Can You Top This?

[Pete_Hickey]

While not that long of a drive, I have one trip, where the RATIO of drive-time to hike-time is way out of wack.

4 hours driving down, then 15 minutes into the hike, I fall off a cliff, crack my skull, and that's it for the day. Then the ride back.

At least 8 hours in the car, and less than an hour in the woods.

 

[jbrown]

All of this talk about the long drive to the mountains is making my proverbial hiking mouth water, so to speak. I'm in Syracuse, so my drive to the Adk Loj is around 4ish hours.

The only "marathon" 1-day hike I've done was when I was first really starting in the High Peaks. I drove up in the morning, did Cascade and Porter in 2.25 hrs car to car and drove home in time to go to my grandmother's birthday party. The one that took the most out of me was the one where we left at 6:00 p.m. on a friday, drove to the Jackrabbit Inn, slept about 5 hours, woke up, ate, geared up and were on the trail at 5:30 a.m. to do Marcy on a lovely winter day.

and yes, Goran Kropp is God!

While I disagree with his being compared to God, I fully agree that Goran Kropp is one amazing individual. 1996 was a year of tragedy and triumph on Chomolungma, I wish more were mentioned of his story...unless there's a book I haven't read yet. (?)

 

[blownaway]

Another one for me....

A fun one for me and maybe an idea for any of you....

The Crawford Notch Visitor Center was under construction at the time so I did it this way:

June 2002---Hauled my bicycle with me this time.

I drove from MD to Randolph NH and checked into the little cabins behind Lowes Store. Slept that night.

Next day I dropped my car off at the Crawford Trail Head parking lot. Biked 20-25 miles back to Lowes cabins and relaxed.

Woke up at 2:45am and walked 2 miles to the Valley Way Trail Head....Walking 2 miles on Route 2 in the middle of the night is a story in itself.

Got to VW Trail Head around 3:30am....Did the Watson Path cut off to Madison...BIG mistake...cost me about an hour and ALOT of ENERGY.

Did Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe...went around Eisenhower and down Crawford Path...Got to car around 7pm.....drove back to cabins.

Beautiful weather....tried it again the next year (late August-early Sept) and got hammered back by rain and winds at the Madison Summit.

Although I did manage to impress the crowd at the Madison Hut (7:00am) when I was asked if I was going to attempt to summit Adams in this "crazy" weather, and I said "I'm just coming DOWN from the summit and heading back the car."

priceless.....

 

[KayakDan]

No record setting travel,but one very wierd trip.

Arrive home from Carribbean cruise 11pm Friday in January
Arrive at the Wilderness trailhead 7AM Saturday-full winter overnight gear.

After a strange look,we get asked"Why the hell do you have a tan??"

 

[hikeritz]

Not even close to other achievements noted here, but I'll claim this one: Long ago I hosted a gathering at my apartment in Boston for an all-night Twilight Zone marathon running on TV. At 5AM, the marathon ended and there were two of us left. I threw together a pack, then we drove to my friend's place, where he ran in and emerged a few minutes later with a big garage bag full of his gear. We drove north, followed the Kanc to Chocora and spent the day making our way to the top, sometimes on trails, sometimes bushwacking. We summited, then bushwacked off the top until we found an isolated spot by a stream and set up camp. We finally crashed after something like 40 hours awake.

 

[blownaway]

then we drove to my friend's place, where he ran in and emerged a few minutes later with a big garage bag full of his gear.

Too funny...."big garage bag full of gear"

 

[brianW]

How about driving 18.5 hrs with 3 kids (at the time 18months, 5 and 7) the wife and my wife's 83 yr old grandmother?

 

[Mike P.]

