Name Francis Tapon | Role Author | |
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Born 10 March 1970 (age 54) ( 1970-03-10 ) Occupation Author, nomad, public speaker, life coach Nationality American, French and Chilean Alma mater Amherst College (B.A.)
Harvard Business School (M.B.A.) Notable works Hike Your Own Hike
The Hidden Europe Books The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us Education Amherst College, Harvard Business School | ||
How and why travel transforms you by francis tapon at tedxfillmore
Francis Tapon (born March 10, 1970) is an author, global nomad, and public speaker. He has walked across America four times via its three major mountain ranges. He also walked across Spain twice. Perhaps his most notable accomplishment was that he was the first person to do a round-trip backpacking the Continental Divide Trail. In addition, he thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail southbound. He has traveled to over 100 countries of the world. Lastly, he is the author of the self-help travelogue Hike Your Own Hike and the travel narrative The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us. Currently, he is traveling to all 54 African countries from 2013 to 2018.
Contents
- How and why travel transforms you by francis tapon at tedxfillmore
- Early life and career
- Travels
- Books
- References
Early life and career
Tapon's mother is from Chile and his father was from France. Tapon was born in San Francisco, where he went to the French American International School until 10th grade, and then graduated from Lick-Wilmerding High School.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Religion from Amherst College in 1992. He worked in Latin America for Hitachi Data Systems. In 1997, he received his MBA from Harvard Business School.
After Harvard, he co-founded a Silicon Valley robotic vision company that was covered by The New York Times. Later, he consulted for Microsoft for 18 months. In 2006, he became a full-time travel writer.
Travels
Below is a chronology of Tapon's most notable travel experiences, which inspired his two books.
In 2001, he hiked the Appalachian Trail. In 2004, he visited all the countries in Eastern Europe. In 2006, he backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail.
In 2007, he became the first person to walk from Mexico to Canada and back to Mexico along the Continental Divide Trail. This seven-month journey spanned over 5,600 miles. Francis took the most circuitous, scenic, high, difficult route north and while returning south took the more expedient route on the way down. He hiked ultralight since his pack, without food and water, weighed under 6 lbs (less than 3 kg). National Geographic listed Francis Tapon's round trip on the Continental Divide Trail among one of the most notable feats of 2007.
In 2008, Francis was nominated as one of the seven finalists to the California Outdoors Hall of Fame, which "features nominees who are world-renowned for their skills and who have helped inspire thousands of others to take part in the great outdoors."
In 2009, he walked across Spain twice: once by traversing the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, and then by hiking El Camino de Santiago.
In 2008–2011, he visited over 40 European countries, including all the Eastern European ones. He focused on finding Eastern European innovations.
In 2012, he summed up his travels to date and shared his lessons in his TEDx talk entitled, "How and Why Travel Transforms You."
In March 2013, he entered Morocco and began a five-year trip to all 54 African countries. He plans to write his third book based on the experience. He is filming extensively and has raised over $24,000 to produce a pilot TV episode by November 2014. Amazon.com and Lincoln Mercury selected him as the best example of someone who is fulfilling the dream of traveling the world.
Books
Tapon is the author of the WanderLearn Series, which is a series of books about his adventures. He has written two books so far:
He also wrote two chapters in Hikers' Stories From the Appalachian Trail, edited by Kathryn Fulton, ISBN 978-0811712835 (2012) Stackpole Books. The chapters are entitled "The Final Stretch" and "A Thru-hiker's Motivation: Not Enlightenment, Just Ice Cream."