Date: 2005-07-11
To: near Glencliff, NH
Miles today: 0.0

Time vs. DistanceMy earliest plan for how I would organize my day, formulated way back in February, looked like this:-sleeping: 10 hours-making and breaking camp, cooking, eating, and cleaning up: 3 hours-walking: 5 ¢ 9 hours, with 7 hours about average-the balance for reading, studying, thinking, looking around, listening to the radio, and writing: 2 ¢ 6 hours, depending on how long I walked that day        I wouldn¢t set a distance goal, placing the emphasis instead on time. I would make an honest effort and cover whatever distance I covered. I know what it feels like to do that many hours of technical work, or manual labor, and since hiking is just another activity that I think contains aspects of each (novelty, skill development, as well as physical exertion), it made sense to me to approach it in the same way. Five to nine hours per day of walking/hiking should be easy, sustainable, and sustainability is what I need in order to complete a single, continuous journey from Georgia to Maine. In the work environment only the workaholic (and someone struggling to make ends meet) might consistently put in 11 ¢ 12 hour days; others would be worn down by these demands. Perhaps such long days suit the ¢hikeaholic¢, for which there¢s a kinder term, ¢power hiker¢, but not everyone else. Now it¢s natural for everyone to go faster and longer as their fitness improves, but I¢m not sure it¢s as natural for everyone to maintain the highest levels of output day in and day out. At least it wasn¢t for me. Just because I could hike 10 ¢ 12 hours per day, didn¢t mean that I wanted to. Strangely enough, here I am over 5 months later, and I seem to have ended up close to my original numbers.        If I set out in the morning (i.e., I wasn¢t taking a rest day), whether there was deep snow or freezing rain, or if I was nursing an injury or not feeling well, I would go for at least 5 hours. Eventually I expanded the upper end of the range to 10 hours (in the Smokies), with 8 hours being an average day. After doing more and more, longer days, I suddenly backed off in Pennsylvania, where I felt that the terrain did not suit me. I would be lying in my tent at night hours after having stopped for the day, and the soles of my feet would start throbbing!! What was that? It really worried me. A lot of times in June and July I called it a day because of the bugs; at times I¢ve felt completely besieged by them. Zipping myself inside my tent was my way of telling them, ¢That¢s it; the meal¢s over for today.¢   (Unfortunately, if you make camp because of the bugs are driving you crazy, you are in a buggy area and will have to deal with most of them again first thing the next morning.) Other days I¢ve got a little careless, slipped, and received some cuts and scrapes. Along with an increase in stumbling or tripping, that¢s another sign that it¢s getting late in the day for me.        On a longer-term basis, I have other warning signs for which I watch . Not feeling excited at the start of the day means I may seem to be in need of a rest day. Feeling negative, getting annoyed at the condition of the trail, or worst of all, complaining to someone else, are some of the other warning signs.        Having the flexibility of stopping (almost) when you want requires (I think) a tent, which I carry. And since I do carry it, it makes sense to me to use it as much as possible. Having to continue to the next shelter, after I feel like stopping, might take hours; continuing until I find a suitable campsite usually takes nowhere nearly as long. I also carry enough water so that I don¢t need to stop at a water source. All this extra weight probably makes me slower, but I don¢t worry about that.        In summary, for me to have to meet mileage or destination goals day in and day out would be too demanding. In contrast, with each day¢s effort standing alone and allowed to fall in a fairly broad range, while continually monitoring myself to see if I need a rest day, I think I approach a state that I could maintain indefinitely. Perhaps it would work for some others, too.