It’s been almost a week and a half since my son and I completed our short section hike of the AT in West Virginia. It took about two days for my legs to fully recover. The first day after reminded me of the day after a marathon, but we walked 6 miles less over 2.5 days - oh well, not really that bad considering I hadn’t hiked or carried a pack in over 20 years! I also captured several small lessons-learned to guide a future thru-hike. Every short hike hopefully will yield some useful lessons - or at least confirm some ideas. It is no surprise that the biggest lesson - I already knew this, but there is nothing like a practical lesson - getting pack weight down to its lightest possible is the goal. Really, getting base weight under 20 pounds and total skin-out-weight down to under 35 pounds remains my ultimate goal. A lot of experimentation remains with the Big 3 systems; however, I confirmed several small items on my prospectus that if I were going to commit to a thru-hike today would definitely be on the packing list. In addition to lightening the Big 3, food choice and weight needs a little experimentation. We ended up not eating over 3 pounds of the food we each carried - way too much! We never went into calorie deficit during such a short hike; so, thru-hiking might alter the equation, but consumables clearly are a huge variable that needs to be refined. To an experienced hiker, none of these lessons are earth shattering revelations; actually, even for me, they are not a surprise. Nonetheless, lessons are best learned from practical application - nothing like carrying a heavy pack for a couple days to push one to spending a little more cash for a lot less weight. TLDR: click here for specific comments/lessons for each piece of gear I carried during my August 2019 AT Section Hike in West Virginia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Quiet Man
I don't have a bucket list. At 61 years old, I have already had the adventures of a lifetime, especially after a 30-year Army career, five years of teaching high school, and a 37 year marriage still going strong. But I still have this deep desire to complete the Appalachian Trial. Archives
February 2022
Categories |