If you need any area information checked out, at least in So Calif, let me know. I'm from West Michigan originally (K College '69) and would be glad to give a bit of help a youngster like you.
The Weasel
If you need any area information checked out, at least in So Calif, let me know. I'm from West Michigan originally (K College '69) and would be glad to give a bit of help a youngster like you.
The Weasel
"Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service
There was a guy that started from the border a day after me that ran me down after 6 days or so. I had a *slightly* faster pace, but he would hike longer days and take less breaks. We ended up hiking pretty much the same amount of miles until I got off the trail the next week. I thought he was in his 50s. He was 70 or 72.
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is interested in a short time up there at maybe uncle johnnys nolichucky hostel in eastern tennessee and then a bit of short, slow meandering the trail. I am not afraid but do feel its wiser to go in a group. Lots of crazies everywhere in america after all. any input or ideas??
I haven't read all this thread - but is it safe to assume ladies in their 50s have done it too? A thru hike of the whole trail, that is? I'm a little concerned about making the miles necessary right off the bat so you aren't in snow by WA.
Hey 'Slogger, Mr. D hiked the PCT with blood pressure/heart problems/heart meds at age 68. The meds did cause him some problems and the meds had to be adjusted, but he did finish.
http://www.trailjournals.com/about.cfm?trailname=5737
I'd be careful about it and have a hiking companion for sure. I hope your attack didn't cause too much damage. Good luck!
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Actually mine did cause a lot of damage. I was 4 hours in an ambulance and have significant left ventricular heart wall damage. Cardiac output is compromised so exercise tolerance ain't what it used to be. Haven't given up the ship all together quite yet though. My wife (BadAss Turtle - AT 2001) is a hiker too and I'm after her to at least take a shot at the John Muir with me. We'll see.
In my case it's not the age that gets in the way ...it's the reality of significant heart damage, and ironically I am and always have been (prior to the heart attack, that is ...) in excellent physical condition.
'Slogger
The more I learn ...the more I realize I don't know.
I hiked the PCT at age 63 in '08 as a follow on to my AT thru in '06. I can tell you that the trail is generally easier than the AT with "gentle" grades compared with the steep, straight-up-the-mountain trail here on the AT.
There were several other guys and a couple ladies out there in the "advanced middle age" category like me. I hiked with a goodly number of young "kids" and managed to keep up with them!
So, don't worry about the calender, just get on out there and do it!
BTW, my journals are at www.trailjournals.com/handlebar
Handlebar
GA-ME 06; PCT 08; CDT 10,11,12; ALT 11; MSPA 12; CT 13; Sheltowee 14; AZT 14, 15; LT 15;FT 16;NCT-NY&PA 16; GET 17-18
Crap, Handlebar, you were 63? I had the distinct impression that you could kick my butt anytime you chose, and I'm 53 now ... the whole thing of sliding down Baden Powell in snow in a kilt, etc etc ... you don't strike me as a man with an "old man" attitude.
I hiked with J.B. on the PCT last year and he was well into his 60's. Started every day with 4 ibuprofin but walked tough and I had a hard time keeping up. Ditto Lucky. Both of those guys did the CDT this year, or at least started it (neither of them journal, so I'm not yet sure how they did ...).
Age can of course be a factor, but mindset is an important one too. Ditto a certain amount of discipline; I found that the younger hikers tended to sleep later and take more and longer breaks, the older folk tended to just keep walking more and often got in the same number of miles. It was the steeper uphills where I really noticed the difference --- substantially younger hikers would just sort of walk away from me as I did my best sustainable pace upward.
Hi Flying Eagle,
I know you posted this a while ago but I also know it can take a while to get from "I'm gunna" to I'm going" ;-) I first decided in 2009 to train for a PCT thru and didn't actually do it until 2016.
So just in case you are still training...
I was 52 when I thru-hiked the PCT Canada to Mexico. I managed the thru in a 5 month continuous hike, 26 miles a day with 1 day a week break in resupply towns.
The things that helped me were:
1) Being really strong and well trained when I left. Examples: I worked through all my problem areas pre-hike with a physical therapist. I took a snow skills class and had all my sock/shoe issues dealt with so -- no blisters during the thru.
2) Admittedly being a massage therapist helped on this one, but I stayed really on top of any daily pain that surfaced -- figuring out in the tent at night what tendon/muscle/etc. was starting to give me trouble. Where the attachment to bone was and then working with the trigger points to release it. First I used rocks from around the tent as a trigger point tool then when rock collection got to be too much work I used the end of my fuel canister (where the rubber flip top covers the part that connects to the stove). It made a great trigger point tool.
3) Beyond working with specific pain points that came up every day, I had a daily maintenance routine that I think really helped. I carried a little thing of arnica cream and did foot massage with it every night. I used the side of my fuel canister as a baby "foam roller" to work out the gluts, quads, IT band etc. I rolled the muscles in my lower legs with the foam part of my trekking pole and I had a whole "in the sleeping bag" stretching routine that I did every night and then a shorter version in the morning before getting up.
I really credit those 3 things with allowing me to do the whole trail injury free.
Good luck (and if you have already done your thru ... congratulations!)