Wow...

There's an article about Andrew Skurka  in the March issue of the National Geographic Adventure magazine.

Here's a guy who actually walks the walk.  He traveled around the state of Alaska in 176 days.  He says it makes him feel alive.  And that makes sense.  When your only occupation is attending to your basic needs, and moving from point A to point B, it makes sense to be in tune with your existence.  Sometimes the existence is called into question and I think that's when you REALLY get to the core of what it means to exist.

 

We are, for large part, a nation of bystanders when it comes to venturing into nature's realm. Oh, there are day trips, weekend campouts, and occasionally multi-day trips for some of us. But to step entirely out of our comfort zone to head out into the wild for days on end, well, that's why there are the Andrew Skurkas of the world whom we can live vicariously through. 

Today I spent some time sweating at the Sony Ericsson Open.  I work right down the street and the opportunity to play hooky presented itself.  I took it.  Not quite the same as circumnavigating the state of Alaska solo, but it felt pretty hard.

Sam Gardner and the All-in Trek

I ran across this guy over at whiteblaze  He is getting a bit of attention over there.

He set up this website.  He made some big claims.  In one year, starting 1 January 2011, he was going to hike the North Country Trail--4600 miles from New York to North Dakota--then, hop on a plane and start the Pacific Crest Trail --2650 miles from Mexico to Canada along the west coast-- headed north, no doubt to thaw his bones out after a few months snow shoeing.  Again, a plane hop over to the northern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail --3100 miles from Canada to Mexico through Montana (skirting Idaho), Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.  I assume by here he'd be hitting his stride.  Three trails down and only the shortest trail on his list--the Appalachian Trail-- still to go.  I guess it was to be his victory lap.  By my calculations that would put him at around November to come off the CDT and Again! hop on a plane and hit the northern terminus of the AT.  I'm not sure how he planned to do this one--Baxter State Park closes to overnight camping on October 15th.

I know that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but 12,525 miles in 360 days (- travel between trail heads) = 34.8 miles per day.  That seems a bit unrealistic to me.

Sam had to come off the trail in early March due to a hip injury.  He's planning to start again next January 1.   Best of luck to him.