call me magpie

My name is Dana Burkett, but you can call me Magpie.

In 2016, I rode my bike from Montreal to Vancouver Island on a whim. When I got there, I had $800 and two months of summer left, so I decided I might as well ride back. With that, my love for human-powered adventure was born.

I became a thru-hiker on the Continental Divide Trail in the summer of 2017. Why the CDT? Well, I wasn’t sure if I’d do another thru-hike, so I did the hardest one first, just to prove I could. Turns out, I’m pretty good at this.

The PCT followed in 2018, and in the years since I’ve completed the PNT, the AZT, and Canada’s Great Divide and Vancouver Island trails. In between, I hiked all of Maine on the AT, just for a little snack.

In 2021, my partner and I took on our greatest challenge yet, a six-month thru-hike of the North Country Trail. We finished the 4,833 mile hike in under 187 days, setting the official Fastest Known Time.
In the process, I became the first woman to thru-hike the NCT in the self-supported style.

If you ask me what I do for a living, well.
I’m a writer, I’m an athlete, I’m a thru-hiker.

You could say I’m queer.
You could also say I’m a very curious bird.