How sore? - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1

okay, really, just how sore am I going to be doing this hike? and does the body soreness wear off after a few weeks or stick with you the whole way to maine?

holly

#2

Not to bum you out but I was sore every day for 6 months and took almost a year to recover fully. This was partly due to a knee that was bad to start with, having boot problems, hiking to many high mileage days, not taking enough days off…I hiked the C.T. last year and lowered my miles per day to around 11, hiked a lot slower, had custom orthotics, boots that fit right…this helped a lot.

MAX

#3

I don’t think the soreness really ever went away for me. I simply got used to it. I think most people end up tolerating the pain enough to keep walking. Ibuprofen is good sometimes, but I personally wouldn’t use it on a daily basis. Keeping a light pack can help with this considerably, especially for feet, shoulders and back aches.

A-Train

#4

I concur with the others. I felt some sort of pain almost every single day of my hikes. The good news is that they usually move around; blisters, shoulders, chafing, then feet, then back, etc. You kind of get used to it, as strange as it sounds. There is a difference between soreness that is fatigued muscles getting a workout and acute pain that signals serious injury.

Also on the good side, you blank out all the pain once you get to town or home after your hike. Otherwise I can’t explain why I was so shocked on my second hike…" Wow this hurts! Did it fee like this on the AT???" In checking my journals, yes indeed I complained on both trails!

Cross Country
AT '99 PCT '02

Cross Country

#5

Yes, if you don’t have some part of you that is griping every day, then you just haven’t been doing anything. Every day you hurt, but usually you hurt at a different place from where you did the day before. It is a part of the entertainment and helps you to have eloquent descriptions of each day’s hike and the pain therein for your journal.

On the other hand, I do have something truly positive to report. Seldom did I wake up after a night’s sleep (with my feet elevated) with any of the exhaustion or pain with which I tucked myself in the night before. Only occasionally did I use ibuprophen. When I would get a scratch, it would heal immediately. Stress was left many miles behind. Eventually, the only discomfort came from homesickness for my daughters and my dogs. That’s the tough one.

Kinnickinic

Sawnie Robertson

#6

“No pain, No Gain”

“No pain, No rain, No Maine”

Little pains let you know you are alive, so learn to appreciate them. If you don’t have a little ache and pain every day, then you are either dead or on some really good drugs.

Pain is a part of life, so learn to deal with it.

Having said all that, if you are not in tip top hiking shape, you will be really sore for about 3 weeks to a month. The best way to deal with sore muscles is to get up and hike it off. Keep mileage low until you get in good shape. Once you do, you should not feel a great deal of pain unless you over do it or have too many too’s.

Remember the “too’s” will get you if you are not careful and put you off of the trail and possibly do permanent damage to you. The “too’s” are: too heavy, too fast, too many miles, too fast downhill, too soon…

See you out there.:cheers

Maintain

#7

Flame and I did leg and feet massage every night. We had no soreness except my tendenitis in my right foot. But most of that went away at Harpers Ferry. I went to the foot doc there and got a steriod pack. In seven days it was like new. My toes and the balls of my feet were numb for about 3 months. After the feeling came back they were sore for another 3 months. Flame injuried her hip flexor at the Big K and was on crutches for six months. But most of the hikers we met had on a day to day some small problem but not enough to keep them from enjoying the hike. The physical problems we saw were early on with hikers trying to do too many miles in GA. By Dick’s Creek half of them were cripple with bad knees or had bad foot blisters. TAKE IT SLOW until you get through the Smokies. Have a great hike and Hope to see you at Newfound Gap in the Smokies on March 26-28. Happy Trails

Papa Smurf

#8

Other than pain, there is also stiffness. I can remember times in town. We would be eating or drinking, sitting down of course. Time to get up, everybody looks like an invalid, all stiff and bent over, hobbling toward door…“could you get the door for me sweetie…there a nice young lass…”

Chef

#9

i, like cross country, have blocked out the soreness from my memory. it is very tolerable after the harsh break in period mentioned above and all i remember is being a mountain goat unholy hiking machine. but chef reminded me of the famous “hiker shuffle.” after we had been in town a minuite we would be looking sorry and sad limping a stecato shuffle across streets and through grocery stores. saying “why can i walk 20 miles in a day, but cant get across this street without looking like a three legged jackass?” ah… the hiker shuffle. as a good friend of mine said famously: “these are good problems we have”

milo

#10

Let me put it like this, a tooth ache is terible because you know it won’t go away untill treated but on the trails you know that the next morning you’ll wake up fresh and that helps to go through the daily suffering.
You get to know your body and soul and you get to know that you can stretch out your endurance, you can walk with aching muscles.

zammy

#11

“The trick is not minding that it hurts.” – Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia

Ardsgaine

#12

So sore that you’ll cry for your Mommy, then keep on hiking. Why? Because it’s worth it!

