20 photos show what a typical day is like for a couple hiking 3,000 miles from Mexico to Canada

The couple, who are American but live in Germany, have been married for almost eight years. They were both 33 at the time of writing.

Beissinger grew up hiking through Boy Scouts, while Miller was an athlete who often did endurance challenges.

"We both did an Ironman race in 2014," Beissinger said. "After that, it was like, what comes next? And we love the outdoors, so why not do something outdoors and very endurance-focused."

After watching the movie "Wild," Beissinger and Miller got the idea to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada in 2018, which is 2,650 miles. It was a thru-hike, which is a long-distance hike in one direction.

They loved the experience, and they knew that they wanted to do a similar challenge as soon as they could.

Like the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail goes from Mexico to Canada. It takes around four months to hike.

The couple told Insider it took from 2018 to 2021 to financially and mentally prepare for the trip.

Beissinger, who is a professor, reduced his work to part-time so he would have ample months free for the trip, and Miller quit her job.

They ended the lease on their apartment and put their belongings in storage before they started their journey on May 3.

They aim to finish the hike by the end of September.

Miller and Beissinger have been documenting their journey on TikTok, where they have amassed over a million followers as they share behind-the-scenes looks at what their life is like on the trail.

Insider spoke to the couple on the 100th day of their journey to learn more about what a day on the Continental Divide Trail is like.

They were about 60% of the way finished with their trip at the time of writing.

"We aim for 6:30 every day to be hiking," Beissinger said. "And then we break every four or so miles for a couple of minutes to have a snack."

The couple said their daily goal is to hike from sunrise to sunset, carrying their packs.

Each of their packs only weighs about 10 pounds, which helps them go long distances without additional strain.

As Beissinger and Miller shared in one of their videos, they eat around 3,500 calories a day to sustain themselves while walking for miles and miles.

"We're always thinking about food," Miller told Insider.

Miller and Beissinger have both lost at least 10 pounds since they started the hike.

For breakfast, they eat things like grits or overnight oats and drink multiple cups of coffee.

They told Insider that at the beginning of the journey, they were hiking around 15 miles per day.

But at the time of writing, they were up to 28.

By slowly building speed, they have been able to ensure they don't injure themselves along the way.

"We don't challenge ourselves and say, 'Let's do 40 miles today,' and then injure ourselves," Beissinger said. "We try to stay pretty consistent from one day to the next, and if we're going to increase, we do it slowly so our bodies are used to it."

Because they're walking up the West Coast, the weather has changed rapidly throughout Miller and Beissinger's journey.

They started off in a desert climate, and they've since moved on to more lush areas, even encountering cold fronts.

"We've had some rainy days and even once a snowstorm," Miller said.

"It's rained more days than it hasn't," Beissinger added, which has been a bit difficult.

The couple told Insider that weather has been one of the biggest challenges throughout their journey.

"There have been small sections of the trail that have been closed due to forest fires," Miller said. "Luckily, the smoke hasn't been too bad or anything yet, but we had to do some detours around the fires on paved highways."

"We're making sure we're hiking as much of the official trail as we legally can," Beissinger added.

"We're also making sure to connect every footstep between Mexico and Canada," he went on to say. "When there are fire detours, that means we have to leave the trail and hike usually way down to a highway and then walk on whatever highway is parallel to the trail for sometimes a long time and then go back up to the trail, which typically adds miles and hurts our feet."

"Every time there's a water source, we filter water," Beissinger said. "That keeps the weight on our backs low to not carry water in between sources or not carry lots of water, but just carry a liter at a time."

When they happen by a stream or other natural source of running water, the couple will also rinse off and soak their feet.

Often, the couple gets their water from cow troughs with the permission of farmers.

They have to turn to troughs when water is more scarce, as was the case in the first leg of their journey.

"Our most unexpected and challenging experience on the trail was back in New Mexico when water was scarce, we were counting on a spring flowing and we got there and the spring had gone dry," Beissinger said.

"We had an 11-mile backward detour to get to the last water source," he said. "And then we had to fill up water there to carry for 30 miles, which was like a day and a half at that point to the next water source."

