2017 - A Lookback at Your Hiking Numbers

[Chip Down]

Miles: Shrug.

Elevation gain: Yes.

Days hiked: Tried to check my notes, but lost interest. Maybe about 35-ish.

Fun experienced: Immense! What a year. 2015 was disastrous, failure after failure after failure, but 2016 was glorious.

Best hike: So hard to choose, but I guess the standout was Wind Mountain, which I'd never been to. Went straight up from the river, south slope. Expected boring talus and brush, found fascinating scrambles and routefinding challenges.

Worst hike: Wauna Viewpoint to Wauna Point. What a miserable treacherous bushwhack. And I did it in the rain. And got off route on the descent. Broke my favorite glasses. Well, at least I succeeded.

[VanMarmot]

We kept busy: 105 unique hikes, totalling about 912 trail miles and 165,000' of gain. All over Oregon and Northern California (and a bit of Utah). Made a big dent in visting all of Oregon's wilderness areas. Got in a couple of raft trips too.

2016's best backpack was the 3-summit, cross-country loop I did with Born2BBrad in the Eagle Cap Wilderness (TR, post).

Best dayhike? I haven't found a bad one yet but the best are any that the LovedOne and I can do together. Our favorite this year was the loop we did to the Dutchman Peak Lookout here in Southern Oregon (post) - we got to chat with the lookout and play with the fire finder. Totally cool!

2016 was a good year for hiking but, beyond that, we're not so sure. So, with fingers crossed, we wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR heading into the unknown of 2017!

[mileagemike25000]

This was my first full year of hiking so I tried pushing the envelope to see what I could do without breaking down. As some of you may know I have this goal of trying to hike 25,000 miles (circumference of earth) before I leave this planet, and made good progress toward reaching it. I have to thank my orthopedist and physical therapist for helping keep my sore body from breaking down completely. I won't be trying to repeat this year, EVER, as I was warned by my orthopedist to slow down if I want my body to last.

2016 total unique hikes: 304
2016 total mileage: 2163 miles
2016 elevation gain: 280,000 feet

Lifetime total hikes: 1272
Lifetime miles hiked: 9648 (about 38% of goal)

There are too many hikes to pick out a single one as the best. I'd have to say that our experience of being mobile PCT Trail Angels was the highlight of the summer! We handed out over 250 packs of oreo cookies to hikers on over a dozen hikes. The trail angel hikes that stand out were at Crater Lake National Park, Mt. Thielsen Wilderness and the Washington State section up into Mt. Adams Wilderness. A memorable thru-hiker was named "Candy Cane", who we met four times on the trail in different regions, and there's a long story with a great ending that goes along with this (but I won't bore you). Here's a few pictures from our trail angel hikes.

(left to right) Candy Cane, Care Package (my wife) and myself at Crater Lake

Our worst experience was driving home from a hike, behind a fully loaded logging truck, and watching a large elk hit and thrown to the side of the road like it was a small stick. The logging truck didn't slow down after the impact, and the elk was thrown to the side of the road and still kicking in its death throws. The logging truck saved our lives.

Have a happy, healthy and active 2017! Let's hope our trail systems are kept intact in the coming years and be thankful we live in states that value outdoor recreation.

[Crusak]

Greetings all! My year didn't allow for much trail time... life just gets in the way sometimes.

16 hikes, including one backpack trip.
156 miles total.
35,400 feet of elevation gain overall.
I keep a spreadsheet of my hikes every year - here's a link to my 2016 hikes

My favorite hike? A 14 mile solo hike up into the Jefferson Park area on August 12th.

Least favorite? With only 16 hikes under my belt last year I enjoyed every single one immensely.

[jessbee]

I love this time of year!

78 Trips (including dayhikes, overnights and road trips)
637 miles
117,000' elevation gain

Favorite hike: The Husband, because it was my first sketchy scramble in a while and I'm itching to get back to climbing
Least favorite: (If I have to pick one) Luckiamute Park, because I got off-trail in the weeds and nettles, wearing shorts, and I was on a time crunch. My fault.

I wrote up a summary of the year here: http://www.jessb.org/2016-hiking-year-in-review/

In 2017: I need to climb more. And I want to hike more miles than last year.

View of Lake Billy Chinook from Tam-a-Lau Trail

[Splintercat]

Big drop-off for me this year -- little time beyond hectic year at work and aging parents with a LOT of drama... and boy, could I have used more trail time for my mental health!

26 outings (mostly half-day, and down from 36 in 2015 and 46 in 2014..!)
88 miles total and just short of 18,000 feet elevation gained... also big drops from previous years... stupid real life interrupting..!

