There are those who talk of taking off and having a life adventure, and then there are those who actually pack it all up and take off on the unplanned. David “Moondog” Roop and Justin Bright are two such explorers. Recently they left Nashville to travel the 587 miles from the Natchez Trace starting point in Nashville to the terminus in Baton Rouge on skateboards. It will take them about two weeks.
“Justin and I have skated long distance together before and have been talking trail options for about a year,” said Roop. “Someone mentioned the Natchez Trace Trail and we decided to do it within hours. The roads, resupply, weather, views, they all looked appealing for our next adventure.”
The two met each other in Florida while they were individually skating around the state. They were introduced during their trips and became fast friends. Soon they decided that they would skate a different state together, New Mexico. On that trip they traveled 470 miles, reaching an elevation of almost 6,000 feet. It took them three weeks.
“In just a couple of weeks we met at the Texas and Mexico border having barely known one another,” explained Roop.
The two are a unique pair. Bright told the Taos News that he has been skating since he was 12. He started making videos of his skills and became sponsored by Original Skateboards. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Florida. Roop has taken a different path, choosing to live a nomadic life. He quit his job as a hearing aid specialist after the pandemic, bought a van and has been traveling ever since. After the New Mexico trip, however, he decided to settle in Colorado for a while. Bright lives in Florida.
What they are doing is called “thru-hiking,” which is long-distance hiking covering extensive distances in a single day. Roop took his skateboard on his first thru-hike in Florida after being inspired by skateboarder and artist Alexander Fogt, according to The Garden Path podcast. On the Trace trip, they plan to do between 30 and 50 miles per day.
They use specialized longboards for the trip that are built for going long distances, strength and stability. Roop rides a Pantheon longboard with Pantheon Karma wheels, while Bright rides an Underground Longboard with Orangatang Caguama wheels.
As the duo told News Channel 5, the uniqueness of their “wheels” certainly turns heads and gets strange looks as they roll down the Trace.
“A lot of people haven’t seen it before,” smiled Justin Bright… “Usually scrunched eyebrows is [sic] how they react first.”
All of their gear is carried in their backpacks. This includes tents. However, if the weather and bugs permit, they like to sleep under the stars, or as it’s called by those in the know, “cowboy camping.”
“We are long distance, ultralight hikers as well,” said Roop, “so the gear crosses over easily. We stop into towns every few days to resupply, which includes food, any medicine needed, charging artery banks and whatever other equipment we may need.”
They have certainly had their share of adventures – funny, scary and in between.
“Probably our funniest story is what happened while skating through the streets of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico,” Roop recounted. “A lady yelled at us from the door of her mobile home. She waved us over and invited us inside. She told us about how she had a premonition about aliens wearing jeans and riding skateboards. She believed she had forecasted us coming through town on our boards. That experience happened at the exact time Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.”
They have also run into some strange juju. One night, while preparing to spend the night under a bridge along a roadside, they were crawling into their sleeping bags and getting settled in when they looked up.
“Lodged in the manhole cover was a stick with yarn wrapped around it,” recalled Roop. “On the other end, dangling, was a ball that consisted of old book pages and carpenter nails tied together tightly with the yarn. We speculated wildly about what could be inside, of which we decided the contents were probably nothing we wanted to be associated with, and moved out of our temporary camp immediately.”
Folks have been kind and inviting along the way. One night, around a small, but popular desert town, during a resupply, they met an eccentric lady named Elle and her dog Ferdinand.
“Moments after meeting,” said Roop, “we were riding in her vehicle to go run errands with her. She convinced us to spend the night in town, [where] we slept in the dugout of the local ballpark. That night, in the town of 300 occupants, they were having their monthly hip hop night. It was some of the most fun we have ever had on the trail. The next day we woke up, and as we were going to head out of town, we decided to stay another night to have more fun. It is where I now live. And I named my board Ferdinand Two, after the dog.”
Keeping open minds, they make just the most basic plans for their adventures. For their Trace trek, they actually did very little research beforehand so they could be surprised along the way.
“We have a lot of experience on similar trips hiking or skating and trust in one another’s abilities,” added Roop. “We can generally plan a few days to a week ahead of time on our adventures. Safe yet spontaneous.”
You can follow them on Instagram: @moondogroop & @just1nbr1ght
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
