Past Trips
APPALACHIAN TRAIL 2003
Whilst living in Connecticut with my friend Paul Gribben, we were looking for our next adventure and as the AT was one of his life time ambitions. We decided that was where the next adventure awaited us. I was never daunted by the prospect of the 2175 miles of mountainous trail that lay ahead, even though I had no previous hiking experience.
I lasted 50 miles before my knee gave out to the stresses of carrying a backpack up and down mountains and was forced to fly home and recover. Determined not to let the AT beat me, I began physio and training to get myself in shape for my second attempt during the summer of 2003.
I began a lot slower and eased myself into the challenge this time. I quickly realised that this adventure was not enough on its own and began to find ways of pushing myself. One of the challenges I set myself was to hike the Smoky Mountain National Park in one day. 99% of people I told rubbished the idea, saying it wasn’t possible. 27 snicker bars and 72 miles later I completed the SMNP in 22 hours. I slept well! I completed the AT in a leisurely 114 days.
I kept an online journal of this trip
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=1546
The next challenge I dreamt up was certainly going to push me to a new level. The plan was to hike the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail and American Discovery Trail all in the same year with a support team. My sponsorship requests fell on deaf ears and no one took me seriously or believed I could sustain 40 miles per day for a full year over mountains and through the four seasons. I believed in myself and set out to find a tougher challenge that I could complete on my own without reliance on sponsors. I decided to ‘thru hike’ unsupported, the PCT, CDT and AT in the same year, a feat also deemed impossible.
PACIFIC CREST TRAIL 2004
Originally meant as a preparation hike for the 4 trail challenge, the PCT is much more diverse than the AT. Along its 2650 mile route it takes in numerous deserts, forests and high altitude mountain ranges. The trail is also used by equestrians, unlike the AT, and for this reason has a far more gentle grade on average. The Southern terminus is on the US/Mexico border near a small town called Campo, 50 miles SE of San Diego. Passing through California, Oregan and Washington, the northern terminus is on the US/Canadian border. The nearest road is 8 miles away via a side trail to the Canadian resort of Manning Park.
Again, my pace was very leisurely and I completed the trail in 100 days. Here is a link to my online journal http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=63161
TRIPLE CROWN 2005
The Triple Crown comprises three of America’s eight National Scenic Trails - the Pacific Crest Trail (2650 miles), Continental Divide trail (3100 miles) and the Appalachian Trail (2175 miles).
It was widely regarded as being impossible to hike each trail end to end in the same year due to the combined mileage of almost 9000 miles and the ever changing climates, seasons and weather conditions a person would have tackle in order to succeed.
With that said, I looked for the hardest possible way to achieve this goal - every decision was based on minimizing my chances of success! I looked at the hardest possible order to hike the trails the hardest way. I wanted to get to the end knowing that it couldn’t have been more difficult.
I decided to start on the Pacific Crest Trail on May 4th 2005. The High Sierras had been nailed all winter long and by the time I had got there, there was record snow pack in some areas. All talk on the trail said it would be impossible to pass through the Sierras in those conditions. I laughed. Not because I had experience in the those conditions, but because people weren’t prepared to try. I had never even used an ice axe or crampons, map and compass or GPS before. I taught myself how to climb with them over a 1,500 foot snow shoot, free climbing over Forester Pass at 13,500 feet. It was tough, but by no means impossible. I was on solid snow for close to 450 miles.
After breaking past the snow in California, I was able to maintain a 40 mile per day average to the finish in Canada, in spite of more snow in Oregan, town re supply days and battling a knee injury for over 800 miles. I was able to break the speed record by 2 days even with a record snow year.
After the PCT, it was now time for the Continental Divide Trail and over 3000 miles of navigation difficulties! Starting on the US/Canada border, the trail winds through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico to the US/Mexico border. With 2 Northern terminals, 3 in the South and numerous ways to hike the in-between bit, there is no route set in stone for this trail. I was determined to hike the trail to its fullest and refused to take any off the cut-offs popular with other hikers. They were other peoples excuses to take a short cut and it would have demeaned the challenge due to cutting the trails length by hundreds of miles. A lot of time was lost by being lost! In some areas, the trail is hard to follow and in some cases doesn’t even exist. I got a crash coarse in map and compass skills to say the least! I was still able to break the fastest known time by over 8 days and I had hiked 500+ more miles.
I thought the hard part was done now, even though I had winter looming on the AT and no previous winter experience. I started in Maine on the back of record rain fall which caused the ‘100 mile Wilderness’ to be totally flooded. I must have waded through at least 50 miles of ice cold water and forded 10 dangerously flooded rivers. Then a foot of snow fell, forcing me to buy winter clothing. It was just nuisance snow and not enough to slow me down significantly. But hurricane Wilma had other ideas for me. The hurricane brought with it moisture from the tropics and collided with a cold front coming down from Canada, resulting in 3-4 feet of snow fall at 4,000 feet. Now i was in trouble! I had to learn snow shoe mountaineering on the toughest part of the AT.
Mount Washington had recorded 3 times its record October snow fall in just 2 weeks! It also holds the world record for the highest recorded wind speed anywhere on Earth at 231 mph! The AT went right over the summit!
I was now forced into averaging 40 miles per day to finish on time. I had to go as fast as World renowned ultra runner, David Horton’s past AT speed record. Bearing in mind his time was set in the summer with a support team. I had to deal with an early winter and a further 700 miles of snow before finishing with 2 days to spare on the 29th of December 2005.
One of the toughest challenges for me was limiting my daily mileage. I had no experience with endurance hiking and didn’t know how far I could go without seriously injuring myself.
Here is a link to my online journal
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=2337
