Mark Hainds has hit the dusty trail again.

He’s working to become the first person to walk the entire U.S.-Mexican border.

The local researcher and forestry instructor at LBWCC has already covered a good portion of the border, including his nearly 1,200-mile journey along the Texas-Mexico border in 2014, when he walked from El Paso, Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico.

He walked over Christmas break beginning in El Paso and making it making his way to Yuma, Ariz., before stopping on this leg.

“I’m going at it again,” he said. “I’ve covered about 90 miles from South of Tuscon, (Ariz.), to Douglas to Ruby to Arivaca and on to Sasabe. I slept the night before in a ghost town – Ruby.”

Hainds said Ruby was abandoned in 1942.

This leg, he plans to walk for 16 days before returning to Alabama. “I’ll return on April 9,” he said. “I hope for 400 miles from Sonoita to Yuma, Ariz.”

He plans to walk the rest of the journey over Christmas break.

“I should be the first person to have ever walked the whole border,” he said.

This journey isn’t Hainds’ first experience in remote areas.

He’s previously traveled to Brazil and spent time in the Amazon and Peru.

When Hainds started his journey in 2014, he said that he does this when he’s had enough of being in one place.