CLOSE-UP : Walkin’ U.S.A.

The toughest part wasn’t braving the coldest day of the century, having his pack stolen, running out of money or even suffering the foot ailment that stopped him in his tracks for four years. The toughest part of Larry Amkraut’s first marathon walk across America was telling his family he was going to do it.

They wondered why a nice Jewish boy from the suburbs of San Francisco wanted to leave San Jose State University in his sophomore year to walk more than 3,000 miles. “It was always a dream of mine to get to know my own country,” Amkraut says. “The best way to do it was on foot.”

Starting in Maine in 1975, he headed south. After a few months, he was hit by a nasty foot rash that forced him back to Maine for a four-year recuperation. Then he began his odyssey again, refueling his body in Amish kitchens, trading tales with Montana cattle ranchers and walking, wintering and working odd jobs all the way across America, reaching San Francisco in 1983.

“The best part was hearing people’s stories,” he says, and meeting “good family folks” who sheltered him, fed him “Bunyanesque” meals, blessed his walks and refilled his 50-pound-plus pack.

The experience was so fulfilling that he took off again five years later, walking from the Mexican border, up the Continental Divide, meeting moose and grizzlies through Canada’s Yukon Territory and wrapping up his northern exposure in the Arctic Circle in 1991.

Amkraut, now 40, is planning to walk across China in 1994--if successful, he’ll be the first person to do it, the Chinese Consulate says. But he’s tired of poverty hikes and is looking for sponsors who might want some publicity. In the meantime, he lives in Glendale with his brother, leading hikes and teaching outdoorsmanship privately.

Staying motivated, he says, is no problem. “I think of getting old behind a desk. That’s all the incentive I need.”