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Comment by ctrager | Hacker News Reader

In 2019 when I was 63 I did a 500 snippet of the Pacific Crest Trail. Because of needing to resupply, my long hike was really a series of 9 trips, each individual trip lasting about 5 days, more or less, like a work week. I started to think of a day hiking as "a day at the office". Already on "Monday", my first day back on trail I would be thinking about "Friday", the day I could get to town and eat restaurant food instead of the food in my pack that I was tired of.

I don't know how these guys and other long distance hikers maintain their motivation, or rather, I don't know how they continue to find enough reward in the activity to make up for the deprivation, repetition.

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> or rather, I don't know how they continue to find enough reward in the activity to make up for the deprivation, repetition.

I totally feel you on this. I’ve done a reasonable amount of backpacking, and more and more, I’m not sure if I like backpacking or like looking back and saying I’ve done it. I certainly feel a sense of accomplishment from the treks I’ve done, but in the moment, it often just feels like drudgery, shading into misery when the days get long and the trail gets hard.

The exception is when the natural beauty of the surrounding area is high enough, the whole experience is totally worthwhile. The American west (Tetons, Sierra Nevada) still does it for me, but the AT definitely does not.

A 60-something may have the advantage of requiring less food weight than a young man because metabolism has slowed down. I have certainly noticed this when backpacking with much young college students. I eat like a sparrow; them like hogs.

If you follow ultra-light hiking gurus like Andrew Skurka, food can be 75% of your pack weight after a resupply- 9 lbs base weight and 25 lbs food.

I have the same problem if I go hiking with a destination in mind. 7 years ago while touring Europe with some friends I learned to totally ignore the destination of the day, just go in some direction and look in the evening for a place to slip. That make it all about the journey, not the destination, and it is so much relaxing and fun.

Andrew Skurka has done several millennium-mile trips in the US and Alaska. He has resupplied exclusively through US Postal general delivery. He prepares his high calorie 4-5 packets before the trip and has Mom mail them in timely sequence. He says he hadnt had a failure yet.

I like bicycle touring for the reasons you listed. Bike tours are physically just as hard, but you tend to run into decent food and drink more often. There's no shortage of nice camping.

How did you find doing it at that age? I’d love to do the PCT but can’t see how I’ll manage the time before my 60s

Anecdotally the biggest factor for that, barring any acute health issue, will be your activity level between now and then.

I'm 65, retired. I'm more physically prepared now than when I was younger and busy with work and kids. I have time and money now. I see plenty of other backpackers in their mid 60s, but hardly any backpackers in their 70s. I've been doing a lot of backpacking in recent years because I know my time is running out.

I just got back from 11 days hiking in the Grand Canyon. My left knee hurts, so maybe time is running out...

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