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Feb. 17, 2011
by Mike Logsdon
McHenry resident Charlie Mead will be the featured speaker at the Garrett College Adventuresports Institute Colloquium on Tuesday, Feb. 22, beginning at 7 p.m. in Room 224 of the Continuing Education building on the campus of Garrett College.
His presentation will focus on pre-trip planning, gear selection, and the challenges of long-distance
“thru-hiking” of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). A reception for the speaker will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the same room. The reception and presentation are free and open to the public.
Thru-hiking by definition is the process of hiking a long-distance trail from end to end in one continuous effort. For Mead, this latest accomplishment of thru-hiking the PCT took him 172 days. That’s around 15.4 miles per day, on average. For an individual like Charlie, who stands just about six feet tall, that distance represents roughly 32,500 steps per day.
“Although my average PCT day hike was 15.4 miles, my longest was 32 miles,” noted Mead.
Passionate about backpacking and hiking, when asked how he became interested in hiking the trail, Mead indicated, “Twelve years ago, when I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, someone I met made me aware of the Pacific Crest Trail and how challenging and beautiful it was. I put it in the back of my mind that, one day, I would hike that trail too.”
The Appalachian Trail (AT) at 2,175 miles and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) at 2650 miles represent two of the United States’ three longest north/south hiking trails. Only the Continental Divide Trail is longer at 3,100 miles. All are part of the National Scenic Trails system, a set of 17 individual continuous hiking trails that total a distance of just over 17,000 miles.
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