Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
11–20 of 86 posts
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#12Most people fail to realize how incredibly difficult walking even one whole trail could be. These folks did all 3 in 295 days. ~7500 miles (a lot of those with unforgiving terrain esp. C.D one) within a calendar year. That's quite an achievement.
Not gonna lie, I have a warm fuzzy feeling for them topped by a tinge of wonder (+ envy) at this achievement! - jester
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#13I can appreciate their ambition but I can't imagine it being very pleasant to do all three in one year. I would find it far more enjoyable to do them in separate years and take more time.
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#14I did the west highland way in Scotland which was 100 miles in 5 days and my right foot was just a single uniform blister. Good job lads, a serious impressive feat!
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is Bear Bait
It's the person's "trail name": https://www.atmuseum.org/trail-names.html
Yep! I went by my real name "Grant" for a long time because I knew I would have to tell the story of how I got my trail name 1000 times and I wanted it to be a good story. Then one night I told people that's why I was waiting to take a trail name and a woman started calling me "Bear Bait" and there was no story...
Edit:
Couple of my other favorite trail names I heard
- Pissbag -- on his first night on trail "ol' Pissbag" peed in a ziplock bag while on the second floor of a A.T. Shelter[0], and then "bragged" about his "brilliant" idea to not wake people up in the middle of the night the next morning and _instantly_ earned the name "Pissbag". I heard stories about "ol' Pissbag" for the first 700 hundred miles of the trail and I was super excited to meet (what I assumed to be) the degenerate who was _proudly_ going by that name. I was shocked when I finally ran into him and he turned out to be a super put together former SF enterprise software salesman. He ended up getting a pretty serious case of lyme disease and had to take several weeks off from the Trail.
- Ballsack -- A former ballerina who carried a leather bag with two massage balls on her pack. Her favorite was when she would meet 70 year old women from church groups who came out to feed hikers and when they would ask her her trail name and she got to see "the light drain from their eyes" when she proudly said 'ballsack'. The woman who went by "D*ck Nipples" told a similar story about how she enjoyed seeing the reaction of little old ladies when she told them
- Chingona -- A woman who didn't speak Spanish got called "Chingona" by a man who did speak spanish, who told her that it meant "Badass Woman". She was insanely proud of it for 500 miles until someone told her that word had some vulgar connotations in spanish and she switched to "Chin"
- High Five -- When someone would ask his trail name, he'd raise his hand up and say "High Five". It usually took people several minutes before they figured it out...
-- 5 & 6 -- A man who's this was his 5th attempt to finish and a woman who would sneak up "on people's 6". Who got their trail names totally separately and ended up hiking the last 800 miles together. Everyone assumed they were a couple because of the names...
-- Pack Professor -- Former traveling musician who was very serious about gear (especially his pack). When we would start drinking he'd turn into "Party Professor".
-- China -- She'd tell people her name was "China" and people would instantly try to guess how she got that trail name. Then she'd let them know that "China" was her real name and she went by it because it was funny to watch people guess and "her parents already gave her a trail name"
-- Schrodinger -- I asked him if he was called "Schrodinger" was because he was really into physics and he replied "No, it's because I'm like schrodinger's cat but with whether I've ** my pants". Later we started calling him "Tool of war" because we found out he had that phrase tattooed on his genitals and he was honestly kinda a tool
[0] https://appalachiantrail.org/explore/hike-the-a-t/thru-hikin...
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#16Having done just one of the three and suffering through Washington's winter conditions late in October, I'm full of awe when hearing about people who over the course of a Calendar Year Triple Crown had to hop back and forth from one bad weather to another.
In June 2018 I've been lucky to get glimpse of Anish (Heather Anderson) while she was getting her own Calendar Year Triple Crown. Later I read her first book "2600 Miles to Home" where she tells the story of her 2013 Pacific Crest Trail Fastest Known Time (a term that describes record-setting on long trails as well as the name of the website that track those FKT attempts) of the Pacific Crest Trail, which she completed (unsupported) in 60 days and 17 hours. She still holds that record as well as the record that she set for the Calendar Year Triple Crown (251 days and 20 hours). I can only wish I had half her drive.
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#17I can appreciate their ambition but I can't imagine it being very pleasant to do all three in one year. I would find it far more enjoyable to do them in separate years and take more time.
Trail runner here and I wholeheartedly agree. Life is defined by experience, not achievement.
But some people never reach this realization. I live surrounded by very accomplished retirees, and some, on first meeting, give me a rundown of the highlights of their illustrious career.
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#18In 2019 when I was 63 I did a 500 snippet of the Pacific Crest Trail. Because of needing to resupply, my long hike was really a series of 9 trips, each individual trip lasting about 5 days, more or less, like a work week. I started to think of a day hiking as "a day at the office". Already on "Monday", my first day back on trail I would be thinking about "Friday", the day I could get to town and eat restaurant food instead of the food in my pack that I was tired of.
I don't know how these guys and other long distance hikers maintain their motivation, or rather, I don't know how they continue to find enough reward in the activity to make up for the deprivation, repetition.
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#19Incredible. I did the PCT in 2019 and considered quitting multiple times. I can't imagine the mental strength required to push through the AT, CDT and PCT back-to-back.
Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?
#20I can appreciate their ambition but I can't imagine it being very pleasant to do all three in one year. I would find it far more enjoyable to do them in separate years and take more time.
Trail runner here and I wholeheartedly agree. Life is defined by experience, not achievement. But some people never reach this realization. I live surrounded by very accomplished retirees, and some, on first meeting, give me a rundown of the highlights of their illustrious career.
"What is important in life is life, and not the result of life"
But I think this opinion does get thrown around a lot anytime someone pushes an aspect of hiking. Ultralight backpackers, fastpackers, even ultra runners are all familiar with the trite refrain of "just stop and smell the roses!". I mean sure, but I'll bet any money that someone committed enough to do the triple crown in a single year isn't lacking for gratitude, awe, respect or just simple love for nature. Heck, just by being out there for as long as they were, they increase the sheer number of hours of appreciation. Experience isn't orthogonal to achievement. I'd argue it goes hand in hand.