For '06ers - sierras thru manning

imported
#1

hey '06ers i am thinnking about

KM - tuolumne meadows 17mi/d
tuolumn meadows - ashland 19mi/d
ashland - manning park 21mi/d

sound reasonable?

thanks

cheeserTOM

#2

sure but it will all change…you will want to do more, less, none and all over again, but sure, plan, but know that it will probably change.

She-ra

#3

But after reading or scanning MANY trail journals from different years, it seems that many/most hikers put in their highest mileage in Northern California. So your numbers, if you’re following what seems to be the trend, might be more like 15 in the Sierra, 22 for NoCal and Oregon, and back down to 17 or so in Washington. Might.

markv

#4

thanks she-ra and good points mark. i would add however that yogi s book suggests a drop to 17-18mi/d in the sierras if a hiker is doing in the 20’s mi/d before the sierras.

cheeserTOM

#5

Sierra - 12 days for the 175 + 17 miles to VVR (includes the Whitney side trip). 16 miles a day average. That was one pass a day. With less snow, doubling up on passes (and hence a higher average) would be quite doable. Lots of folks this year did it in 10 days. I’m a little on the slow side.

I picked up the pace in Nor Cal somewhat - lower to mid 20’s was pretty reasonable.

I hit my peak in Oregon. Doing mid to upper 20’s day in day out was pretty easy with the flat terrain.

In Washington, I slowed down to stay with the group I was with, plus the terrain is more difficult than Oregon. In addition, I didn’t want the hike to be over, so that played into it as well.

Something to consider - when I look at the spreadsheet I did plotting my mileage and the trailing 7 and 14 day totals, I realized that what held back my mileage wasn’t so much doing lower mile days (say low 20’s vs mid 20’s) or even zero days, but the nero’s into and out of town were killing my progress. I’d do 8 or 10 into town, 8 or 10 out of town - no zero, but I only knocked out 16 to 20 miles in two days. Toss a zero in there and…well, you get the idea.

Also to consider - instead of looking at miles per day, consider looking at miles per week. This will take into consideration zero’s and town stops. I was out for 23 weeks. At 2665 miles, that works out to 116 miles a week. Figure a zero a week, that’s 19.3 miles per hiking day, average.

Token Civilian

#6

The snow, high altitude and sheer beauty of the Sierra’s will definitely lower your daily mileage. Plan to take your time in the Sierra’s, whatever that means for you, and turn up the heat in NorCal and Oregon where the trail gets easier. It starts getting hard again in WA, but man is it beautiful.

I’d say take your time as much as you can while still getting done by early october. A bunch of people last year took too long and got slammed by winter and had to quit spitting distance from the border.

Snail