When you're tired and you're just hiking, like you have to keep going, and so there's nothing

to really break up the monotony.

So the benefit of bringing the board is that whenever I hit a road I put the board down I start skating so it really doesn't matter what my day was like when I hit that pavement it just starts being fun again.

Recently I got an email from Moon Dog Roop telling me about a wild idea he's been chasing called

through skating.

Threw skating is like through hiking but with a skateboard.

At some point most through hikes hit pavement and hikers have to walk through towns or on the side of the road to find the trail again.

Moon Dogg alternates between hiking the trail sections and skateboarding the paved parts. Personally I think this is genius and one of the most

unique wild ideas I've heard to date. I grew up skateboarding and I love that through skaters bring some childlike fun to long distance

treks. Of course it's also a big commitment. Carrying a board and a helmet can easily add another 8 pounds of weight to your pack.

And unlike food, that weight never gets any lighter.

Maybe that's why there aren't that many people doing it.

Moon Dog estimates that he's only one of a handful of through skaters in the country.

Just to note, Moon Dog is his trail name.

I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI co-op studio's production brought to you by Capital One.

Over the past few years, Moon Dog Group has done three major through skates.

First in 2021, he spent 45 days on the 1100-mile Florida Trail.

In 2022, he threw skated across the entire state of New Mexico. And in

in 2023, he skateboarded 444 miles on the historic Natchez Trace, a trail which passes through parts of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.

The concept of through skating wasn't so foreign to Moon Dogg.

He's been hiking since he was a kid, but he only started skateboarding when he was 33 years old.

Moon Dog, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.

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