Papa D
12-29-2012, 21:28
Ok- I have to start this with a little background.
in 1985, I thru hiked the trail. In the late 1990s and through the first decade of this century, I ran kids outdoor programs, mostly backpacking, rock climbing, etc. On particular special "kid" sort of took a liking to everything that I did and signed up for my program 3 times as a teenager As an 18 year old (sort of in my footsteps) he southbound the AT in 2008 which he did in very good style and I hiked with him for about 100 miles. He is now 22 and attends Alaska Pacific University and is contemplating a PCT thru hike. We are very good friends and are going backpacking together for 4 days in January which is really exciting for me. For what it's worth, we have also hiked a lot in the snow and very bad weather together and are actually sort of hoping for an "epic." We respect each other's abilities (for a 22 year old, he is the best woodsperson I know). He has hiked more verified miles in a day than just about anyone I know (54). We are also a bit competitive with each other and would sort of like a 4 day "challenge." He thinks I'm over the hill and I think that if I turn it on, I can out pace him over the long haul so we need something to do starting the night of January 9th (when we'll be setting shuttle potentially) and need to be out by about dark on January 13th and driving home (he flys back to AK on the 15th). We want it to be sick hard - this makes us both happy.
So, here is the question: What suggestions do you guys have for a challenge? It needs to be somewhere in GA,NC, or TN. My guess is that we could easily do 100 miles in 4 days without too much of a problem in normal weather - - if there was snow, that would be even better but we'd probably drop back to 75 miles total - - - we have 2 Subarus full of gear including zero bags, crampons, yak-trax, boots, shoes, tents, the works (yeah, he copied me on my car too) - - ideas include the whole GSMNP in 4 days, all of GA, somewhere like (Carvers Gap) to Damascus isn't even out of the question. We could also do part of the BMT or something totally different. Ideas?
in 1985, I thru hiked the trail. In the late 1990s and through the first decade of this century, I ran kids outdoor programs, mostly backpacking, rock climbing, etc. On particular special "kid" sort of took a liking to everything that I did and signed up for my program 3 times as a teenager As an 18 year old (sort of in my footsteps) he southbound the AT in 2008 which he did in very good style and I hiked with him for about 100 miles. He is now 22 and attends Alaska Pacific University and is contemplating a PCT thru hike. We are very good friends and are going backpacking together for 4 days in January which is really exciting for me. For what it's worth, we have also hiked a lot in the snow and very bad weather together and are actually sort of hoping for an "epic." We respect each other's abilities (for a 22 year old, he is the best woodsperson I know). He has hiked more verified miles in a day than just about anyone I know (54). We are also a bit competitive with each other and would sort of like a 4 day "challenge." He thinks I'm over the hill and I think that if I turn it on, I can out pace him over the long haul so we need something to do starting the night of January 9th (when we'll be setting shuttle potentially) and need to be out by about dark on January 13th and driving home (he flys back to AK on the 15th). We want it to be sick hard - this makes us both happy.
So, here is the question: What suggestions do you guys have for a challenge? It needs to be somewhere in GA,NC, or TN. My guess is that we could easily do 100 miles in 4 days without too much of a problem in normal weather - - if there was snow, that would be even better but we'd probably drop back to 75 miles total - - - we have 2 Subarus full of gear including zero bags, crampons, yak-trax, boots, shoes, tents, the works (yeah, he copied me on my car too) - - ideas include the whole GSMNP in 4 days, all of GA, somewhere like (Carvers Gap) to Damascus isn't even out of the question. We could also do part of the BMT or something totally different. Ideas?