What a Solo Ocean Row Teaches Us About Traveling Together

A few weeks ago, Kelsey Pfendler rowed into Honolulu Harbor alone, the way she'd spent the previous forty-three days -- but she didn't arrive to an empty dock. Hundreds of people had gathered at the Ala Wai to watch her come in, cheering as she passed the Hawaii Yacht Club on her twenty-one-foot boat, Lily. She'd just become the first American woman to row solo across the mid-Pacific, and the youngest and fastest person, woman or man, ever to do it -- 2,400 miles from Monterey in just under forty-four days, shattering both the women's and men's speed records.

I've been following her updates since she left California, the way most people probably have -- in fragments, between meetings, on a phone screen. And the detail that has stayed with me isn't the distance or the records. It's the crowd on the dock.

For six weeks, Pfendler did something no one could do for her. But she wasn't doing it unsupported. A land team tracked her position and weather windows around the clock. Her father flew out to meet her. Strangers who'd only known her through video updates showed up in person to watch her finish. She rowed alone, and she was held the entire way.

That's the part of adventure that rarely makes the highlight reel: the scaffolding behind the feat. It's true on a Pacific crossing, and it's true, at a much smaller scale, on a five-day hike through Death Valley. What looks like an individual act of courage -- stepping into unfamiliar terrain, trusting your body to carry you further than it has before -- is almost always held up by people who know the ground, the timing, the risk, and each other.

Before she crossed the finish line, Pfendler said she hoped her trip would make someone feel a little more powerful in their own skin -- that you don't need to feel strong enough to finish a hard thing, only strong enough to start it. I think that's the real reason people come back from a hard trip changed: not the mileage, but the company they didn't expect to need.

Reserve your spot on our March Death Valley departure, and find out what you're capable of -- together.