Te Araroa is a foot trail stretching from Cape Reinga in the North of New Zealand to Bluff in the South.
Opening at the end of 2011, Te Araroa is one of the world’s longest walking trails. Hundreds of volunteers have helped create the continuous 3000 kilometre-long route.
Down the coastline, through the forest, across farmland, over volcanoes and mountain passes, along river valleys, and on green pathways through seven cities. …
… For the last 40 years, men have held the Appalachian Trail record. In the last 20, it’s been confined to an elite club of ultra runners who typically covered the requisite 30 to 50 miles per day in an 11- to 13-hour period.
Conventional wisdom suggested that breaking the record would mean running faster with the same strategy. And a new record holder would most certainly be male.
Pharr Davis, 28, took the standard strategy and turned it upside down. Moving from north to south, she covered the trail’s 2,181 miles by hiking for 16 hours a day beginning at 4:45 in the morning and walking well into darkness. To stick to an average pace of 47 miles a day, she slept on the trail or at road crossings to eliminate needless commute times to and from the trail. Her husband, Brew Davis, served as the support crew.
Pharr Davis trained by hiking rather than running—and the novel approach worked.
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The Great Eastern Trail Association, working with American Hiking Society and local trail partners are creating America’s newest long distance hiking trail. This path is 1800 miles long and crosses nine states. …
… the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube. Martin Sheen did a great job depicting the experience.
I hiked half the GR20 in June — trip report — and can confirm it’s bloody tough.
Guidebook author Kev Reynolds calls the GR20 high-level route across Corsica one of the toughest 3 treks in Western Europe.
GR stands for Grande Randonnée, which means big excursion in French. It is a network of long-distance footpaths in Europe, mostly in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. GR20 is considered to be the most difficult of all the GR routes. Its Corsican name is Fra li monti (sometimes spelled wrong as Fra li monte), what means “across the mountains” in Corsican. …
The trail is well marked with red and white rectangles on rocks, boulders and trees. Feeder paths are marked with one colour. There are also small stone heaps along the path. It’s still easy to get on a feeder path or to lose the way, so having a good map is necessary.
Speed-hiker extraordinaire Jennifer Pharr Davis this weekend set a new overall thru-hike record on the 2,181-mile Appalachian Trail. Her time of 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes, is the quickest recorded completion of the iconic East Coast trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. …
Note that she wore compression socks for some of her (average) 50mi days.
Salomon EXO IV Calf — Salomon’s EXO technology supports calf muscles, improving blood flow for better performance and recovery. …
When Andrew Skurka says a trail is tough, it’s tough.
The Sierra High Route (SHR) is a 195-mile trekking route that runs north-south across the heart of the Sierra Nevada Range, through Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, John Muir Wilderness, Ansel Adams Wilderness, and Yosemite National Park.
It is a rugged alternate to the John Muir Trail (JMT)– it boasts about 100 miles of cross-country travel, numerous Class III scrambles, and endless miles of boulder hopping. SHR hikers are rewarded with pristine alpine settings, long stretches of solitude, and a sense of true adventure.
I hiked the SHR in early-July 2008 with famed ultra runner Buzz Burrell, who at 56 years young is still going really strong. We were both taken back by the immensity of the High Sierra — its alpine regions are vaster than any other place we’d been in the Lower 48, in both length and girth, which is not necessarily the impression given by the JMT. I would have to imagine that this trip with Buzz will be just the first of several trips on the SHR. We comfortably did the entire route in 8 days and 4 hours, an average about 23 miles a day. …
The ultimate long trek in the world, I reckon, is the Nepal section of the GHT.
The Great Himalaya Trail is one of the longest and highest walking trails in the world. Winding beneath the world’s highest peaks and visiting some of the most remote communities on earth, it passes through lush green valleys, arid high plateaus and incredible landscapes. Nepal’s GHT has 10 sections comprising a network of upper and lower routes, each offering you something different, be it adventure and exploration, authentic cultural experiences, or simply spectacular Himalayan nature. …
Thank Richard for the update. And for the link to an interview with thru hiker Shawn Forry (trail name Pepper). He and Trauma did 57 days carrying their own gear cache to cache. Some harsh sections.
One big problem with Nepal is the complexity and cost of trekking permits. They tried to do it legal, relying on Adventure Alliance in Kathmandu to organize the paperwork.
Opening at the end of 2011, Te Araroa is one of the world’s longest walking trails. Hundreds of volunteers have helped create the continuous 3000 kilometre-long route.
besthike.com 