege and responsibility to me, and it is beautiful to see.
How long did the NCT take?
The NCT took ~187 days. To be exact 186 days, 9 hours, 38 minutes, and 21 seconds. My partner and I were actually registered for an FKT, solely because it was wonderfully ironic to us that we could set a “speed record” that would take close to half a year. We originally wanted to complete this hike in 130-150 days, but the trail was longer than advertised, clocking in at 4,833.4 miles instead of the pre-planned 4,600, as well as the sheer size took more mental exhaustion out of us than could be foreseen.
Did you have any crazy weather or wildlife encounters?
Surprisingly enough, we only saw one bear the entirety of the hike. As far as crazy wildlife, again not so much. An injured vulture almost fell on Magpie’s head once, we rescued a cat from a flooded cornfield, we called the sheriff in North Dakota at night to pick up two friendly dogs that had followed us for 10+ miles as the temperature began to drop into the 20s. We had the usual nocturnal visitors in camp, mostly rodents but occasionally some bold raccoons. Magpie also got too close to an aggressive llama and nearly got kicked, although this was her own fault (llamas are cute!). Believe it or not our most crazy or “scary” wildlife encounters were with loose dogs through some of the communities we walked through. This trail was the first time I have ever had someone premeditatively release their aggressive dog on me. Many, many times on this trail and others, we have walked by aggressive dogs that were just loose by coincidence, but this “gentleman” was the first premeditated siccing of the dogs.
As far as crazy weather, we could not have been luckier. Yes, we had some heavy thunderstorms in the plains, and some deep bone-chilling cold out in North Dakota in late October/early November, but for the most part we got extremely lucky. If you call heat waves of 100+ degrees with extreme humidity in southern Ohio lucky, and if you call a freak snowstorm on May 1 (our first day of our hike in the Green Mountains) lucky, and if you call wind that can drive you mad lucky, and honestly we do call this all lucky. It was the “standard” mixture of weather that you will get on most any long-distance hike, and when I say standard I mean far from it, just a grab bag of all the “fun” you experience when walking through multiple seasons and multiple states.
Big three for the NCT hike?
Backpack: Constantine: Hyperlite Windrider 3400, Magpie: ULA Ohm 2.0
Tent: Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2
Sleeping Bag: Zpacks TwinQuilt 20 degree
Magpie has an exhaustive gear list on her blog, shinyobjects.substack.com, if people are curious to learn more.
What are your trail names and where did they come from?
My trail name is Constantine, and it came from my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2016, my first hike. I was walking with a friend one day and I already had a trail name but he said it didn’t fit and was too much of a mouthful, then he had an AH-HA moment and asked if I had seen the movie “Constantine.” Which I had not. He then proceeded to describe the character, who was half good and half bad, and at this point in my hiking career I was all upper body and no lower body, so every climb in Georgia I cussed everything I could find, and every downhill I praised everything holy. So, half good and half bad. (Funny enough it’s now the opposite; I love climbs, and my knees scream on descents.)
As for me, Magpie, I got my trail name a few weeks into my first thru-hike on the Continental Divide Trail (I know! Why did I start with that one? Because I didn’t know if I would be able to thru-hike again and I wanted to do the hardest one first, just to prove I could). Going southbound on the CDT, the first two resupply stops are in national park campgrounds, and at least when I was there, they were in a state of moderate disrepair. While doing sink laundry in Two Medicine, first the cold-water tap came off in my hand, and then a soap holder fell off the wall when I draped a sock over it, and finally, the towel bar came down when I removed my clothes, causing me to almost stuff it in my pack. I made a joke about collecting “shiny objects” and was thus christened Magpie. It didn’t hurt that I have a habit of picking up shiny micro-trash, wear a lot of jewelry, and that my hair at the time was dyed turquoise, like a magpie’s wing.
What does ElevenSkys mean?
ElevenSkys name was inspired by the trails that I have walked and was planning to walk. There are 11 National Scenic Trails in the United States, and as I was brainstorming a business name, of course, I began to take inspiration from the very trails that I found happiness and joy in the first place. Hence the name, ElevenSkys, for the nation’s 11 National Scenic Trails. Each sky that you walk under on each trail is the same, but completely different. We can avoid going into the deep philosophical here, but it’s meant to represent that each journey is different. Mentally, physically, emotionally, it all depends on how you chose to experience it, and each sky we have experienced has been the “same” while representing a world of difference.
“ElevenSkys, for the nation’s 11 National Scenic Trails. Each sky you walk under on each trail is the same, but completely different.”
