The five travelers looked like vagrants sitting in front of Cumberland Farms in Fairhaven as traffic passed around them on Washington and Main streets on June 25.

They had spent the previous night camped on the lawn at Millicent Library, where they had performed both traditional and original folk music for about 40 people, before waking up and walking for iced coffee.

Before long, the Massachusetts Walking Tour—including founders Raianne Richards and Mark Mandeville, Mark Kilianski, and Amy Alvey—along with Appalachian Mountain Club conservationist and friend Kristen Sykes, hoisted up their 50-pound hiking packs, instruments included, and started towards Route 6.

Now in their seventh year, the Walking Tour hikes each day to a new Massachusetts town to put on a free evening concert. They’ve performed in 90 towns total during their two-week stints each summer, but their goal is to hit all 351, said Richards.

While traveling, Richards and Mandeville—currently Webster residents—were inspired by progressive conversations about community, and wanted to use the arts to build community in smaller areas, unlike Boston or Lowell.

Their first tour in 2010 included Huntington, a town that hadn’t had a concert in 20 years, said Richards. “We started to realize that the little towns needed motivation for community events.”

As the crew crossed Popes Island, Mandeville said both he and Richards were fond hikers. In their second year of the Walking Tour, they had utilized the Midstate Trail—which runs south from the New Hampshire border to the Rhode Island line—to reach towns between Worcester and the Quabbin Reservoir.

“There were such large communities of people around the trail [itself], it made us realize we could do both [performing and hiking],” said Mandeville, mentioning trail maintenance volunteers and hikers. The Massachusetts Walking Tour morphed to showcase trails alongside the arts. “They were appreciative that we were highlighting the trail in a different way,” said Mandeville about the Midstate Trail community.

That tradition shaped their route this year. The group started in Provincetown on June 12 and utilized the Cape Cod Rail Trail to get to Myles Standish State Forest in Carver. From there, the South Coast Bikeway Alliance helped them get to Dartmouth, although the band will be finishing their travels on June 28 in Swansea.

Traversing New Bedford’s Harbor Walk along the hurricane barrier, the group was still relatively quiet. It wasn’t until a quick stop for snacks and a swim that the group livened up. Sykes—whose trail name is “Bubbles”—said she’s normally the perkiest in the morning, something the others teased they could do without, at least before coffee.

The musicians encountered swimmers and kayakers finishing the Buzzards Bay Swim 2016—an event of nearly 250 swimmers advocating for clean water in the Bay. Relating over their respective outdoor activities, the hikers welcomed interested persons to their Dartmouth show with fliers.

Upon reaching Fort Taber, Richards and Mandeville had already revealed that the first hour of their show featured local artists. Upon touring, they’d made an open call for anyone—including both professionals and beginners—interested in performing.

Alvey said that’s one of her favorite parts of the tour. “People get up in their community and let themselves be known,” she said. Singer/songwriters normally comprise the opening act, said Alvey, but they’ve had spoken word performances and puppeteers too.

The five travelers stopped to have their photo taken with World War II reenactor David Clauss before moving on from the fort. “I get to walk to each town and experience it in a way that people who grew up there don’t get to,” said Alvey, who grew up in Orange County, California before moving to Boston to study classical music at Berklee College of Music.

That’s where she met Kilianski—a New Jersey native who goes by “Spanky.” Though neither had any exposure to folk originally, they were moved by the inclusiveness of folk music.

“One of the things that drew me to bluegrass music and that I like about the Walking Tour is the strength in communities,” said Kilianski. “The Walking Tour is all about bringing together community for music and the arts.”

Kilianski and Alvey started touring together before linking up with Richards and Mandeville in 2013. They’ve participated in the Walking Tour every year since. “I’m privileged and lucky to be able to do things I enjoy doing, things that are wholesome and good for your soul,” said Kilianski.

The two agree ticks, rain, and small crowds can be discouraging, and although Alvey—an avid climber—loves “combining music and exercise,” it’s sometimes hard to be high-energy before the show, she said.

“Raianne [Richards] can always talk to people. She always finds the good in people and that can be a hard thing to do when you’ve been walking all day and have to perform,” said Kilianski. “Her vibe is something to strive for.”

Richards—influenced by old-school country musicians like Hank Williams Jr. and Johnny Cash—said she started singing with Mandeville after watching him perform during her high school years. “Now, I’m a glorified groupie,” she said, referring to their engagement. The couple has been playing together for 12 years.

Mandeville started playing music at 15-years-old. Although electric bass was his first instrument, Mandeville—like Richards, Alvey, and Kilianski—plays several instruments, including the guitar, banjo, and harmonica.

He was influenced by artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. “They’re all wordy, serious musicians… non-smilers,” joked Mandeville, although he didn’t even crack a smile while enjoying a stuffed quahog at the Gulf Hill Bucket at Apponagansett Beach.

The group had stopped for lunch and ice cream after watching Alvey reel in a Monkfish on the Padanaram Bridge. John Perez of Brockton just happened to have caught the fish as the band summited the bridge, and happily let Alvey try her hand at fishing.

From there, the band trudged on another two miles to the Dartmouth YMCA, where they’d host their free concert at 6 p.m. They set up their tents, showered, ate, and practiced before opening the show to 30 people with an acoustic folk song. They then introduced the first of the local acts.

While the openers sang from music sheets (including Dartmouth native Nan Starr), strummed originals, and performed ‘90s covers, the Massachusetts Walking Tour serenaded the crowd with traditional songs with themes of walking, traveling, and community.

“They’re songs by songwriters we admire. We do very few originals,” said Kilianski. “The Walking Tour is not about us so we try not to have the focus on us,” he said, although he credited the philosophy to Mandeville.

“It’s an experience to see people inspired by their music,” said Sykes, who has traveled with the group for three years after meeting them along the Bay Circuit Trail. The tour makes almost no money. They’re funded by state and town cultural councils, including the Dartmouth Cultural Council, and perform for free. Sykes helps the band by supplying gear through the AMC. Dartmouth was her last stop, but she left the band with encouraging words: “You guys are awesome musicians and you could bring your talents anywhere, but you don’t.”

The band sells cds at each performance, but often it’s local kindness they appreciate over sales.

“The more people you meet, the more opportunities arise where people can show you their kindness,” said Alvey. “You get to see the good side of humanity.” Each member had a moment they appreciated along their journey, including a woman who took all their dirty laundry and returned it clean earlier in the week.

These returns are an exchange for the good the band is doing, said Ruth Hibbard. Hibbard met the Walking Tour two years ago, and has followed them since.

“The four of them together are just so tight and their harmonies are incredible,” she said. Hibbard and her husband John travelled from Framingham to watch the performance, and brought the band coffee in the morning.

Richards, Mandeville, Kilianski, and Alvey camped out on the YMCA lawn, and—despite being woken by sprinklers around 1 a.m.—left for the New Bedford Art Museum by 8:30 on Sunday morning.

Following the Massachusetts Walking Tour, the four will make a special performance in North Andover for the Trustees of Reservations. Kilianski and Alvey will take a week off before touring again, and by September, Kilianski will be stopping in Arkansas to build a banjo. “You have to hustle. You have to work hard,” he said.

“It never stops. We’ve all been booking gigs from our tents since we’ve been gone,” said Richards, who will “gig regionally” until October with Mandeville.