In May of 2021, Holden Ringer sat in his home preparing for an exam at Emory University in Atlanta. Procrastinating and looking out the window, Ringer wondered what it would be like to walk across the nation.
After an internet search, Ringer, now 25, found many documented cases of people walking across the U.S.
“I just read some people’s experiences and thought to myself, ‘Oh, that could be something I do one day,’ but there was never really a plan for me to do it,” Ringer said in a phone interview. “It was just more that the seeds were planted in that instance.”
Later that year, during a visit to his family in Dallas, Ringer — wanting to avoid a family member sick with COVID-19 — went on a 20-mile walk throughout the city.
“I thought to myself, ‘You know, this is something I could do every single day,’” Ringer said. “That was kind of just the inception of the walk.”
The walk is the nearly 5,000-mile journey Ringer began in March.
Starting on the Pacific coast in Washington state, Ringer’s destination is Washington, D.C.
On Saturday, after walking through multiple cities and states, he arrived in Chattanooga, walking from Nashville. Ringer trekked the entire distance on foot, carrying only essentials in a backpack and a cart.
(He had taken a flight from Nashville to Dallas to visit family over the holidays, but flew back to Nashville to continue his walk.)
He said there isn’t one singular reason for his walk across America.
“Just seeing the country on foot,” Ringer said. “Building a deeper sense of appreciation. Sleeping out in a tent eating Pop-Tarts and relying on the generosity of others.”
The journey to Chattanooga
Making a connection through someone during a stop in St. Louis, Ringer made arrangements to walk south through Kentucky into Tennessee to stay with someone in Chattanooga.
Ringer said he walked on U.S. Highway 41 during most of the trip through Tennessee, making his way through Clarksville and Nashville.
Compared to walking through the Rockies in Utah and Colorado, he found Tennessee’s road infrastructure more hostile to pedestrians.
“Walking in these mountains has probably been even more treacherous than I think the mountains I was walking through in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado,” Ringer said. “There’s just really no shoulder going up most of these mountains — a lot of big trucks driving very fast. Generally, that’s been just kind of my experience in a lot of Tennessee.”
For the Chattanooga area specifically, Ringer found Suck Creek Road west of Signal Mountain difficult to traverse on foot.
“Once again, windy roads and no shoulder,” Ringer said.
‘Par for the course’
Once in Chattanooga, Ringer said he was frustrated with the city’s car-centric infrastructure accommodating high-speed traffic, as seen in much of the South.
“There were sidewalks, but there are still cars constantly coming in and out, trying to get a Baconator from Wendy’s or something,” Ringer said.
Ringer’s experience walking in Chattanooga, however, was not unique compared to other cities in the nation, he said.
“Very par for the course in terms of walkability,” Ringer said. “America, I think, is an inherently unwalkable country because of the way we built it, designed it. I don’t think Chattanooga is any exception to that.”
One thing that did stand out to Ringer was the boarded-up gift shop on Frazier Avenue at the end of the Walnut Street Bridge, a renowned pedestrian walkway crossing the Tennessee River. The building was damaged during an alleged road rage incident over Thanksgiving weekend in November. The crash killed two people and injured another.
“No city I have been in has there been this constant reminder that it doesn’t matter if you’re walking on the sidewalk, doesn’t matter if you’re doing the right things,” Ringer said. “A car, a driver, can just hit you.”
Ringer said he plans to leave Chattanooga this week to walk to Atlanta. From there, he’ll walk up the east coast to Washington, hoping to finish his trip sometime in May.
Credit: Chattanooga Times Free Press
Credit: Chattanooga Times Free Press
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