"It added 22 miles to the hike and was not planned or wanted or expected," he said.

Water has been much more plentiful as they've moved farther north.

Beissinger and Miller use a portable water filter to make sure their water is clean to eat and drink with.

They filter it into two plastic bottles to make it clean.

They told Insider they stock up on lunch supplies in towns along the route, where they stop periodically for groceries, to do laundry, and to shower.

They also pick up packages of gear and supplies they send to themselves along the way.

Beissinger and Miller said they take naps when they can at lunchtime so they have more energy for the second half of the day.

"When you are hiking so many miles a day, the landscape changes, and it's really exciting to see different things," Miller said. "We just finished Wyoming, and we started in a desert and then we went up into these big mountains with rocky peaks and alpine lakes. And then we were in Yellowstone with boiling geysers."

Beissinger also said the days pass quickly because he and Miller enjoy spending so much time together.

"We like each other," he joked. "We like to talk to each other and sometimes when the day's getting hard, we'll say like, 'OK, do you have any talking points?' Then we try to come up with something interesting to mull over."

Sometimes, they chat about what their next adventure will be, but they said they mostly focus on their current journey.

The couple have heard that approximately 400 people are hiking the Continental Divide Trail in the northern direction this year, so they run into other people as they hike frequently.

"There's a weather window that everybody has to start this trail in April or May, and everybody has to finish in September or early October at the latest," Beissinger said. "So that means that we just see the same people on the trail and in every town over and over again."

They've formed friendships with their fellow hikers, who are sometimes featured in their TikToks.

"They tend to be interesting people who are supportive," he added. "It's really fun to meet all these other hikers."

"There's definitely a community feeling out here," Miller said.

Hikers also give each other trail names, adding to the communal vibe. Beissinger and Miller were aptly nicknamed Tik and Tok.

Most of the land on the Continental Divide Trail is public land, so Beissinger and Miller are able to set up camp wherever they end up at the end of a day of hiking, as they shared in a TikTok.

They just have to find a spot that is flat, dry, and far enough away from a water source.

As Beissinger and Miller said on TikTok, they prefer to "cowboy camp" when they can, which means they sleep in sleeping bags with no shelter over them.

Because they travel so light, they use items that serve multiple purposes when they sleep.

For instance, their waterproof clothing bags double as pillows each night.

For instance, they told Insider that instead of a camping mat, they put sheets of Tyvek, which you've likely seen wrapped around homes during construction, under their sleeping pads and bags.

The sheets keep their gear dry, and they're much cheaper than mats you could buy from camping stores.

"Why spend a bunch of money on an inferior product when something from a construction dumpster works just as well?" Beissinger said.

As they shared on TikTok, Beissinger and Miller prepared 100 dehydrated dinners for themselves ahead of the trip.

"We are often passing through really small towns that don't sell nutritious, lightweight food," Beissinger told Insider. "By mailing it to ourselves, we can make sure that we have at least some food that's tasty and nutritious."

"It's supplemented with lots of unhealthy stuff too, but it's good to have something healthy every day," he went on to say.

"We just made sure that all of those dinners had carbohydrates, protein, and vegetables and flavoring so that we could really have one good meal a day," Miller said of the 100 dinners.

Miller's mom is mailing the meals to the couple at P.O. boxes along the route so they can keep their packs light.

As they demonstrated on TikTok, they soak the food, cook it on a portable stove, soak it again, and then it's ready to eat.

Beissinger and Miller told Insider that they get a lot of satisfaction from their life on the Continental Divide Trail.

"It's very simple," Miller said of their life on the trail. "We are free to think about whatever comes to mind, and our only concern is where's the next water source."

"The simplicity of doing this hike is surprising and fulfilling," Beissinger added.

"Every day we feel like we accomplished our goal, and it's a very fulfilling feeling to say, 'OK, did we hike our miles today? Yes, we did. We've eaten. We can go to sleep,'" he said.

You can follow Miller and Beissinger's journey on TikTok and on their blog.