The New York Times declares “speed hiking” a new sport. The latest dirt:
The first speed-hiking race, to be held on Aug. 11, is perhaps the best indication that the sport is taking off. Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vt., will be the host for the event, the roughly 16-mile Herc Open, which has a purse of $25,000. Only 75 participants have registered, but Amy Mayer, the race coordinator, predicts the number will quadruple.
Good rant, Tom! I wonder if ever there will come a time when there is absolutely nothing left for humans to invent for fun or sport? Soon, we’ll be Olympicizing cow paddy tossing. (Maybe we already are?) How about formalizing the sport of body rolling, like the sadhus / holy dudes of India who roll on their side for 600 mile pilgrimages. Any takers? Well, I’m like you, for sure, Tom – give me the simple pleasures of foot to earth with sane, sensible pacing, to take it all in!
Scott Silver up at Wild Wilderness has written a lot about the Disney-fication of Wilderness. This kind of event has the potential to move that trend forward.
I havn’t heard of “speed hiking” but it sounds too close to “exercise” for me. I love hiking for so many reasons: The views, discovering what’s around the next bend, quiet (or not, but different noises than what I hear at home)and most of all a chance to connect with my family in a way that just doesn’t happen at home-the kids talk, and I actually get to know them. The exercise is just an added bonus.
Rant away Tom!
They don’t fit together for me at all.
DSD
If I were 30 years younger I would probably be all into speed hiking. Now I am just to old and besides not being able to walk that fast anymore, I like to stop and smell the roses. If I’m enjoying the moment, why rush it?
And so tomorrow I am thinking I will enjoy the moment hiking up the Short Cut at Henry Coe. I know, I’m crazy but I’ve done it once before with a Stanford Outing Club group hike and I’d like to try it again before it gets too hot. I’m sure it will be warm tomorrow but doable. Maybe I’ll run into some others out there enjoying the moment too.
OK, I am completely nuts and out of my mind but I did go to Coe today and I hiked: Monument Trail -> Hobbs Road -> up the Short Cut to the top -> Blue Ridge Road -> Poverty Flat Road -> Manzanita Point Road -> Corral Trail and end. My GPS said it was 14.1 miles with abot 3900 feet of elevation gain but my feet tell me it was more even if it wasn’t. And I kept bumping into the wall going up the short cut, feeling wobbly on my feet with exhaustion in my chest and heart flutters. Havng a sedentary job and long commute makes it harder to get and stay in shape than I would like. And so I didn’t do any speed hiking today. I started my hike at 10:45 AM and finally made it up to the bench at the top of the Short Cut at 2:43 PM. I made back to the park HQ at about 7:30 and now I am beat. Speed hiking? Forget it! It was a beautiful day in the park though with cool breezes, though it did feel warmer down at Poverty Flat. And through all my hike, I did not see a single person in the park until I hit the Corral Trail. It felt like I had Coe all to myself!
Oh, and one other thing. It is amazing to me just how incredibly beautiful the open fields of tall golden grass is at the end of the day in the section along Manzanita Point Road between the Springs Trail and Corral Trail junctions. The sun just glistens off the grass with the most delightful color. I love it and stopped frequently just to enjoy it. It made all the pain and suffering of the day worth it!
The green in that stretch was notably gorgeous this spring as well.
By the way, if you want to survive to hike with the next blogger meet-up, please do the counter-clockwise Mount Sizer loop — it’s much more gradual on the way up (though, depending on your knees, you may prefer going up the Hobbs Road Shortcut to going down — it’s so steep you have your brakes on the whole time, which is almost as tiring as going up.)
The time to do this hike is in winter and spring, actually. It’s already getting too warm.
You’re right, though doable it probably was a bit warm for the hike. Up on the Blue Ridge Road with the cool breezes it felt at most maybe mid 70’s F. Down at Poverty Flat I’d say it was in the 80’s. I talked it over with three different rangers at the park HQ to let them know I was doing it and get their advice. None of them said no as the weather was not going to be particularly hot for the day and I had plenty of water, 6 liters plus 600 ml Gatorade, snacks, gel shots and the like.
I did hike up the Short Cut this past March when it was a little
cooler and as gorgeous as it was then, it was still no picnic. And I’m not sure which I would rather do. Descending hills is so hard on my knees that I would almost rather climb them. Nonetheless, your advice is spot on and you probably won’t see me at Coe again until Fall.