In 2012, James Cameron became the first person (and first Hollywood director) to solo-pilot the Challenger Deep submarine to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean near Guam. Cameron traveled 6.8 miles undersea in the vertical torpedo sub, then spent hours collecting samples for scientific research. The “Titanic” director’s journey was documented in the 2014 documentary “James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge.”

Adventurer Thor Heyerdahl theorized that the ancient civilizations of South America and Polynesia were capable of contacting one another. Heyerdahl built a raft named Kon-Tiki, made of balsa logs similar to what would’ve been available to the Incas, and set sail from Peru, then crash-landed on a Polynesian island more than three months later. Heyerdahl’s journey is detailed in a book and a documentary, both named “Kon-Tiki.”

By 1956, Jack Kerouac had already written (but had yet to publish) his seminal work “On the Road.” Seeking a break from civilization, Kerouac signed up to work as a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout on Desolation Peak in Washington. After hitchhiking from San Francisco, Kerouac spent 63 days alone in a cabin in the national forest that is now part of North Cascades National Park, which inspired his future works.

In 1894, two Boston businessmen bet $10,000 that a woman could not bicycle her way around the world, so Annie Cohen Kopchovsky took up the challenge. Before starting the journey, she changed her name as part of a sponsorship agreement with the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company. Her successful trip took about 15 months, and in addition to the wager, Londonderry also earned thousands of dollars through subsequent sponsorships and speaking arrangements.

English swimmer Captain Matthew Webb became the first man to successfully swim the English Channel alone in 1875. It took him 21 hours and 45 minutes to travel the 39 miles from Admiralty Pier in Dover, England, to Calais, France. Webb covered himself in porpoise oil to keep warm during his trailblazing journey.

Jon Krakauer wrote the 1996 book “Into the Wild” about Christopher McCandless, a hiker who died during a solo backpacking trip into the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. His body and his journal were found in a Fairbanks city bus that had been turned into a shelter. In 2020, the bus was relocated to a museum, which fans of the book (and 2007 film adaptation) can visit today.

There’s rock climbing, and then there’s free solo rock climbing, which means there are no safety ropes, no safety net, and no room for error. The documentary “Free Solo” details climber Alex Honnold’s 2017 free solo climb to the top of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a 3,200-foot vertical odyssey. In the film, Honnold shares how the challenge is more mental than physical, having spent months planning and choreographing the ascent in harnessed practice climbs.

In February 1962, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth with a solo trip aboard a space capsule called the Friendship 7. The ship orbited Earth three times before returning with a splash-landing near Turks and Caicos. While Glenn was the first American to do so, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person to orbit the Earth in April 1961.

Cheryl Strayed’s memoir “Wild” details the three months she spent hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon, and Washington. Since the book and the 2014 movie, the trail has become more popular, especially among women. In 2012, there were fewer than 200 people who completed the Pacific Crest Trail, while in 2018, 1,600 hikers completed the trek.

On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh completed the world’s first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight. He piloted his single-engine monoplane named “The Spirit of St. Louis” for nearly 34 hours from Roosevelt Field in New York to Le Bourget Field in Paris. Upon landing, Lindbergh was an instant celebrity. After a tour around the U.S., the plane was retired and put on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.