Chantz Rivera left the Bronx on foot on May 31 with a backpack, a tent and $250. By Monday, October 19, the 29-year-old former dishwasher had reached Sacramento, California, with fewer than 100 miles between him and the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco.
His route so far adds up to about 2,577 miles, and he has worn through four pairs of shoes on the way. He had barely left New York City before this; a trip to Florida as a teenager and a weekend in Washington, D.C., were about the extent of his travel.
Why a dishwasher started walking
Rivera has said the idea grew out of wanting more than a run of low-wage jobs. “Instead of feeling like you’re stuck in your city or your home, at your workplace, I’ll just go out there and live life and see the world,” he said in an interview this week. In an earlier conversation, in August, he summed it up more briefly: “Be more free, be more adventurous.”
He has credited the 2007 film Into the Wild as an inspiration, though with a clear difference in mind: he planned to keep to places where the weather stays warm. His father, William Rivera, was not keen at first but came around, and agreed to buy his son a plane ticket home once the walk is done.
How the numbers add up
Rivera says he averages about 20 miles a day, with a range of roughly 15 to 30. Badiyaa’s own count gives a slightly lower overall figure. From May 31 to October 19 is 141 days. Divide 2,577 miles by 141 and the result is about 18.3 miles a day, rest days and weather stops included. That is about 128 miles a week, close to five marathons, every week for more than four and a half months.
The pace fits his own estimate once days off are counted. In early August, around day 65, he was in Missouri. Colorado brought the worst of it. “In Colorado, there were a lot of thunderstorms. I’m seeing lightning every 5 seconds,” he recalled. He admitted there were moments he wondered about stopping, but said he still had it in him to keep going.
For a sense of scale, the best-known New York to San Francisco walk belongs to Edward Payson Weston, the professional pedestrian who in 1909 covered about 4,000 miles between the two cities in 100 days. That works out to 40 miles a day, more than twice Rivera’s average, though Weston was a seasoned competitor walking for a living. Badiyaa also followed Karl Bushby’s return to Britain after 28 years on foot this month, a very different kind of long walk.
Life on the road
Rivera has kept costs close to zero. Along the way he has:
- pulled his gear in a wagon: a sleeping bag, tent, portable chargers, water and several journals;
- showered at truck stops and pitched his tent in parking lots, sometimes sleeping on park benches;
- posted daily updates on Instagram and TikTok under the handle @yo.mula, and set up an online fundraiser called “Support My Journey!”;
- picked Ringing Rocks Park in Pennsylvania, where visitors strike boulders with hammers to make them ring, as an early favorite stop.
His following started rough, with some people online calling him a “mad man,” before turning into practical help: meals, cash, haircuts, shoes and offers of a bed for the night in almost every big city he passed through. “Almost everybody I’ve met was so positive and nice and caring. It made me realize how much love people have for one another,” he said.
The last 100 miles, and what comes after
In August, Rivera was aiming for the Golden Gate Bridge by Christmas. He is now well ahead of that and hopes to arrive before Halloween; at 20 miles a day, the distance left from Sacramento is about five days of walking. He plans to finish by dipping his toes in the Pacific, then spend at least a week in San Francisco as a tourist.
He is already talking about the next one: a walk through Europe and on into Asia.
Further reading
Image: Michael Grindstaff of Sacramento, CA, edited by Fir0002, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.
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