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#179686 - 09/13/13 04:11 PM Thinking about my first long hike
jghawks Offline
newbie

Registered: 09/13/13
Posts: 1
Background
Hello! I'm just a regular 32 year old guy from Iowa. Over the past year I've finally started going to the gym and gotten myself in shape. I spend a lot of my free time walking and enjoy counting the miles, seeing random things I never would have considered and having time to myself. (Back edit: I've just noticed this is going to be a long post.)

My life has changed quite a bit this year (I won't get in to the boring details, just real life things we all have to deal with) have got me taking a closer look at myself and with questions about where I am going. A while back I talked about going to Idaho to visit an uncle and see where my family is from because I've never been, and I've recently started thinking about hiking it. According to Google, it's a 1400 mile drive.

The idea is very new and I haven't done any planning yet. At this point it's just a flurry of ideas and brainstorming in my head. It's also become more about an extended hike than my actual destination. Time on the road and trails is what I really want, and Idaho is the goal if I decide it's practical. I'd like to use this thread as a log of my planning, preparation, and hopefully my travels.

About Me
Like I said, just a normal, divorced 32 year old guy living in a small town in Iowa. By day I'm a computer programmer and evenings and weekends I'm usually working on a project around the house, whether it be remodeling, building something or taking care of my lawn. I grew up here in Iowa and moved back in 2007 after 6 years in the Air Force.

Aside from one summer of weightlifting and one summer of doing a lot of running, I've never been a huge fitness nut and never really had a great diet. I wasn't in terrible shape but I was overweight, had dangerously high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease. Every year I gained weight in the winter and lost it in the summer, but every year I was weighing a couple pounds more. Last November finally presented the perfect circumstances and I started lifting at the gym.

I never really had many clearly defined goals at the gym. Most important was getting leaner and improving my health. But I also wanted to get stronger and bigger. "I want to look good naked." Since then, In almost a year I'm down about 40lbs, my arms are almost 2" bigger, I've doubled my max bench press and I've started to outwork the neighbor who once politely replied to my complaints of being sore while roofing his house with, "Well, you see, your job doesn't really prepare you for this kind of work." Through the winter months I spent about an hour a day on the elliptical machine or treadmill, but never cared much for spending all of that energy and not getting anywhere. When the weather started to cooperate, I started spending my lunch breaks and some of my evenings walking. And I've loved it.

Why Hike to Idaho?
The simple answer is that I want to go to Idaho. Since I talked to my uncle all those months ago about coming to visit, the plan has always been to drive, as opposed to flying, and see all the sites in between. I've always been a fan of survival shows (Survivorman, Man vs Wild) and fiction (Castaway, the teen novel Hatchet). I recently watched Into the Wild. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but I couldn't help but picture myself walking like that. And honestly, I'd have done more extended hikes up to this point if I wasn't always planning around work and my other responsibilities.

My grandpa was a walker. Always walking, probably close to 10 miles a day. No matter where we went he would disappear for hours. About 20 years ago my mom was diagnosed with MS. The family connection never really dawned on me until pretty recently.

I'm agnostic and not overly especially spiritual. I'm healthy both physically and mentally. I don't feel lost and I don't really feel like this is something I need to do. But I want to. I don't suppose many people have a better reason to walk over 1000 miles than "just because." I have a pretty balanced personality but I definitely have some very strong introverted tendencies.

The Plan
Hah! Just kidding. I don't have a plan yet. But I have a handful of ideas and considerations at this point.

- I want to avoid highways and probably prefer trails as much as possible. I don't like hearing cars while I walk, especially constantly.

- I want to travel lightly. I've seen many people do this kinds of hikes with a cart, but I'd really like to avoid that. I'll need to figure out the bare minimum of what I need to carry and figure out a way to make it work.

- The above to points are really kind of at odds with each other -- I'll need to make stops in towns to resupply. I would think at the VERY most I could carry enough food and water to get me by a couple of days.

