Hiking every mile of the Continental Divide Trail is a feat only some have accomplished. Unicycling the trail is a different story. 

Jamey Mossengren, a Minnesota native, completed his journey on the Continental Divide Trail this year by hiking and unicycling sections of the approximately 3,100-mile-long trail from New Mexico to Montana.

Mossengren grew up near the Twin Cities, where he would spend days at his grandmother’s house with his cousins. One day, his grandmother came home with a unicycle purchased at a garage sale. Mossengren quickly picked up on it. 

“She thought it would be something for us to do and it was,” he said. “And I kept practicing because I wanted to get better.” 

As his skills progressed, Mossengren expanded his unicycling repertoire, joining the Twin Cities Unicycle Club and competing across the country, even internationally at times.  

Hiking, backpacking and mountain unicycling were a later passion for Mossengren, who after a divorce in 2015, decided to attempt the Colorado Trail, a nearly 500-mile trail from southwest of Denver to Durango. Of course, the unicycle was in tow.  

“I just needed to get away, I needed time to myself to figure things out, and then I heard about the Colorado Trail and I've always mountain unicycled, but at that point it had just been a hobby,” he said.  

After 500 miles through the Rocky Mountains over a few weeks, much of it using his unicycle, Mossengren fell in love with backpacking and the peace it brings to be in nature.  

“It’s amazing how I did not know this all existed,” Mossengren said of the intricate trail system in the United States. “I went 36 years not knowing. It helped me as a person. I kind of ended the trip as a different person.”  

From there, he started researching other trails. He did some smaller hikes in the years that followed and then took off on the Appalachian Trail in 2019 with three other friends. It took the crew six months to finish. On the Appalachian Trail, Mossengren did not unicycle since wheeled devices are not allowed.  

He then did most of the 26,000-mile Pacific Crest Trail in 2021 on foot as well.  

Mossengren uni-packed the Colorado Trail, the 700-mile Oregon Timber Trail and the 800-mile Arizona Trail, which he did with two other unicyclists.  

“It was three of us wobbling through the desert on that one, which was pretty cool,” Mossengren laughed.  

The Continental Divide Trail adventure began two years ago. He did half of the trail with some friends, hiking at that time to stay with the group, and visiting areas that weren’t snow-covered.  At the time, the team started the Montana hitch in Butte and finished at the Canadian border.  

But he wasn’t satisfied. In June, Mossengren returned to the trail, beginning in Grants, New Mexico, to unicycle the parts of the trail that he did not hike years prior.  

Using a moped and a van, Mossengren would drive north on his moped, hike south to the van and then drive to the next section of trail he needed to complete. Under federal law, wheels are not allowed in designated Wilderness Areas, so at times Mossengren would need to leave his unicycle in the van while he had to hike. 

“The Continental [Divide] Trail wasn't great for the unicycle for a lot of it, but I gave it my best when I could,” he said, saying it was hard to ride on parts of the trail that were really overgrown.  

Going back to complete the trail was not just an athletic endeavor, Mossengren said, but a personal one. On New Year’s Day, his sister, Amy Ruth, died by suicide.  

“I needed to get away for a while and deal with it,” he said. Mossengren donated $1,000 to the American Association of Suicide Prevention upon completing the trail.  

Being alone on the trail is an incredible way to connect to oneself and reorient, Mossengren said. To do so through the desert and the ridgelines of the Rocky Mountains was healing.  

Mossengren ended his summer trip this year in Butte on his unicycle, stopping at a point where he began hiking a couple years prior.  

“You can find trails everywhere, and I think if more people were outside enjoying the beautiful world, there would be less depressed people and less suicidal people,”  Mossengren said. “Reach out to someone if you are struggling. If you’re depressed or sad reach out. What you’re feeling is temporary, it's not going to last forever.”  

In the future, Mossengren hopes to return to the Pacific Crest Trail to officially achieve a Triple Crown, the completion of the three major distance thru-hikes in the country. 

Outside of outdoor adventures, Mossengren is an entertainer, currently performing in Boston for a Renaissance fair. As a one-man show under the name The Unicycling Unicorn, Mossengren has performed over 5,000 shows in 17 countries and 21 states with a unicorn horn on his helmet. The shows consist of tricks, such as pedaling with hands, juggling and riding a 12-foot-tall unicycle.  

Looking back on his time riding the unicycle on the trail, Mossengren remembers passing hikers who were intrigued and fascinated by his mode of transportation, a similar response he gets outside of the trails, too.  

“I would tell people to get outside. I think it's good for your health, for your physical and mental health,” he said, reflecting on why he continues to hike. “Just go in nature. It just helps heal you if you’re broken and lifts you up if you are feeling down.” 

To learn more, visit theunicyclingunicorn.com. 

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].