[at-l] AT & CDT in one year

[bluetrail at aol.com]

My friend Li Branfors is attempting to do the AT and the CDT in one year.  Not quite the triple crown in a year, but certainly an extraordinary goal.  When Li did the FT, he spent several nights at my place (with shuttles to and fro), and Jon Phipps & I picked him up on the trail and took him to the FTA annual meeting that year.
 
Li heads a fire crew at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon; he actually got a sabattical for 11 months of this year.  We visited him at the North Rim in 2004, and he was an extremely gracious host.  He even camped out so that we had the luxury of a bed in his government-furnished trailer.  He hadn't had a day off in 16 days when we got there, but he took a day off to give us the complete fire tour of the North Rim.  Very interesting, albeit intense, guy.  As to his mileage plans, I know he knocked out 35-40 mile days on the FT.  He's also done a rim-to-rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon in one day.
 
Thought you might enjoy reading his update (got his permission to post this) from Bear's Den:
 
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Just a quick update to let everybody know where I am and that all is well.  Happy, healthy, and hiking away!  Unfortunately I'm pushing pretty hard now to meet a friend in northern PA by the end of the week, so don't have time for a full update with pictures.  I'll try to get something out in a week or two, but no guarantees.
 
Made it to Bears Den Hostel in extreme northern Virginia, which is about 20 miles from Harpers Ferry, WV, the psychological halfway point of the trail.  I'm about 1 day ahead of schedule at the moment, but look to gain 3-4 days through PA to meet my friend Kenny from high school by Delaware Water Gap.  That will mean doing 35-40 mile days for the next week and timing my stop in Duncannon, PA perfectly to hit the post office.  Sounds pretty crazy, and if the rocks of PA are as bad as some people say, it may not even be possible.  But others tell me not to worry about "Rocksylvannia" and the terrain is supposedly pretty easy outside the rocks, so I'm hedging my bets that I'll deal with it OK.  I've been doing 34-38 mpd every full hiking day for the last week since Daleville, so all I have to do is continue that pace.
 
I actually had a hiking partner for a week and a half from a day before Pearisburg to a day after Waynesboro.  Hermes did the AT last year, and was doing half the AT this year plus the PCT starting May 18.  We both were doing 30+ mile days, so teamed up since neither of us had yet anybody else on the AT who was consistently doing that type of mileage.  It was a great time, and I think we both learned a lot from each other.  I forgot both how enjoyable it can be hiking with another person, but also how many compromises you have to make for the good of the team.  We have pretty different styles (he goes fast and gets 30 in by 6 pm, I go slower and was taking until after 8 pm) so had to mesh the 2 during our informal teaming.  Hermes also was a super ultra-light hiker (sub-5 lb base weight!) and I picked his brain to help me lighten up and get my base weight below 10 lbs. for the first time ever.  We interestingly both switched out gear in Waynesboro to the exact same sleeping bag, shelter, and pack, but I went a lot lighter, while he "bulked up" for the PCT.  I think I got my base weight down to 7-9 lbs.  That, along with having the incredibly easy ~100 miles of Shenandoah NP are the reasons I'm putting in even bigger mileages.  It's fun in a twisted sort of way to try out new things and challenge yourself to see what you can do while still keeping things enjoyable.
 
On to Harpers Ferry this afternoon, where I'll see what # northbound (NOBO) thru-hiker of the year I'll be!  I heard a guy just a couple days ago was #17, so I think I'll be within the first 30.  This is after being somewhere between #400 and 1000 (depending on who you believe) at the start.  There's only about 5 people I know of ahead of me doing high mileages, but I've been catching up to them, so I assume given another 1.5 months, I'll pass them, too.  That will be a little weird if I end up being the first NOBO hiker of the year at some point, but there are folks who start in early Feb, so I probably won't pass all of them.  The prospect of very few more hikers to chat with, even briefly, is admittedly a bit lonely, since I've really enjoyed talking with folks along the AT more than any other aspect of the hike (surprise, surprise from Li the quasi-xenophobe).  But you have to make some compromises to try to hike 2 big trails in a year, and at least I'm used to hiking alone after the Arizona, Florida, and Hayduke Trails in previous years.  I'll just be returning to my norm!  I probably won't see many thru-hikers on the CDT until Wyoming, either.  But I won't as much of an order of magnitude faster than the average CDT hiker, so I might find someone to team up with informally later in the summer.  For now, though, the AT calls ever northward!
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