The recent posts about the fastest hikes have prompted me to ask about who is the slowest hiker ever to complete the AT? I don’t mean some one who started when they were 10 and finished when they were 80.
Counting only days when some new miles were hiked on the trail, and excluding all zero days, who took the longest number of days to complete the entire AT?
Anyone know?
Slow Walker
In 2005 a great guy named Eaglefoot started at Springer on or around February 19th. He wasn’t in a rush to finish, but only took (if memory serves) nine zeroes. He finished at Katahdin on October 15. Throw out the zeroes, and he spent a happy seven and a half months.
I was with him on his longest day: a 16-miler in Maine.
Mr. Fusion
to quote an old tortoise…(ahhh! you know the quote!)…this subject fascinates me!..paw-ee has always promoted this proposition of “slower being better”…“what if”, he asks, “there were a game or a race where whoever finished LAST was the WINNER?”…(i like that!)…i know everybody’s got to hike their own hike, but i’ve often dreamt of hiking from january thru to december…i’m sure there’s probably a “yo-yo” hike or two out there that accomplished just that…the AT is such a special place/experience that i keep wonderin’ why any of us would ever want to hurry up and finish!..(a goal of our 2nd hike was to take our time a little bit and try to just be more “aware”)…anyway…to answer your question, Slow, ‘red dane’ was on the trail last year from january 7th to aug 22, with a philosophy, as i recall, to go slow and enjoy…we enjoyed following along and reading her register entries (“in life, it’s not the number of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away!”…amen!)…oh…by the way, i did hear of one lady who hiked the whole trail doing only DAY hikes…(never slept out there on the trail!)…it took her 11 years to finish!..
maw-ee
In 2000, there were two guys that were on the trail, going south for almost a year… Panama Red and his dog Elvis was one of them (or two if you include dogs)… I think the other was Oddball or something like that. In reality, it would be hard to say who is the slowest because I knew a lot of folks who purposely left sections of the AT undone to, in their eyes, never quite have finished the AT… to still be on trail… And does your heart wanting to be out there also count? Because if so, I would venture to guess that 95% of hikers would fall in that category. I would give almost anything to hike north again… Like most hikers I know, we all feel the pains of Spring every year when our anniversary date nears.
Aswah
aswah
Not sure what the slowest Thru-Hike is, but it did take one section hiker 44 years to complete the trail.
Bilko
I met a SOBO in April 02, two days after I started from Springer, who had been on the trail 10 months from the year before. He said he took some time off, but supposedly nothing significant. I never got his name.
Didn’t Stumpknocker purposely come up with a 365 day thru-hike on his next to last one? Or close to it.
Bluebearee
I’d be curious about slowest PCT thru. The weather conditions would have to make it much more difficult to be out there 8 months or so, but SOMEone must have done it.
markv
Minnesota Smith and Wyoming Skateboarder come to my mind when I think slow thru hike…
tribes
Minnesota Smith and Wyoming Skateboarder come to my mind when I think slow thru hike…
tribes
oh yeah…i forgot about roni…we were just gettin’ started in '03 and met roni (sobo) up on snowbird mtn.(he asked us to take his picture there!)…i’m not sure, but i think he’d been out 9 months?..is that right mr. roni?
maw-ee
Well,
Maybe i’m not "THE "slowest but according to thawookie i am “notoriously slow…”.I started my A.T.01 thru hike on march 4th ,01 and ended november 11th ,01.The last month out was really a trip,It felt like a whole seperate hike.I could feel the energetic shift on the trail.I encourage everyone
to try it. Basil “01”
P.S. The only draw back was never catching up to ASWAH .
basil
aswah was sorta right about that “oddball” except his name is really stewball. my longterm beau. he started the trail june 1999 and finished when 2000 nobos were just launching the following march. all in all 9 months. but if you want to truly gape your mouth open…our dear friend crash test dummy started the international appalachian trail in quebec,canada in june 2003 and finished in key west,florida in february of 2005…all in one continuous stretch!
tofurky