AT Speed Record Attempt

[Brett Tucker]

"The trail is not going to be any different…"

And that's the rub, ain't it? That's what the idealists among us might rail against. I've done my part for today. Onward.

[Glenn Dixon]

While I truly appreciate speed records in some areas (rock climbing, running, paddling across the ocean, etc.) somehow the trail record seems off. I guess if you've already done the trail before I have less of a problem with it. I just hate seeing anyone rush by nature, whether it is in a car or on a trail, and not be able to fully appreciate it.

To be consistent, I have a problem with those who schedule their hiking so tightly that they go ultralight simply to squeeze in more miles per day. Same lack of appreciation. But then, I enjoy stopping for photos and observing things more than some, and birding. Hard to shoot wildlife if you don't stop now and then.

[Christopher Plesko]

I just rode the Colorado Trail in 5 days and 6 hours (on a rigid singlespeed). It was an awesome experience to cover almost 550 miles that fast. Would I do it again on bike or foot more slowly? Sure. Did I miss some during the dark hours? Sure. Did I still end up with hundreds of pictures and see miles upon miles of beautiful sights? You bet.

There is room for everyone out on the trail. If you're not interested in this guy doing the AT at a record pace, just don't watch. That seems pretty simple to me.

BTW all the thru hikers I met and chatted with on the trail were really psyched by us "racers" doing it so fast and they liked getting to meet us all.

[Tom Clark]

Brett,
Maybe you should first criticize the other 300 million Americans that aren't going to hike a single mile this year before heaping too much criticism on this guy. Besides, who is to say that he doesn't also do more "slow paced" miles than you do?

[Dirk Rabdau]

If the various online hiking/backpacking forums are any indication, the subject of record attempts is a controversial subject for all the reasons already discussed.

I'd like to point out the Scott Williamson, the first person to yo-yo (Mexico-Canada-Mexico) the Pacific Crest Trail, is among the nicest, most humble human beings you ever will meet. He's deeply committed to the PCT and very respectful of the trail experience. He's hiked it more than a half-dozen times. And he's going for a record this year.

During his discussion of his yo-yo attempt, he had a PowerPoint presentation. Chalked full of amazing photos, maybe none made quite the impression as this rather pedestrian photograph of a car camp, replete with camp chairs, Coleman cooler, a roaring fire, and a small, compact television. Scott recounted how the trail had passed by an edge of a lake with a car campground, and how he struck up a conversation with a camping couple. They invited him to sit for a few minutes and Scott would up spending the entire afternoon with them, watching old episodes of "Sanford and Son" on the television. HYOH indeed.

Scott was a very nice guy and seemed genuinely interested in inspiring others to try long-distance hiking, whether it be 20 miles, 200, or 2600.

[Diplomatic Mike]

I can't understand why some folks are getting wound up about this. If the hype and publicity helps him to make enough money to hike/run full-time, then good for him i say.
Here in Scotland a popular trail called The West Highland Way, has a race over it's 95 mile length every June. The winner will finish in around 15 hours. Some hikers take 7 days. So what? As long as each individual is enjoying what they do, and causing no harm to others or the trail.

[Bill Fornshell]

Hi Christopher,

How did you ride your bike through the different Wilderness Areas on the CT?

Did you by-pass them?

Thanks
Bill

[Chad Miller]

Brett wrote:

"Ain't the speed, Ben. It's the shameless, public self-advancement that leaves its lasting mark – not on the individual – but on the trail experience. I can't explain it better 'n that to those who haven't yet gone out and experienced thru-hiking for themselves."

orry Brett, I have done and still do through hikes and I completely disagree with your statement. Just because someone promotes their long distance hike dose not mean they have affected the trial experience.

In all your ‘long distance’ hikes how many people have you told about your experiences? Has your telling of your experiences affected your or anyone else’s hike in any way other than passing on the joy of hiking and possible tips to enhance that enjoyment? If you think that because people know how fast someone else has done a section of trial it will degrade their personal experience then you sir are a shallow, egotistical man.

[Christopher Plesko]

There are mandatory detours for the wilderness Bill. I'll probably make a separate post about the trip but I thought it was somewhat relevant experience to this. You learn just as much going fast as going slow, sometimes it's just different stuff.

[Brett Tucker]

Chad –

1) The airy insinuations against my character is gittin old and ain't in the spirit (or user guidelines) of this forum.

2) If we all would spend more time in stewardship of the trail and the trail experience, in the care and protection of the resource, and in offering freely of ourselves the many lessons the trail can teach, we might find that we have little time left for idle promotion of self as the natural world comes to promote herself through us.

