A man who's traveled the continent by unicycle and kayak since 2013 made a pit stop in Port Townsend Feb. 3 before embarking on the next leg of his journey.

Cary Gray, 27, is on his way to the “End of the World,” otherwise known as Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America.

He plans to cycle around the Olympic Peninsula, down the West Coast to Los Angeles, then east through Death Valley and on to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. There, he'll kayak through to the Gulf of Mexico, then around Florida, through the Caribbean islands and into Venezuela, where he'll once again hop on his unicycle.

Along the way, Gray plans to stop and share his story with elementary school students in hopes of empowering them to pursue healthy, sustainable and adventurous lives.

Gray – who in 2015 said he spoke at about a dozen schools in Idaho, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska – said he had hoped to bring his “Get Out There” program to students at Grant Street Elementary, but school officials told him there simply wasn't space in the schedule.

Instead, Gray stopped at the Leader during his afternoon in Port Townsend. Gray, who hails from St. Louis, Missouri, said he got the idea to head west in early 2012.

“I thought, 'What's the most challenging way I can get to South America?’” said Gray, who settled on unicycling since that's been his preferred mode of transportation since age 10. “It sure was challenging.”

After graduating from college, Gray set out from Baltimore, Maryland, in July 2013. He had always wanted to visit South America, learn Spanish and experience the culture. He crossed the U.S. and headed south to Panama, where, in April 2014, after having traveled some 12,000 miles, he unofficially broke the world record for the longest unicycle trip.

After kayaking to Colombia, he said his passport was stolen in May 2014, prompting him to fly home via plane. Back in the states, he began writing his yet-to-be-published book, titled “The Naked Unicyclist.”

By September 2014, he was back on the road, heading for the Pacific Northwest and speaking at schools along the way. He's spent much of the past year in Seattle and on Whidbey Island, working on his book, doing various jobs and speaking at schools, encouraging children to get out, get active and eat healthy.

So far, he's traveled more than 15,000 miles by unicycle, not counting his kayaking. When he reaches the “End of the World” in 2017, he will have traveled the same distance as the circumference of the earth, he said.

In the spirit of his mission to empower children to challenge themselves and try new things, he’s also been working on an illustrated children's book featuring Luno, a boy traveling to South America by unicycle. The twist: Gray illustrates his book with his feet, grasping a pencil in one foot and a paintbrush in the other.

Gray said he plans to run an online Kickstarter fundraising campaign from March 15 to April 15 to pay the cost of publishing his children's book, which would be titled “Luno!”

To learn more about Gray's journey and his book projects, visit caryoutthere.wordpress.com, or find him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.