User:Mister.Hister/sandbox
Francis Tapon | |
---|---|
![]() Francis Tapon, July 2012. | |
Born | 10 March 1970 |
Occupation | Author, world traveler, 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 |
Website | |
francistapon |
Francis Tapon (born March 10, 1970) is an author, global nomad, and public speaker. He was the first person to do a round-trip backpacking the Continental Divide Trail. He has also thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail southbound. He has traveled to over 80 countries and plans to travel to all the countries of the world.[1] 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.[2] He is currently traveling to all 54 African countries from 2013 to 2017.
Early life and career
Francis Tapon's mother is from Chile and his father was from France.[3] Francis Tapon was born in San Francisco.[4][5] He went to the French American International School until 10th grade. He graduated from Lick-Wilmerding High School.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Religion from Amherst College in 1992.[6] He worked in Latin America for Hitachi Data Systems. In 1997, he received his MBA from Harvard Business School.[7]
After Harvard, he co-founded a Silicon Valley robotic vision company that was covered by The New York Times.[8][9] Later, he consulted for Microsoft for 18 months. In 2006, he became a full-time travel writer.[10]
Travels
![Photograph](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Francis-Tapon-photo1.jpg/220px-Francis-Tapon-photo1.jpg)
Amazon.com and Lincoln Mercury selected him as the best example of someone who is fulfilling the dream of traveling the world.[11]
In 2001, he hiked the Appalachian Trail.[12] In 2004, he visited all the countries in Eastern Europe.[13] In 2006, he backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail.[14]
In 2007, he became the first person to walk from Mexico to Canada and back to Mexico along the Continental Divide Trail.[15][16][17][18][19] This seven-month journey spanned over 5,600 miles.[20] Francis took the most circuitous, scenic, high, difficult route north and while returning south took the more expedient route on the way down.[21] He hiked ultralight since his pack, without food and water, weighed under 6 lbs (less then 3kg).[22][23] National Geographic listed Francis Tapon's round trip on the Continental Divide Trail among one of the most notable feats of 2007.[24][25]
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."[26]
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 Santiago.[27]
In 2008-2011, he visited over 40 European countries, including all the Eastern European ones.[28][29][30] He focused on finding Eastern European innovations.[31][32][33]
In March 2013, he entered Morocco and began a four-year trip to all 54 African countries. He plans to write his third book based on the experience. He is filming extensively.[34]
Books
Francis Tapon is a travel writer[35] who is the author of the WanderLearn Series, which is a series of books about his adventures. He has written two books so far:
Tapon, Francis (2006), Hike Your Own Hike: 7 Life Lessons from Backpacking Across America, 351 pages, ISBN 978-0-9765812-0-8.
Tapon, Francis (2012), The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us, 736 pages, ISBN 978-0976581222.
He also wrote the first chapter ("The Final Stretch, Blood Mountain, GA") in Hikers' Stories From the Appalachian Trail, edited by Kathryn Fulton, ISBN 978-0811712835 (2012) Stackpole Books.
References
- ^ Krasny, Michael. (December 28, 2011). "National radio interview". KQED, San Francisco Public Radio, NPR affiliate. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ NTD TV. "Chinese TV interview" Retrieved on November 2, 2013
- ^ "Huffington Post bio" Retrieved November 1, 2013
- ^ "Francis Tapon's biography". Goodreads. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ "Interview on French American TV" skip to 0:50
- ^ Lieber, Ben. [1] "Amherst College Alumni Interview" retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Tapon, Francis (December 1, 2012) "The Billion Dollar Question". Harvard Business School Bulletin. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ Lewis, Michael (March 1, 1998). "The Little Creepy Crawlers Who Will Eat You In The Night". The New York Times. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ Stern, Rachel J. (April 23, 2012) [2] "'The Hidden Europe' Comes to Los Gatos"] Patch.com. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Stienstra, Tom. (February 24, 2008). "His life is a long, gratifying hike". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ Amazon.com & Lincoln Mercury did a video profile of people who doing were doing 25 classic dreams Video excerpt of the 'My Dream' campaign Vimeo.com. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Lanza, Michael. (November 2008) "American Classic: Hiking the Appalachian Trail". Backpacker Magazine. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ Tapon, Francis. (October 5, 2012) "Francis Tapon's TEDx Talk". TEDx Fillmore speech, San Francisco. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Fulton, Kathryn. (2012) Hikers' Stories from the Appalachian Trail, Stackpole Books, page 159. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Tilin, Andrew. (June 2008) "The Onion vs. Mr. Magoo - On your mark, get set ... hike. Inside a 5,600-mile footrace on the country's hardest trail.". Backpacker Magazine. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ M. Biggers, Ashley. (March 2008) "There & Back Again", New Mexico Magazine
- ^ Bastone, Kelly (August 2008) "Taking the High Way: Thru-hiking the Continental Divide Trail," 5280, pp. 70-73. Denver magazine reports on Francis Tapon's first-ever yo-yo of the CDT.
- ^ Wilt, Bernie. "PBP Episode 31 - CDT Yo-Yo". PracticalBackpacking.com. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Reese, Janet. (19 June 2007). "5 questions for long-distance hiker Francis Tapon". Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Stienstra, Tom. (March 9 2008). "Good time to take inventory on gear - and yourself". San Francisco Chronicle. . Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Manning, John. (April 8, 2008) "Francis Tapon: The first person to yo-yo America’s wildest trail talks heating, eating and the philosophy of lightweight". TGO Magazine. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Crooker, Carol. (September 12, 2007) "Podcast: Francis Tapon is Set to Complete a Backpacking First - a CDT Yo-Yo". Backpackinglight.com. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Stienstra, Tom. (March 9, 2008) "Good time to take inventory on gear - and yourself". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ "Best of Adventure, Trends: New Leaf" National Geographic. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
- ^ Lineback, Neal. (October 1, 2013) "America's Hiking Trails" National Geographic: Geography in the News. Retrieved November 2, 2013
- ^ Stienstra, Tom (December 28, 2008). "Fishing, hiking, skiing their way to fame". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
{{cite web}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ Bassets, Marc. (August 17, 2012) "El Disidente" La Vanguardia in Spanish. Retrieved November 2, 2013
- ^ Delevett, Peter. (May 19, 2012) "Social travel' start-ups help travelers gather friends" Page 2 of Los Angeles Times article. Retrieved November 2, 2013
- ^ Steves, Rick. (August 17, 2013) "Bumpy Balkans" National Radio Show. Retrieved November 2, 2013
- ^ Riddell, Joel. (August 2013)"Dining Around Interview" The interview starts at minute 17. NewsTalk 910, KKSF, San Francisco.
- ^ Tapon, Francis. (January 1, 2012) "Eastern Europe: Innovation's hidden hub" Washington Post, page G4. Retrieved November 2. 2013.
- ^ Kolawole, Emi. (January 1, 2012) "Europe, the credit downgrade and what it means for innovation" WashingtonPost.com. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ^ Steves, Rick (August 18, 2012). "Program 297: Open Phones: Ask Rick; Francis Tapon Explores Eastern Europe". Rick Steves National Radio Show. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ Steves, Rick (February 2, 2013). "Program 314: Travel Portraits; Artist's Safari; Africa 54". Rick Steves National Radio Show. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
- ^ Brotman, Barbara. (September 24, 2012) "Getting to know the world around us" Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
External links
Category:American travel writers Category:American self-help writers Category:Hikers Category:Living people Category:1970 births Category:Amherst College alumni Category:Writers from California Category:American non-fiction outdoors writers Category:American travel writers Category:Audio book narrators Category:People from San Francisco Category:Harvard Business School alumni