Wanderlust, we've discussed how we can do the whole JMT ourselves, and it seems like something we could actually do. Congrats on your hike.
Have you seen the movie "Mile, Mile and a Half"? So good!
But we want to do smaller hikes first.
I know some people just do the big ones, but we need to prepare. We have to hike OUR hike.
Wife and I hiked JMT in 2019. Transformative. We think about it every day. Truly miss the singular focus on life.
Ggmm, I believe it was a Homemade Wanderlust hygiene vid I first aw it on. Or a book from the early 80's.
Anyway, I didn't notice a smell at all and I shake and air dry a little first, then clip it to the side of my bag where I can reach it. Young wasn't even grossed out when I had to drop my pack in a hurry and go behind a bush.. then had to have him bring it to me. He's kind of awesome though, and has had to help me with personal care after surgery.
Fifty miles is a solid backpacking trip and unless you were doing it for reasons other than pleasure, there was no reason to continue if you weren't feeling it. The conditioning is different, because it's not supposed to be fun, not really. ;-)
Also solid is your lovely offer. Thank you! I can't remember the last time I went on an overnight trip or hiked with anyone else (although my bff insists our annual weeklong trips of short, slow walks are "hikes," she's wrong). What I do instead is rent a place near a mountain or national park and head out at 6am with a day pack and come back ten or so hours later. I know people do it, but solo overnight hikes are more risk than I want, so this is what I do instead and I've done it for so many years that I never even considered trying to hike with others again. Thanks for giving me something to think about.
The pee rag is an interesting concept. Definitely in favor of packing out everything, but that's easier if it's not a multi-day trip. Honestly, if it's hot enough that snakes are dormant, I just air dry. I think I'd have to experiment to see if the smell bothered me before using it on a hike.
Hubby did about 43 miles on the Adirondack trails with some buddies a few years ago and didn't train at all, but we were both fairly frequent gym visitors at that time.
For our PCT hike, we'd been going to the gym regularly, (I was working at my daughter's gym at the time, BC--Before Corona) so we put on our packs and hiked some of the trails around here, usually about 4-7 miles every day for the two weeks before we left, with a one-day break before hitting the trail. We spent some extra treadmill time for about a month before that, sometimes wearing a small pack, too. We wore the clothes and footwear we planned to use on the trail, and mostly had all our gear in our packs. We ended up needing to replace some food items because we used them during our conditioning. We chose to use the water bladders we adapted to have a quick-disconnect for our Sawyer mini filters because of the convenience, and my side pockets left my water bottles out of reach without taking off my pack. We always try out new foods and gear before we do any trips (we'd done several overnight backpacking trips previously). One time we decided to try a new Mountain House meal on an overnighter and didn't like it, but had brought extra just in case. Good thing!
One thing that I saw on a YouTube video was the use of a "pee rag", clipped to the side of a pack. It's a 1/4 of a cotton bandana that is only used for pee, and then cycled out with others as they UV-sterilize in the sun (there wasn't much of that!) and rinse in streams. I saw these clipped to packs of other women I saw, too. We also practice good outdoor niceness by packing out our used TP for BMs, or burning the paper when we camped where we could have fires. I know that part isn't actually fitness-related but if you're backpacking, it's an important thing to consider!
We estimated about 10 miles a day, and our first day (which started at straight-up noon) we got 6.5 miles, then 12 miles the next day....we actually planned our nearo day for a day later, but I pushed us to get to Elk Lake Resort the last night to rest longer. When we got back on the trail to do the second half, I started thinking and it went downhill from there. It was the most challenging part of the hike because of greater elevation changes, drier stretches, more rugged terrain, and needing to actually use Guthooks to navigate through snow where the trail was hard to find. I realized my insoles were the reason my feet were always hurting when we stopped at Elk Lake. The ONLY reason to continue was to be able to brag that we'd done it, and that wasn't a good reason for me. I wanted us to do it for US. As it turned out, most of our friends were pretty impressed with doing 50 miles anyway, so that was a good call!
Thanks for the input; it sounds like there are a couple tweaks we can make for the next trip, and I liked reading about your experiences, too! If you want to join us, we'll be going in late July or early August, when some of the through-hikers will be starting to do that section, too. We're going to go a little slower so we can enjoy the scenery more this time, though, maybe 8 miles a day.
I think the longest I've hiked in a day has been 22 miles and didn't do any conditioning, just cut it down to 15 miles the next day to account for some soreness. But I had good, well worn in but not worn out shoes, multiple pairs of socks, and a lifetime of long walks, plus I only carried a day pack, all of which made a big difference.
However, years before that I did a three day 60 mile walk and did group conditioning for it for four months in advance (three or four three to five mile walks during the week and longer on the weekends). What I discovered then was that my personal Rubicon was eight miles. That was the point at which I reached max discomfort and after that it didn't matter if I walked one more mile or 20.
So, maybe just go for regular walks to find where your conditioning sets your max discomfort? And use that time to figure out shoes, how to prevent blisters, and how to relieve aches and pains.
I've done a few long distance hikes - 60-100 miles per trip in the Appalachian back country. Early prep involved upping the amount of cardio work in my work outs during the several months prior. I did P90X which turned out to be a great choice to get rounded fitness and balance training. Hiking with a pack on sketchy back country trails up and down mountains is nothing like walking around town, so did several day hikes with a weighted pack on rugged terrain locally wearing the same loaded pack, clothes and boots I planned to use on the hiking trip. This makes sure the boots are broken in, teaches you how much you can carry on your back and how to distribute weight in the pack. It also gives you a good idea how many miles per day to plan between night stops, and how much water (possibly the heaviest single thing you carry) you consume between watering points. I did a few 1-2 night camping trips to test out all the equipment. A couple times it was just in my own back yard. Remember, you not only need to be able to hike from the morning point to the day's stop point, but potentially all the way back to civilization if you have an emergency.
Last summer we hiked 50 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, and started doing some conditioning hikes about a month ahead of time. (I know it should have been longer, but stupid covid messed with our plans!) We planned on 100 miles, but SOMEONE (me) didn't realize how awful her insoles were until we got to our halfway point and compared them with W's. I couldn't see don't the most challenging part of the hike without good foot support, so bailed.
Food, water, and shelter were all good, but feel we should have planned our conditioning better.
Has anyone done a long-distance hike and has advice? I'm in a couple Facebook hiking groups, but rarely look at FB at all anymore and would like another point of view. We're going to do most of the second half of our original trip this coming summer and I've been checking out good insoles!
