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Comment by sva_ | Hacker News Reader

6 days for 75km? I suppose this guy must've really been enjoying himself along the way.

Don't think you need to precook stuff like quinoa. Can just cook it on an ethanol hobo oven pretty quick.

It's a very difficult hike. I did it in 2008 and between the ladders, knee-deep mud, timing your hikes with the tides, and general swampiness, 6-8 days is average. There are sections in the South end of the trail where it's not unusual to only get 8 km in.

The fastest known time is 9.5 hours, set by Matt Cecil in August 2014.

It's rugged! 6-8 days is typical, according to Parks Canada: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/activ/SCO-WCT

i know plenty of people who go on 20-25km day-hikes as a casual outing that requires no planning or forethought beyond waking up in the morning and deciding to go for a hike, and they'd all say 6 days for the west coast trail is a reasonable pace.

That's quite a pace, wowie! Usually I'd be tuckered afterwards with a 0 planning 20-25 kilometer...er hike.

To be honest, the most enduro sport for me that I can do right now is kayaking, and I can do ~10 miles or so on flat water with my sorta tubby 10 footer in about 4 hours or so (with breaks)...and that's it, with a week's recovery afterwards.

Crazy distance for them, I'm impressed and a little jealous to be honest. Maybe I'll be there someday. :)))) <3

As somebody who’s hiked the length of the Pacific Crest Trail, I can say the West Coast Trail is very different from a walking trail. Basically a km feels like a mile on that trail. Everything is slippery, and steep. It wasn’t designed as a hiking trail it was an escape route for shipwrecks.

The 75km is a rough estimate. There are so many twists and turns, and logs to hop over, giant boulders to climb on top, plus there’s ~100 ladders over the whole train, some in better shape than others. Your actual traveled distance is closer to 90km.

5-6 days is a reasonable amount if you are not insane. The second time I did it, there was a couple that ran it in two days. Only saw them at the start, but presumably they made. The reason they did 2 days is because you can pay to rent a tent + food about half way through. So they were running with just a two litter bottle of water and presumably some snacks.

But if you want to actually enjoy the views … even 7 days is not too slow

A lot of people have attempted this trail with your attitude and got absolutely wrecked by the physical demands and environment. It’s much harder than scenic photos of the island would lead you to expect. It’s also hard to understand how serious and unrelenting the mud and rain can be if you haven’t experienced west coast downpours before.

> It’s also hard to understand how serious and unrelenting the mud and rain can be if you haven’t experienced west coast downpours before

Yeah—it's literally a rainforest.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rain_forest_location...

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