by site editor Rick McCharles
I grossly underestimated the difficulty of “Europe’s toughest trek“, the 180km long GR 20.
The second night was my low point, both hamstrings cramped. … I thought I’d need to quit, following two other hikers who decided to limp out due to blisters.
But each day I got stronger, the pack lighter. I ended up doing about 100kms of the tougher ‘half’ of the total route over 6 challenging days.
The last day was a long scramble to the summit of Monte d’Oro.
That was FUN. Perfect weather.
Less fun, from there (7837ft / 2389m) … it’s about 1400m straight down to the narrow gauge railway line at Vizzavona, where I made my escape.
That’s my toughest hike ever, by far.
Trip report and photos coming SOON.
besthike.com 
Congratulations!. I will not be doing this one so it is much appreciated to enjoy the experience through your effort, skill and knowledge. I shall look forward to upcoming trip reports and photos. Is that the summit or did you need to bury somebody? 😉
That is the summit. Surprisingly I was fealing GREAT last day. No problems.
Amazing hiking journey there Rick, absolutley amazing! One for the books, and speaking of that, we hope you are keeping your journal updated so you can eventually write that book about all of these wonderful hiking adventures too…
Looking forward to all of the pictures and chatting about them,
DSD
Looks like a tough but fantastic trip Rick – congratulations. It’s a hike I’ve wanted to do for a while but haven’t had the time – looking forward to reading your trip report.
I miss the GR20. It was the first big tour I did and I went for the, supposedly, toughest one I could find. Looking back, we were really not prepared for some things but it was awesome. Two weeks I’ll never forget.