Is driving a ton of miles, hiking & turning around & driving back a safe practice worth bragging about? seems pretty reckless. (Now that I'm older)

Now, to jump into the fray, nothing in winter however

July 92 work a regular day (desk job in Hartford) home get ready to hike over weekend & go play Volleyball from 7-10:30 shower leave health club at the in Vernon/Manchester town line in CT at 11:00. PM Goal is to drive part of the way to BSP that night, then sleep & hike after a day of rest. 2 liters of Mountain Dew gets me to the ME turnpike & then coffee get me to Augusta, try sleeping in a rest stop but I'm wired so I keep driving to Bangor (5:00) for gas, Jolt & Chocolate Donuts, get to Millinocket in my Mazda truck wired, figure I'm going to stop for Breakfast near the mill.. Notice in town, I've got the only foreign truck, so the environmentialist says better go someplace with tree huggers like me.
Arrive at the gate at 7:30 AM

Virtually no planning involved but recall a conversation on Mansfield, my first 4K a couple weeks ago,, they said BSP was great

Welcome to BSP
Thanks, great to be here
What are you planning to do?
Climb Katahdin I said
What trail did you want to us, Abol SLIDE, Knife's Edge?

Now I'm thinking slide & knife edge's I'm in way over my head but recall Chimney Pond from that conversation so I say by Chimney Pond. Ranger tells me where to go & then ask where did I start today.

MANCHESTER,

Manchester NH she asked wearily? No Manchester CT! I could see in her eyes the wheels turning, okay remember to go get this idiot later today.

SO I have no water, just a Jolt & a candy bar, so I fill up th empty 2 liter Dew bottle from the brook & head up to the top & back by 2:00 (This was my last hike in old raquetball sneakers) made great time unencumbered by gear, I had a sweatshirt maybe windpants in a small dufflebag.

Back in the car, back to health club by 9:00 (22 hours) where I played some more VB then drove home & crashed until noon the next day. Took one break in ME when I knew I did not hear a lyric of my favorite song, Stopped, Stretched & then got coffee at next area.

Looking back at this, I can't say it was heroic or epic, unless you want an example of epic stupidity that I was very lucky to have survived without incident. (smarter than driving drunk like many kids did in the late 70's & 80's , maybe but not much smarter) It very well be better to be lucky than good.

Also did a trip the next month that started that morning in Glen up Washington, passed a guy who suffered a fatal injury that day, I then drove to Keene Valley slept & then did Marcy returning to CT at 6:00 for the surprise Volleyball practice before the tournament we played on Saturday. We won! That trip was better planned & much smarter, IMO.

 

[Umsaskis]

I used to drive tired a lot, mostly for the sake of hiking. Once I was coming back to Orono ME from the Whites where I had been doing 3 very long days of early-morning to evening wildlife research. Just before I hit Newport on the way back I got pulled over for drunk driving. I guess I was so sleepy I was weaving. And to make it even more embarrassing, the cop was a man I had gone to high school with. He quickly ascertained that I was not drunk, we exchanged "how have you been", he told me to get some coffee, and drove off.

After that, and a few near misses with the back ends of tractor trailers, I started taking 20-minute power naps when I got tired. And I live a lot closer to the Whites, which helps.

 

[blownaway]

Mike P...I did not mean for the thread to come across as bragging...Probably the "Top me if you can" at the end may make it sound like that, but not ment so....And...yes, I know how foolish it is to drive in that state....not only for harm it could cost me but the countless others on the interstate.

I was just trying to point out some of the crazy things I/or we have done to get in a hike.....Unfortunately for me....I have to drive to Winter because it surely never comes to me..

This one excursion, or marathon always stands out in my mind because it was out of the ordinary...and just abit crazy....Sharing, not bragging...

I do, however, still drive along way just for a 1 or 2 nighter.....

 

[Mike P.]

I routinely drive 4+ hours for a hike from Southeastern CT to Whites in a day.

Rest is good. I'm staying more often overnight, usually before a hike, tomorrow will be third night this year at Hiker's & have a night in at the Loj. That said:

2nd Night at Loj after long day from Loj over Redfield, Skylight & Marcy & with the Marathon the next AM I woke up at 1:00 to use Rest room & decided to leave getting back to CT around 6:00 AM. Too sore to have tried Street & Nye

August left early AM from CT drove to Augusta arriving there around 9:30 stayed at work destination until 11:00 drove to CVR to do Reddington starting around 2:00 PM & done a little before 6:00, then drove back to CT.

Upcoming ADK trip, 12:00 drive to Utica from Hartford for holiday party 4:00 -9:00 while others continue in bar, I get some sleep & awake at 3:00 drive to ADK Loj via 90 & 87 & 73 to avoid Lake Effect snow that back in 2002 was almost deadly. Hike & then drive back to CT.

