View Full Version : Marathon day
Chainsaw 08
11-29-2007, 02:51
One of my goals for my thru-hike will be to do a "Marathon day" -- 26 miles in one day.
What is the best 26-mile stretch for making time?
warraghiyagey
11-29-2007, 03:22
If you complete your thru you will likely have found a number of days to do this and will have a number of 'marathons' under your belt.
We've done a number of days like that sectioning, not necessarily on purpose. Some days you just get rolling. I think our longest was Vandeveteer to Damascus, which I think was around 32. At least I think that's where we came from.
I agree that the section south of Damascus is about the fastest walking on the whole AT. I did my only marathon-plus there, from Abingdon Gap Shelter to US 321, 31.3 miles. If you're hiking north, the section from Abingdon Gap Shelter to Damascus gets my vote for easiest 10 miles on the AT.
Chances are, though, that you will have several marathon days. Especially walking NOBO, when you're into the long-daylight time of the year, and have two or three months of daily walking in your legs, it'll happen.
Lone Wolf
11-29-2007, 08:18
I like to hike from Groundhog Creek shelter to Hot Springs in a day. 27 miles. done that one 3 times. Wautaga Lake shelter to Damascus is a good one. 39 miles. did that one once
mountain squid
11-29-2007, 09:29
Boiling Springs, PA to Duncannon, PA is 26 miles, half of which is 'flat'.
See you on the trail,
mt squid
we did from Pine Grove Furnace State Park in PA to US 11 right past Boiling Springs...pretty much all of it was flat. I believe it was a total of 27 and change.
ARambler
11-29-2007, 11:21
we did from Pine Grove Furnace State Park in PA to US 11 right past Boiling Springs...pretty much all of it was flat. I believe it was a total of 27 and change.
This would definately be a winner, if you were hiking in both directions. However, downhill may be better than flat. For sobo, I like Loft Mtn Campground to Waynesborogh, VA. or Wind Rock to Pearisburg. NOBO, it may be hard to beat Groundhog to Hot Springs (even with Max Patch in the way.)
Rambler
I did the 26 from Boiling Springs to Duncannon. Overall less difficult and you will get your first look at the PA rocks during the last few miles before town. A cold beer at the Doyle Hotel also helps motivate you. If you plan this trip on a hot day get up early, the walk across the Cumberland valley gets much more difficult in the heat.
I suggest a stretch that is relatively gradual and smooth. Shenandoah National Park for one or parts of Maryland or New Jersey.
But remember..hiking the AT is not a race. People just choose to make it so.
David
ARambler
11-29-2007, 12:17
we did from Pine Grove Furnace State Park in PA to US 11 right past Boiling Springs...pretty much all of it was flat. I believe it was a total of 27 and change.
First, I agree that you should just let this milestone happen. When you're up to doing 20's, it doesn't make much sense to do a half day to set up a marathon. I would recommend staying at Standing Bear Farm or (dry) camping on the north side of Max Patch, so you will not be at Ground Hog shelter on most itineraries.
Second, I would like to recommend the Iron-Masters-Mansion Hostel at Pine Grove Furnace. The cost may be a buck or two higher than some hostels in the south, but you are supporting an historic building. It would be great support if a local trail angel would slack hikers out of the mansion. That would make the marathon to Rt 11 even easier and help the mansion with another nights lodging. (Boiling Springs and Trindle Rd would be even easier.)
Third, until the slack is viable, I had a good stay at the Comfort Inn at Rt 11.
Rambler
Just a Hiker
11-29-2007, 12:18
I will assume that you are NOBO, so as your fitness level improves on the trail you'll get to the point where you will be able to do 20+ miles in many areas on the trail. However, that will change once you leave Glencliff, NH.
Just Jim
dessertrat
11-29-2007, 12:25
You could probably do multiple "marathon days" in the mid-atlantic in those summer months where daylight is plentiful. Long stretches in Maryland and Virginia are quite amenable to a "marathon", and if you are on pace, having left in April, you will be in VA/MD in June, most likely.
I once did what struck me as an easy day I think was about 28 NOBO into Dalton. I began at sunrise and still had at least 2 hours of light remaining when I began to eat pizza.:)
You could try a double marathon
http://purebound.com/appalachian_trail_journal.htm#connecticut_challeng e
You could zero the next day too.
Chainsaw 08
11-30-2007, 10:11
You could zero the next day too.
Oh, that's a given!
DavidNH - I'm hiking my own hike ...
Thanks all; at this point it's hard for me to picture myself even doing 16 miles a day, let alone 26. It's good to hear so many people say it's doable.
jersey joe
11-30-2007, 10:15
Awesome goal furtigan! I had the same exact goal going into my 02' thru hike and I wound up with 18 marathon days.
