Just found out last week at the Molly Day Gathering that a West
Coast letterboxer named Ryan is just starting out on his first
attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, and another one named
Patrick is currently heading out on the Pacific Crest Trail! Hurray
for them! As a veteran multiple-time "thru-hiker" of both those
trails (5 AT's/3 PCT's/CDT, plus many others!) and one of that
still relatively rare breed of "Radical Repeaters" featured in an
article by that name in Backpacker magazine about a dozen or
so years ago, I thought I'd write a few words about long-distance
backpacking, just in case a few folks might have some
misconceptions!

I actually did get asked by a couple of people at "Molly Day" if
Ryan could possibly get to CT in time for the May 17th "Gerbil
Gathering"! Just kind of smiled and shook my head, but - truth
be told - the only way Ryan could reach CT in one month would
be if he were backpacking an unheard-of average 50+ miles a
day or doing an AWFUL lot of "yellow-blazing"!! (i.e. hitchhiking
into towns and then getting rides to spots up the trail -
something generally frowned upon by white-blaze "hiking
purists"!) If he stays on the trail and is an average hiker (15-20
miles per day), he will probably be just about crossing over into
southern VA at Damascus around that time! Even to get to the
very first town that is right on the trail (Wesser,NC at 140 miles)
always took me about a week, since I was a "purist" and never
hitchhiked off-trail for supplies or amenities, and about 3 to 4
weeks to get to Damascus! (On my third time through, I did
manage to backpack all the way to Damascus in less than 3
weeks, but that was averaging over 25 miles a day, and not
many hikers can keep up that kind of pace over that type of
terrain and in all kinds of weather!) Doing "big-mile days" on the
PCT is slightly easier because the trail out there was built with
more gradual grades, but then you have other things to contend
with - long distances between water and resupply, extremes in
weather and elevation ,etc.- but,of course, the Continental Divide
Trail is still by far the longest and hardest of all, with almost 1000
trail miles yet to be built so that hikers won't have to
cross-country "bushwhack" the way we had to in the past! (Pete
and I still try to go out as volunteers now to help build a few new
miles of CDT each summer!)

Anyway, Westerners are frequently surprised by just how rugged
our eastern mountain trails can be, considering the relatively low
elevations. Even some unprepared Easterners, using the AT as
their intro-level long-distance backpacking experience,
underestimate the difficulty of the trail. At least nowadays, with
increased info, better equipment, and many more support
services, most hikers who reach Damascus (or Wrightwood on
the PCT) find that they are then able to successfully complete the
rest of their hikes, so we'll just have to hope that both Ryan and
Patrick's first few weeks on the trail go well for them! Of course,
their experience on the trail is apt to be quite different from what
mine were like in the 80's. Back then, it seemed like most of us
hikers were focused on "getting away from civilization",
communing with nature, and enjoying the hiking itself, only using
trail towns for quick resupply to head back into the woods!
Nowadays the focus seems to have shifted-(just as to me it
seems to have done in letterboxing
from the "quality of the hike" to the "quality of the stamp"!) to
viewing the trail as a mere inconvenience to be gotten through
on the way to getting into town for fast food, showers, and
computer access!!! (Last year, in fact, while completing my 5th
AT, I was rather shocked to see cars lined up at formerly fairly
remote Maine trail crossings, just waiting to take a steady
stream of well-heeled "thru-hikers" to "B&B's" -good for local
business, no doubt, but not something my generation of
backpackers would have taken to, even if it had been available!)
Ahhh... "the times they are a changin'", but we do wish this
season's new crop of "first-timers" a wonderful adventure, and
we'll certainly be interested to see what kind "mileage" they get
out of their experiences in one way or another! (Even if Ryan
were to, say, pull a "Bill Bryson" on us - i.e. hike less than half of
the trail and then write a funny book about it! - at least we should
all be able to get some good stories and perhaps a few belly
laughs out of it!) So, best of luck, you guys, and hope many more
adventures await you on the trails!

Wanda
(whose trail name once was "The Breeze" and who backpacked
over 20,00 miles of big trails, mostly in the 1980s!)