I'm in same boot as you pretty much, why drive that far, because CT (MD) are too darn flat.

 

[JackH]

long trips

Yeah I am in the same boat as Mike. I often try to do the round trip in a day. It is exhausting but I am usually lacking vacation days at the end of the year and this is the only alternative. Last winter, on a few trips, I left Hartford at 2 or 3 am and have been able to get to a summit and get back home after midnight .
On one trip I was pushing it through a snow storm and spun out and buried the Jeep in snow at the side of the road. The tow out cost $120.00 and 2 hours time and on top of it all I ran out of daylight before I made the summit that day. That was not a good day!

 

[Raymond]

Some of you folks may not realize that Göran Kropp died three years ago.

http://www.nepal-dia.de/Aktuelle_Lage_/Goran_Kropp/goran_kropp.html

 

[Paul K]

Drive time to hike time ratio

To avoid those marathon round-trips, I have tried to strictly follow my drive time to hike time ratio rule. The rule is that the time on the trail has to be longer than the time in the car. From Boston to the Whites for day trips I have sometimes stretched this rule, but I try to stay close. I don't want the tedium of the drive to overwhelm the joy of the trail.

I'm open to a caveat that will discount the drive time when there is a good companion along or a good CD.

 

[sweeper]

I got one for ya.

1978, after two years in Colorado Spr, Co (ARMY) I drove 2000 miles in 50hrs with SWMBO, two kids blowing chucks all the way across Kansas and 4 cases of Coors. Dropped them off at her mothers and headed for the mountains.
Climbed Washington via Jewell tr and down to Mizpah, day 2 Ethan pond shltr, day 3 Guyot, day 4 out at liberty springs.
Day 5 off to the Beach on the way home picked up 40#s of "Steam'as" and 10 "Lobst'as". Had a meal that couldn't be beat. 10 people NO LEFTOVERS.
Day 6 MLB Allstar game took a case of Coors and two six packs of "GANSET" (That would be NARRAGANSETT for you young folk) to a buddy's house. As I remember it Capt Carl was the MVP of the game.
Day 7 REST!
Day 8 Headed back to CS with 4 cases of said Ganset. We did returned in 3 days.
First day back, PT test! Worst one I ever took, but still passed.

 

[J&A]

Although it's important for folks to consider hike time to drive time, I think another relevant consideration is the actual distance between your departing and arriving destination. Consider, for example, driving from MD to the Catskills: it's about 360 miles:5 hours:1 day of hiking. This is reasonable. But, as a fellow MD hiker, I am sure the original poster will agree that driving 7 hours to go 100 miles away to Shenandoah National Park for the same length of hiking is a far greater sacrifice than a similar trip to the Catskills. Traffic, especially if you are trying to hike in VA, is absolutely atrocious during all times of the day if the starting location is east of the park. Hikers who drive 2 to 3 or even 5 hours to a trailhead in the Whites or the Adirondacks are very fortunate in that they do not have to endure the kind of skull-shattering numbness that any individual eventually succumbs to after having spent 3 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic. This, I can say, occasionally almost ruins a hike--almost.

 

[sweeper]

A bad day in the Mountains, stuck in traffic beats a good day on the couch.

 

[Mike P.]

From CT we do the same hike must be longer than the drive so that makes it 8 hours of hiking or more & 8 hours driving.

As far as the Can you top this, Blown Away & myself probably aren't even close:

Saturday about 8:30 Farmer Bob & I are ascending TRT when we come across a young couple (20 something they looked like college kids but then I'm 44 30 year olds look this way too) coming down. We ask if they were coming down from spending a night at Hermit Lake.

No they started at 11:00 PM Friday Night at the Davis Path, hike all night got to the top around 5:00 all fogged in but saw a great sunrise from Lion's Head. I asked if they were going to catch some sleep at PNVC before heading home. Nope, they were going to drive home then sleep. I doubt they had taken Friday off & sleep until 7:00 PM too. While they did not have huge packs, they had crampons & other winter toys on their packs.