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Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

latimes.com

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Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#41

Post by ctrager »

saiya-jin wrote: post #37
revax wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is rather diverse regarding those rights. In France you cannot do wild camping at all, bivouacking is merely tolerated. In some trails, you can only set up camp in designated spot.

... in theory, in some places, maybe. If you go to the mountains actually, you will see tons of folks camping around all the time, nobody has any issue with it. The only exception are proper natural parks, but that's understandable.

"but that's understandable" - Except it's the opposite of the USA. No right to camp on private land, but usually allowed on public land. There are a lot of different types of public land in the USA. Not just National Parks, but also National Forest ("forest", a misnomer, because that can include treeless mountain areas, deserts), BLM land. For most National Forst and BLM land, camp anywhere. For National Parks, some places you have to camp in designated campgrounds, but many huge areas where the rule is camp anywhere.

I'm saying, the management of public land in the USA is DIFFERENT. Even different than Canada.

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#42

Post by ryanlol »

ctrager wrote: post #40
peterbraden wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is far more free than the US for a lot of this, no permits required, right to roam in many countries, and camping is tolerated most places it isn’t a nuisance.

There's where you can WALK and where you can CAMP . I'm talking about where you can CAMP . The only countries in Western Europe where there's a lot of freedom to camp are Scotland, Norway, and Sweden. In the Alps, where there is the most dramatic scenario, in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, there aren't a lot of areas where you can just pick a spot and camp there. You don't need a permit to stay in a hut/refuge,…

> The only countries in Western Europe where there's a lot of freedom to camp are Scotland, Norway, and Sweden.

If Sweden counts as Western Europe, we might as well add Finland to this list too.

Besides a few exceptions (military bases, the border zone, a few protected natural parks) you have an absolute right to camp anywhere as long as you don’t cause more than minor harm to the landowner.

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#43

Post by vanilla_nut »

ryanlol wrote: post #42
ctrager wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's where you can WALK and where you can CAMP . I'm talking about where you can CAMP . The only countries in Western Europe where there's a lot of freedom to camp are Scotland, Norway, and Sweden. In the Alps, where there is the most dramatic scenario, in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, there aren't a lot of areas where you can just pick a spot and camp there. You don't need a permit to stay in a hut/refuge,…

> The only countries in Western Europe where there's a lot of freedom to camp are Scotland, Norway, and Sweden. If Sweden counts as Western Europe, we might as well add Finland to this list too. Besides a few exceptions (military bases, the border zone, a few protected natural parks) you have an absolute right to camp anywhere as long as you don’t cause more than minor harm to the landowner.

Just learned about the Right to Roam in the UK a couple of years back, and planning on putting it to good use during a bike tour next year. Do you know of any resources that do a good job of comparing “right to roam” equivalents throughout Europe and/or the world?

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#44

Post by mbrameld »

randomsearch wrote: post #34
ctrager wrote: post #18

In 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 i…

How did you find doing it at that age? I’d love to do the PCT but can’t see how I’ll manage the time before my 60s

Anecdotally the biggest factor for that, barring any acute health issue, will be your activity level between now and then.

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#45

Post by pythko »

I always love hearing about the logistics of trips like these, and this article leaves me with lots of questions.

On the AT section, they mention starting out with packs that weighed over 20 pounds, which is extremely light for backpacking. That’s probably a few days of food, a change of clothes, 2-3 liters of water, and an ultralight sleeping bag. But then they mention a tent, too! In contrast, I talked with someone who thru-hiked the AT in the winter, and they said that their packs were routinely over 70 pounds, and that they had ditched their tent in favor of staying in the shelters and wrapping their sleeping bags in Tyvek. How were the guys in the article resupplying? Trips into town every few days sounds very time consuming.

The article also casually threw out that they went through 26 pairs of shoes! Are they buying those at retail? Did they get sponsored by someone?

