Rangasamy ‘Sekaran’ Gnanasekaran of Fresno: day hikes up to 62 miles

[Ryan Jordan]

Great story written by Carmen George of the Fresno Bee about a very simple guy that does some epic day hikes. I have a feeling he doesn’t really care about Cuben Fiber or zero drop or … !

(Fresno Bee article here)

[Cayenne Redmonk]

I like his attitude.  Jog up some hills, bouncy step, long miles in the short winter days.

[Ken Thompson]

Wonderful!

[Cayenne Redmonk]

Six miles longer than my longest day.

Anyone not sedentary can do 30, but 60 takes something special.   That’s 24 moving hours at 2.6mph, 20 moving hours at 3+ mph /15 hours at 4+mph/12hrs at 5+mph.   I don’t see any easy path to a 60+ day, YMMV.

[Roger Caffin]

We once defined a DAY walk as one where you get home at an earlier hour of the day than when you left. Which means getting home at 4 am (after leaving at 6 am) can still be a day walk, as opposed to a benighting.

(The gully/chimney we were supposed to go up for an exit had avalanched and the rubble was kinda unstable.)

Cheers

 

[Lori P]

I’ve hiked with him, on shorter trips. He’s just as the article says, except it doesn’t mention his sense of humor. His daughter hikes with him (on shorter trips) and is absolutely lovely. He and his friend (a mutual friend, with whom I’ve hiked more) can easily hike 4-5 mph when they want to – that’s the kind of endurance you build hiking 3-4 days per week.

He isn’t a backpacker, and he doesn’t do the ten essentials, either. Lunch and water and maybe a jacket in an old book bag (Jansport). I expect to see him again — he’s out there a lot. I remember when he was planning that 60 mile hike — I think we were walking up to Pear Lake in Sequoia when he was telling us about it. He did mention the very early pre-dawn start times.

[Cayenne Redmonk]

Hiking 4-5 mph is very impressive,  I don’t think many people at any age can do it.   It’s appears moving fast is pretty much essential to cover ground on a 60 in any reasonable amount of hours.

[David Thomas]

Yeah, hiking at 4-5 mph – that’s fast!  I can do 4.25 mph on a sidewalk but doing even an hour of that reduces the total mileage I can do in a day.  Maybe if I was always pushing myself to faster and faster paces like race walkers do?

I was a lot younger when I last did a 62-mile day hike.  Lake Chabot Regional Park in Castro Valley through Redwood, Roundtop, Huckleberry, Sibley, Tilden to Wildcat Canyon in Richmond and back again in a day.  100 km.  21 hours.  Started and finished with a headlamp around my waist.  Pre-cached cookies and fruit and sandwiches and Kern’s fruit nectars every 15 miles or so.  Miles 40-50 just flew by.  Like my feet weren’t touching the ground.  Only time in my life when I had a “runner’s high”.  50-60 miles OTOH?  Man!  Those were rough.  1/8 million steps that day.  It felt wonderful to just stand in the middle of the road and NOT walk, because half my weight on each foot was so much less painful than my feet striking the ground yet again.  That, and a 19-hour R2R2R in the GCNP taught me, at 24 years old, that I should condition more before a hike.  Last time I “hiked my age”, I was 44 and did a 44-mile day hike.  Time to do that again.  Before I need to go metric.

[Lori P]

Another piece of it that makes it more impressive — Sekaran’s hikes are often drastic in elevation change. We hiked the Copper Creek trail (from Kings Canyon UP and UP – that pass is one of the hardest, from 4,000 to well over 10k in minimal miles)  and met him on the way to Tent Meadow. He was going the other way already while we were trudging ever upward. It was midmorning and he had already gone to Tent Meadow and was on the way back.

The only guy I’ve seen (online – never met him) that beats Sekaran and his fast hiking friends for speed is Leor Pantilat — who is an ultramarathoner and does peak after peak after peak, cross country, in a day. He lives on the central coast and runs a lot in the very rugged Ventana Wilderness, often off trail climbing creek beds and waterfall chutes along the way to the peaks out there. Leor posts pictures on his blog — breathtaking stuff.

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