Block-a-Thon, NY Times, Oct 30, 2009

Here's a story that appeared in the Times last week about a guy living on a typical city block in Brooklyn. Seems he wondered what it would be like to keep walking around the block for the full 26.2 miles that define a marathon. In the company of hi… Continue

Interesting summary of the 50-mile JFK hike experience just appeared in a curious website called the Absurd Intellectual (absurdintellectual.com). Grant Hamilton captures the significance of the moment and posits that he(we) should try it (again)!

See article here: Absurd Intellectual link .

At my 45 year high school reunion we reminisced about our fifty miler. Four of us finished, it was some time in the spring '63, we were juniors in high school. My time was 13:47 roughly (at my age, memory is difficult).

So now we are thinking - four years from now, how about a fiftieth anniversary 50 miler? We are quite old, but it would give us something to shoot for. And we have four years to prepare. I am to get new knees this December, and a few of my high school classmates are thinking of… Continue

Hiking the Grand Canyon, South Rim to North Rim and back to South Rim

I arrived at GC National Park Saturday 6/13 in the afternoon in my Nissan Versa (most uncomfortable driver's seat ever) rental car from Phoenix, and the rest of the day tended to making camp and getting supplies and waiting for my companions who arrived after dark. We set up camp, had a couple beers and went to sleep. Sunday and Monday we did the tourist stuff, sightseeing along the rim at different point… Continue

will arrive at GC Sat. 6/13. will do some wooded rim hiking for a couple days whil staying at rim campground, but main "rim to rim to rim" hike will start tuesday 6/16 and end 6/22. My shoes are hybrid Montrail trail running/hiking shoes, Goretex GTX which is the Goretex for warmer climates. They're pretty new but well broken in. For hiking like this I prefer two pair of regular crew length socks, the length to keep sand out, the two pair helps avoid blistering.
I walk a lot and blistering shoul… Continue

thought I'd post a few pictures. One is a topside warning about hiking conditions in the canyon, telling story of a marathon runner who died in GC, another shows area of cabins on North Rim (I'll stay one night in a small one), the other gives a glimpse of the trail going down from North Rim into Canyon, I took it 2 years ago when I was there but only day hiked down a mile or so as my partner had limitations.

My plans are coming together for this trip. I will arrive at the South Rim (by far the most popular and populated rim) on 6/13. I'll be meeting one of my very best college friends and fraternity brother who I was best man for at his first marriage in Houston. Also, his son, brothers in law and a couple others, I think our party is 8 starting out. We'll spend a couple days on the rim sightseeing and camping, then our hike will begin Tuesday. You have to have permits to overnight and we got them e… Continue

Paul, yours is a great story of idealism, endurance, and family. (With just the right amount of madness mixed in.) I appreciate your moving to the echoes of history, geography, and fitness. To answer your last question: A beginning! Continue

My plan was to take a 50-mile walk following the same path Robert F. Kennedy chose for his historic 50 mile walk in 1963 at this same time that year. I was motivated to see how this hike would have felt for him and also as a way to try and relive my attempt at a 50 mile walk in the summer of 1963. (Click here to learn more about the 50-Mile Hike Phenomenon back then)… Continue

For my last test walk before next weekend's 50-miler, I decided to try out a new Princeton Tec Quad Headlamp for walking in the dark. I anticipate walking at least 4-5 hours in the dark next weekend. Probably an hour or two in the morning and several toward the end of the walk.

I started out from my house at 7pm and headed toward Morristown's Nat… Continue