[pct-l] quick question on my hiking performance

[Scott Williams]

On trail, your daily rhythm really raps itself around the sun.  I found
myself almost always up before dawn, and hiking as the sun rose, and
sometimes was asleep by 6 or 7 pm, when the days got shorter.  Actually
hiking 10, 12, or more hours per day excluding lunch and dinner, makes a 20
mile day very possible day after day, at a 2 mph pace, John. So I think
you'll be easily doing longer days over time.  Several hikers in their 50's
started out at 20 miles per day right off the get, and were off trail within
the week recovering from stress and overuse injuries.  So, try to know what
is really comfortable, and break yourself in slowly.  Partly, my body needed
over a month to really get used to repairing itself every night after the
long days.  The soreness of my feet was considerable at first, and I needed
to prop them up on a stuff sack at night to give them relief.  By Oregon, it
was optional, and they didn't hurt nearly as much as at first.  The body
learns.

Hummingbird, who was ulta Marathoning the trail at distances of 45 to 55
mile per day, caught us all at Callaghan's on Siskiyou Pass.  I left Campo
in mid April and she left in early June, so you can see the speed.  She was
a great gal, in her mid 20's, and I couldn't believe her body could repair
itself so well that she could keep this pace up day after day, week after
week, with almost no zero days.  And she was doing great, both physically
and emotionally.  To celebrate her first 60 mile day, (vertical climb of
aprox 7,000 ft from Saied Valley) which she had run just the day before we
met her, she took a zero in Ashland with us all, and had a ball.  I hadn't
had a zero since South Shore Tahoe, and I'll never forget an evening out
with Hummingbird.  Over the course of 3 or 4 hours we had ice cream, dinner,
more ice cream, then 2nd dinner, and finally more ice cream.  A great night
out!  After the High Sierra, her base pack weight was 6 lbs I think she told
me.  She trained by running up Mt Baden Powell, which is over 9,000 feet,
from sea level, several times a week, at an ultra marathon distance, and
then ran the deserts in June.  Wow, and she was still having fun.

As for starting dates Michael, there are more folks out there who have
started this trail many more times than I, and could answer with more real
life authority.  I think FreeBird started in late March this year, and had
some really hair raising adventures getting off the snow of the San Jacintos
in a breaking storm.  Mid April was fine for me.  It put me toward the front
of the pack, many of whom caught up to me over the summer, and many became
hiking partners as well.  We hitched back to Kick off, and I wouldn't miss
this if this is your first time long distance hiking.  It was very helpful
for me.  If you give yourself 2 to 4 weeks to aclimate to the trail, you'll
still be kicking out the mileage, and with your training, will probably be
going faster and longer than you think.  None of us first timers, even folks
who had done the AT before, realized how fast we would inevitably get, and
most resupply boxes by Northern CA, consistently had a day or two extra food
in them as we were simply making it to our resupply spots so much faster
than we had expected.  The hiker boxes were loaded with great stuff by this
time.  Expensive protein bars, packaged meats, you name it.  Several times
folks, myself included, did not get our boxes on time, and were simply able
to resupply from the hiker box or barrel and from the extra food our friends
had been sent.  I wouldn't count on it, but it saved the day numerous times.


Great starts!

Shroomer






On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 10:21 PM, Michael <michael at leftcoastman.com> wrote:

> Shroomer, I enjoyed your comments.  Sounds like what I'd like to do, though
> I'm just a young sprite of 52!  :)
>
> If I choose to spend 2-4 weeks getting acclimated to the trail, would it be
> wise to start a couple of weeks earlier than the main group?  Maybe even
> March 1?  It might be cooler and more water might be available.  Possibly by
> the time I get to Tehachapi, all the super fit UL hikers will be zipping by
> me, and I can wave.
>
> I'm sure there will be a lot of snow in the some of the mountains (and
> based on getting rain in October, which is rather rare), it might be wetter
> up in the mountains around LA than it usually is.
>
>
> On Oct 26, 2010, at 20:32 :36PDT, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:14:53 -0700
> From: Scott Williams <baidarker at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] quick question on my hiking performance
> To: Mark Hudson <mhudson89521 at att.net>
> Cc: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Message-ID:
>        <AANLkTin6roWRbHu8O9H35DATEEAdseddggfyujM-=_c1 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> For me, the most important thing I did prior to starting last April, was
> not
> my choice of gear, pack weight, or shoes, but was to train hard, and for
> many months before setting foot on the PCT.  I'm just about to turn 58, and
> when the endorphins get rolling, I have a propensity to just keep going
> because it feels good, and then find myself with an overuse injury.  This
> didn't seem to happen when I was younger, but it does now.  I trained at
> between 10 and 20 miles 3 to 4 days per week, with a 4000 foot elevation
> gain.Even so, when I started I still didn't go over 10 to 12 miles per day
> the first week.  The second week I upped it to 15 to 17 or so, and by the
> third week was over 20 miles per day.  This may have been overly cautious,
> but I know how quickly I can kill myself when I'm feeling good on the
> trail.  On full hiking days, except in the High Sierra where the snow
> really
> slowed us down, I ended up doing 23 to 28 miles per day in most of CA.  By
> Oregon we were mostly over 30 and up to nearly 35, as the trail is simply
> much easier.  Everyone I loosely hiked with got into a pattern of hiking
> all
> day, stopping for dinner on the trail, and then hiking an hour, or two in
> the evening before pitching camp.  By WA we were making a bit less as the
> trail is tougher, and the days shorter, but started out at 27 to 30 still.
> Speeds varied by terrain and goal, but were usually in the 2.5 to 3.5
> range.  One afternoon when we realized we could physically make the bus at
> 6pm into Stehekin, which meant a bed at the lodge and a good dinner, we
> trail ran for hours on a mostly downhill trail, and made it with time to
> spare.   We were well over 4mph that afternoon.  So Mark, I think you are
> well on your way to a great hike of the JMT and TRT.
>
> There's still plenty of time for training, and John, I train at sea level
> to
> 4000 ft. which isn't much, but by the time you get into the high country,
> you will have lots of mid elevation hiking and relatively slow ascents,
> over
> a day or two, to get used to real altitude.  It can still be an issue as
> became clear when Turbo and The Kern had to help Half Ounce, off of
> Forester
> Pass when he developed altitude sickness.  He is a very experienced hiker,
> but was airlifted out of the high country near the Kern River in early
> June.
>
> Steel-Eye's mileage estimates are right on, and his comment of hiking
> versus
> camping became a real joke with us by WA.  Whenever we purposely pitched
> camp early, we would all joke that we were finally "backpacking" and not
> "thru hiking."  It simply felt so restful and enjoyable.  We all promised
> ourselves that next summer we were going "camping."  The time factor is
> real, and we didn't want to make it to Manning Park too late, given that
> "the predominant season in the North Cascades is winter," as we were so
> eloquently told by a North Cascade local who was south bounding.  Our last
> 2
> 1/2 weeks in WA were in drizzle, temps in the 50's and 60's during the day.
> Within 2 days of crossing into Canada on Sept 17th, however, the temps had
> dropped into the 20's and our friends who were within a week of us all came
> out in white out, and some in blizzard conditions.  I was glad to have been
> able to push at relatively high miles, and with fewer zeroes than I had
> planned.  I found that I really liked being on the trail, and simply didn't
> need the rest of a zero as often as I had thought.
>
> Good question,  thanks.
>
> Shroomer
>
>
>
>
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