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X-treme Long Distance Hiking

by David Porter

There have been some remarkable long distance hikes recorded and we are all pretty much aware of them. Walks from Patagonia to the Yukon (4 years), escapes from prison camps crossing incredibly hostile deserts, extended treks around the world and unrecorded lifetime wanderings of the very few true solitary. The unrecorded and therefore unacclaimed also must be honored, as for instance, our misperception about who was the first to thru-hike the PCT - these unheralded folk suffer what I have started to call the Papendick phenomenon (the distance hike for the inner self about which no one else knows and which is not promoted). This having been said; then, the following.

At the last October Gathering we were treated to a splendidly understated, beautifully illustrated slide presentation by John Brinda on his remarkable Eastern Traverse of the Florida Trail, Pinhoti Trails, roads walks, AT and International AT to Cape Gaspe after approximately 4,900 miles in a single, contiguous hiking season. We ought to come up with a name for this route (? Eastern Traverse). Although we might have thought that to be an ultimate trip, seldom to be repeated, how incorrect that would have been. If the accomplishments of 1998 and 1999 trekkers become a measure of the future (the future is now), what becomes possible and/or conceivable seems limitless.

Three separate treks have now been recorded which more than deserve mention. In 1998 M.J. (‘Nomad’) Eberhart repeated John’s south-to-north trip. On January 1 he started north and found himself at Cape Gaspe October 30. Apparently we can anticipate an account of this adventure in a forthcoming book ‘Ten Million Steps’. Scott (‘River Otter’) Galloway has completed a south-bound version of this same journey in 1999, with an intent to finish the Georgia - Alabama - Florida portions this winter.

Several attempts at hiking two long distance trails (PCT & AT) in a single calendar year did not meet with completion until Sven Thesen (Cilvert) and Jarrod Gasper (Bung) accomplished just that, finishing at Springer Mountain December 19, 1999 after a south-north PCT hike staring in mid-April and a north-south AT trek from Mount Katahdin.

Congratulations and kudos seem a bit tepid for these accomplishments - but as a minimum here goes -  CONGRATULATIONS AND KUDOS!  With any luck we’ll have some first hand reports on these trips in the next ‘Gazette’, one of which is already in hand.

So, what’s left? Is there little left to challenge these intrepid souls? I think there is plenty left undone. If we remove our thoughts, for an instant, from the conventional long distance trails and hikes and look into planning our own X-treme hikes, perhaps a few ideas can be brought to mind. In the next ‘Gazette’ I will be reviewing and discussing distance hike planning using digital mapping as an aid. What about that desert route you want to do which has no guide book, pre-printed maps or any source of information at all, because it will be your own very unique adventure. Not for everyone (including the hike and methods of planning); but we are not everyone. Long distance hikers are a varied and diverse group with but this single association - restless feet and minds. Then do a virtual trip with me through some of these possibilities. If you have either thoughts or suggestions or items you want to be certain I cover, get in touch with me however you chose (info on page 2).

I really never thought I would be writing a piece combining distance hiking and digital/virtual hi-tech aids, but then I never thought I’d be spending so much pleasurable time at a computer putting together issues of the ‘Gazette’ so that we can share our experiences together.