I’m looking for a hiking partner to slackpack using a two car shuttle on my next section in Massachusetts and Vermont starting the first week of September. I’ll be starting at the Housatonic River Bridge by Rt. 7 at Great Barrington and going as far north as possible in a week or two, making about 12-15 miles per day.
If it works out, I’d like to continue further north next summer.
Anyone interested, contact Bill at (281) 996-6879 or wprindiville@aol.com.
Happy Trails, Capt. Bly
Capt. Bly
Can you explain exactly what you mean and your plan? Is the idea that you plant a car at each end of the day’s hike and then find a motel each evening? Seems like a fair amount of driving each day since you have two shuttles per day – one in the morning and one in the evening.
I am very curious about this idea as I love day hiking and covering distance, but I also like hot food, hot water, and a bed at night. Please fill in the picture.
Tom
Tom and anyone else interested,
I found out some time ago that I enjoy hiking/slackpacking much more than I enjoy lugging around my full pack, so whenever I can I slackpack on my section hikes north. (I’ve passed every white blaze from Springer to Great Barrington, MA since the Fall of 2002 and plan to continue moving north to Katahdin.) In my sections, I drive from home and park my car about a week’s hike north of where I resume hiking, then get a shuttle ride back to my start hiking spot. When I reach my car, I move it another week’s worth north, etc, etc.
What I’d like to do in September is find another hiker with a car to move north from Great Barrington. With two cars, we could be self sufficient and not need an outside shuttle driver. We’d park one car at the north end of the day’s hike, then drive back to the south end and start hiking. You are right, there is/can be a fair amount of driving involved depending on the available roads and terrain, but it is a lot easier to drive the cars than to carry the full pack. And a shower and a good meal and a real bed every night is another real attraction. It’s also possible and likely to cover substantially more miles per day than when fully loaded down. There’s also the possibility of the two hikers walking in opposite directions and exchanging car keys when they pass in the middle of the day, which would reduce the amount of driving involved by nearly half.
Interested???
Happy Trails,
Capt. Bly
Capt. Bly
Why not just hire a driver? Pay someone to drop you off in the morning and pick you up in the evening for transport to a motel or nice B&B. You could even have them meet you sometimes during the day with a hot lunch.
bob
Are you thinking about staying in a different motel each night as you move north? Or finding a single motel to call your “basecamp” for a week at a time?
I recommend the latter.
First, it’s a lot of trouble trying to find a well-located and affordable motel each night. Assuming you will be doing 15+ miles/day hiking, that would sometimes put you in places where there are no motels at all.
Second, if you kind of plan your hike about 100 miles at a time, you can probably locate a suitable motel (or maybe a hostel) roughly in the middle of that. Some places give a hefty discount if you stay there an entire week. This also eliminates all the time required to find a new motel each night…which can cut into hiking time.
Third, it’s nice to unpack and repack just once per week instead of every day.
Fourth, some motels don’t mind at all if you cook on a campstove outside your room. A few even have picnic tables, patios, etc. for guests where you might get permission to cook. You can do that some nights to save money.
Skyline
In 1979 or 1980 I ran into a group of hikers that used a bus/van, maybe 2 of them to shuttle and slack. They called themselves “speedhikers”. They were well organized. Perhaps they had sponsors? Anyone know who these folks are? They were attempting to land the speed record. The debate on the trail was if this kind of hiking should count as a real thru hike.
Bob