‘Hobo Nick’ walks from Florida to California in 178 days

On April 5, Nick Kleckner went for a walk — for 178 days. And now he wants to use his experiences to advocate for America's homeless population.

The 25-year-old made the 4,023 kilometre journey across the country with no food, water or money in his backpack.

"I started with close to no thought on preparing for making this possible. I also did not exercise or train for the walking for even a day," Kleckner wrote on his blog, World in Strides.

"I was out of shape, starving, and unprepared. I told God I wouldn't quit and would rot away slowly as a homeless poor man out here for as long as it took me to walk to the California coast. I called Him out, and then He answered me in an overwhelming way. I suddenly had support coming from people approaching me along my walks and in the areas I was around."

Kleckner had been working as an electrician and taxi driver in California prior to his decision to drop everything and walk from Atlantic Beach, Florida, to Huntington Beach, California.

"It was a combination that was weighing down on me," he told the Daily Dot of life before the walk. "It built up, and I got to that point where I couldn't deal with everything anymore. I felt a lot of pressure, stress, and anxiety and decided to get out.

"Since I have been homeless I have lived more in the moment and have really learned to be thankful," he added.

Nicknamed "Hobo Nick," Kleckner often blogged about gratefulness, recounting simple experiences he once took for granted.

"I can't describe the feeling I had to be clean and fresh. Something that I have never appreciated so much in life. Things like this are really put into perspective. We are so lucky to have little things like this but a lot of the times are just so accustomed to them that we don't appreciate them," he wrote of showering for the first time in weeks.

"Hobo Nick" shares some lessons from the road below:

Kleckner aimed to give more than he received. When people donated money or gifts to the cross-country traveller, he tried to pay them forward, passing them along to homeless people he encountered on his journey, the Patterson Irrigator reported.

"Every few weeks I'd pass through a big city with lots of homeless, so at that time I was like, 'I don't feel right having all this stuff,' so I started sharing," Kleckner said of the donations given him by supportive people passing by.

Kleckner carried an iPod Touch with him — he prepaid for 8 months of Internet service — so he could tweet his adventure and forward blog posts to his mother, Theresa, who was updating his website for him.

"There was no talking him out of it. He had his mind set," Theresa told her local paper, the Patterson Irrigator, adding that her son's impressive survival skills were a comfort to her.

During his trek, his Twitter following grew from eight to over 5,000. He declined donations and gifts from his online followers, accepting generosity only from those he met face-to-face on the road.

"It's really meditative and therapeutic," Kleckner said of walking the long roads and flat lands. "In a 20-minute sunset while I'm alone, it seems like I get 10 hours of thinking done. My thoughts are so clear. "

Kleckner said that his trip gave him a new perspective on homelessness. He now plans to advocate for the homeless.

"I learned more about what drives me. I'm not super-technological, but in the homeless community I think I can take what technology is available today and expose what people don't know about in the homeless community," he said. "I can share it in such a cool way. There are times I want to put a light on their stories. There was a light on me because I was documenting it so much, and everyone saw my lifestyle, but I'm just one of thousands of homeless people in this country. I feel like I need to share that. I need to raise awareness about what is out there."

Kleckner hopes to embark on a similar trip again soon, one that will be better documented and more accessible to people wanting to engage and participate in his inspirational journey.

His biggest takeaway? "Mankind is better than I ever dreamed," he told WTVR.