[EndoftheTrail]

Brett:

You seem drawn to a particular philosophy of where humans fit in the world. People venturing into the wilds should "drink in" the beauty and power of Nature — and this requires slowing down and a certain "quieting" of the mind. In contrast, you seem dismayed by what you see as folks who are so into their own quest or self-challenge — that they merely use Nature as a backdrop to attain their rush! Am I hitting it?

If you look at most all Chinese / Eastern nature or scenery paintings — almost always, the mountains are extensive, and people and houses are drawn inconspicuously tiny — a very definite and deliberate show of perspective and proportion between Nature and humans.

In contrast, looking at Western scenery paintings where humans are included — they and their settlements are often drawn much larger — sometimes so dominating that Nature forms a mere background. It is often the "human spirit" that is the main focus.

I think it's perfectly OK to prefer one philosphy over another. However, if I were ever to post that the Eastern philosophy of viewing nature is the correct one — then I too will be inviting attacks for treating something that's inherently subjective as if it were the objective truth (which it isn't). And that's what I am seeing here. Not a single person is questioning your way of hiking — but there is unanimous disagreement to the way you have put down other people's sensibilities.

It's a big world out there. Go and enjoy it in whatever way you prefer. Remember — the instance you feel that your enjoyment or satisfaction is diminished by somebody else's experience — that feeling of inadequacy is just your own ego being bruised. And as I touched on above, when that happens, the problem lies squarely with you — with your ego — and nobody else.

[Blue _]

I look forward to reading the post on your trip, Christopher and I think your observation that one “learn just as much going fast as going slow, sometimes it's just different stuff” is undoubtedly true. In my own case, after many years, sometimes a trick of the light or a scent (or some such thing) will recall sensations and thoughts that came to me when I once did a lot of cross-country running —when I remember those runs, I realize they inspired new insights into both myself and the landscape I was passing through, insights that now seem almost visionary—I would be much poorer without these memories. Likewise, someone who takes a marathon car trip across the continent experiences a very different version of the United States than someone on a leisurely road trip: the most fortunate, perhaps, are those who have seen both versions of the US. As I wrote in an earlier post, I think speed-hikers live in a “different dimension” than someone who loiters, as I do—and I respect the value and validity of their experience. However, I just can’t find much reason to value Karl’s AT attempt at the exaggerated level his promotional material proposes it should be. In the hospital where I work part-time (clerical, not medical) I see people who are probably enduring far greater physical pain, stress and suffering for longer periods than Karl will have to endure in his 47 day campaign to “rule the AT”. In fact, I believe that there are people all around us who deserve more attention and admiration than Karl–people who quietly carry on doing the difficult, performing the near impossible, enduring the barely endurable, because they have to, or because it’s the “right thing,” or maybe for personal reasons that must remain private. I sincerely hope that Karl finds something of significant personal value during his hike—but whatever it might be, well, that will be his private journey. I wish him the best of luck, even though I believe he may be carrying a broken compass.

[Brett Tucker]

My point of view is absolutely subjective, duly acknowledged. Call me a critic and nothing more. But my criticism is based on close observation of the long distance hiking culture I've been deeply immersed in for over a decade – of the society, if you will. By providing and receiving criticism, we attempt to engage on matters of mutual importance to the society to which we belong, to apprise where we've been, where we now are, and where we desire to be. The speed hiking phenomenon is simply one of myriad issues, large and small, that affect the society; it's fundamentally the society's business to voice its opinions about them. Whether this should be ongoing in this particular forum, though, is a matter of some debate.

[Michael Davis]

Randall posted, "… or stopping to camp 4 miles from the trailhead to play with all the latest gadgets you just bought at REI."

Hey! That guy sounds like me! What's wrong with taking my toys when I go out to play? :-) Come to think of it, my toys probably add up to some of you folk's base weight!

Anyway, this whole discussion brings to mind the Mt. Washington Auto Road in New Hampshire. I have both hiked and driven to the top of Mt. Washington. When you drive, they give you a CD or tape to play in your car that tells about the history of the autoroad. It was built in the 1800's long before cars came along, as a carriage trail. But, almost immediately, it drew people from all over the US attempting to break some kind of record on the road, including the fastest to walk backwards to the top!

This to me illustrates something in human nature that just has to create a challenge out of anything. In this fellow Karl's case, it happens to be hiking the AT. Now for me, I am tickled pink to be able to hike to the top of Mt. Washington and not have to go back down in an ambulance. But, if it weren't for those who see breaking records as a challenge that must be faced, we probably wouldn't be watching the Olympics on TV right now!

Even though I'm slow-poke, I enjoy meeting people of all types out on the trail. I recall a solo trail runner once who stopped to ask me directions. It was a cool, wet fall day in New England. I was wearing waterproof shoes, longjohns and a poncho, he was wearing sneakers, running shorts and a tee shirt, covered with mud from the trail. All the while he was talking to me, he was running-in-place. After he left, I had to sit down and rest because he made me tired. :-) But, I enjoyed our talk.

