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What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

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Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#151

Post by solnyshok »

avenoir wrote: post #90

I did El Camino de Santiago 3 years ago weighing at 220 pounds. 600 miles and 35 days later i was 160 pounds and had new perspective on life. As someone who always struggled with extra weight I've been able to keep the weight off ever since. Never felt better physically and mentally. By the way, I've met a lot of folks who started with the Camino as their first thru-hike and went on to do AT and Continental Divide. I…

I did Camino 2.5 years ago (same year? October). Started with 160kg,finished with 132. 24 days. Felt like iron man after I dropped off my backpack at the Santiago airport. I got my weight back eventually. Looking forward to repeating this someday.

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#152

Post by SwellJoe »

dmtroyer wrote: post #82
M_Grey wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment made me think of Bill Bryson's accounts of how people change on the trail in 'A Walk In The Woods'. Good book if anyone is considering a thru-hike, and it's just a fun read anyway.

Agreed but don't waste your time with the film

I'll be the lone dissenting voice with regard to the film. I liked it. It wasn't nearly as funny as the book; it was barely funny, at all, in fact. But, it still contained some of the gentle charm of the book. At the end of it, I said to my girlfriend, "I guess I just really like movies about hiking, even when they're kinda boring." (I also really liked Wild, and liked that book, too...in that case, I think the film held up better against the book, as the book just wasn't in the same league as A Walk In The Woods, so the film had less to live up to).

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#153

Post by xorcist »

deepGem wrote: post #141
justinator wrote: post #2

I've done quite a few very strenuous, multi-week races on bike, including riding the Colorado Trail in 7 days [0], and riding to, then summiting all the Colorado 14ers in 34 [1] - as well as participating in the Tour Divide [2] twice. I would call my fitness before these races as "peak", but I wouldn't call myself anything but near, "onset of over training syndrome" afterwards. The only thing I experienced similar to…

Man, how did you survive on 5 hours of sleep ? I rode my bike for 200 km in 11 hours and post that, slept like a log for 9 hours. I mean, I was knocked out. Couldn't open my eyes despite alarms.

I can't understand it either, I'm absolutely exhausted from _one_ day of biking. But check out things like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Am_Bike_Race and the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcontinental_Race for the really extreme stuff.

There's a great documentary about Transcontinental race from 2015 at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/transcontinental which is well worth watching. Seems to be behind a (cheap) paywall now but it's well worth it as an intro to how it's done.

It's absolutely mesmerizing to watch for regular crazy people (as opposed to the crazy crazy people who partake) and there is some great behind the scenes footage on youtube. These races are great to watch in real time because you can follow every GPS tracker and since each rider chooses their own directions it can get really exciting.

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#154

Post by nrki »

rodionos wrote: post #134

> but on the Colorado Trail, we stuck to nuts, jerky, dried fruit, > and only one carb-heavy meal a day, like a mac-and-cheese dinner. That killed it for me. I would demand a better meal plan while on the trail. After all, one of reasons for Napoleon's victories in Europe was excellent food supplies to its troops, regardless how remote and quick the sorties were. Lots of 'foodtech' innovation happened around that tim…

What else you can eat that is calorie-dense, simple to prepare, and keeps well?

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#155

Post by fasteo »

jon_richards wrote: post #112
Dowwie wrote: post #36

I came across three emaciated, bearded men on the continental divide trail in glacier national park. When I asked one of them where he was from he looked at his buddies and they all replied excitedly, in unison, "Mexico!". It was at that moment that I came to realize that these men were one day away from completing the entire thru-hike. I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag.…

The best foods for backpacking are actually peanut butter, salami (depending on the brand), cheese, and nutella. They all have roughly the same calorie density at about 70% fat. Toblerone actually comes surprisingly close (even compared to other chocolates/candies). Raman noodles or tortillas or something like that are generally used as a carrier for those foods to keep you sane, but they aren't very good from a weig…

That's right and I guess they are all inspired in Pemmican[1], the original energy bar.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#156

Post by victorhooi »

gydfi wrote: post #119
morgante wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag. I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've eaten that on hikes. For my next long hike I'm probably going to ditch my stove completely: it's not so much the weight, but personally the last thing I want to do after a day of hiking is cook.

