Couple Funds Global Adventures with Seasonal Work
Colleen Wilson and Lane Early have managed to fund trips to every continent by working just three-month seasonal jobs. Their strategy alternates intense work periods with months of globetrotting and long-distance thru-hiking, offering a blueprint for designing life around adventure rather than conventional routines.
The couple's work history includes positions as caretakers at the Blackburn Trail Center on the Appalachian Trail and at the Granite Park Chalet in Glacier National Park. For the past four years, they have also taken on seasonal jobs at remote field camps in both Alaska and Antarctica. Their adventures are meticulously planned around these work seasons. One entire season of work in Antarctica, for example, is funding their current year-long trip to every continent. This disciplined approach of intense work followed by long periods of travel allows them to live without rent or a car, dedicating their resources to exploration. Lane Early's passion for long-distance hiking was ignited by his thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2012, after which he completed seven more long hikes in seven years. Colleen Wilson has a background working for an airline, which fueled her love of travel. The two have been friends since middle school and reconnected for a road trip in 2019, which sparked their shared life of adventure. Together, Wilson and Early have an impressive list of completed thru-hikes, including the Continental Divide Trail, the Arizona Trail, and the Tahoe Rim Trail, among others. Their upcoming global journey will add roughly 2,500 more miles to their hiking resumes. The planned hikes for their seven-continent tour include the Hayduke Trail in the United States, the Naukluft Hiking Trail in Namibia, the Pyrenees High Route in Europe, the Japanese Alps Traverse, and the Bibbulmun Track in Australia.
