Christian Thomas, from Long Island in the USA is having the time of his young life, using hiking equipment with his parents to conquer The Appalachian Trail. Stretching from Maine in the north to Georgia in the South this 2.180 mile trek is enough to test any adult but this young man takes it in his stride.

His parents, Dion and Andrea, have given up their desk jobs for a year to give their son a real taste of adventure. The family camp out along the route, or stay in hostels and Christian, or Buddy Backpacker to give him his trail name learns to count, spell and do math along the way. They started the journey back at the end of April and are now just 600miles from finishing, which they expect to do by New Year’s Eve.

They had no idea that a record for the youngest person to complete the trail existed until they were told of it by the Appalachian Conservancy Center in West Virginia. The record was set by a six year old boy way back in 1980. The family travel light with their main luxury being an iPad mini so they can plot their journey, update their website and find local lodgings wherever possible. They also have a jeep when they use to get them to the trial head each day, a tent and the essential equipment required to get them from A to B.

Buddy has the whole natural world to experience instead of a classroom and listens to educational CDs as he walks. Without the distraction of others he is currently learning French, maths and spelling and his knowledge of the geography of the trail he is walking is remarkable for someone so young. Plus at such a young age he has boundless energy which puts us ‘more mature’ people to shame as he takes on a new day of hiking without an ache at all from the previous day – I’m green with envy on that one!

The couple’s experiences have been so positive that they have set up a fundraising page (Hikes for Tykes), whose aim is to provide equipment and funding for others who want to follow in their footsteps. Their only detour so far on their trip was due to the US Government shutdown last month but they still plan to finish and then release a children’s book telling of their adventure. Well I for one wish them every success, it’s just a shame they didn’t buy their hiking equipment from us here as I’m sure we could have saved them so money, so don’t you miss out on our current deals for all the family from toddlers to adults we have the best choice and savings you will find anywhere.