NJ>Atsion-Carranza Memorial-Lower Forge>The Virtues of Being Out of Shape 8/30/14

[SilvrSurfr]

There are none. Two years ago I was in great shape. Then a December 2012 car wreck and knee injury put me on the shelf for six months. Since then I haven't hiked more than 8.5 miles in a day.

So now I'm trying to get in shape for the Batona Trail in the Pine Barrens: 53 miles in three days. I thought I'd start out with my first 12-mile hike in a day, and njredneck was kind enough to join me. We chose to follow the abandoned railroad from Atsion to Carranza Memorial, then head south on the Batona Trail and camp at Lower Forge.

The railroad crossed the Mullica, then a tributary (Springer Brook?) then the Batso River.

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A map would have been helpful, but we didn't bring any. The railroad got kinda overgrown and eventually we hiked along a road which we hoped paralleled the railroad tracks. Eventually we ended up at High Crossing, which is an intersection of many roads that was a virtual lake. We found the railroad again and got around the lake.

Despite temps around 85 degrees with stifling humidity, we averaged three miles per hour for the first six miles. Then it all went downhill from there. Rests were necessary; stiffness ensued. Blisters formed on the fourth toe of both my feet (the one next to the pinky). Our pace dropped off to something significantly less than 3 mph. We lost the Batona Trail and ended up on some road, but njredneck and I were both too tired to backtrack. Eventually, njredneck got a 4G signal and GPS proved we were near our destination.

We arrived at Lower Forge. Njredneck's app said we went 11.7 miles. We set up our hammocks, then headed to the river to cool off (or maybe we went in the river first; I was too tired to remember). We stood in the freezing water for 10 or 15 minutes, our legs going numb, before gathering the courage for a full baptismal submersion.

We sat around, totally sapped of energy, waiting on SilentOrpheus to arrive with brats and buns. There were three other parties at the site, and each one had an ENO hammock, apparently equipped with Slap Straps. It was amusing to watch them set up the hammocks guitar-string tight, only to sink within inches of the ground, then readjust over and over again.

At some point, njredneck said, "I suppose we should gather firewood," and we did. It was the most exhausting 15 minutes of my life. SilentOrpheus arrived and we commenced to feast. This crowd usually stays up till at least midnight, but we were spent, hitting the hay by 10:30 pm.

Njredneck woke me up at 7:30 am for the first pot of coffee. We had Pack-It Gourmet Biscuits and Gravy, and TexMex Breakfast Tacos - very filling. We hit the trail and we old men were seriously dragging. We stopped at Beaver Pond for three kinds of tuna on crackers and pita bread, with a cool breeze coming off the pond. When we finally got back to our cars (5.8 miles), njredneck headed home while silentorpheus and I drove a few hundred yards down the road to the Mullica River put-in, where we soaked our feet, splashed water on our heads and cooled off. We grabbed a cold beer at the Tabernacle Inn, along with a salad and cup of New England clam chowder - a great end to the weekend.

There's a lot of training left to be able to hike 53 miles in three days, but at least the weather will get cooler so it should get easier from here.

[2ply]

Thanks for sharing the adventure. Good luck on your Batona Death March.

[SilvrSurfr]

Thanks for sharing the adventure. Good luck on your Batona Death March.

Death March - that's an accurate description for somebody who is out of shape. The most I've ever hiked is maybe 35 miles in 3 days, so 53 is quite a jump. I was actually thinking that I would slackpack the entire trail first before attempting with a backpack. That's a hiking accomplishment, right? Not exactly a backpacking accomplishment but it will do for me right now.

I suppose slackpacking is part of glamping, but if I'm gonna hike 20 miles in a day I don't mind doing it without a backpack, just carrying snacks and water, and having a nice warm campfire waiting for me at the forward camp.

We'll call it the Batona Death March for Slackpackers.

[Ratdog]

Nice work. Couldn't get free this weekend. As inspiration, a friend of mine is running 111 miles/3 days in the Shenandoah's right now. (Dirty Mother's SNP Run) She and a bunch of other mom's did 40 miles in 12 hours today. They are slack packing but carry water. Hard, in shape, trail running women for sure.

Slack packing may be the way to get it done in October.

[The Tree Frog]

Nice work. Couldn't get free this weekend. As inspiration, a friend of mine is running 300 miles in the Shenandoah's right now. She and a bunch of other mom's did 40 miles in 12 hours today. They are slack packing but carry water. Hard, in shape, trail running women for sure.

Wow! That's impressive.

Good job out there you two. I would have liked to go but maybe this tells us we need more training time before the big Death March. Slack packing sounds good but will take some coordination and cooperation.

Thanks for sharing.

[silentorpheus]

It was a warm one to be sure. My schedule cleared up last minute, so I tossed my gear in my pack, dropped my son at the Inlaws (1 hour north) and headed straight to Atsion (back 2 hours south). Grabbed food on the way, and hit Atsion right before 5pm. Got changed, packed everything, and hit the trail around quarter past.

Somehow managed to decimate the 6 miles in 1.5 hours. I had perishable food, and I was racing the daylight as motivation ... But I still don't know how I did it. Never hiked that fast before in my life. First 4.5 miles were cake. Last 1.5 were rough.

Rolled into camp around 6:45. Got set up while NJRedneck started the fire and grilled the sausage. I made the mistake of sitting down to filter water - and could barely get back up ate, hung out around the fire, and eventually turned in by 11 ... An early night for our crew.

Let's just say the march out was far less Herculean than the hike in. My hips and knees still hurt. But the cold water felt great at the end, and the cold beer even better.

In the end, yeah, being out of shape really has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

[njredneck]

I just looked at our pace and we averaged 3 mph on Sat just under 4 hours for just under 12 miles. Sunday was around 2.5 mph including the breaks when we were moving we stayed closer to 3 mph.

[The Tree Frog]

Great hiking times for all of you. Anytime you hit less than 3 miles per hour is good in my book.

[Trail Runner]

The virtues of being out of shape... There are none.

Thanks for sharing.

[SilvrSurfr]

I would have liked to go but maybe this tells us we need more training time before the big Death March. Slack packing sounds good but will take some coordination and cooperation.

If I had any sense I'd have trained to do a 12-mile hike, but I don't have that much sense. A hard man muscles through!

I'm gonna do two more training hikes, with increased mileage, and then tackle the three-day Death March. If I don't feel confident I can backpack it, then slackpacking it will be. If I waited till I was in shape for stuff, I would never do anything!

Next training hike might be Ong's Hat to Batona - somewhere between 18.7 and 21.7 miles in one day. I can't tell since the map is not up to date. Next training hike might be first day Buttonwood Hill-to-Batona, second day Batona-Ong's Hat for a two-day total of 35-38 miles.

Then I'm tackling the whole thing!