Colin Fletcher, a Welsh man credited with inspiring the backpacking craze, has died, aged 85, reports the Western Mail.
Mr Fletcher was killed by complications resulting from head injuries caused by a 2001 car accident.
His most famous books, The Complete Walker and The Man Who Walked Through Time, are widely credited with having inspired a generation of young Americans to take up backpacking, later sparking a global craze.
Jonathan Dorn, editor-in-chief of Backpacker magazine, told the Western Mail: "He brought this idea that you didn't have to be a nut case to take long solitary walks in the wilderness at a time when a lot of people were really looking for ways to create holistic lives and escape from the craziness of Vietnam and the stresses of the 1960s.
"Certainly, a lot of people think of him as the father of modern-day backpacking."
Mr Fletcher, born in Cardiff on March 14, 1922, once hiked the length of California alone, so as to decide whether to marry a woman with whom he had been living - the expedition inspired his book The Thousand Mile Summer.
Annette McGivney, also of Backpacker Magazine, added: "Colin was sort of the founding father of modern backpacking, the first person to write about going out for an extended period and being self-sufficient."