The first was coming out of the smokies.
Four came in Pennsylvania, an easy state to make big mileage in.
If you are interested, here is a link to my mileage. http://www.geocities.com/joegamehike/miles.html
_terrapin_
11-30-2007, 10:32
If you complete your thru you will likely have found a number of days to do this and will have a number of 'marathons' under your belt.
Not necessarily a sure thing, IMO. The older set (of which I claim a part) goes the distance with consistency rather than "surges."
FWIW, in 30+ years of hiking, I've probably done less than a dozen "20+" days. But most of my hiking has been in tough terrain (the Whites, the DAKs, etc.)
As for places to pull off such a marathon.... the AT in Maryland and Pennsylvania comes to mind also. That stretch just south of Damascus is pretty famous for that particular purpose.
I thought that I had done 26 miles - twice. Turns out I did 24 miles - twice. Revisionist history.
DWG to Brink Road Shelter is 24.6 miles. I did it after leaving town at 11 AM. I did 24.3 into the William Penn Shelter in PA - with no pants because of chafing.
My toughest day was probably the 23.4 from Hanover to Smarts Mountain. Again, I hung around town until 10 AM.
In other words, if you get an early start, 26 miles is doable in many places. Especially in the Mid Atlantic. I do find that at around 20 miles, I start looking for a place to lay my head down. Conversely, when you have 14-15 hours of sunlight, I also felt like I hadn't hiked if I had done less than about 18 miles. I'm not a "sit around in camp" kinda guy.
Impressive stats Jersey Joe. How much night hiking (if any) was required to do 44 miles into Baxter?
On another note, I heard someone refer to 20+ mile days as "1 percent days." That's because 21.75 miles is one percent of the entire trail. That's what you have to average in order to do a 100 day hike.
jersey joe
11-30-2007, 12:16
I hiked from 8am through the night until 8am the next morning to get to the Katahdin Stream Campground. 24 hours straight. I had prearranged to meet my family there on Saturday morning. They all took off work to drive up from Jersey and I couldn't let them down. Besides, I had no way of contacting them to tell them I was late. In all I hiked 55 straight miles. One hell of a way to end my thru hike!!!
Blissful
11-30-2007, 12:30
We didn't do our first 20 until VA. Wanted to do it going into Damascus but was halted by snow and high winds and that was a pain.
We had our best times on the flat stretches in ME, actually. Did four 20 plus days in the 100 mile wilderness. You can also do high miles in Shenandoah and MD.
But don't get conned into doing 20's too early in the game. Some did and had leg problems because of it. Makes no sense. Hike your own hike and your own pace that is right for you. As was said, it's not a race.
max patch
11-30-2007, 12:36
Once I hit PA I found the combination of:
long days,
being in "hiker shape,"
relatively flat terrain, and
a desire to hike til dark (I'm also not a sit around camp guy)
made it easy to make big miles without necessarily trying to do so.
Blissful
11-30-2007, 12:39
Once I hit PA I found the combination of:
long days,
being in "hiker shape,"
relatively flat terrain, and
a desire to hike til dark (I'm also not a sit around camp guy)
made it easy to make big miles without necessarily trying to do so.
You also get better with the rocks as the miles go by. We did a 20 miler heading into DWG.
I like to hike from Groundhog Creek shelter to Hot Springs in a day. 27 miles. done that one 3 times. Wautaga Lake shelter to Damascus is a good one. 39 miles. did that one once
I think these are the two best ones. The Cumberland Valley stretch to the Doyle and the hike out of the Doyle (if not too hungovoer) are also fairly easy stretches.
You could try a double marathon.
You could zero the next day too.
Oh, that's a given!
My comment was written so as to convey several different meanings. Not only could one zero, but one may be likely to zero -- possibly more than once.
I'd sooner hike 2 back-to-back marathons than a double followed by a 0 unless I had a good reason for it.
astrogirl
11-30-2007, 21:02
But don't get conned into doing 20's too early in the game. Some did and had leg problems because of it. Makes no sense.
Roger that!
I got coerced into hiking from the spring after Vanderventer to Damascus (about 30 miles). I was fine to a good distance past Abingdon Gap, and then I crashed hard. I made it in, of course, but I was not a happy camper. I was particularly ticked off to find Damascus FULL and nowhere to sleep.
Don't get talked into it. Just let it happen.
