Sitting in the corner of Looking Glass Base Camp in East Glacier is a box of hot chocolate, an essential item in the backpack of through-hiker Lucy Barnard.  

As she sits on her sleeping pad with Marmot, her Australian cattle dog, in the rustic cabin on a July morning, she talks of walking through deserts, rainforests, the Rocky Mountains and the Andes Mountains. 

Like many hikers on the Continental Divide Trail, Barnard has made a temporary home base at the Looking Glass Base Camp while she waits for her resupply packages. But her backpacking journey started much farther south in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost town in South America.  

The 2024 Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Barnard, has set a goal of becoming the first woman to walk the length of the Western Hemisphere, from Argentina to Alaska. The route from the southernmost tip of South America to the top of North America is 30,000 kilometers and spans 13 countries.  

Barnard, 42, started her journey in 2017 — with a break during the pandemic — and estimates she has around two more years to go until reaching her final destination of Utqiagvik, Alaska. 

“I never thought I’d get this far,” Barnard said. “I just thought I’d try and be a benchmark for the woman who tried next.”  

As of her stop in East Glacier last week, Barnard has walked over 13,000 miles.  

The idea originally came to Barnard after a vacation to Argentina, when she was on a slow-moving bus. The idea of walking faster than the bus popped up. She got to thinking: how far is it possible to walk from here? 

A few internet searches later, she found it was in fact, possible. Officially, three men have walked from Argentina to Alaska, and approximately 10 others have walked other variations of the trek, she said. Only one man, George Meegan, has walked the entire journey, completing the trek in 1983.  

That is what Barnard has set out to do. 

After saving money for a year, Barnard left Australia on Feb. 14, 2017. She officially began on Feb. 19. She kayaked between the islands of the southernmost archipelago. She walked north along Patagonia.  

She stood on trails at nearly 16,700 feet in elevation in Peru, endured 122-degree weather in the Atacama Desert and successfully crossed the Darien Gap, a remote, roadless area of land between Colombia and Panama, all while being invited in by local tribes and communities along the way.  

“The hardest thing about doing something like this is getting to the starting line,” Barnard said. And although there were plenty of times she wanted to quit, she had people supporting her to keep moving forward.  

Barnard trekked from Argentina to Colombia before returning to Australia due to the pandemic. When she hit the trail again, she tracked her last steps and started in her exact last location, ensuring she did not miss a step.

Barnard, whose adventures are dubbed online under the name Tangles and Tail, got her dog, Wombat, just north of Santiago in Chile. From that point on, the two have wandered over borders and mountains, although Wombat, who just turned 7, will take advantage and hitch a ride if there is one.  

“He’s living a life he’s meant to live, free to roam,” Barnard said.  

The pair officially crossed into New Mexico on July 20, 2024. Wombat was trained for life in South America, where street dogs are pervasive, so Barnard sent him to a three-month training program after entering the States. They met back up in Colorado. 

“I was like a human snowplow,” Barnard laughed, reflecting on her time on the Colorado Trail as winter set in. The Colorado section was one of her favorite parts, she said, although the landscapes in Peru win best views so far.  

Once arriving in Wyoming last winter, Barnard went back to Australia for a second time to renew her United States Visa and to accept her award as Adventurer of the Year. She plans to go back one more time before finishing the trek. 

“The hardest part of doing this is definitely the loneliness,” Barnard said, reflecting on how nice it was to see her family and friends on the other side of the world.  

That’s where emergency hot chocolate comes in, Barnard says with a smile. If she encounters a hiker who is struggling, the best thing to do is sit down with one another, drink a hot chocolate and keep each other company. Community can be everywhere, she said.  

And in the outdoors community, women lifting women up is so important, she said.  

Montana’s geography and people are beautiful, Barnard said, sitting and drinking a drip coffee at Brownies Bakery in East Glacier. She knows the baristas by name. People say hello to her as they pass. She’s a local at this point; she laughs. 

Montana is where she first tried Sour Patch Kids gummy candy, which she now carries with her on her adventures.  

Arriving in Kalispell prior to staying in East Glacier, Barnard stopped at Sportsman & Ski Haus, where she was gifted a new set of clothes. The community here has connected her with people further down her path that can act as resources as well, she said.  

“You all haven’t just clothed me, you’ve helped connect me,” Barnard said. “When you have someone to walk towards, it puts you at ease.”  

In preparation for her trip, Barnard spent many hours speaking with George Meegan, who secured a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for completing the journey over the course of seven years.  

They were friends, Barnard said, and used to joke with one another about how different their experiences with the same trek were. 

“I can’t believe you’re doing this in these geopolitical conditions,” Meegan would say.  

“I can’t believe you did this without GPS,” Barnard would say back. 

Barnard was hoping to fly Meegan out for the completion of her trek, but he died last year.  

“In talking with [Meegan], I found that I think the ending should be what comes out of the journey, rather than the journey itself. I think people need to know that when they go on a pursuit like this, they need to think beyond it and not be crushed by the ending,” she said.  

For Barnard, she hopes that completing this is not the end of a story, but rather a launchpad for a wonderful life. With thoughts of an outdoor brand, film making and more, Barnard wants her journey to remember her journey with gratitude, as something that gave power to women. 

Barnard took off this week for Canada, starting the last stretch into her last country before reaching Alaska. 

“My biggest hope is that I just play my part in how young people revere women,” she said, walking back to base camp from Brownies, coffee still in hand. “And if my relatability also drives more people into enjoying the outdoors, then that would be really lovely too.” 

To follow along on Barnard’s journey, visit tanglesandtail.com.  

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].