Community Forums

Traildust · 04-16-2017, 10:12 AM

affreeman - a big well done for completing the AT, I can only imagine how rewarding it must be not to mention the memories. The longest trail my wife and I ever did was Yosemite to Lake Tahoe 185 miles. Because of the wife's slower pace that took 11 days and only one food drop along the way. I ended up carrying a heavy pack on that one.
Did you have a trail name while on the AT? I picked up one given to me by some trail family, Red Bean was me.
If you cannot do the PCT try for the JMT.
Bill

DaveA56 · 04-16-2017, 10:27 AM

One of the reasons we RV full time is to hike and bike. I'm 65 and with the injuries I've gathered over the years I don't backpack any more, I do miss it. We day hike and mountain bike. We've been all over the country. Currently we're in west Texas at Guadalupe Mountains National Park for three months as volunteer trail crew. This is a hiking park with 80 miles of trails.

We do 10-15 mile days hiking, depending on the terain and how we feel. Bike 20 30 miles, again depending on terain

hoosierrun · 04-16-2017, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davismills

I started section hiking the AT in 2014 and have made it from Springer Mtn. to Fontana Dam. I'm hoping for the next 10 day trip in June. It's tough at 62, but I'm endeavoring to persevere.

I usually hike four days at a time and then bail out for a few days of R&R in the motor home. My DW is the logistics manager, but she refuses to backpack. Her three surgeries have made her much smarter than me. Come to think of it, she's always been much smarter than me.

That is totally awesome! Congrats. I sectioned the entire thing just the way you are starting. I finished at Katahdin at age 65 and could barely pull my self up the climbs where re-bar was drilled into the cliff faces. I did it though.

cruzbill · 04-16-2017, 01:45 PM

Traidust, In my impetuous youth, I did a 3 week x-country ski trip along a section of the John Muir trail from Mammoth Mtn to Kirkwood. this was in March-April of 1983, which was up until this year, the snowiest on record! Great trip! Still love hiking!

Traildust · 04-16-2017, 03:03 PM

I am going to owe an apology to Strip34 for high jacking his thread, I originally just wanted to bump this up. DaveA56 we do things now much like you, I have accumulated my share of injuries over the years what with Skydiving and Moto-Cross racing. I have a left ankle that I dislocated and also broke both bones just above it, now the arthritis has set in and it's just not possible to walk very far.
Cruzbill - cross country ski trip like that would have been great, we also used to ski a lot.
The John Muir is also known as The Range of Light because of all the granite rock and the way the Sun reflects of of it.
There is a song that could be the Backpacker's theme and it's called "I Don't Mind" by The Tobasco Donkies. It can be found on YouTube.
One last thing Traildust was another trail name I picked up but never did like it and I do not know why I used it here for my username cause I hate it but if I change it I will have to start all over on # of post and join date.
Bill

affreeman · 04-17-2017, 05:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Traildust

affreeman - a big well done for completing the AT, I can only imagine how rewarding it must be not to mention the memories. The longest trail my wife and I ever did was Yosemite to Lake Tahoe 185 miles. Because of the wife's slower pace that took 11 days and only one food drop along the way. I ended up carrying a heavy pack on that one.
Did you have a trail name while on the AT? I picked up one given to me by some trail family, Red Bean was me.
If you cannot do the PCT try for the JMT.
Bill

My trail name is Monkeywrench. It's an homage to Edward Abbey, author of The Monkeywrench Gang.

I have a friend who had made me a monkeywrench flag that I had carried many places, including to the summit of Kilimanjaro. When I did my AT thru-hike I asked her to make me a very small flag which I flew from the suspension line of my camping hammock. It's that flag that prompted my trail name.

By New England my body was rebelling. Mostly problems with my knees. By the time I got to Katahdin I could barely walk downhill. My wife came up to Maine and climbed Katahdin with me, and even though it was me who had been hiking daily for six months, she ended up having to wait for me on the climb back down. She said later that if she had known how bad I was she wouldn't have let me finish. So I'm glsd she didn't know!

