Hilton Head native now first person to thru-hike America’s 11 national scenic trails
Lore within the hiking community prevents backpackers from naming themselves, at least according to Constantine, a former Hilton Head Islander.
“The trail community is very fun,” Constantine, also known as 27-year-old Ryan Bunting, said. “It’s actually very superstitiously bad luck to pick your own trail name.”
Nicknames aside, Bunting said, he has had to deal with hypothermia and the toll of hiking up to 40 miles a day to meet his goal of becoming the first person to thru-hike the 11 U.S. National Scenic Trails. The National Scenic Trail is a trail system that spans thousands of miles and was established when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Trails System Act in 1968.
Bunting started his journey at 21 when he walked the more than 2,180 mile-long Appalachian Trail. It ended after six years on Nov. 3 with a final hike on the North Country Trail that stretches from North Dakota to Vermont.
“It’s very hard to convey the feelings of what these trail systems mean, not just to the hikers,” Bunting said after completing his final 186-day-long trip along the NCT through eight states. “These trail systems mean a lot to these communities because they put you through places in this country that you would never find, I would never find, unless you were walking through them. It shows the kindness of strangers that a lot of people become jaded to in life.”
When he started hiking after suffering an injury that ended his ice hockey career at 18, Bunting said, he had no idea how much he would enjoy it.
“When I find a hobby or a sport, I kind of throw myself completely into it and my life revolves around that sport,” Bunting said. “I felt like I had been missing a part of myself because I wasn’t playing ice hockey anymore.”
It’s how he met his partner, Dana Burkett, also known as Magpie, in 2019.
It’s the basis for his business, 11skys, a clothing and equipment company for hikers, which he runs from the trails. Or wherever he can get a Wi-Fi signal, he said.
It also became a source of self-reflection and discovery, especially while hiking the 65-mile Natchez Trace trail for two weeks, all on a fractured foot, he said.
“There was not an if I would finish the trail, but how,” Bunting said. “I constantly questioned how I would finish the trial. It just tested me every single second, and I found a depth of myself that I hadn’t seen previously.”
For Bunting and Burkett, he said, the next step is spreading “trail magic,” a kindness given to hikers by strangers or fellow trail walkers in the community. The magic, Bunting said, can be anything from offering a hiker a cold soda on a hard day or a home-cooked meal.
“What we have been fantasizing about and really excited for is ... to give back to the community that gave us so much at this point and setting up trail magic for other long-distance hikers that are starting their journeys,” Bunting said.
Before he got his official trail name, Bunting was known as “Icy Hot” for putting hot sauce in his food to stop his shivering while hiking the Appalachian Trail, he said. His friend told him that it was too much of a mouthful and renamed him after a character in a movie.
“Back in Georgia, the uphills on the AT are very steep and the downhills are like knee breakers,” Bunting said. “As I was getting into hiking ... my first trail I would be like cussing everything on the uphills and praising everything I could find on the downhills and he compared that to the character Constantine being half good, half bad.”
Bunting has yet to see the 2005 American superhero horror movie, he said.
