Von Laurens Patreonseite:
When I took on this project with Jack Wolfskin, the ask was pretty straightforward: hike the Wolf Trail, make content, and show up to five brand events across the summer. Simple enough. But once we had boots on the ground, it became clear pretty quickly that the people who designed the original route were not thru-hikers.
I’d had some reservations when I first looked at the map, but figured they’d put serious time and money into it, so I trusted the process. That trust got tested fast. The first roughly 1,200 kilometres turned out to be almost entirely paved bike paths — full days of road walking, busy campgrounds with 6 PM check-in cutoffs that cut our hiking days short, poor sleep, and €25 per tent per night just to pitch in our own gear. Not exactly the adventure any of us had signed up for.
So the three of us — myself, Marc, and Ryan, the other hikers on the team — put our heads together and did what thru-hikers do: we figured it out. We drew up a new route, pitched it to Jack Wolfskin, and they said yes. Just like that, we went from hiking a fixed trail to being on an actual scouting mission, rerouting as we go to find something more challenging, more interesting, and a lot more fun.