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2 months of dinners. Note the calorie amount
and weight is recorded for each dinner type. |
The logistics of my speed record attempt were vastly more structured and detailed than a typical thru-hike. Because time is the ultimate commodity on as speed hike, the leeway of taking days off to rest or fix problems does not exist, especially when trying to set a new record. This fact imparted the special need to plan
EVERYTHING and to try and prepare for any possible problems. Of course, problems and situations occur that one never imagined, so a degree of flexibility is needed in combination with a strict schedule. It took nearly two months to fully prepare the logistics for my trip, from calculating how many calories a day I wanted to consume vs weight carried, to how long between resupplies, to where will I take showers and do laundry, to how many batteries do I need for my GPS? Each aspect of planning was ruled by the overlying theme of time efficiency and saving weight. It was an immense help that I had already done the exact same planning twice before, once in 2012 for the speed attempt and once again in 2014 for my aborted speed attempt.
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| All the food when packing resupply boxes for 2 months. |
One doesn't truly comprehend how much food is consumed in 2 months until it is piled up in their living room. I opted to resupply from mail drops for my entire hike, thus removing 'shopping' time. Therefore, I had to buy ahead of time all of the food that I was going to eat on my hike, while trying to guess which things I wouldn't become sick of, and trying to minimize the calorie to weight ratio. Because I was going to be expending so much energy to go 46+ miles a day, I calculated I would need 5,000 or more calories a day to only lose minimal weight over the 2 months. Even with choosing lighter weight calorie dense foods, I was going to eat about 2.5-3 lbs of food a day. That amount of food is about 1,000-1,500 calories more than what I would suggest for an average hiker. Variety and choosing what you know you like or love, is key when packing your resupply food ahead of time. If you only think you might like it, chances are that on trail, you won't like it. In all, I had planned 14 resupply points, each with a box specifically tailored for the next section. At the time of making the boxes, it was a nightmare, but when on trail the boxes were perfect and all the work payed off handsomely. The real effort is in the details, as the more you plan the smoother things should go.
Distance on paper is just that, a number. When that number is translated into real miles, it's both an amazing thing and a horrible thing. One of my biggest mental challenges was knowing the fact that I I had to make about 46+ miles a day, everyday, for 60 days. If I didn't make the miles one day, I would behind overall and had to make them up another. Each morning I'd wake at 0 miles and throughout the day be nagged, because I knew how many more miles I needed to go. The first 10 miles always seemed alright, the middle 20 were always the hardest and the last 10+ were either easy or hard depending on the day. Sometimes the last 5 miles were absolute hell, since I had to keep going regardless of what my body and mind wanted.
Yet, although I was doing more miles per day, my mental attitude on this hike versus my 2012 hike was much improved. I believe it was because I had already proven to myself that I
CAN do big miles consecutively for 40+ days. That meant, I knew had been able to do them, so I can do them again. This fact made my hike much more enjoyable and the constant "deadline-like" dread about making enough miles wasn't an issue like in 2012. Instead of looking at the big picture as a 60 day clock counting down, like I did in 2012, I took it day by day, knowing that I had to preform that day to the best of my abilities to achieve my goal, but not overly stressing about it. Some days were big and other days, like resupply days, were below my goal. I scheduled each resupply/town stop for 3 hours, usually taking only 2. However, even with a short resupply time, hours not hiking mean miles not walked, so the daily total would be lower. Regardless, I am very very happy with the miles I had hiked when I had to leave trail. I had bested my 2012 daily mileage average by 2.5 miles and was about to hit easier terrain, where I'm pretty certain I would have sped up even more.
Overall the predetermined schedule I made sitting all cozy in my home was just about right. In fact, I was ahead of my schedule when I got off trail, something I'm still surprised I was able to do!
Distance on paper is just that, a number. When that number is translated into real miles, it's both an amazing thing and a horrible thing. One of my biggest mental challenges was knowing the fact that I I had to make about 46+ miles a day, everyday, for 60 days. If I didn't make the miles one day, I would behind overall and had to make them up another. Each morning I'd wake at 0 miles and throughout the day be nagged, because I knew how many more miles I needed to go. The first 10 miles always seemed alright, the middle 20 were always the hardest and the last 10+ were either easy or hard depending on the day. Sometimes the last 5 miles were absolute hell, since I had to keep going regardless of what my body and mind wanted.