Stripe34 · 04-17-2017, 03:21 PM

I love the thread hijack. Carry on. :-)

J Birder · 04-17-2017, 03:38 PM

DW and I used to backpack in our younger days. We did the Tetons, Beartooth, Smokeys, and White Mountains. Now, at the age of 75, and after two hip joint replacements, We're down to a maximum of five miles on level trails, or less in the mountains..

Joel

Tim-n-Gina · 02-06-2021, 05:20 AM

New hijack alert!

Just found this excellent thread on a search of IRV2.
I am 62 or 3, can't remember... Does it matter? But I digress.. always had fairly active jobs over my working career. Currently I'm on my feet for six or seven hours, six or seven days a week. But I'm a masochist at heart so more walking is an excellent idea! So I have just gotten through my head that hiking is a great idea. I've always been a camper (still contemplating buying a class a when I retire), but at the moment, day hiking and maybe some backpacking is where my head is at.
I started going to 4-Day music festivals and rekindled my love for camping about 10 years ago. Lying on the ground is a bitch at this age, but hammocks are awesome!

So, the reason for my hijack:
Is there a hiking forum out there in the ethers that I should be joining? I know there are some hikers on IRV2, but there has to be a large forum out there just for this subject.

Tim

Bigd9 · 02-06-2021, 06:03 AM

Yes there is a group for hikers. I'll PM you the web site address

We just returned from a snow skiing/hiking trip. Here are a few pictures. One picture shows the almost two feet of snow we had, the other shows Graham and Hershey enjoying a hike. They were standing on a thousand foot long elevated walkway spanning a swampy area.

davismills · 02-07-2021, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim-n-Gina

New hijack alert!

Just found this excellent thread on a search of IRV2.
I am 62 or 3, can't remember... Does it matter? But I digress.. always had fairly active jobs over my working career. Currently I'm on my feet for six or seven hours, six or seven days a week. But I'm a masochist at heart so more walking is an excellent idea! So I have just gotten through my head that hiking is a great idea. I've always been a camper (still contemplating buying a class a when I retire), but at the moment, day hiking and maybe some backpacking is where my head is at.
I started going to 4-Day music festivals and rekindled my love for camping about 10 years ago. Lying on the ground is a bitch at this age, but hammocks are awesome!

So, the reason for my hijack:
Is there a hiking forum out there in the ethers that I should be joining? I know there are some hikers on IRV2, but there has to be a large forum out there just for this subject.

Tim

whiteblaze.net

atreis · 02-07-2021, 06:42 AM

Hiking is our primary camping activity. We loved it before we got married, and still do now. Two of the three kids do too, and the third will tolerate it. We have also backpacked, and I love it, but that one is quite a bit more involved. We also enjoy backcountry canoe trips. Nice thing about those is that the canoe carries all that gear, not our backs!

My wife and I really want to get back to Acadia NP in Maine sometime... We went there on our first vacation before getting married. Hiked all over that island!

astrocamper · 02-12-2021, 12:38 PM

We love to go to places with dark skies and good hiking. We have done a lot of back packing as a family and still try to take a trip a year when we can. Have canceled a lot of trips in the last several years because of bad wildfire smoke. We try to walk 6-8 mile with our dog on each of our days off.

We have done the John Muir trail northbound twice and southbound once. Have done several other 7-10 days trips and a lot of 4-7 day trips over the years. Harder to keep in shape but hope to do more after full time retirement in a few more years at age 66+.

We have spent many more nights in backpacking tents than we have spent in our travel trailer. We have only been RV camping for the last 3 years.

txcpl · 02-13-2021, 05:36 AM

Many moons ago, I backpacked or canoed every chance I got. Today, I am 70, and I walk 3+ miles every day we are not in the RV. When Rv'ing, I hike or mountain bike every chance I get. I always wonder "what is around that bend, or what is over that hill?" Sleeping on the ground is not for me anymore. It's fun and good exercise to boot!