Another time, while I was huffing and puffing up a pile of boulders someone had labeled as a trail, a dozen college age "kids" came bounding down the trail like gazelles. A couple of minutes later, another group of a dozen gazelles came bounding by, asking if I had seen their mates. I answered, "You betcha, they went that-a-way. By the way, where are you from?" They answered that they were the Dartmouth College trail running team. I gotta admit, for a moment there, I was jealous. Could of had something to do with the fact that I had at least 35 years on them.

To tell the truth, I mentally remember my hikes as much by the people I meet on them as much as by the scenery that I encounter. That's true whether they go flying past with a wave and a shout or it's other slow-pokes that I sit down with and brew a cup of tea.

[Blue _]

Michael Wrote: “we probably wouldn't be watching the Olympics on TV right now!”

Ouch . . . I didn’t realize the Olympics had started already. But it gets even worse, a while back my wife and I donated our television to a local library. I feel like a cultural deadbeat sometimes.

Michael, is you avatar a photo from the White Mountains? It looks so much like some of the ledging on the side of Mt. Whiteface that it makes me sick with longing. Obligations have kept my wife and me close to home all summer—usually we are hiking up in the Passaconaway area for a week or so at this time of year. Sigh.

[JASON CUZZETTO]

I to didn't realize the Olympics started Yesterday. We haven't had regular TV or Cable for more than 6 years now.

To throw my two cents in here I think these attempts are going to put more adrenilin junkies out in the back country. In the long run it may be good for the sport as these folks grow older.

This should definately be an olympic event. Heck with the Marathon.

[Elizabeth Rothman]

OK, I started it. But wow, I started it to encourage some good, heartfelt sharing of differing points of view, not to cause hurt feelings, stimulate red-faced defensiveness, or invite invective and personal insults. If my stating my opinion strongly- and I believe I owned it as just my opinion, and acknowledged the superdude's right to hike his own hike, etc- if my Brooklyn-born strength of rhetoric offended, I apologize. Chad, your responses especially seem to to reflect that you have taken this all a bit personally. Relax. I believe you, he and all of us have a right to do what we want as long as it doesn't damage the resource or disturb anyone else. I reserve the right to find some choices personally distasteful, and to discuss the choice and my response in a civil manner with mature fellow hikers (of any age).
I enjoy a spirited exchange and difference of opinion, but not when personal attacks are made. If some readers find statements of differing opinions threatening or offensive, well I don't know what to say. Maybe participating in forums or discussions with who-knows-whom on line isn't a good choice.

I have read some things here I agree with and some I don't, and it's all given me food for thought and led me a bit farther along in figuring out just what my objection is- which I said at the outset I couldn't identify.

While I ponder it, while we ponder it, thanks all for your thoughts and let's play nicely and keep talking.

And whew! When I saw something about cycling through a wilderness area- well, I'm glad somebody asked and that the answer was detours. If THIS discussion caused so much agitation, what would happen if we got into THAT? :-)

[Linsey Budden]

Fast, slow, heavy, light; whatever gets one out. HYOH. What confuses me is if a record is set for a vehicle supported trail run of the trail, is it considered a trail running record or a distance hiking record? To me there certainly is a difference between the two considering the help carrying gear.

[Elizabeth Rothman]

We do not conquer peaks, or trails. They are not at war with us. They just are, they just exist. We only conquer ourselves, and our limitations. Maybe if there was less of that warrior/competitive/ManMustRuleNature energy about this I'd be a teeny bit more comfortable.

[Michael Davis]

Blue,

Good eye! My avatar is in the Whites from a blazing fall 2006. It's actually on little Hedgehog Mountain off the Kancamagus Hwy. about midway between Lincoln and Conway, NH.

Sorry about the deviation from the thread folks.

[René Enguehard]

I find it interesting. Not for me, but still interesting from a purely academic standpoint. On the topic of disrespecting: I find it is a tenuous argument to make that going fast on a trail is disrespectful or in any way wrong. At least he's out there, which is more than can be said of a lot of people. To an extent, he is bringing some publicity to himself, the trail and the sport. How is that bad?

[John S.]

Christopher, what single speed bike did you use? Did you make a gear list?

[Christopher Plesko]

Redline Monocog frame/QBP rigid fork. Parts are a mix, nothing too trick other than NoTubes rims/Schwalbe tires. I have a gearlist but it's not posted. ~5lbs base weight with a stove, GPS, AA camera and SPOT.

[Dave T]

.

[victoria maki]

all i want to know is who is he hurting?? i tend to hike fast just because i walk faster than most people. it is hard for me to slow down. i still enjoy the scenery, just at a different speed and i really enjoy it when i get to camp….different strokes for different folks.

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