BEND, Ore. _ At the very edge of the Oregon Badlands Wilderness Area here, at the intersection of an irrigation canal and a trailhead, there’s not much in sight but sagebrush and juniper trees _ few clues that this is the beginning of an 800-mile journey through the high desert.

A 33-year-old hiker has just become the first person to hike all 800 miles of the newly-christened Oregon Desert Trail, which runs from Bend to the Owyhee Canyonlands and out to the Idaho border.

The entire trail is on public lands, some suitable for beginners, other parts for more experienced hikers, who will need to trek cross country by following GPS points. It wends through the dry-cracked earth of the Alvord Desert, high above the aspen stands that line Steens Mountain and descend into the Owyhee Canyonlands, where the rock walls tower 15 hundred feet above your head.

The idea for the trail first came to Brent Fenty, the executive director of the Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association, three years ago during a long, sleepless night.

“I was In bed and the light was off and I started thinking about trips that I wanted to do, hikes that I wanted to do in Oregon’s High Desert that summer,” Fenty said. “And then that lead to a thought process of, well, how could you get from for instance Hart Mountain over to Steen’s Mountain without having to get in the car and trek yourself over.”

In the years that followed, Fenty worked with ONDA mapmakers and volunteers to create a route that goes through as many proposed or existing wilderness areas as possible while at the same time avoiding conflicts with environmental and cultural resources.

Sage Clegg volunteered to become the first person to hike the entirety of this trail. In her day job, Clegg studies desert tortoises as a wildlife biologist. But as a long-distance hiker, she’s known for her speed.

“Some people love curling up with a good book,” Clegg said. “I just really like looking at maps. I read them like they’re a book. I look at them and try to get a sense of what it might be like to travel out there.”

Clegg said water will be the biggest challenge for anyone hiking the trail. The first 200 miles of the Oregon Desert Trail are incredibly dry. During certain stretches Clegg carried up to 10 pounds of water on her back.

But that part of the trail is also accessible by old roads, so Clegg was able to position her water caches in advance. Further down the trail, water becomes more accessible, at least that’s what the map says. Part of Clegg’s job during her pilot hike was to double check to make sure those water sources were actually there.

ONDA plans to submit a final report to land management agencies recommending the trail be included on official maps.

Brent Fenty says he thinks recognition of the trail would lead more people to discover what he calls the “treasures of the high desert.”

“I think a lot of people do identify Oregon as a forest state and the reality is over half the state is desert,” Fenty said. “You know, once you’ve spent time in an area, a map is no longer two-dimensional. It starts to evoke images of places you’ve been and seen and experiences you’ve had.”

Clegg says she feels privileged to be the first to hike the trail. She envisions some hikers might tackle the Oregon Desert Trail one section at a time, since it takes about a month to complete in full. No superhuman powers are necessary, she added _ you just need to be fortunate enough to be able to walk.

“It’s amazing where my feet can take me. It’s just so amazing,” Clegg said. “Every day I get done at the end of a day, especially on these desert hikes, and I can look back and I can usually see the mountain range off in the distance that I started at. And it’s just this amazing sense of satisfaction. “

ONDA plans to make the map of the trail available on its website by the end of the year.

This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.