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  1. #61
    Donating Member/AT Class of 2003 - The WET year
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    My thoughts (not trying to be a wise guy here) are that if you have to ask the question you might not understand or appreciate the answer.

    There is only one reason ...well maybe 2, for doing a FAST thru.

    - To attain some personal goal or attempt setting a new record
    - Personal time constraints

    Other than that, if you are going to commit yourself and your time to a thru-hike you owe to yourself (mind and body) to take your time and truly enjoy the experience.
    The more I learn ...the more I realize I don't know.

  2. #62
    The light at the end of the tunnel? ME! TunnelvisionGAME09's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MOWGLI View Post
    I like that, because I'm more of a hiker than a camper.

    The biggest downside of doing less miles for me, is that I'm not tired in camp at the end of the day. So I don't sleep as well. I like to leave it all out on the trail, and walk into camp tuckered out from a day of hiking. Am I crazy, or does anyone else feel that way?
    I know I go stir crazy if I am at camp too long. I don't know what to do with myself and I want to see what's around the next corner.

  3. #63

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    Quote Originally Posted by Footslogger View Post
    Other than that, if you are going to commit yourself and your time to a thru-hike you owe to yourself (mind and body) to take your time and truly enjoy the experience.
    But Slogger, how one "enjoys the experience" differs from person to person. For example, what do you mean by "take your time?" I like to hike to just before it gets dark. Many people like to stop at 5ish. If I stopped at 5 I'd go crazy. I hate to sit around.

  4. #64
    Donating Member/AT Class of 2003 - The WET year
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    Quote Originally Posted by max patch View Post
    But Slogger, how one "enjoys the experience" differs from person to person. For example, what do you mean by "take your time?" I like to hike to just before it gets dark. Many people like to stop at 5ish. If I stopped at 5 I'd go crazy. I hate to sit around.
    ============================

    I hear ya ...and agree with you about the whole definition of "enjoyment". It's all up to the individual. If hiking fast and long makes you smile, then by all means do it. Maybe it comes down to a question of "degree".

    The original post (thread starter) posed the question: "Why a slow thru is better than a fast thru". What I know from personal thru-hike experience and sharing experiences with many other thru-hikers is that the faster you go the less you have time to see and experience things along the way and that is what prompted my response.

    I get asked questions like this one quite often actually by people contemplating a thru-hike. If they aren't into setting records or under tight time constraints my answer is generally the same as what I posted here.

    Truth be told, if I ever got the chance to distance hike the AT again I'd allow even more time than I did in 2003, so that I could stop at those "once in a lifetime" spots and maybe even take a zero there. That's not to say I wouldn't knock out my share of 20+ mile days. When the miles are easy ...I generally take em !!

    'Slogger
    The more I learn ...the more I realize I don't know.

  5. #65
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    Quote Originally Posted by TunnelvisionGAME09 View Post
    I know I go stir crazy if I am at camp too long. I don't know what to do with myself and I want to see what's around the next corner.
    Trees, just trees. Sorry

    Sitting around camp just to sit around can be boring. The company makes it better. There was one point where I would hike half the day, then take a 3 or 4 hour break at a shelter with my hiking buddy. We would do anything from stuff our faces with any extra food we had, sit back and talk, or just sit. At the start of your hike it's easy to want to keep moving and make some miles. Around mid-VA you might start easing back a little and learning to relax just for the sake of relaxing. Then as you near the end you may realize that the trip is coming to an end and you do everything you can not to do miles. I miss being able to sit inside a McDonalds for 14 hours just hanging out and eating.

  6. #66
    Lazy Daze Zzzzdyd's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Panzer1 View Post
    At 56, even 15 miles a day seems a lot.

    Panzer
    At 61 even 15 seems even more...lol

    Gone are my days of forced field marches of 40 lbs 40 miles in a day.
    Some Days Your The Bug , Some Days Your The Windshield

  7. #67

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    I start off slow, then I slow down.
    E-Z---"from sea to shining sea''

  8. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by mrc237 View Post
    I start off slow then after awhile I slow down!
    yeah we know

  9. #69
    Registered User Phreak's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bare Bear View Post
    I will Hike My Own Hike this time.
    And yes I am OK with no one caring or listening to me too.
    Hmmm, if you don't care about what others think, why even post about it?

