Reviews > Books > General > A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike > Andrew Mytys > Long Term Report

Tester's Biographical Information:

Reviewer: Andrew Mytys Email: amytys@gmail.com Homepage: Andy's Lightweight Backpacking Site Location: Michigan Age: 33 Height: 6'1" (183 cm) Weight: 185 lbs (84 kg)

     Backpacking Background:

I live in Michigan and have been hiking seriously for 15 years, although I've camped since I was 6 years old. I consider myself a lightweight hiker. I carry the lightest gear I can get my hands on which will provide a comfortable wilderness experience and adequately support the goals of my trip. Unless my goals are time/distance oriented, my pace is always slow. I rarely exceed 1.5 miles (2.4 km)/hour. I rest frequently, hike long days, and enjoy whatever nature throws my way.

Product Information:

Publisher: Wayah Press (http://www.wayahpress.com) Title: A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike Author: Rick Allnutt, MD Year of Publication: 2005, 1st Edition ISBN: 0-9767227-0-4 MSRP: $11.95 + 2.50 shipping and handling (U.S. only), + 7% state sales tax to Ohio-based destinations Weight as delivered: 6.6 oz (187 g) Size: 8.5 x 5.5 x .4 inches or 215 x 140 x 10 mm (H x W x D) 116 pages, + copyright, dedication, table of contents, index, and ordering info

The information in this Field Report of "A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" is to be taken in addition to my Initial and Field reports.

Product Description:

"A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" is a short book filled with lessons on how to overcome some of hiking's most common physical and mental challenges. The lessons are described by Dr. Rick Allnutt, the author, based on what he learned while tackling multi-day hikes and preparing for and hiking a 200-mile (322 km) segment of the Appalachian Trail (AT). While the book's lessons came about primarily while hiking the AT, what's proposed is valid, and indeed much of it can be applied, on any trail and for hikes of any distance. The sole picture in the book is on the cover - a color photo of the author relaxing along the AT near Cold Mountain, Virginia.

What This Book is About - Who is it For?:

"A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" is about the challenges - both physical and mental - that the author experienced while preparing for and hiking a 200-mile (322 km) segment of the Appalachian Trail (AT). The lessons learned by the author are broken up into chapters dedicated to "the three biggest problems facing the 200-mile (322 km) hiker" - blisters and chaffing, knee pain, and losing the will to hike - and the advantages of "near-ultralight" hiking. The book uses the author's personal experiences and those of others hiking the Appalachian Trail as a basis for the examples and solutions given.

The book is short, and my take on it is that it is most useful to those readers who have actually hiked before. This is not a how-to book, nor does the text go into any great detail in explaining terms and general hiking concepts. Readers whose feet have some hiking experience should find themselves nodding along at the ailments that the author chooses to focus on, if not based on personal experience then based on recognition - how many of us have never encountered a hiker with a bad case of blisters before, or a pack that weighs in at over 50 pounds (20 kg)?

Worthwillity:

In the book's introduction the author writes a segment that he titles "Worthwillity," which summarizes his reasons for writing the book, his background and perspective, and his hope that readers will find his book, even a little, useful.

I must admit that some of the book's lessons did indeed stick with me while hiking on the trail, and I found myself analyzing the challenges I was experiencing and thinking back to the author's comments.

The book delivers a very good primer on blisters, chafing, and knee pain. The author uses his background as a physician, an engineer, and researcher to analyze the causes and anatomy of these three common trail injuries, as well as the effect they can have on the hiker. While on the trail, I could reflect back on what the author had written, visualize what was happening in my shoes and in my shorts, and start to orchestrate a plan on how to fix the problem.

Just as in the author's case, I found my issues with blisters, chafing, and knee pain becoming the overwhelming center of my thought process during my hikes.

The author provides a few words of wisdom in terms of treatment, highlighting potential solutions by using his own hiking experiences as examples.

I was able to use the information given in the book to decide on a course of action. In some cases, I followed the author's lead. In others, I worked out "personal answers," just as the author suggested.

In the case of blisters, I didn't exactly encounter problems in the traditional sense as much as awakening and building up the trail born calluses I already had. However, the Five Ten Insight Trail Shoes that I'm currently testing for backpackgeartest rub my feet persistently, just below each anklebone. This results in blisters that quickly progress into open and bloody lesions.

In between on-trail testing, I typically gave my feet a week to ten days of rest before using the shoes on uneven surfaces again. However, I was offered a 50 km (31 mile) dayhike challenge that I just couldn't refuse, and I found myself donning the test shoes, intentionally leaving my backup footwear at home, and hitting the trail. After about three miles (5 km), I could feel a sharp pain that I knew to be the thin layer of new skin under each ankle being ripped open. In another few miles, I could see a bloodstain poking out through my thick hiking socks. "It's only a flesh wound," I exclaimed in my best British accent. The pace of the hike was fast - 50 km (31 miles) in ten hours, including breaks - and there simply wasn't time to properly tend to my wounds. What to do? One of the author's solutions is "layers, and more layers," meaning the presence of a thick defensive wall of padding over the blister that allow the layers to rub against one another without rubbing the skin. I already had two pairs of socks on, so I simply installed a cotton ball over the wounds, duct taped that in place, then put both pairs of socks on, and wrapped each ankle in a short section of elastic bandage. I then hobbled off in an effort to catch up with the rest of the group.

