{"id":5717,"date":"2026-01-22T13:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/winter-2026\/along-the-walk\/hiking-along-hadrians-wall\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:40:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:40:53","slug":"hiking-along-hadrians-wall","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/winter-2026\/along-the-walk\/hiking-along-hadrians-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiking along Hadrian\u2019s Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 2025, Danny Briere, Ruane Family Executive Director of the Trinity Entrepreneurship Center (TEC), launched a new TEC program experiment: a rugged hike across England where long miles left room for big conversations and alumni\/student engagement. TEC Entrepreneur-in-Residence Rick Cleary \u201985 also took part and wrote about the journey. Read on for his recap.<\/em><\/p>\n

Seven days. Eighty-four miles. 809,632 steps. Four people. One wall.<\/p>\n

One long, historic wall. Hadrian\u2019s Wall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Trinity Entrepreneurship Center (TEC) trek across England was more than a walk. It became a living case study in resilience, discovery, and ideas tested in real time. It wasn\u2019t about miles, blisters, or even the Roman occupation of England and its clashes with northern tribes. It was about the spark that ignites when seasoned alumni and students power down their phones, trade screens for open skies, and spend a week heading west\u2014on foot, together.<\/p>\n

This long walk was about ideas exchanged, stories revealed, and lessons earned, one step at a time. The seven-day journey set the stage for what comes next: a new route, new voices, and more ideas, measured not in spreadsheets but in life\u2019s lessons.<\/p>\n

The Pitch<\/h2>\n

The idea surfaced in a winter planning session on campus. Danny Briere, Ruane Family Executive Director of the Trinity Entrepreneurship Center, no stranger to alpine treks, tossed out the idea half seriously: \u201cWhy not just take a walk? Not a program, not a panel, not another Zoom call. Just a long walk together. Students and alumni. See what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent graduate Nathan Sykes \u201925 didn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cSome of my best Trinity moments came from conversations with alumni,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted more. If that meant hiking boots and a little rain, I was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon enough, gear lists circulated, flights were booked, an itinerary took shape, and in early July, they arrived at Segedunum near Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. Alongside Danny, the crew included Rick Cleary \u201985, start-up founder and one of TEC\u2019s entrepreneurs-in-residence; Nathan Sykes \u201925, founder of The People Company; and Noah Lenz, a young New York City start-up builder and friend of Nathan\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Two mentors. Two founders in the making. One live experiment.<\/p>\n

A Walk, A Wall, A Plan<\/h2>\n

Walking Hadrian\u2019s Wall is anything but a walk in the park. Built in AD 122 from the North Sea to the Atlantic, it remains a living, albeit craggy, path of stone and turf underfoot, ancient forts at your side and sheep-dotted hills always on the horizon. Hadrian\u2019s Wall is more of an archaeological and heritage site than a traditional park. It\u2019s just a really long and narrow site\u201484 miles (135 kilometers) from Fort Segedunum at Wallsend in the east to Fort Maia at Bowness-on-Solway in the west. It\u2019s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n

Day one began with clear skies, high spirits, and easy miles, passing through Newcastle along the River Tyne, all the way to Keelman\u2019s Lodge, a charming and cozy inn attached to a welcoming pub, The Big Lamp Brewery. By day two, rhythms set in: pairs formed, stretched out, re-formed again, over and over. Unspoken rules emerged: Watch out for one another, look right (not left) at intersections, don\u2019t let a good debate distract you in a cow pie.<\/p>\n

By day three, the wall revealed its teeth: an ascending trail, rocky ridges, sweeping horizons, milecastles half buried by time. Bike pathways changed to pastures, and our legs started to groan on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink this is hard today?\u201d Danny asked. \u201cImagine the resilience and fortitude it took to haul those stones up these hills day after day. Every founder begins their journey with confidence. What matters is to be still building at mile 50.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strident Ideas<\/h2>\n

Like the trail, conversations twisted and turned: when to scale, how to break with a co-founder or investor, and constant new ideas, including virtual reality tours of Hadrian\u2019s Wall, AI-enabled tools to help actors practice their lines, even a laser-outfitted bike accessory to let hikers ahead know a bike is coming up from behind. Conversations ranged from the philosophical\u2014what makes an idea worth chasing and how (survivable) failure is a good teacher\u2014to the playful\u2014Noah describing how he trained an AI model to generate jazz riffs only to discover it preferred predictable four-chord pop. Rick shared stories of spotting opportunity in an underground storage facility and launching Iron Mountain\u2019s digital archive. Nathan talked about the endorphins released upon hiring his first employee at The People Company.<\/p>\n

