Tuesday marked a milestone nearly seven years in the making for Kyndal Ray Edwards: Day 1,000 of walking, and the day he finally set foot in Boston. The Florida man has racked up more than 20 million steps and crossed 37 state lines since setting out from Jacksonville, walking in honor of people lost to suicide and addiction.
Edwards began his walking journey in Jacksonville, Florida, according to WCVB, but the idea for it took shape long before he ever laced up his shoes on a highway shoulder. He started his nationwide walk while serving time in prison, the station reports, using the isolation of incarceration to plan a mission he hoped would outlast his sentence. He counts only the days he actually walks toward his goal, which is why Tuesday's arrival in Boston lined up precisely with Day 1,000.
The plan first took real shape on April 12, 2019, while Edwards was at a reentry center in Sanderson, Florida. “I said, I wanna go walk across America, and I wanna do it for mental health and recovery,” he told Action News Jax. By his own account to that station, the years leading up to that moment were brutal: “In the last 18 years of my life, I have tried to take my life twice. I have overdosed. I've been in county jail 11 times, in prison twice.”
A Promise Kept One Mile at a Time
After regaining his freedom, Edwards promised he would stay clean and dedicate himself to helping others, per WCVB's reporting. That promise has since become a physical undertaking spanning thousands of miles and multiple presidential administrations' worth of weather. Along the way, he says every mile, bracelet and dollar raised is dedicated to honoring people lost to suicide and addiction, using the walk itself to open conversations about mental health and recovery that might not otherwise happen.
Edwards has said that people's own experiences with loss, recovery or depression are often what start those conversations along his route, and that what he wants most is for people to know there is hope. The financial side of the mission has grown too — the journey has raised more than $17,000 for Addicts to Athletes, according to Action News Jax's earlier report on his previous cross-country trek.
Nor'easters, Rain Gear and Strangers' Kindness
The road hasn't been forgiving. Edwards crossed Massachusetts during a nor'easter, WCVB reports, a stretch he said he handled better than most New Englanders might expect, joking that the wet weather didn't rattle him because he's from Florida. Locals stepped in anyway, supporting him with walking gear and handing him rain boots and rain pants to get through the storm.
That kind of roadside support has echoed across his route. Turnto10 reported that Edwards had walked more than 11,600 miles over 955 days as of Sept. 21, the day he passed from Narragansett to Warwick, Rhode Island, on the final stretch of his route. The outlet noted he was expected to complete his roughly 12,000-mile journey across 39 states by the end of October — a separate figure from the 37 state lines WCVB cites, reflecting the different ways his route has been tallied by various outlets along the way.
The Long Road From Washington State Back Home
This isn't Edwards's first marathon walk. In an earlier, already-completed leg of his mission, he trekked from Jacksonville Beach to Long Beach and Cape Flattery, Washington, down to Imperial Beach, California, and all the way back to the Jacksonville Beach pier, Action News Jax reported. His own website, kyndalray.com, states he covered 3,292 miles across 13 states over 15 months before reaching Long Beach, Washington, in April 2023 — a stretch also documented by the Daily Advance when he passed through Albemarle.
By Aug. 20, 2026, Edwards had logged more than 12,000 miles on foot over nearly five years and was pushing toward northeastern Maine, according to Delaware Online, which also reported that he hauls a custom cart weighing roughly 90 to 100 pounds for the entire trip. That cart carries his gear through every state line, every storm, and now, every step toward his final stop.
Lubec, Maine, and What Comes Next
His final destination is Lubec, Maine, and WCVB reports he should arrive by October 25. After that, Edwards has said it will be time for a bit of rest before he continues traveling up and down the East Coast, still promoting mental health, recovery and hope, according to Action News Jax's earlier coverage of his journey. For now, Boston stands as the marker of Day 1,000 — proof, in his telling, that a plan hatched inside a cell can carry a person across a continent and back.
