Bend resident Rue McKenrick completed his last scouting trip of the 14,400-mile American Perimeter Trail. Find out more about his efforts here.

When Rue McKenrick walked into Bend’s Drake Park this past Saturday, his arrival marked the completion of a dream more than three years in the making.

It was the end of his last scouting trip of the 14,000-mile American Perimeter Trail (APT), a path that circumnavigates the continental United States using a combination of existing trails and undefined routes, and the brainchild of McKenrick.

A welcoming party waited for him in the park, celebrating the completion of “Phase 1” of his mission as the executive director of the Bend-based nonprofit American Perimeter Trail Conference (americanperimetertrail.org).

“It was extremely…