100 day dash

[freightliner]

I hope to someday be in good enough shape to do 100 day dash on the AT and I was wondering if anybody was going to try to do it this year. It's hard but not so hard it can't be done you just have to have the right mindset and gear. The thing I'd really like to know is if people plan it or it just seems to happen that way.

[RED-DOG]

Never heard of it, why would you want to.

[dangerdave]

The hundred day dash would leave me fifty days dead!

But, HYOH, they say. Mine will be a hike, not a dash. So, Dash-Your-Own-Hike, my man!

[10-K]

Assume 2185 miles.. 21.85 mpd, every day for 100 days.

take 5 zeros then it's 23 mpd

take 10 zeros then it's 24.28 mpd

I just hiked 2660 miles, plus a trip up Mt. Whitney, plus a lot of bonus miles walking to and fro for resupply in 119 days but it was on an easier trail.

You can do it..

[Gnomad]

There are lots that do. An excellent blog to get a sense is wired's. Google walking with wired. I think her's was about 100 days. It seems dedicated, wonderful, and not really a dash.

[Texaco]

I finished in 114, hiked with 2 guys who finished in 90. It's doable if you're focused and would rather have a number than social experiences. There's an interesting vibe to hiking past people and knowing you'll never run into them again on the trail. I slowed down after 1,000 miles with them because I met a good group of people who I spent a while with before pressing on and finishing sub-115. Let me tell you, canoeing through a lake in the middle of Vermont, swimming in a trail-angel's pool in CT, all those things are experience I'd have hiked right by had I pushed on for a sub-100 day hike.

For what it's worth, having hiked 25-30+ mile days for weeks on end, you do NOT HAVE TO START OFF THAT QUICKLY. Ease into it, doing 10-15 a day to get your legs, then go. My 90 day friend had leg problems after making it to Fontana in 7 days. It's possible to finish quickly without racing off the starting line.

My blog thoroughly details and photographs a 114 day hike, and has a page dedicated to mileage and the like if you're looking for an idea of speed.

[SteelCut]

My blog thoroughly details and photographs a 114 day hike, and has a page dedicated to mileage and the like if you're looking for an idea of speed.

Thanks for sharing. I've skimmed a little bit of your blog and looking forward to reading it in further detail.

[garlic08]

I hiked the AT in 106 days at age 51, with a 63-year-old partner (our combined ages exceeded our days on the trail!). And we had a fun hike and did not try for any schedule--it was just our natural hiking pace developed on other long trails like the PCT and CDT. 20 mile days were a sustainable pace for us, and we never felt the need for rest days. (But we took three of them, mainly to meet with friends and family along the way.) We also met a few others near the end of the trail who had kept a 100-day pace, even a couple of first-timers.

The advantages were: starting later and avoiding the winter in the South, avoiding the heat in the mid-Atlantic, getting home to Colorado in July and still having a full hiking season at home, not to mention costing less. A faster hike is a cheaper hike. I had $1500 left from my $5000 budget and I did not skimp on anything.

Necessary conditions for that kind of pace are really knowing that your gear is tried and true, knowing how to sustain body weight and strength with a good diet, preventing all sorts of maladies like sunburn, poison ivy, tick bites and blisters, and knowing how to rest and heal up from the long days of hiking.

Best of luck, and most of all have fun!

[Malto]

I hiked a sub 100 day schedule on the PCT. If you are in shape, disciplined and experienced then it's not that difficult. Lack any of the three and it could be a grind. By the way, even at that schedule it was a trip of a lifetime. Oh, one other thing, you have to like to walk.