08-04-2025
Army veteran's trek across US brings him to the Valley
COLUMBIANA, Ohio (WKBN) — An Army veteran's trek across the country is taking him right through the heart of the Mahoning Valley. With his life at a crossroads, he wasn't sure where to go next.
There's an old saying that says you can't understand a person's life until you walk a mile in their shoes. But Jake Sansing has been through so much and walked so far.
'Everybody is going through something,' Sansing said. 'I ended up going from Tennessee to Delaware to California, to Florida to Alaska, back to Florida and back to California again. I just kept on walking.'Jake was in the Army from 2007-2011, serving two tours of duty in Afghanistan before returning home. He found re-acclimating to civilian life a bit challenging and fell on hard times, ending up homeless. But he picked himself up by his shoestrings and started walking.
'I've ran into a lot of people in general, and veterans included. We're all the same, we're all going through stuff,' he said. 'They can understand where I'm coming from. A lot of veterans get out of the service and have trouble finding jobs or just getting the mentality that civilians have. It's a different world being in the military and being out in the civilian world. Everything doesn't run the same. People are more chaotic. In the military, everything is more structured.'He wrote a book detailing his struggles, but with nowhere to publish it, he did the only thing he knew how to do.
'The reason I continued walking was to get my book out there. I self-published my book. A publisher wouldn't even read it unless it was professionally edited, which would've cost like $10,000 that I didn't have,' Sansing said.
Jake has pounded the pavement, slowly moving from one coast to the other. He's made the trip four times now, walking more than 16,000 miles.
'A lot of people have said that I've inspired them, even though that wasn't my intention,' Sansing said. 'It kind of confused me, honestly, because I didn't feel like an inspiration, I kind of felt like someone who was struggling.'
You may see him pushing his cart with the words 'Jake Walks America,' printed in big block letters. The cart weighs 200 pounds, packed with two gallons of water and 25 pounds of food. It's also equipped with a solar panel so he can charge his devices and has a tent to sleep in.
He slept in the tent strictly for the first few years he was walking.
'Dealing with the weather has been pretty bad, Sansing said. 'I've been through several tornadoes. Blizzards. I've been through all of it. I used to just get in my tent and hope for the best whenever there was bad weather. Or just keep walking through it and just pray that everything worked out.'
He said for the first five or six years, he stayed outside around the clock. Since he started making money from his book, he says he will get a motel if he needs says this trip will be his last. His destination is New York City, and he sees another book down the road in his future. But right now his success is measured by how far he's come.
'Whatever you want to do, stay focused on it,' Sansing said. 'Keep pushing through.'
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