Slow & Steady = Trail Record

Heather “Anish” Anderson smells the flowers on a North Idaho hike last week, a pleasure she forfeited during her speed-record trek on the Pacific Crest Trail. (SR photo: Rich Landers)

“I ’m not a particularly fast walker,”  Heather Anderson said – much to the relief of  her interviewer – as she hiked a North Idaho trail last week. “The difference between me and the thru-hikers who have a fast pace is that I walked 3 mph all day and into every night, averaging 5 hours of sleep, without a rest day.” For two months! That’s how Anderson, 32, beat the unsupported backpacking speed record on the Pacific Crest Trail by four days. Starting June 8, 2013, at the U.S-Mexico border, the Bellingham hiker averaged nearly 44 miles a day gobbling up nearly 2,700 miles along the PCT to arrive at the Canada border in 60 days, 17 hours and 12 minutes. “Once I realized this was not a backpacking trip – that it was all about pain and suffering – it was easier to cope,” she said/ Rich Landers , SR. More here.

Question: How far is the longest hike that you’ve ever taken?