It also says they mailed themselves packages of food to be picked up at post offices, but it wasn’t dehydrated backpacking food: “Almost half of the airtight bags they had stuffed with rice and beans, tortillas and other fare broke, leaving their food covered in mold.” Has anyone else heard of people relying on perishable food to sit in a post office for weeks/months?

Overall, I read this article with a tremendous amount of respect for the physical and mental accomplishment (that’s a lot of miles and those trails are not easy!), envy, and…bewilderment, I guess? Is dropping $25k and taking a year off school to speedrun three of the most iconic trails in the US a good use of time or money? Part of me would have loved the idea when I was that age, but part of me thinks about all the travel, gear, time asked of family, and time asked of myself, and thinks it would not be worth it.

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#46

Post by pythko »

ctrager wrote: post #18

In 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 i…

> or rather, I don't know how they continue to find enough reward in the activity to make up for the deprivation, repetition.

I totally feel you on this. I’ve done a reasonable amount of backpacking, and more and more, I’m not sure if I like backpacking or like looking back and saying I’ve done it. I certainly feel a sense of accomplishment from the treks I’ve done, but in the moment, it often just feels like drudgery, shading into misery when the days get long and the trail gets hard.

The exception is when the natural beauty of the surrounding area is high enough, the whole experience is totally worthwhile. The American west (Tetons, Sierra Nevada) still does it for me, but the AT definitely does not.

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#47

Post by la_fayette »

peterbraden wrote: post #32
ctrager wrote: post #21

There's so much bad policy in the USA that sucks, especially when compared to some European countries, but one thing the USA has done relatively well at is creating lots of public land and the creating these trails. I hiked a section of the PCT starting at a paved road (mile 652 of the trail) and didn't cross another paved road until 290 miles of hiking later. I tear up with gratitude for the vision of the people who…

Europe is far more free than the US for a lot of this, no permits required, right to roam in many countries, and camping is tolerated most places it isn’t a nuisance.

It is possible in Skandinavia, most of Swizzerland and Scottland. Unfortunately nowhere else in the center of europe.

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#48

Post by la_fayette »

saiya-jin wrote: post #36
helmholtz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, hiking in the alps is largely a hut-to-hut sort of affair. It's picture perfect, jaw droppingly so, but it is crowded, tamed and sterile. Goats are about the wildest thing you see.

Only if you do few most touristic places in whole range of alps. Most of it is quiet and you will meet few people a day. But sure if you pick one of the most popular hikes in alps then its surprisingly crowded, especially in the summer. Autumn is far superior time for Alps hiking (colors, temperatures, weather). Also don't get that camping restrictions rant in this thread - you can camp literally everywhere outside o…

You can do it and get away with it, however it is absolutely forbidden in central europe, except Switzerland... biwaking is only allowed in emergency situations. If you are caught you might have to pay high fines...

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#49

Post by ctrager »

randomsearch wrote: post #34
ctrager wrote: post #18

In 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 i…

How did you find doing it at that age? I’d love to do the PCT but can’t see how I’ll manage the time before my 60s

I'm 65, retired. I'm more physically prepared now than when I was younger and busy with work and kids. I have time and money now. I see plenty of other backpackers in their mid 60s, but hardly any backpackers in their 70s. I've been doing a lot of backpacking in recent years because I know my time is running out.

I just got back from 11 days hiking in the Grand Canyon. My left knee hurts, so maybe time is running out...

Re: Hiking America’s three longest trails in less than a year. What could go wrong?

#50

Post by ctrager »

pythko wrote: post #45

I always love hearing about the logistics of trips like these, and this article leaves me with lots of questions. On the AT section, they mention starting out with packs that weighed over 20 pounds, which is extremely light for backpacking. That’s probably a few days of food, a change of clothes, 2-3 liters of water, and an ultralight sleeping bag. But then they mention a tent, too! In contrast, I talked with someone…

My hiking boots were good for about 400 miles. Now I use trail runners and I don't trust them after 200 miles - the souls get too smooth. Their combined 14,000 miles divided by 26 means they were getting 540 miles out of each pair.
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