Weight Loss Blog

West Coast Trail Again

I'm considering hiking the West Coast Trail again. I hiked it in 2004 and wrote a quick blog entry about it and how I lost 2 percent body fat hiking the west coast trail. As I noted then, I was eating about 5000 calories a day during the hike and even with that amount of calories, I dropped body fat.

Proof that Tom's concept of Eat More, Burn More (tm) is true. Eating more calories tells the body's metabolism to kick into gear and "waste calories". One form of this waste of calories is in heat, or Thermogenics. Although I did a great deal of physical output during that 7 day West Coast Trail hike, the increase in calories helped as well.

The West Coast Trail is a 75km long trail (46 miles) along the west coast of Vancouver Island off Canada's West coast. Each day, you're walking along the beach, or slightly inland interacting with the various animals (I ran into a bear), rodents, sea life etc. It's considered to be one of the top hikes in the world with travelers coming from all over. The people I hiked with daily were from Germany and Switzerland for example.

I remember that regardless of the amount of calories I consumed, I was still hungry and had to refill my food stores when I got to Chez Monique's. I took advantage of their hamburgers and especially their fresh fruit. OMG it was great to have fresh nectarines that day!!!

So, I'm thinking about getting away again and doing the hike. I'm even considering doing it 3x back to back to back. I'd have to finish once, then restock my food supply and have a shower and wash some clothes, then head back the other direction and do the same thing at the other end. Then one final trek back the way I came to finish it for the 3rd time.

Lots of things to consider when doing this:

1) Extreme Pain - shoulders, lower back, legs
2) Amount of food required - preparing ahead and sending a re-supply of food to the end points to re-stock my backpack
3) time involved

The biggest issue is the time involved I think. It's 3 weeks long with a total of 75Km each way camping in possible rainy conditions (scratch that.. bright sunny dry conditions). I remember the pain in my shoulders each night when I took my pack off. Mind you, I was carrying a very heavy pack and I would not do that again. I've learned a lot since, and would have a max 50lb pack. Last time I think it was around the 70 pound mark.

I dealt with the pain using Sunrider's Sport Caps. They helped heal and repair the muscles, and diminish the back pain in just a few minutes. I was using 3x the recommended amount though, but it was quick relief and highly regenerative, so what the hell right? Nothing like trusting your own product and using lots of it when needed.

If you're reading this, I'd love to hear about your West Coast Trail hike story and whether or not you've done it more than once, and also if you've done it back to back as I've outlined.

Labels: Hiking, travel, West Coast Trail

West Coast Trail Again
was posted by Rob @ 6/14/2007 12:17:00 PM | Discuss this post or any other in my Weight Loss Forum

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