Day 73

Day 73: 25 miles

I spent the better part of yesterday working on a plan to get off the AT. Going in, I knew it would be difficult to go straight through on the AT but I remained naively hopeful I would do it. Reaching Vermont wasn’t easy but the big mile days just aren’t sustainable up here. When I was trying to follow the trail precisely a couple days ago it took me 14 hours to do 17 miles cause I was getting lost so much. That’s not compatible with completing the calendar year triple crown. I need to be able to rock out big mile days.

So I’m headed west. I’ll be going to do the desert section of the continental divide trail first. Then when I start to get to the high elevations I’ll head over to the pacific crest trail. The main reason I wanted to finish the AT all in one go was for logistical simplicity but it is what it is.

I should probably state here that although I’m a little disappointed with this, it’s not a failure. Of the 10 people that have ever done this, I believe only 2 or 3 of them and went straight through on all 3 trails which is ultra badass level. It does take extra guts to do it, but you also have to get lucky with the weather and trail conditions. It’s been a tough winter and I started early which lowered my chances of going straight through but gave me more wiggle room. In summation, most people that have done the CYTC have flipped trails and I was 90% sure I was going to have to.

Part of me feels sad that I’ve gotta leave the AT and come back and finish later in the year but I knew that was a real possibility when I started. It’s not goodbye, it’s see you soon

Today I just mostly road walked 25 miles to Rutland. If I wanted to stay on the AT and rock out decent miles I would probably have to do this consistently and that’s just not something I want to do too much of.

Excited to head west and in a week’s time I’ll probably be complaining about my sunburn and the heat.

1686.2 miles hiked, 506.8 remaining on the AT