FAster than me

And you, and you, and you and....

Not a big fan of backpacking "records" and don't know if he's actually backpacking or doing a long series of supported ultras, but I've gotta say: impressive.

Cheers,

Lame excuse if you ask me, hike to hike not to bring your political views to the forefront. I would be impressed but can't get over the reason.

44 miles a day is unreal...

And what about "Anish," who crossed US2 (Stevens Pass) Saturday night and is expected to reach the Canadian border probably tomorrow? (Or she may already be there!) She has been doing quite a few 50 mile days, although she has slowed a bit on northern Washington's rougher terrain. Unlike the Whole Foods guy, she's doing it without support except the usual trail angel stuff (although a lot of would-be trail angels have managed to miss her, she's so speedy). Portlandhikers.org has a long thread about her on their forum starting here.

I'm not a fan of dashing through such beautiful scenery in such a big hurry, but YMMV, HYOH and all that. As long as they don't try to shove me off the trail to get by, which has happened to me a time or two with trail runners....

That's insane and impressive. It's amazing what humans can do, huh?

I'd heard about Anish, not this guy until now. It does get a little weird insofar as the speed records are generally talked about as "unsupported". I'm sure that what he's doing is impressive in any event.

In terms of being pushed off the trail by people zipping by --- when I hiked the PCT in 2008 I met Scott Williamson and Tatu Joe as they were doing about a 65 day new speed record that year (unsupported). My wife was hiking that stretch of Oregon with me and I also happened to be walking with a well known trail supporter named Halfmile when they caught up to us.

They stopped and must have talked with us for about half an hour. Didn't sit down, didn't bother to take their packs off, just stopped and talked. I was thinking something along the line of "Don't waste your time with us, you're doing a speed record!". But they were so relaxed and obviously having a good time on the trail.

That had a real impact on me, setting a new record yet being relaxed and having fun while doing it.

Latest is that Anish passed Harts Pass about 1:40 pm and expects to finish before midnight.

The supported and unsupported hikes are certainly in separate classes. I hope her record stands until she decides to break it herself. Absolutely inspiring and beyond incredible. Hard to comprehend what an amazing feat she's pulled off.

Some thru hikers are also backpackers, but thru hiking is not backpacking, IMO. Every book you read (well, the majority of them) you see them getting to the point where they are either all about miles, all about food, or all about finishing.... I read a recent freebie from Kindle, Gang of One, and the guy spent way more time meeting his wife in her camper than hiking and talking about the trail and scenery...

Another reason that if I ever do the PCT it will be a long series of section hikes over a number of years, and not a contiguous trip. I'm not a thru hiker.

While of course there's a lot of commonality, not all thru-hikers do their hikes the same way or focus on the same things. I've met people with a couple of hundred miles to go who just hated it but were gutting it out so that they didn't have to say that they quit. Last year on an October trip I met sort of the laggards, and it was a bit odd for me --- they seemed sort of like 'my tribe' but sort of not, too. An eclectic bunch in their own right with various reasons why they were still on trail in October.

Food certainly does become an obsession. It's just "part of it", though, and I don't think that makes it any less 'backpacking'. Doing the miles is just something you have to do, it's background. In fact, I've rarely been on any sort of backpacking trip where folks weren't aware of how much mileage they have to do for their alloted trip time. Thru-hikers just can and do more per day on average. I certainly agree that if it gets to be *just* about the miles, it's not like more typical backpacking.

Rather than say "thru-hiking is not backpacking", I'd suggest instead a broader definition of backpacking that includes many style variants. An overnight trip with kids is quite different than a week-long trip with a group of fit and experienced friends, but both are backpacking. Base-camping and doing a series of day-hikes from the basecamp is different than doing a long loop hike. Etc.

Doing long distance trips has changed my default way (personal style) of backpacking; much of the approach used for longer trips I retain from habit and preference now on short trips. I really do think that "it's all good".

If you ever do the PCT, I suggest a sort of 'third way', what some now call Chunk hiking. More than a section at a time, less than a thru. That way (if you have the time of course), you reap the benefit of getting into shape and up to speed in a way that section hikers don't, yet you're not setting aside months and months at a time. Also, travel logistics are less of a hit on a per-mile-hiked basis.

Section hikers are always dealing with a lot of travel and other logistic issues, and are always "just getting back up to speed" (often both mentally and physically). It's hard to express how great it is to get fully ramped up and strong and then still have a lot of miles yet to walk to be able to really enjoy that.