- I don't like to stay in one place, and I'll only be able to get so much time off work. I need to keep moving. In many of the things I've read, people stay in a town for a day or a week. That's not in my plan. I imagine I'll probably take a day off each week, but that's it.

- The idea is that I'd take a sleeping back and probably a small tent, but I'd like to spend maybe every 4th day or so in a hotel or as a guest somewhere if possible. A shower and laundry every once in a while will be huge, as well as an opportunity to charge my electronics.

- I'm looking to average about 20 miles a day, which compared to what I'm reading is pretty optimistic. I'm thinking I would take a 3 month leave of absense from work, so I'd have to average about 15 miles a day. And I would definitely prefer to have a few days in Idaho and a few days at home before going back to work.

- Speaking of work.. that's the biggest hurdle to all of this happening. Talking them in to it, then figuring out a way to pay my bills for the 2 months I don't have vacation days to cover. I have the money in savings, but between bills and the hike I could blow through a lot of it.

- And finally.. I'd like to do as little training as possible. I want to just go, and the early days of my hike will be training for later. I'm in pretty good hiking shape now, will be better before this hike would happen (realistically, next spring at the earliest). And I can take my time as much as I need. If it turns out I can't keep up the pace I need, maybe I just hike to Denver. Failing to make it to Idaho wouldn't crush my spirit as long as I do what I can.

That's all.. for now!
Obviously I have a lot of research to do. I just wanted to get some ideas down as there is so much going through my head now. Hopefully after some more figurin' I'll decide this is realistic and get down to the real planning.

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#179704 - 09/15/13 01:48 AM Re: Thinking about my first long hike [Re: jghawks]
billstephenson Offline
Moderator

Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
I get the feeling that you're ready to get out and experience what backpacking has to offer, but you're lacking any experience to plan how to do it.

I'll start by saying that if you really feel like you have to walk off and away, plan a shorter trip first. Walk to a town 30 miles away, spend the night there, and walk back. See how that goes for you.

I've driven across Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado a few times. That's a mighty long drive, an incredibly long hike, and it's pretty boring scenery from the Mississippi to the Rockies.

One issue you have is that there is almost no public land there, and what there is offers very little in the way of camping. The distance between campsites could easily span 100 miles or more. I don't know how you'd work around that. You could try to stealth camp, but that can get you into all kinds of crappy situations. Of course, you could consider those "Adventures", but by that definition hazard and peril are part of what you must expect.

I'm not a big fan of the "Into the Wild" story. First off, being hungry sucks big time, so does being tired, thirsty, wet, and cold. Being all of those at once really sucks. I've experienced that first hand while having plenty of time to ponder why I was in that position and what I needed to do to get out of it. The short of it is, I'd been stupid getting there and I had to work hard to get out. The lesson I learned was not to go there again.

It's one thing to take a minimalist approach to backpacking, it's quite another to take next to nothing and just head out. Living off the kindness of strangers is certainly possible along the road, but there are gaps and moral catches in that plan that must be considered. Living off the land is a fallacy and that's what the guy from "Into the Wild" found out.

Personally, I think you'd have more fun, be safer and far more comfortable if you car camped your way there and did some backcountry backpacking along the way. I've done that, and it was a lot of fun.

There is a huge difference between walking down the road and backpacking in the wilderness. I think what you're really after is the backpacking experience. With backpacking you are completely self contained and you're on public land where you're free to roam where you want. You can set up anywhere and you've got everything you need right there. You can experience a freedom, solitude, and peace and closeness to nature that is impossible in our normal environment, or even hoboing around.

If you're not an experienced backpacker or camper then you really need to start there. You don't need to be in great shape to backpack, but you do need to know how to use your gear and what to expect from it and yourself.

There aren't a lot of places to backpack in Iowa, but you can camp out, test your gear, and do some hiking where there is peace and solitude. I've camped and hiked at the Yellow River State Park there and that would be a good spot to get a feel for things.

You'll find a great deal of info and help here on getting started with backpacking. I think if do start with backpacking you'll learn how to find the experience you're looking for. I'd liken it to a 1000 mile short cut to find the really good spots.
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