I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've eaten that while not on a hike. "Sure, I could boil some water. Or I could just sprinkle seasoning on the top and eat it now..."

That's an actual food, you know =):

Mamee noodles:

http://www.mamee.com.au/

They're very popular in Australian schools - basically dried ramen noodles with a special seasoning you sprinkle on, and eat them dry.

(The product originally started in Melaka/Malacca, in Malaysia which is my father's hometown).

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#157

Post by wyclif »

BarkMore wrote: post #95
Dowwie wrote: post #36

I came across three emaciated, bearded men on the continental divide trail in glacier national park. When I asked one of them where he was from he looked at his buddies and they all replied excitedly, in unison, "Mexico!". It was at that moment that I came to realize that these men were one day away from completing the entire thru-hike. I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag.…

When you carry your gear for a thousands of miles, you reevaluate what you really need. A stove is not needed because food can be consumed raw. A full tent is not needed because a basic tarp and careful site selection are enough to keep a person dry while sleeping. Toilet paper is not needed because smooth rocks, leaves and other material found on the trail can be used to wipe.

The reason some experienced hikers (not talking about noobs here) carry small stoves on the AT and other trails is not because they haven't evaluated what they need. It's because "what you need" is about tradeoffs. Sure, you can consume raw food for the entirety of your hike, and some experienced hikers do this, but food aversion is a real thing. Avoiding it is worth the weight for some hikers.

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#158

Post by david-given »

jon_richards wrote: post #112
Dowwie wrote: post #36

I came across three emaciated, bearded men on the continental divide trail in glacier national park. When I asked one of them where he was from he looked at his buddies and they all replied excitedly, in unison, "Mexico!". It was at that moment that I came to realize that these men were one day away from completing the entire thru-hike. I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag.…

The best foods for backpacking are actually peanut butter, salami (depending on the brand), cheese, and nutella. They all have roughly the same calorie density at about 70% fat. Toblerone actually comes surprisingly close (even compared to other chocolates/candies). Raman noodles or tortillas or something like that are generally used as a carrier for those foods to keep you sane, but they aren't very good from a weig…

One of the classic British walking rations (we don't use the word 'hiking') is Kendal Mint Cake:

http://oakden.co.uk/kendal-mint-cake-recipe/

It's a slab of peppermint-flavoured sugar, doused in glucose syrup, covered in chocolate.

It's one of those things that you cannot possibly imagine yourself eating, until you're actually out on the hills after a long day (or several days) and you're cold and you're tired and then you've never eaten anything quite so delicious.

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#159

Post by rimantas »

bootload wrote: post #146
hsitz wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, although I've done many days of more than 18 miles in the mountains, including 50 mile single-day mountain races. (The elite runners complete those in around 6 to 7 hours, over terrain of similar difficulty to Colorado Trail.) I don't mean to downplay their achievement, but the article is about a pair of average thru-hikers, out for a relatively short thru-hike. It is something that the average person can do, if…

"No, although I've done many days of more than 18 miles in the mountains, including 50 mile single-day mountain races." With a pack? I ask because running over this terrain is hard. Hats off hard. But with a pack, things are different. You don't move as fast. Thanks @hsitz for the video. "Most hikers carry only enough food for 3 to 5 days at a time, and resupply along the way" Unsupported. I did't see if the original…

But 2.25 miles per hour is not fast. And you get 16hours to rest.

Re: What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

#160

Post by rimantas »

BadassFractal wrote: post #133
zoul wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking a few weeks in the nature is precisely the point.

Humanity will have to figure something out here. Our bodies are evolved for hunting / gathering, yet over a few thousand years we've evolved to sitting in an office chair all day. Until our bodies have adapted to what, we need to come up with a way to simulate the environment we are actually optimized for.

That environment is still out there.
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