\"\"Perhaps one of the livelier discussions: \u201cIs art art if AI is used to create it?\u201d Around Sycamore Gap, the trek\u2019s halfway point, Danny said, \u201cAI is not going away. We need to rethink everything in light of that, including possibly core definitions of art. \u201cDisney animators use all sorts of digital tools to create animated movies today . . . do you think they consider themselves artists? I bet they do!\u201d Nathan retorted, \u201cYeah, but they created those movies themselves\u2014not had AI do it for them.\u201d Danny ceded that point, but it started a long discussion about disruptive technologies and what AI can and can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

In Sync, One Step at a Time<\/h2>\n

The group shared, debated, joked, pressed on. Each mile became a moving thought experiment.<\/p>\n

As with gravity, weather always won. Fog swallowed landmarks, rain claimed hiking boots, wind stole easy conversation. Yet each setback carried its own quiet gift.<\/p>\n

At Vindolanda, a major Roman fort and archaeological site, they paused over tablets where soldiers had scribbled notes about birthdays, shoe sizes, and supply shortages. \u201cAhh, logistics,\u201d Nathan grinned. \u201cIt always comes back to logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day five\u2019s stop at Abbey Farm House became one of the trek\u2019s highlights, with a long wooden table where strangers became companions: Oklahomans tracing ancestry, a British couple on holiday, a German biker roaming the moors. By night\u2019s end, conversation flowed easily, proof that shared miles can turn chance encounters into lasting connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the time it\u2019s about showing up,\u201d Danny reflected later. \u201cPeople miss opportunities by turning in early or staying home because of the weather. The hardy entrepreneurs who keep showing up are the ones who get the deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zig, Zag, Repeat<\/h2>\n

By day six, the path had turned to mud, but their stride held firm. Danny shared stories of challenges past: a Caribbean airline venture tested by partner fraud, a near unicorn stalled by tough merger negotiation. \u201cFailure is a checkpoint,\u201d Rick reminded them. \u201cThink of it as a signal. Sometimes it means refine the model, sometimes pivot the team, sometimes call it a day. If you listen, a signal can point you toward the next breakthrough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZig, zag, repeat,\u201d Nathan quipped, delivering it like a breakthrough. The group cracked up, but by nightfall, the phrase had taken hold.<\/p>\n

Finishing Strong<\/h2>\n

The final day delivered a classic Northumberland send-off: pelting rain and howling winds. Heads down, coats flapping, they trudged into Bowness-on-Solway. The upside was passing all the west-to-east hikers just starting their long journey. At the end of the wall, a weathered shack at the edge of a seaside cow-pie meadow. There was no tape to break, no brass band.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThis is it,\u201d Danny said at the crest above the Solway. \u201cEnd of the wall, and the start of\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter zig-zaggin\u2019,\u201d Noah cut in, grinning.<\/p>\n

The remark landed with unexpected weight. It marked a milestone: They had crossed a country, made history beside history, and now looked toward what lay ahead. At Fort Maia, the end point, the group posed for a victory photo\u2014muddy, exhausted, but grinning ear to ear. That photo, captioned \u201cThe Other Long Walk,\u201d now hangs in the TEC.<\/p>\n

After the Wall<\/h2>\n

Back at the Entrepreneurship Center, Danny\u2019s mud-caked boots took their place on the TEC trophy shelf. He thought back to that winter\u2019s planning session and smiled. \u201cHypothesis validated,\u201d he said. \u201cLessons measured in miles aren\u2019t just memorable, they chart a course ahead.\u201d Nathan went home invigorated with new ideas to expand his start-up. Noah rolled out a new AI feature built for improvisation. Rick returned to advising start-ups in the TEC orbit.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best billboard for the hike\u2019s success: a trailside brainstorm turned into a marketing campaign, launched by Noah and Nathan in partnership, which generated contracts and revenue for Nathan\u2019s venture, The People Company. Words became action.<\/p>\n

The trek proved TEC\u2019s purpose: Entrepreneurship isn\u2019t just ideas and pitch decks. It\u2019s the grit to navigate ambiguity, the empathy to lead, and the vision to turn setbacks into fuel.<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurship at Trinity is inseparable from the liberal arts. Both demand curiosity, resilience, empathy, and the ability to see patterns others miss. Both flourish in community, not isolation, and both thrive when alumni and students engage in real, sustained dialogue.<\/p>\n

Innovation begins with a single step,\u201d Danny said. \u201cA walk into the unknown. Stay with the questions. Keep moving, keep probing, until clarity not only finds you but carries you farther than you imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next? Danny wants to do it again next year. New route, new and old crew, same spirit. Alumni and students side by side, testing ideas against miles, terrain, and anything nature throws their way, discovering truths that surface only when phones are silenced, boots are laced, and the horizon keeps moving.<\/p>\n

Because sometimes big ideas don\u2019t come from another meeting.<\/p>\n

They come from walking the long walk.<\/p>\n

Join us for the next long walk in summer 2026. Walk, talk, and trade hard-won lessons with students while helping map our route. To get involved, contact Danny Briere<\/a> at the Entrepreneurship Center.<\/em><\/p>\n

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