About Us

BUILDING THE THRU-r COMMUNITY

An excerpt from founder, Carol Coyne or “Cheer” on the long-distance hiking community and building THRU-r:

“On trail, we all looked out for each other and lent a hand when needed. We shared joy. Reveled at the remote and beautiful scenery that only a portion of the population gets to witness. Laughed at the ridiculous scenarios we found ourselves in (and there were many). We connected on deeper levels than most of our relationships in the “default world.” This wasn’t quick office banter at the coffee machine – these were some of the most meaningful relationships hikers ever form, on or off trail.

We celebrate, and also dread, the end. Finishing a long trail is bittersweet and many hikers can’t put what they are feeling into words. “Happy” and “sad” come up in the same sentence. A huge accomplishment of hiking thousands of miles through beautiful – and sometimes rough – conditions is spiked with a deep longing for it to go on forever. To hike with the people you’ve come to see as family every day, to witness nature in all of her beauty, to have the goal of making it to Canada one step at a time – gone.

After trail, many hikers experience a condition called Post Trail Depression. I’ve heard hikers of past years say that, even though they went back to their normal life after trail – they thought about their long-distance hike(s) every day. Not a day went by where they wouldn’t think about their experiences from trail.

While I was going through post trail depression myself after the PCT, I couldn’t accept that my trail life would just drop off. “How could I just let this go?”

The answer? I couldn’t.

This was the greatest thing that happened in my life, and I wanted to keep the bonds to the trail community alive. Problem was, there weren’t many effective ways to do that. No tools existed beyond Facebook – which is a little clunky to use and was open to the public (so many people in these groups weren’t actually long-distance hikers). This wasn’t enough to support our community in the ways I – an experienced hiker – desired.

So there was only one solution I came up with:

I’m going to have to build it myself, and I’m going to have the trail community build it with me.”

Carol Coyne, THRU-r Founder

ARE YOU A THRU-r?

THRU-r is a long-distance hiking community for hikers who have hiked or are planning to hike beyond a weekend backpacking trip. There is no official definition of what a long-distance hike is, but we define it as a 100 mile continuous hike or longer. Some of our hikers are Triple Crowners, and others have pieced together longer section hikes over years with sections of the PCT, AT, CDT, etc. Many of our hikers have hiked hundreds or thousands of miles.

If you fit into this category we invite you to apply to be a part of the community! Our core offerings are free (count that as our Trail Angel duty to the long-distance hiking community) which include our hiker map, hiker forums and more. For even more perks, you can also choose to level-up to our “Hiker Pro” membership with exclusive content, access to educational materials, exclusive private events, special guest Q&A’s, and much more!

Founder

Carol Coyne (“Cheer”) hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 2019, the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) in 2021/2022, and completed her Triple Crown on Mt. Katahdin along the Appalachian Trail (AT) in 2023.

While hiking the PCT, Cheer was taken by the community on trail, and wanted to extend that camaraderie and experience into normal life – before and after trail. She lives in Southern California (near the PCT!) and makes nature inspired ceramics for Dirtbag Ceramics when she’s not hiking.

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