Hiking's Triple Crown
National Scenic Trails
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HIKING |
Hiking's Triple Crown |
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Featured in the San Jose,CA."Mercury News" newspaper on 10-07-2001, was a story about 40 year old Brian Robinson's quest to become the first man to conquer all three premiere American national scenic hiking trails in a single calendar year. To that small group of ultra-long distance hikers, the feat of trekking all three of these major scenic wilderness trails is known as the Triple Crown. All who have achieved it did so over multiple years, and no one has even come close to the Calendar Triple Crown that Robinson is close to conquering. That is, a 7,371 mile walk through these parks/trails in year 2001!
Robinson, a long-time backpacker, trained for his trek by running 90 miles per week. In December 2000, he quit his engineering job at Compaq Computer and started the Appalachian Trail on New year's Day, January 1, 2001,at Georgia's Springer Mountain. Over the following 9 months, he has hiked on average 25 miles a day usually from dawn to dusk, day in and day out. Breakfast and lunch are usually dry granola, trail mix and Snickers bars, and are eaten on the go. For dinner, he cooks with a stove fashioned from a tuna can. His backpack is light weight because of such economies, plus his tent shelter is made with his rain tarp and hiking poles. Additionally, every 3 to 5 days, he would hitchhike to a town nearby to obtain re-supply packages mailed by his father from Los Altos, CA. He then mailed his latest trail journal entries to be placed on his Web site at http://royrobinson.homestead.com/
By late March and travelling north, he encountered hip-deep snow in Vermont and was forced to leave the Appalachian Trail after about 1,683 miles (short 485 miles). By July, he had finished the 2,645 mile Pacific Crest Trail through the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges in a record 84 days. Late in September, he completed the 2,558 mile Continental Divide Trail, and thus became the first person to complete the Pacific Crest and the Continental Divide Trails in a single year.Now he's back on the Appalachian Trail in New England with winter approaching.
During this extreme backpacking, he has had to cope with every imaginable obstacle and condition. Snow, rain, freezing weather to desert heat, treacherous and slippery trails with rocks and boulders ,stumps and tree branches, etc. Sometimes the trails are unmarked or difficult to follow. Treacherous creeks to cross. Steep hills to descend or to climb. The threat of animal attacks. The danger of a life-threatening injury. And always, the solitude.
Karen Berger, a hiking guidebook author and one of a few who hold a Triple Crown, says that Robinson's almost completed feat "...is so far above the reach of what the rest of us could possibly dream of". She goes on to compare the logistical, physical and mental difficulties involved in the Calendar Triple Crown to climbing the Seven Summits---the highest peak on each continent---in one year. She adds that in the remaining distance that "he is going to encounter the most difficult terrain he has yet seen". Others agree.
The White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Mahoosuc range in Maine that lie ahead are not as high as those on the western trails, but with exposed rock that will be slippery, and steep trails without switchbacks, they may be more treacherous. In October, intermittent rain and snow are typical, thus most through-hikers get out of the Whites by late September. Despite these obstacles, if he is to succeed, Robinson must press on and keep up his grueling pace. Winter weather may make the unpredictable 5,267-foot Mount Katahdin impassable and thereby assure failure.
Robinson remains cautiously optimistic. He is quoted: "Things can still go wrong, but my chances are very, very good right now". Laurie Potteiger, spokesperson for the Appalachian Trail Conference says;"He's already done more or less the unthinkable". Consequently, at this time, no one in the hiking community seems prepared to second-guess him.
© 2001, Fred Walsh fred_walsh@hotmail.com
