I don’t understand the lastest crop of thru-hikers! You all have it wrong, the winner isn’t the one that finished the trail in the quickest amount of time the winner is the one that spends the most time on the trail savoring every day! I spent nearly seven months on the trail finishing in New England in the fall was the highlight of the whole trip I can’ imagine why people would want to finish in July or August.
Globetrotter97
I agree. I was a quick hiker but some out managed to spend 7 months on the trail, finishing in early Nov. All parts of the trail were great. I loved hiking both new trail friends and old trail friends. I loved meeting hikers I had been following in the registers for months. Some of the best nights where in a crowded shelter. I enjoyed my last weeks in Maine. I spend only 2 nights, on the trail, in Maine with others around.
I am very thankful for meeting up with an buddy, Woodpecker in VA. If I hadn’t I would have more then likely finished the trail in 5 months instead of 7. And as a result would have missed the solitute I had in Maine and the perfect landscape view looking back on Bigelow Range with the sunsetting as a snow shower moved in on the Range. Breath taking.
I know about hiking your own hike. I agree. But I would like to see people talking more about the people they meet, the sites they have seen, and the freedom of trail than about miles.
ZipDrive
Let me tell you I got so sick of the milage talk!!! Everytime I decided to stay in a shelter the major talk was on milage. When I left milage was the last thing on my mind. Somewhere along the way after enough “brainwashing” I began to think of the trail in terms of miles. It definately took away from my hike. I found myself pushing even when in pain. I was disappointed in myself if I only did a 13-15 mile day. I had to come home to see the doctor about my foot, but I’m headed back out there on Monday. I had lots of time (too much time!) to re-evaluate what made me what to hike the trail in the first place. Milage wasn’t even on the list!! When I return I hope to have my original enthusiasim and enjoy the hike not count the miles.
~hamockhngr~
Last year all I cared about was mileage. I also got sick of it and it also was the cause of injury that kept me off the trail until now. Will my feet bloat up like roadkill on a hot summer day in NJ? I won’t know until i’m out there, another reason to go slow. I’ve been putting off my hike this year because of the mileage issue, knowing some of the hikers out there and also knowing they are stuck in the mileage game, knowing I’ll miss them by going slow. I do want solitude out there and I do want hiking family out there. Hopefully when I finally leave this saturday I will run into a few who feel like I do and want to saviour the trail northbound for the next two to three months. Town stops alone suck but I refuse to go fast and tempt injury again.
Ryan (simba) Robinson
Last year I finished on August 21st. I had a fairly firm deadline that wasn’t negotiable (leave-of-absence). Tonite I looked at a Bearbag & Sweet Pea’s jounal from last year. The photos from northern New England from September were amazing!! I really want to hike Maine when the leaves are changing color and the days are clear & crisp, and the nights are cold. I agree 100%. If you can take your time, finish in Sept or early Oct.
Little Bear
Yep, I guess I may be one of those speed demon hikers this thread is referring to. Good points all around. But I caution against the mentality of “slower is necessarily superior.”
I can’t agree more with the smell the roses approach go-slow, etc… But did I practice what I preach? Well, some may think 4 months 22 days is fast, and it is compared to 7+ months. And I am happy for those whose schedule allows them that amount of time.
However, some hikers have time and budget constraints that unfortunately encourage them to hike faster, as I noticed with many northbounders on my Long Trail thru-hike this July as well as my 2001 AT hike. I thought I’d be one of them starting with only 6 months till school resumed in August. But then, I finished 1.5 months ahead of that schedule, so deadlines were not the reason i pushed mo’ miles.
So what was the reason? Well one was the great hiking community that was mentioned as a reason to slow down. Believe it or not, I met some great people out on the trail leaving as early as I did. And I grew to like hiking with some of them, so I adjusted my pace to hike with these individuals; and this is one of the main reasons for pace adjustments for many many hikers fast or slow. It just so happened that some of the hikers I wanted to hang with had to hike faster because of deadlines- and so it goes.
But ultimately, I had a choice whether to hike fast or slow. And I freely chose “fast.” So did I sacrifice the enjoyment, freedom, and beauty of it all that pro-go-slowers speak of? To answer that question, we must first reacknowledge the fact that the AT experience is highly personal.
I enjoyed pushing my body from time to time. I personally enjoyed how I felt after a 30 mile day when I took full advantage of day light hours and knew I acheived my goal; and I cherished the nirvana that is the natural phenomena runners call “runners’ highs.” I loved gliding for hours over the rolling country-side without a care in the world as I pushed my physical boundaries, free to choose in the end where I would stop for the night.
