Francis Tapon

Tapon's mother is from Chile and his father was from France.[6] Tapon was born in San Francisco,[7][8] where he went to the French American International School until 10th grade, and then graduated from Lick-Wilmerding High School.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Religion from Amherst College in 1992.[9] He worked in Latin America for Hitachi Data Systems. In 1997, he received his MBA from Harvard Business School.[10]

After Harvard, he co-founded a Silicon Valley robotic vision company that was covered by The New York Times.[11][12] Later, he consulted for Microsoft for 18 months. In 2006, he became a full-time travel writer.[13]

Tapon in Slovenia, August 2010

Below is a chronology of Tapon's most notable travel experiences, which inspired his two books.

In 2001, he hiked the Appalachian Trail.[14] In 2004, he visited all the countries in Eastern Europe.[15] In 2006, he backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail.[16]

In 2007, he became the first person to walk from Mexico to Canada and back to Mexico along the Continental Divide Trail.[17][18][19][20][21] This seven-month journey spanned over 5,600 miles.[22] Francis took the most circuitous, scenic, high, difficult route north and while returning south took the more expedient route on the way down.[23] He hiked ultralight since his pack, without food and water, weighed under 6 lbs (less than 3 kg).[24][25] National Geographic listed Francis Tapon's round trip on the Continental Divide Trail among the most notable feats of 2007.[26][27]

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 de Santiago.[28]

In 2008–2011, he visited over 40 European countries, including all the Eastern European ones.[29][30][31] He focused on finding Eastern European innovations.[32][33][34]

In 2012, he summed up his travels to date and shared his lessons in his TEDx talk entitled, "How and Why Travel Transforms You." It has over 100,000 views.[35]

In March 2013, he entered Morocco and began a five-year trip to all 54 African countries. He never left the African continent. Half way through his trip, he met and married a Cameroonian, Rejoice Tapon, who traveled 31 of African countries with him.[36][37]

In October 2018, Tapon returned to a TEDx stage. He had just returned from 5.5 years of nonstop overland travel through all 54 African countries. Tapon shared a story about an African girl who was a "black sheep" in her society and what we can learn from it.[38]

He returned to the United States in 2018. He plans to write his third book based on the experience. He filmed extensively and has raised over $24,000 to produce a pilot TV episode by November 2014.[39][40] Amazon.com and Lincoln Mercury selected him as the best example of someone who is fulfilling the dream of traveling the world.[41]

In January 2019, he was inducted in the California Outdoors Hall of Fame, which includes John Muir and Ansel Adams.[42]

Tapon is the author of the WanderLearn Series, which is a series of books about his adventures.[43] 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 two chapters in Hikers' Stories From the Appalachian Trail, edited by Kathryn Fulton, ISBN 978-0811712835 (2012) Stackpole Books. The chapters are entitled "The Final Stretch" and "A Thru-hiker's Motivation: Not Enlightenment, Just Ice Cream."

• WanderLearn with Francis Tapon