Man Takes 17 Years To Hike The AT!

40 Days and 40 Nights on The AT Over Already??

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By: Kraig Becker
Updated:
9

pack
While reading Best Hike’s coverage of GoLite founder Demetri Coupounas’ attempt to 40 days and nights on the AT without resupply, I was directed to a post over at WhiteBlaze.net that says that “Coup” is already done with his 40 days without resupply attempt. Apparently the 120+ pounds of weight on his back was just too much.

White Blaze is a website for “Appalachian Trail Enthusiasts” with a good community of very knowledgeable hikers. The afore mentioned post says that Demetri made it to Neel Gap in Northern Georgia before he decided to give up on his attempt and instead focus on just enjoying the trail and the time that he could spend on it.

Apparently he shipped 121 pounds of his gear and supplies back home, and will not being getting back to the principles of the company he founded and will GoLite.

I can’t imagine lugging a pack that full around for more than a day or two, let alone 40. There is o word on what he kept with him, but my money is on the 8 pounds of chocolate. 😉

Thanks to Rick at the Best Hike Blog and “FREDTERP” for updating me.

Kraig Becker
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9 thoughts on “40 Days and 40 Nights on The AT Over Already??”

  1. I was wondering what that was going to do to his body. I cringed thinking of myself walking even a day or two with 120 lbs. I am no lightweight, but that is a huge load to be lugging over days on end–you would have to have monster legs and a steel back.

    I think one idea to make this a possibility would be to do supply drops along the way, for one, it would lighten the load, and two, would give you something to lok forward to every few miles. The only problem would be having the time to make the drops-then going back and starting the trail. Would take more time than I have.

  2. Well, his initial goal was to go without the resupplies to set a new distance record, but people through hike the AT all the time, and use supply drops, but you don’t drop them on the trail, you ship them to various towns along the way and then exit the trail, go into town, pick up your supplies and then resume.

  4. I’m a bit surprised he’s done already myself. Thought he’d go a bit further, but then again, that is an awfully big load to carry, although yours doesn’t look very light either. How far did you travel with that pack?

  5. I haven’t finished to sum up the km (ok miles for you guys:) but roughly 500 km across Tassie (Tasmania). But on several days after 10-12hours of walking I only did 1 mile! Offtrack in the scrubby mountains.
    And this is how I came back (alive) http://louphi.blogspot.com
    Photos taken by Aussie Adventurer Chris Bray.
    Apparently, I probably did the longest unsupported walk in Tasmania ever, and alone. But never again.
    By the way, I saw you added a subscribe per email button, thanks for that, I picked up the idea. And if you read my new expedition blog (http://simpson-desert-trek.blogspot.com), I just received my permit! But please don’t post yet, it’ll be for May or so when I’ll have more sponsors and my airplane ticket solved (next week).

  6. Wow! That’s over 300 miles. Pretty impressive. Your pack was weighing in the neighborhood of about 108 pounds compared to his 127. Still that a massive pack. Very impressive mate!

  7. 108 lbs!!!! Wowee Wow Wow!

    I’m planning to do a week on the AT this summer and I think I’ll be pulling that off pretty light.

    I can’t even imagine 120 lbs. The biggest pack I’ve ever lugged was about 60 and I thought that was crappy.

    Kudos to him and to you belgian adventurer.

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