  10. #70
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    Slow vs. Fast

    A young bull and an old bull were standing on a knoll looking down on a whole herd of of cows. The young bull said "let's run down there and get a few?" The old bull said " No, let's take our time and get them all."

  11. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by Panzer1 View Post
    At 56, even 15 miles a day seems a lot.
    I managed it just fine in 2007 at age 55. It might have been tough in the Whites or southern Maine, but in the middle third of the AT, it was surprisingly easy.

  12. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by superman View Post
    Slow vs. Fast
    The old bull said " No, let's take our time and get them all."
    Plus he knew one of them would be good for a ham sandwich at halftime.

  13. #73
    jersey joe jersey joe's Avatar
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    A fast thru is better then a slow thru because a fast hiker can hit the end, turn around, and hike it again before the slow hiker finishes once!

  14. #74
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    It's been so long since I've hiked without kids, I don't even know what my preferred hiking rhythm is anymore. And I have no idea how long it would take to set up/break down camp if it was just my gear (it takes forever now - little helpers try, but can be distracting, too). When I finally get to thru, I plan to savor every moment. I've been waiting sooooo long.
    We'll have to go out through the kitchen.

  15. #75
    Registered User Lyle's Avatar
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    I like to think that I hike slow and deliberative, smelling the flowers, soaking in the views, listening to the symphony around me, and totally appreciating the NOW.

    In actuality, I often find myself ready to move on, anticipating what lies just ahead, feeling a personal satisfaction when my body realizes a strenuous climb or higher than normal mileage day. It just plain feels good to push yourself and have your body respond. Not that what I consider pushing would be considered pushing to many, but to me it is.

    A couple of years ago, I felt really good that, on my two-week section, I spent the first night and the last night with some of the same thru-hikers. We didn't hiked together every day, but our overall mileage was the same. I had just come onto the trail, they had been on trail for over 1000 miles and generally were much younger than I. All with no ill effects to my body - made me feel kinda "Invincible" - a good feeling at my age.

    Don't get me wrong, I also do low mileage days, 6 or 9 miles, and enjoy them also. When I hike alone, I hike only when and for how long I feel like it. To me this is the great freedom of solo hiking, not having to consider anyone else's schedule.

    When I do my Thru of any of the long trails, I will plan at least 6 or 7 months. That way, I will have the total freedom to hike when I want and stop and linger when I want, without worrying about a deadline - the ultimate freedom to my way of thinking.

  16. #76
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lyle View Post



    Don't get me wrong, I also do low mileage days, 6 or 9 miles, and enjoy them also.
    that's real slackpacking. not that packless walking they do these days

  17. #77
    Garlic
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lyle View Post
    When I do my Thru of any of the long trails, I will plan at least 6 or 7 months. That way, I will have the total freedom to hike when I want and stop and linger when I want, without worrying about a deadline - the ultimate freedom to my way of thinking.
    That's one issue--the other long trails (PCT, CDT) only have a five-month window, maybe less. And the trails are 500 miles or more longer. Western hikers require a faster pace, 18 mpd or more average. So when a Western hiker does the AT, it's a naturally faster pace almost by default and "training".
    "Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning

  18. #78

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    The western trails require a faster pace, but then again, hikers take less time off on them as well. There simply aren't towns, facilities, motels, and hostels every two or three days, as there are on the A.T.

    The main reason people make better mileage while hiking the western Trails is because they are actually spending more of their time hiking.

  19. #79
    Super Moderator Marta's Avatar
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    There is always the money issue hanging overhead... A slow thru means a more expensive thru--more trail food, more lodging in town, more town meals, more time off work...
    If not NOW, then WHEN?

    ME>GA 2006
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    Instagram hiking photos: five.leafed.clover

  20. #80
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    I did Springer to Damascus this spring and averaged about 18mpd (with at least 6 20+ mile days). This fall I hiked a 40 mile section of SNP and took a week to do it. I enjoyed hiking through SNP at a snail's pace much more. But that's me, what anyone else does is their business.

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