Journey

#13

I am not young. For me as long as you don’t go too far or too fast, too early in the hike or carry too much weight you will not get sore at all. Very few people do this, therefore most of them mask the pain with drugs then do more damage and then reap the result.

Blue Jay

#14

I realize that everyone has their own individual experience, so what I have to say is just that- my experience. In 2002 my legs and body throbbed at night when I went to sleep, but that passed after about two weeks.( A large number of hikers out there question the value in training before their hike and from my perspective it is so valuable, even if nothing can prepare you for hiking mountains many hours a day for months.) Now for a controversial question- are the often talked about idea of the difficulty in hiking the AT whether it’s blisters, steep and long climbs, cold or heat, whatever exaggerated, so we can sell our hike to ourselves or others as important, worthy,significant? Doesn’t a life changing event mean much more than talk about how hard it would suggest?

Flash

#15

Well it seems I can’t make a single post without a mistake. The last sentence in my previous post should read. “Doesn’t a life changing event mean much more than talk about how hard it is would suggest?” Since I posted another time I realized how to spell the northern terminus (Katahdin) and the maker of my water filter (Kata dyn), go figure.

Flash

#16

I’m guessing the AT might be different but on the PCT I wasn’t that sore at all. Yes, at the start I had painful blisters but they went away after the first weeks. The only time my muscles were really tired was coming in to Ashland after I hiked a 30 mile day with lots of ups and down, a 20 mile day with a huge climb (Seiad Valley)another 30 mile day and a 26 mile pushing myself to get in to Ashland fast. I guess this was a case of too much but I wasn’t in pain, just stiff. The only pain I got later on was a knot in my back from carrying too much weight when my mom came to hike with me. Still I never used any medication so it couldn’t have been that bad (then again I am Dutch…)
Now for the being tired, that happened a lot when I was trying to keep up with people on long climbs. I guess I agree with Blue Jay, if you pace yourself you should be fine, then again, the AT is a lot harder on the knees (I’ll find out this summer…) Take care!

Apple Pie

#17

I was rarely in any real pain. Shin splints definitely qualified as painful, but after that, I was OK.

Did I have the hiker hobble? Oh yeah. I didn’t meet anyone without it. We’d all stand up and wobble around for a few minutes, working out the kinks, but we could all throw on those packs and put in the miles. It takes only a few minutes for those joints and tendons to stiffen up. This lasted for about 2 months post trail. I miss it. It’s a reminder that you’re a hiker.

The hobble is just a minor inconvenience associated with one of the best experiences you’ll ever have.

Hobble on!

Chipper

#18

hey a fantastic remedy for what ails you is to look at the stars for a half hour to an hour before you nod off with your feet elevated above your heart. rest them on a log or your pack. and if you can, sleeping with your head on a slight downward slope works too, but all the blood rushes to my head and i get all hyped up. anyway, the circulation does wonders, it becomes an addictive and effective practice.

milo

#19

holly, I have gotten into the practice of stretching before going to sleep each night. I have a routine of stretches that I perform, it takes a total of 10-15 minutes. I can do them in my tent or on top of my sleeping bag in a shelter. Nothing beats a good stretch held for 30-40 seconds. The stretch must be held for at least 30 seconds. The stretching takes the latic acid away from the muscle tissue that has built up from the hiking. I stretch all the major muscle groups. I will also stretch my calf muscles several times during the day with a really good over all stretch at the mid-point of the day. I also start each day with a little warm-up activity of moving my arms and legs to get the blood circulating then I stretch out. I also sleep with my feet elevated, this helps the circulation. I know you are thinking that all I do is stretch all day. When I’m out hiking, I usually put in 12-15 miles a day. The stretching helps me tremendously. I’m very seldom ever sore. (exception: hiking up from the NOC) I’m over 50 years old and feel as good as I did when I was a lot younger. Bilko

Bilko

#20

was the worse thing I could have ever done for my body/joints. And here I thought I was doing a healthy thing! – It’s hard to know cuz with the residule Lyme I always seem to hurt, even now when I’m just sittin’ on the couch. Hell, if I’m gonna hurt on the couch I might as well go hike… Coloroado here I come. Hammock Hanger:girl

Hammock Hanger