{"id":3325,"date":"2026-06-29T17:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3325"},"modified":"2026-06-29T17:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:10:16","slug":"for-america-250-relayers-will-carry-the-declaration-of-independence-across-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3325","title":{"rendered":"For America 250, relayers will carry the Declaration of Independence across the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Life. Liberty. The Pursuit of Happiness.<\/p>\n

Those are the three unalienable rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. They\u2019re also the words engraved into three batons, each carrying a copy of the nation-defining document, that\u2019ll be passed from person to person as volunteers across the nation run, bike, hike and ride horses or wheelchairs \u2014 or otherwise travel in a non-motorized fashion \u2014 along the 6,800 miles of the American Discovery Trail that runs from Point Reyes, California, to Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Delaware.<\/p>\n

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American Discovery 250 Relay is expected to take around 145 days, according to relay director Dave Whitson.<\/p>\n

Organizers also hope the event celebrating the United States\u2019 250th birthday helps raise awareness of the relatively little-known cross-country trail, according to relay California state coordinator John Mercurio, a Concord resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make the trail more visible,\u201d he says. \u201cWe feel like it\u2019s an asset people should take advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Whitson, the people he\u2019s talked to about the event so far are excited to participate or to learn that it\u2019ll pass through somewhere near where they live.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who want to find a way to engage with America 250, and they\u2019re struggling to find an entry point,\u201d he says. They\u2019re eager to find something they can be involved in that not just celebrates but also makes history, he explains.<\/p>\n

American Discovery 250 Relay could be the longest relay in history, he says.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Whitson, who has walked across the country himself \u2014 though he took the Oregon Trail from Nebraska instead \u2014 and worked as a teacher, applied when the opportunity came up to lead the project, believing it would be \u201csomething memorable that would stick with me for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The relay starts July 1 at Limantour Beach in Point Reyes and continues through Muir Woods. On July 4, participants will cross the Golden Gate Bridge and make their way to Pier 39 in San Francisco by around 11 a.m., when festivities are planned.<\/p>\n

From there, the route continues onward to the East Bay, from the Bay Bridge to UC Berkeley, to Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek, to Worth Shaw Community Park in Antioch and into Sacramento by July 8.<\/p>\n

The City of Walnut Creek is hosting a kickoff breakfast for participants on July 7, and the City of Oakley is also planning a greeting event for the participants, Whitson says. \u00a0The route continues onward through Sacramento to Folsom, Auburn and Tahoe and into Nevada, where cyclists and equestrians will experience sections of the Pony Express route. The plan is to finish on Thanksgiving at the Atlantic Ocean. Each day, somewhere between 5 and 50 participants are expected to join.<\/p>\n

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And while there are a lot of miles to travel, and some participants are planning to log plenty of them \u2014 for instance, some bike-focused days have 70 to 100 miles on the itinerary \u2014 Whitson says the event is inclusive, and there is an opportunity for people to sign up for just a part of the day if they\u2019re so inclined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want people to know that there\u2019s a space for them if they want to get involved, regardless of how hardcore they are,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Expected to take around five months, this cross-country journey is bringing back memories for John Mills, one of two hikers to complete an early iteration of the American Discovery Trail through the HikaNation program in 1980-81.<\/p>\n

Now in his 70s, Mills joined the initial HikaNation journey after seeing an ad in Backpacker Magazine. He recalled crossing the Bay Bridge in 1980 on foot as part of a historic highway closure \u2014 the first and only time Caltrans has permitted the bridge to be partially closed to cars for pedestrian access, Mills says. Two lanes of traffic were closed for the morning, and the backpackers joined thousands of people eager to experience the bridge outside of a car.<\/p>\n

This time around, he\u2019s skipping the 14 months it took him to complete the cross-country trek in his youth and will just join for the first five days of the relay. Still, the friendships he made back then have remained lifelong. He continues to travel with his HikaNation friends on outdoor adventures around the globe, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo experience the U.S. on foot, instead of whizzing across it in an automobile, we really got to know the geography,\u201d Mills says. \u201cIt deepened my love of the outdoors and nature, and I got to know people from different parts of the country that we walked through.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s one more takeaway from Mills\u2019 cross-country journey, hiking in the aftermath of the 1979 energy crisis, that feels as relevant as it did 46 years ago: Non-motorized travel sure has cost benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s still a motive today,\u201d he says. \u201cLook at the price of gasoline.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

The group will be passing through Alameda and Contra Costa counties roughly July 5-7. On July 6, the route traverses Tilden Regional Park and Briones Regional Park before finishing at Heather Farm Park. On July 7, the day\u2019s route picks back up there, then includes a summit of Mount Diablo, lunch in Clayton and a journey through Black Diamond Mines Regional Park. Learn more about the schedule and access route maps at discoverytrail.org\/adt-relay-calendar.<\/p>\n

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The relay kicks off July 1 in Point Reyes and moves through Alameda and Contra Costa counties over the following week. Anyone can sign up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nFor America 250, relayers will carry the Declaration of Independence across the U.S. - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3325\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For America 250, relayers will carry the Declaration of Independence across the U.S. - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The relay kicks off July 1 in Point Reyes and moves through Alameda and Contra Costa counties over the following week. 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