In honor of his father, Leyden resident Glenn Caffery, 62, has begun his journey of running trails throughout the United States to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s disease.

Caffery’s campaign will support the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, a nonprofit that’s dedicated to funding research to prevent, slow or reverse Alzheimer’s disease, according to the organization’s website. The former Selectboard member first started working with the nonprofit in 2011, when he completed a solo transcontinental fundraising run in honor of his father, who had Alzheimer’s disease and died “very young.”

As part of this most recent journey, Caffery has already completed trails in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, with his next destination being Pennsylvania.

“Pennsylvania is a really rugged state,” he said. “But I’m really looking forward to it.”

Caffery’s plans will then take him to Wisconsin, northern Michigan and Minnesota as he continues to work his way across the northern part of the country. He will then continue back down the mountain states, later traveling to the middle of the U.S. and returning to Massachusetts.

Each trail run is different, he said, with some of them being “really long” while others are “really short.” The main challenge for Caffery is the terrain and particular conditions, rather than the distance. Caffery said he predicts one of the hardest terrains he’ll face will be when he runs the Grand Canyon.

“It’s rim to rim to rim,” Caffery said. “I’ve only done it on days it’s been brutally hot. Sometimes you get a cooler day and maybe I’ll get lucky. But when it’s really, really hot, like pushing 100 degrees, you’re exposed the whole time and there’s a lot of elevation.”

Another trail Caffery is looking to complete is called the Big Bend in Texas, which he said is also “really exposed and super hot,” but with more wilderness and fewer water sources.

While exploring these trails, Caffery is looking for people to run with him. The run can be based on people’s preferences, whether they enjoy conversing during the run or would prefer silence. Most importantly, Caffery said he’s looking for running partners who are intrigued by ultra-running and are motivated.

“Sometimes it’s really nice to just be in the company of someone else, especially when things are hard,” Caffery said. “Sometimes it’s nice to chat and not be in your own head.”

A lot of the time, Caffery said he’s walking the trails considering by the end of his journey he will have completed 50 trails total. Since the trails are usually miles long and take up the entire day, Caffery is doing a combination of running and walking to make it easier on his body.

After each run, Caffery said he rests up and sleeps in his Prius before driving to his next destination.

To raise awareness about Alzheimer’s disease, Caffery has made a point to create Instagram Reels of his trail runs, which can be found at alzrun.org/stories.

“These are generational challenges,” Caffery said, explaining how his father died early in his life and so did his brother and sister. “The nice thing is that research very well could solve the problem before it affects the next generation. ... This generational disease starts decades before it shows up and we need to do something about it for families.”