I did do 20.6 from Rocky Run Shelter to Devil's Racecource Shelter on my sixth day on the AT ever. I did that one on my own and survived to hike the next day. I did *that* because I ran into these *really* creepy guys near Pogo Campsite. They just glared and me and would not even return a greeting. That lit a fire under my butt and I made it to Hemlock Hill quickly...where there was a warning about a resident bear and a road very, very nearby. I went on and made it to DRS about 20 seconds before the sky opened up. That worked out really well, considering.
That was in 1999, and I've never run into anyone that creepy on the AT since then, and I've logged over 1000 miles in the eight years.
Chainsaw 08
11-30-2007, 23:43
I'd sooner hike 2 back-to-back marathons than a double followed by a 0 unless I had a good reason for it.Ah ... what I meant was that after 26 miles in one day, I will likely NEED a zero.
Going into Damascus sounds like a good place to make a first try, (though of course I'm not gonna be stupid about it and injure myself), with Duncannon as the second place to try. Both will work perfectly as I'd probably zero in both anyway.
warraghiyagey
11-30-2007, 23:47
The trail will let you know when the day is right for your 'marathon.' The day will too.
The trail will let you know when the day is right for your 'marathon.' The day will too.
This was my thought, too.
Unless you bring an artificial construct to the hike, the marathon can be just a vague plan that will suddenly happen because:
1) It's a fine day and you're feeling strong, so go for it!
2) You've got some sort of deadline and have to push on regardless of how you feel.
My suggestion is that you focus on keeping safe, healthy, and uninjured. If you quit the hike, for whatever reason, even if you manage to hike the marathon distance before you quit, you'll be pissed off at yourself. Focus on the big goal. The little ones will fall into place.
PS--If you haven't hiked a marathon before you get there, the section south of Dalton, Mass, is pretty easy. ;)
Jim Adams
12-01-2007, 08:29
furtigan,
At your age, I would just wait and see...it will probably happen a few times. When I was 37 y/o and thru hiking, Hippy Man and I had done a few over 30+ days and a friend also thru hiking, Lonestar wanted to try. We started early and stopped at a beautiful large, level, open campsite in the shade along a creek in Virginia at the 27 mile mark at 1:30 in the afternoon. This lunch break / rest turned into a hacky sack and frisbie fest and Lonestar never did get those other 3 miles with Hippy Man and me. I don't know if he ever got the 30 but it probably happened.
Scott Grierson showed me how to hike fast and smooth and talked me into trying some long distance days. I had 1 day over 40 miles and with Scott getting me all fired up, I did 53.1 from Dennis Cove Campground (near Kincora) into Damascus in 19 hrs:35 min.
I was young and stupid...DON'T be young and stupid...I literally couldn't walk or even stand for 4 days after that!
OTOH, you will be amazed at the level of conditioning that you will get to.
geek
I agree about letting it happen when you are ready--or perhaps when you have to, due to weather, etc--we didn't plan to do 32 miles. We had planned on stopping at the last spring and shelter area outside of Damascus. There was a couple there who looked like they weren't speaking to one another or were in the middle of an argument. Who wants to be near that? We considered tenting, but felt good and pushed forward for pizza and Damascus. It was a summer day with many daylight hours and good hiking company. :)
Many NOBOs may be beginning to feel pretty good physically and confident by the time they reach Waynesboro and may want to see if they can string together 20s. Days will be longer and pack weights should be reduced to their summer weight by then for hikers on a traditional schedule.
SNP in 5 days, camping outside it on the 5th day would be a realistic challenge some may want to attempt.
I agree that the section south of Damascus is about the fastest walking on the whole AT. I did my only marathon-plus there, from Abingdon Gap Shelter to US 321, 31.3 miles. If you're hiking north, the section from Abingdon Gap Shelter to Damascus gets my vote for easiest 10 miles on the AT.
Chances are, though, that you will have several marathon days. Especially walking NOBO, when you're into the long-daylight time of the year, and have two or three months of daily walking in your legs, it'll happen.
I don't know, that 10.4 up and down Katahdin is right up there;).
Kirby
warraghiyagey
12-05-2007, 03:33
This was my thought, too.
Unless you bring an artificial construct to the hike, the marathon can be just a vague plan that will suddenly happen because:
1) It's a fine day and you're feeling strong, so go for it!
2) You've got some sort of deadline and have to push on regardless of how you feel.
My suggestion is that you focus on keeping safe, healthy, and uninjured. If you quit the hike, for whatever reason, even if you manage to hike the marathon distance before you quit, you'll be pissed off at yourself. Focus on the big goal. The little ones will fall into place.
PS--If you haven't hiked a marathon before you get there, the section south of Dalton, Mass, is pretty easy. ;)
Of course you're referring to the section from Dalton to Pennsylvania right?:) :D :)