Best hike? Probably a tie between the Mazama Trail (which I hiked for the first time, for some reason!):



...and a Vista Ridge loop through Eden Park and Cairn Basin, where I saw a total of two (two!) hikers on a brilliant September afternoon:



Also hiked 6 miles to Niagara Falls (starting from the American side), which was probably my most interesting hike -- though hardly a wilderness experience! I now see that I didn't post a trip report, so here are a couple of photos from Niagara on the Canadian side:









Here's to more time on the trail in 2017... heading off to DC on business next week, so I'll definitely put some miles in on the Capitol Mall..!

Tom

[maobie15]

I love the year end round ups and, for the first time, will contribute some of my stats!!

Hiking/Backpacking Trips: 39
Mileage and Elevation Gain: NO IDEA!! I'm thinking of investing in a GPS or GPS app...any recommendations?!
Nights Backpacking: 6 (the most for me in a year, however, all single overnighters. New Year's resolution is to bump that up to a 3 nighter!!)
Nights Car Camping: 16
Favorite Hike: Mt. Scott in Crater Lake National Park! It was a beautiful day and that was my first visit to Crater Lake. Also, it was my 29th birthday
Least Favorite Experience: Cutting my planned 3 night backpacking trip to Lake Stuart in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness short because I found out the hard way that my 6 year old ten is no longer water proof. The hike and 1st night out were actually wonderful. It was more of the disappointment that I didn't get to stay out and the fear of missing out.

Adventure goals for 2017:
-Summit South Sister (this one has been on the list FOREVER, but is never made a priority)
-Complete at least a 3 night backpacking trip (I have no idea where yet, so give me some ideas, haha!)

[AAdamsPDX]

Don't use GPS tracks so I really don't know how many miles but 2016 was a great hiking year, even though we never get as many days in as we'd like. A few highlights:

• 150 miles in the Sierra, mostly along the JMT. Favorite locations: Bighorn Plateau, Forester Pass, Upper Basin near Mather Pass, Evolution Basin, and Humphreys Basin.
  First time on the Eagle Creek-Tanner loop. Weekend, rained the whole time with nighttime temps just above freezing, learned a lot about our gear choices - the purpose of the trip! - and had fun anyway.
  First time on the Herman Creek-PCT loop. Weekend trip. Included first time up Tomlike, where we made a dry camp. Loved this spot and will definitely return!
  First time to Elk Cove. I know, right?! Not sure how we've managed to miss this one for so long.
  First time up to Larch Mountain and back from Multnomah. Ditto on the "not sure how I've managed that."
  Countless training hikes/runs in Forest Park. Well, not LITERALLY countless, but I didn't bother to count them!

Now trying to decide which long 2017 hike will be my motivation to get BACK into the shape I was in when we left the Sierra back in September!

[Don Nelsen]

My lowest numbers in years but I've been dealing with liquidating a couple of estates and that's wearing me down.

420 miles (but 38 of that was in Hawaii!)
85 hikes, all but one unique
98,780 vertical EG

[Aimless]

My wife and I had several ambitions we could not fulfill in 2016, due to the complications of family responsibility. One was for me to take her to see Goat Rocks, where she has never been and to Jefferson park, where she has not been for 30 years. Neither idea worked out. I was hoping to backpack in Idaho's Sawtooth Wilderness for up to 11 days. I didn't even backpack one night in 2016 and barely got 7 nights of car camping in. A disappointment, but an unavoidable one.

Instead, I managed to do many more day hikes than I usually do and my wife and I had several trips to the Oregon coast. Also, there is a lovely 2.4 mile forested trail I can hike on, with 250 ft. of elevation gain, just a minute from my front door. I took full advantage of it this year, hiking on it 180 times, with 108 of those carrying a 20 lb. pack for conditioning purposes. When I didn't hike my next-door trail, I walked on neighborhood streets. I only began carefully recording my daily activity at the tail end of march, so some of the numbers given here are (lowballed) approximations. I could have asked for more, but I can't really complain about what I got. We'll get those backpacks in 2017, I hope.

'Real' honest-to-god day hikes away from home:

23 day hikes, totaling 180 miles, with approx. 41,000 ft. of elevation gain.
15 walks on the beach, totaling about 60 miles, with approx. 0 (zero) elevation gain

Walks near home, carrying a 20 lb. pack:

108 walks, totaling about 250 miles, with approx. 25,500 ft. of elevation gain

Other walks near home (no pack):

About 120 walks, totaling about 280 miles, with approx. 12,000 ft. of elevation gain