I too felt freedom in knowing I was hiking my hike and enjoying it, I enjoyed the luxury of 1.5 month original safety cushion (and in finishing in June, I always knew I had over half the hiking season to get to Katahdin before winter prohibited a 2001 completion). That made me feel a rare freedom in this day and age as there were NEVER any pressing social OR “natural” deadlines.
As for the beauty, I cherished the rare solitude I experienced being ahead of the crowds. I sat for hours in amazement at the profound and refreshing absolute silence of a white winter evening in a southern shelter. Many nights were spent alone, and many were spent in the company of other early-bird hikers who formed a small, tight entourage. The winter and early spring landscapes were a sight to behold!
Of course I’m biased! But let me tell you, brothers and sisters, that I would not want to change ANYTHING about my 2001 AT journey. I enjoyed myself, I had fun, I experienced the wonder of winter, the beauty of spring, the joy of making new friends, the incredible silence and solitude. And oh yeah, as Hungry Howie puts it: “The freedom of walking.” If I can do that hiking “fast” (never “racing” mind you), then my 4 m. 22 d. hike was a great success and maybe we should reconsider being so judgemental of other hiking stylees. After all, ya don’t know fo’ sure until ya walk 2,160 miles in the other person’s shoes.
Sweeper
Hmmmm…well, I just returned from a 2 week hike on the trail from Tiorati Circle to right below the summit of Race Mt. in MA. I am usually a pretty fast hiker and think in terms of “mileage” but this trip I only completed about 120 AT miles in 12 days (2 days were wasted to traveling) in contrast to the 192 miles I did last year from MA to NH in the same amount of time. On my journey this year I went both north and south and met alot of people with different attitudes. I’d have to say that the majority of people I hung out with were laid back and really weren’t concerned about mileage. There was a few who were flying right along and concerned about mileage but…so what! Everybody has there own idea of what is fun and important to them. Last year I was on a sort of person journey testing myself and hence the pushing of mileage. I hiked with pretty much the same people last year, and that also made it easier for me to do high mileage. This year I was totally on my own in terms of where and when I was going from here to there (with very few exceptional days of hiking with others). My rule on this years trip was to have fun and do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I did have alot fun, met quite a few really cool people (some who I didn’t get to see before I went home and wished I had been able to), and did some much needed partying and relaxing and came home envious of those hikers who are still on the trail headed north for Katahdin just whenever they get there.
So with all this rambling on I guess I’m trying to say…whether a hiker completes the trail in 4 months or 7 months or years or never finishes…it’s the journey that’s important to each and every one of us. My idea of a journey is not the same as anyone elses and vice versus. Just have fun everyone…enjoy life on the trail because civilization will always be waiting.
Ellen Lavoie
Being the experienced (exhilerated, tired, hungry, sleepy) AT hikers that we are, Bushwhack and I wouldn’t have changed our starting date or pace for the world. Yeah, we hit snow in the Smokies and, at the time, the 2nd snow in the Roans wasn’t that much fun, we learned a lot and enjoyed the adventure. We started early to avoid the masses and are glad we did. We aren’t big social party types, we avoid crowds, and we were looking for a bit of solitude. The people we did meet and hike with along the way have become good friends. (Not that this wouldn’t have happened otherwise.) I think solitude was the main motivating factor for an early start. Our timing worked out so beautifully that we missed the huge black-fly hatch in June in New England and missed the storms that hovered over VA for weeks. That was pure luck…or divine intervention! We are still on the post-hike high and loving it. Off to bar-b-que number 2…
Bramble
I am planning a 2001 northbound thru-hike of the AT, and I really want to experience autumn in New England. I want to spend around 6 months on the trail. However I don’t want to play catch-up in the latter part of the trail to try to beat winter. How do you take your time on the trail, but at the same time budget your time wisely so that you finish when you want to? I don’t want to get caught up being obsessed with mileage…
Stephen_Vickers
I think Sweeper eloquently pointed out there are reasons people might hike faster. I hope to someday hike the trail, but with young kids at home and a mortgage to pay I don’t know when that will be possible. I have thought about logistics and if I do decide to attempt a thru-hike I know I will have to be ambitious to minimize the time spent away from family.
I understand why individuals might want to take their time hiking, but others who choose to hike differently don’t necessarily experience anything less fufilling.
Icky