FARMINGTON — Doug Dunlap of Farmington has had a wide range of hiking experiences across the United States, but his recent hike of the 221-mile John Muir Trail in California was in a class by itself, he said.

Asked what was the most enjoyable aspect of trekking through the Sierra Nevada mountains, Dunlap reflected for a moment.

“That’s a hard question, because there were so many of them,” he said. “Muir called them the mountains of light. I loved how the sunrise at the start of the day and the alpenglow at the end of the day played on the mountains, lakes and meadows.”

Not only was the hike an intense personal endeavor, Dunlap used it to call attention to a proposed tenth of a mile walking path around the Mallett School in Farmington. He said the path was in the original construction plans for the school but had been shelved because of lack of funds.

“I thought it would be an excellent opportunity for children and decided to use my hike to draw attention to it,” Dunlap said.

A fundraising campaign is underway to match his 221 miles with donations of one penny per mile and more. A matching donation has been offered for the first $221 raised.

Dunlap said the path, when completed, will be used by schoolchildren and the community.

His hike began taking shape two years ago. To get a permit to hike from the trail’s northern end in Yosemite National Park south toward Mount Whitney, applications have to be sent in at least five months in advance specifying the day and the trailhead the thru-hike will begin.

Hundreds of people apply for each day of the hiking season. Permits are drawn at random and a maximum of 20 thru-hikers designated for each day.

Dunlap maximized his chances of getting a permit by hiking in late August and early September this year. Not only did he have to navigate the permit process, he had to start training for the trail about a year ago.

“I’m active doing something every day,” he said. “I added to that a regimen of using various weights and resistance machines to strengthen my legs.”

Dunlap’s other trail preparations included purchasing appropriate clothing for the trip to deal with temperatures ranging from the 80s to the 20s; organizing food resupplies with his wife, Mary; and purchasing guidebooks and reading accounts of those who had hiked the trail.

He left Maine on Aug. 21 and spent his first five days doing day hikes and adjusting to the altitude before starting the thru-hike on Aug. 26. Dunlap quickly discovered that trail conditions in the West are different than New England.

“For the most part, the trail is an extraordinary achievement in trail building,” he said. “A major difference between the trails in the West and the East is the Pacific Crest Trail and John Muir Trail are groomed for pack stock.”

The two trails coincide for part of the journey. Dunlap said he saw a number of mule trains that were resupplying National Park Service trail crews.

Another difference between trails in the West and Northeast is that in the West, trails go to the tops of passes, not mountain peaks, because most of the mountains require technical mountaineering equipment and experience.

However, some of the trails to the passes are more than challenging enough for backpackers. At Glen Pass, a knife edge even narrower than Mount Katahdin’s famed Knife Edge Trail, Dunlap had to hunker down and move slowly as he was buffeted by gale-force winds.

Forester Pass was carved out of a cliff. A narrow pathway winds along the rock wall, with a 500-foot drop-off on the other side.

“It’s wide enough for a person to walk with a backpack but you certainly want to concentrate on what you’re doing,” Dunlap said.

Another difference was that western trails reach much higher elevations than eastern trails and there are often large elevation gains and losses during the course of a hike, Dunlap said.

He found ample water sources.

“It may surprise a reader that there were generally ample supplies of water,” he said.

This was because of winter snowmelt. In a normal winter, the region gets enough snow so that runoff fills high alpine creeks and rivers even into early fall.

Dunlap said the weather was good, with mostly sunny conditions during his journey. The fine weather gave him a chance to marvel at the flora and fauna of the High Sierra.

“I was quite taken by the trees, particularly the lodge pole pine and the California juniper,” he said.

The trees were 4 to 5 feet in diameter even at elevations of 10,000 feet.

Dunlap saw many mule deer along the trail. One of his most memorable experiences of the trip was coming across a doe nursing her fawn. Dunlap stood still and made no sound, and was able to watch the interaction between the two.

“This is really extraordinary,” he said. “I’ve been walking around in the woods since I was a child and seen many wild animals but I’ve never been in a situation where you could see a deer in their natural activity be undeterred by human presence.”

Dunlap said he saw lots of marmots, a large rodent native to the western U.S., and a variety of chipmunks and squirrels. He also witnessed mergansers, green-winged teal and a gadwall.

The trail also gave him a chance to meet people from every continent except Antarctica.

“Long-distance hikers function as a community,” he said. “Thru-hikers almost always stop to greet one another and exchange information about trail conditions.”

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