This fall, take the Ultimate Hike

6.14.11

One day I’m reading about this new type of fundraiser where you hike 30 miles in the mountains in a single day and I’m thinking, Man, that’s crazy!, the next I find myself co-responsible for helping a group of Raleigh hikers do exactly that.

A couple months ago someone sent me the link for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Extreme Hike for a Cure, a 31-mile, one-day, fundraising hike on the Pisgah National Forest’s challenging Art Loeb Trail. I had to reread what I was reading to make sure they meant all 31 miles, on a trail that begins at 2,200 feet, tops 6,000 and has few level respites. A couple weeks ago I got an email from fellow hiking writer Danny Bernstein saying the organizers of a similar epic adventure were looking for a hiking coach in Raleigh. Interested?

After a little internet sleuthing, yes.

Ultimate Hike is the fundraising brainchild of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, a non-profit that until recently had relied on grants and philanthropic donations to raise funds for research into children’s cancer. Two years ago, CureSearch branched out into more public forms of fundraising with walks. This year, they’ve branched out even more, with a dozen Ultimate Hikes nationwide on such epic trails as the Pacific Crest Trail, Superior Hiking Trail, Tecumseh Trail and the Foothills Trail, which plays footsie with the western North Carolina/South Carolina border for 77 miles. The Ultimate Hike for Raleigh and Charlotte hikers will be the westernmost 28.3 miles.

I’ve written more about Ultimate Hike in general at our sister site, GetGoing.com. Here, I’ll look at how you — that would be you personally, dear hiking reader — can go from thinking “28.3 miles in a day on a mountain trail? That’s crazy, man!” to regaling your grandkids with, “Did I ever tell you about the time I hiked 28.3 miles in one day?”

Here’s how Ultimate Hike works. During the month of July, a series of Ultimate Hike informational meetings will be held in Charlotte and Raleigh. Go to one of the meetings (see box at right), listen to our pitch, sign up. Then, starting in August we’ll hold group hikes every other week to prepare you for your very long day on the trail. (For Raleigh hikers that will be on Oct. 15, for Charlotte on Oct. 22.)

Training hikes will begin with a brisk 6-mile orientation hike, build to a 20-plus miler less than a month from hike day, then taper. Because Ultimate Hikes likes to keep its training hikes within a 1.5- to 2-hour drive, that presents something of a challenge for Raleigh hikers. There’s no lack of long hikes in the immediate Triangle area: the 60-mile Falls Lake/Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the 18-mile Company Mill/Sycamore/Sal’s Branch loop at Umstead State Park, the 14-mile stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Eno River in Orange and Durham counties. But the most altitude you’ll find within that range is at Hanging Rock State Park, which tops out under 2,600 feet. However, CancerSearch’s Charlotte-based Leah Bartlett, who organizes Ultimate Hike in the Southeast, says the organization isn’t opposed to off-training-week trips to farther, higher climes/climbs. It just so happens I know of a new book that has some good long hikes doable within about a three-hour drive of the Triangle.

In addition to the scheduled group hikes, your coaches will send out weekly emails with tips, updates and encouragement, and will be available to answer your questions, be they about training, gear, bears, whatever.

Come hike day, here’s what you can expect. A 3:30 a.m. wake-up call in your hotel room in order to get a good breakfast in you get you to the trailhead by 4:30. To minimize the zoo-like potential of 50 or so hikers heading down the trail at once, in the dark, hikers will be sent out in waves of five or six. There are three aid stations on the course, medical personnel, sweepers, and your coaches to offer encouragement. At the first Ultimate Hike, on the Foothills Trail in May, the last of the hikers finished up by 6:30 in the evening. Then, it’s back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest and a victory breakfast the next morning.

Bartlett says the Atlanta hike drew about 50 hikers ranging in age from 18 to 68. Some were avid hikers, some had never hiked before the training program began. Only three did not complete the hike. Pledges raised by the Atlanta hikers raised $150,000, about 80 percent of which will go directly to children’s cancer research, says Jim Steiner, CureSearch’s director for the Southeast.

Still thinking, “Man, that’s crazy” ... but intrigued? Come to one of our informational meetings in July and find out more.  Or, visit the Ultimate Hike Web site for a more immediate information fix.

And if you think about it, 28.3 miles in the mountains on a mid-fall day, while raising money for kids cancer research?

Not such a crazy idea after all.


Tell us about your latest hike!