Four miles (6 km) later, sweat in my "nether region" got the best of me, and I started to feel the type of chafing that the author calls "fire in the groin." This was hardly the first time I had chafing in this area, but I usually experienced it after longer distance hikes (15 mile or 24 km) in conditions characterized by heat and humidity, not at the ten-mile (16 km) mark during a cool, fall morning. I suspect that, due to the 3 MPH (5 KPH) pace I had to maintain, I sweated more than usual and chafing simply occurred earlier than expected. The author puts a lot of faith in a product called "Bodyglide," - a roll-on lubricant that seals the skin from further wetness. With nothing to lose, no better ideas, and little time to invest in any solution, I packed a stick of Bodyglide along in my pack. At the first sign of chafing, I simply jumped into the bushes, shoved the Bodyglide in by pants, and proceeded. After about 15 seconds, I was back on the trail. I caught the problem early on, and the Bodyglide worked wonders. No more chafing and no more "fire in the groin" for the remainder of the hike - an additional seven hours of hiking!

At about the 18-mile (29 km) mark, my shoe kicked a root. I felt my foot inside my right shoe slide forward along the insole, and a burning sensation ensued - I literally felt the skin along the balls of my feet separating from my toes! The author states that the key ingredients to blisters are moisture, friction, and heat. Well, my feet were sweaty after so many miles without any attention, I had just provided a substantial amount of friction, and I could literally see the steam rising off of my foot as I removed it from my shoe. I quickly changed into a fresh pair of both liner and hiking socks that I had in my pack - my feet immediately felt refreshed, ready to tackle the remaining 13 miles (21 km) of the hike.

In terms of knee pain, one of the author's points in his formula for healthy knees is to relieve stress to the knee. I typically get knee pain on the trail after about 18 miles (29 km) of hiking. Just as with my chafing concerns, I would need a quick remedy on my long hike, with no time for experimentation or solutions that didn't work. The author didn't offer any sure-fire shortcuts, but the comment about relieving stress got me to the outfitter, asking for a pair of after-market insoles for my shoes that offered maximum cushioning. I added that I could care less about support. GIVE ME CUSHIONING!!! The salesman returned with an insole made of gel that, according to the manufacturer, provided "superior cushioning and 44% energy return." The insoles were THICK and SPONGY - I was sold. Given all the warnings, lessons, and self-reflection that the book inspired, I was able to come up with personal system that got me through 50 km (31 miles) of trail in ten hours, and free from pain to boot.

My Final Thoughts:

The book begins with subjects that are physical in nature and therefore easily lend themselves to dissection. The author's training as a physician, engineer, and researcher serve to produce a very thorough primer on the subjects of blisters, chafing and knee pain.

Some of the text leaves me scratching my head. For example, in the chapter on blisters and chafing the author states:

"I have successfully hiked in nylon swimming trunks. These are boxer-like trunks with a polyester brief sewn in. They can be rinsed in stream water, and put back on to dry. In very humid weather, I have even put them back on inside out to dry more quickly. I almost always carry a pair because they make great town clothes and can be important when dealing with chafing during the first few days of a hike. There is a tendency, especially in hot weather, for salt to become encrusted in the material of the brief, making it like sandpaper, and for that to wear away at the skin of each upper leg."

As I wrote in my Field Report, I was less than thrilled with the second half of the book. As someone who loves to sleep, finds himself in awe when bad weather moves in, and tells his wife to "go back to sleep" after being woken up in the Sierras and told that a bear that just brushed up against the tent (yes, it was a bear), I had little patience, and found no value, in the author's philosophies on combating loneliness, fear of the dark, nightmares, and other psychological issues (losing the will to hike). I was also less than enthusiastic about the scant level of detail that was given to the topic of lightweight backpacking, especially after seeing the author's thorough work in discussing blisters, chafing, and knee pain. The book could have been delivered to me without its introduction, the chapter on losing the will to hike, the chapter on lightweight backpacking, and the summary chapter - a full 55% of the text - without impacting what I got out of the book in the least. That said, I did gain some value from the 45% of the book that dealt with blisters, chafing, and knee pain as indicated at the beginning of this report.

There's also the lack of overall perspective given by the text in terms of the field conditions that the author encountered. The book details experiences from hiking a 200-mile (322 km) segment of the Appalachian Trail in mid-May. It reflects the culmination of experiences gained from hiking anywhere from weekend excursions to that single, two week, 200-mile (322 km) hike. Overall, I got the feeling that most of the lessons had their origins on the author's 200-mile (322 km) hike, taken at a specific point in time and under specific weather conditions, meaning that the author's own experiences were limited. I found myself wishing the author had hiked in mid-July instead of mid-May, hoping that after experiencing intense heat and humidity, drought, and other, more serious challenges, the book would have been directed more towards the sort of concrete issues found in the first half of the book, with less attention paid to psychological or philosophical matters.

The author makes no promises that the book is anything more than a description of his discoveries, his failures, and his ideas. In the end, the book's best advice can be summed up by what the author writes in his introduction:

"If what I am doing in my hike is working, I keep doing it. If it is not working, then I take on the responsibility to find a better way, and then a better way after that."

I found reading "A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" to be insightful and thought provoking in many areas, and the book proved to be a bit of an inspiration in making me analyze my own issues and in trying to come up with solutions, rather than taking the attitude that any problems encountered on the trail are simply "all part of a good day's hike." The book has also given me an excuse to, once again, re-evaluate what I carry and try to lessen the weight in my pack.

Finally, the author states that "if a reader of this book finds one of my experiences useful, then I will rejoice." Well, the author can rejoice in that I have found one, even many, of the experiences he shared to be useful. At the same time, I would have liked to hear more. I wish that the author had tried hiking that 200-miles (322 km) across at least a few different seasons, just to give readers a set of more well rounded opinions.

Reviews > Books > General > A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike > Andrew Mytys > Long Term Report