Constantine, Founder of ElevenSkys Gear Company
Why did you decide to start Eleven Skys?
I started ElevenSkys for multiple reasons. The first being that as 2018 was drawing to a close, and I was finishing my Triple Crown on the Continental Divide Trail, I knew that was never the extent of what I sought. I was not out there to just hike those three trails, I wanted to continue to hike, experience, and live this life to the fullest. I had a phrase that there was “on trail Constantine” and “off-trail work Ryan” and while I loved both, it felt too disconnected. I wanted to merge these two halves of my life and an opportunity kind of fell into my lap. Subsequently, in 2019, I began using a pair of shorts that did not break, tear, rip for over 3,500+ miles. Compared to my prior years of replacing shorts constantly on my thru-hikes, this was a game-changer, and a niche in the hiking world I did not see being filled. I wanted to provide others with the simplicity and practicality of a pair of shorts or pants that would last them their entire adventure without any worries, and I had found them, so I began building the company to distribute them more widely.
“In 2019, I began using a pair of shorts that did not break, tear, rip for over 3,500+ miles. Compared to my prior years of replacing shorts constantly on my thru-hikes, this was a game changer, and a niche in the hiking world I did not see being filled.”
Constantine on why he started ElevenSkys
How do you run a company and hike 30 miles a day?
Hahaha, honest answer? Extremely stressfully. I built this company so I could spend more time on trail, but the context of the time spent on trail has now changed. When we are on a road walk, or easy two-track, instead of just relaxing and sitting back into a pace, if there is cell signal I have to be on the phone constantly. Calls, emails, creation, running a small business is constant work. You never get your entire list complete, because it only ever continues to grow. All you can do is manage time, manage importance, and stressfully try to multitask constantly. When we would get into town for resupply and “rest” after a long and hard section, I had to constantly be on. As soon as we would arrive, even before I took a shower, I would have to make sure I could combine that time with uploading content, sending out scheduled emails, and coordinating shipping. I could take a shower only after I knew I was multitasking. Then after I was clean, when other hikers could rest or recharge, I was glued to my phone. There was never enough time in the day to complete all the tasks I wished, and hence the vicious cycle would begin. Feeling behind, stressing, and multitasking with any available time I had hiking or in town, and then still feeling behind, the circle continued. So, to answer that question is to say I guess, as best as you can.
Tell me about registering a hike or announcement to complete the 11 National Scenic Trails.
We are really excited about this! So, registering your announcement or completion of the 11 National Scenic Trails is official on ElevenSkys, the only official place to register. Again, we felt there was an underrepresentation of these stats or people who have completed or are currently going after this goal. As Triple Crowners become more “regular” and the hiking world continues to grow, we are starting to see this goal become more common, simply out of the fact it is kind of the natural progression to hike. We want to spotlight and connect all these like-minded individuals because even though we say it’s becoming “regular” it is still somewhat rare. By connecting these people together we hope to make it a little easier and more exciting than it was for us. When we had to plan some of these lesser-known National Scenic Trails, we knew for a fact we would see no other hikers, but hopefully, if people can see there are others, and choose to connect on some of these trails, it could make a community where it once was lacking. It really is special in so many ways to experience all these trails and we hope to shine the spotlight on others that continue to go out there and live their life to the fullest.
What is next?
Whew, another tough question. For the immediate future we are in the “off-season” working … again stressfully, to try and put everything in motion and enough structure to be able to hike again next year. We just released a new podcast called “Off Trail” where we hope to spotlight how and why hikers do what they do, with some amazing guests already we are really excited about that. Then for ElevenSkys, this year will be a big change as we begin to partner with other companies to bring our products to a wider audience. So the immediate future, as it always is in the offseason, is work, work, work and more work.
If you are asking specifically what is next for us, the hikers. Well, that is also something we are extremely excited for. Starting around March or April, we have been fantasizing about interaction again with the broader hiking community. This year was very solitary and we did not get to interact much with other thru-hikers physically, so we hope to begin a road trip in those first few months of spring and summer, following the hiker bubbles on the PCT, CDT, and AZT to give back and give trail magic. We want to give back to a community that has given us so much. Then, along the way, we plan to string together those beautiful smaller trails out West that are anywhere from 100-500 miles long, while we travel from place to place to provide trail magic. We’ve been calling it our “grab-bag year,” putting together all the interesting side-hikes and peakbagging that you don’t have time to explore while you’re thru-hiking a larger trail. Hopefully, the year will culminate in November 2022 with a Te Arora hike in New Zealand. Fingers crossed as their borders are still not open, but we can hope can’t we?