My name is Christine, I'm a member at the Redondo Beach OrangeTheory and I'm very proud of our friend and Assistant Manager Kris Luna for undertaking an incredible journey this year - Kris will be "taking a little walk" starting March 12th. He is planning to hike The Great Western Loop, a journey that will take him over 8 months!

The Great Western Loop is a 6,875 mile (!) hiking route that connects five major long-distance trails - the Pacific Crest, Pacific Northwest, Continental Divide, Grand Enchantment, and Arizona trails - into one giant circumnavigation. The picture of the trail makes me mildly ill just to look at, much less think about hiking in one go. In describing how his journey would start, Kris told me he'd start somewhere like Big Bear and "then I walk to Canada". I mean...

For those who don't know, Kris has already accomplished the three "triple crown" US trails - the Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and Appalachian Trail. But he's just such a maniac that he is now planning the Great Western Loop (GWL), which will take him over twice as long as any of those individual hikes.

A little internet sleuthing tells me the GWL has only been completed by a few hikers - but I think we all know that if anyone has a shot at completing it in 2026, it is our friend Kris Luna!

I know Kris has been saving up to enable being on the trail for the better part of a year and all the supplies and giant protein cookies and ramen that will entail. However, I figured there are at least a few of us who would love to show our support by contributing to the "power bar fund", if you will.

If you want to help out, please consider making a contribution to this fund to support Kris. We all know he'd never ask for this help, but many of us are happy to offer it anyway.