As hiking season ramps up across the country, we were reminded of this charming essay from old friend Brendan Leonard. Just one of thousands of gems in the Adventure Journal archive. -Ed.
My friend Greg had hit the wall about four miles from the top of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and every time I looked back, he was a few more feet behind. Greg is a trail runner, but had been sitting at sea level for all but the last 21 hours and had gone through a hectic couple weeks during which training had gotten pushed off the schedule when more important life matters popped up.
I had kept going my pace up the Bright Angel Trail, just wanting to get our 25-mile day over with and start putting back the calories I had burned, plus a couple extra thousand for the road.
With each step forward toward the South Rim, I repeated the words
Ice.
Cream.
Ice.
Cream.
A mile to go, and Greg was a few minutes behind. As I passed through the last sandstone arch, a few hundred feet of trail to go, I stopped. I was being that guy, the guy who walks off, leaving someone behind when they’re not fast enough. It is rare that I am that guy, able to actually walk faster than one of my friends. I stopped and leaned against the wall next to the trail, waiting for Greg to show up so we could top out together. Then I walked around in circles like a 7-year-old who had to pee really badly but couldn’t find a bathroom. But Greg and I walked the last couple hundred feet to the top together, and then I ate three ice cream cones like a man on death row.
Do you have a friend like this? They like you enough to call you to go climbing together, or hiking, or riding, but don’t like you enough that they will slow down their pace for you? My friend Maynard wrote a piece for Winning Magazine back in the early ’90s, called “Half Wheel Hell,” about that friend who would ride next to you and always keep half his front wheel in front of yours, even when you pedaled faster to catch up so you could talk, dammit. The essay was so popular, Maynard made it the name of his second book, Half Wheel Hell and Other Cycling Stories.
With two of my friends/climbing partners, I am always the guy 100 feet behind. No matter how hard I train, I will never keep up with Chris or Lee when we go climbing together. They both have the internal speedometer of a cheetah, and they have two gears:
1) Sitting and drinking coffee
and
2) Walking at 4.5 mph with a pack full of climbing gear
All I can do is step in front of them the first chance I have, and get in the way, slow them down to 3 mph or 2 mph. Sorry, dude, Tubby’s going to walk in front of you and be the cruise control here. Please accept my apology. We can talk about something as we walk up to the climb, because I won’t be wheezing blood up the steep part of the trail.
Funny thing, neither of them has ever said, “No, Brendan, why don’t I carry the rope and the rack, and your food and water, because I’m way faster than you and I get tired of waiting.” That would be way better.
Photo by Bureau of Land Management
We adore The Art of Getting Lost: 365 Days of Adventure, Big and Small, for local and extralegal inspo.
Bears—you like bears, right? Check out, Bears Don’t Care About Your Problems: More Funny Shit in the Woods from Semi-Rad.com. Sure, it’s not only about bears, but bears highly recommend it.
Finally, Surviving the Great Outdoors: Everything You Need to Know Before Heading into the Wild (and How to Get Back in One Piece), just may save your life one day. I mean, so might a GPS device, but this book is good too.
“They like you enough to call you to go climbing together, or hiking, or riding, but don’t like you enough that they will slow down their pace for you?”.
Personally I’m usually the one in front and I was more thinking, “we are close enough with each other so they won’t mind if I keep my pace and wait for them a bit further on the trail”.
But my GF keep telling me that it is kind of a dick move and I try to change… but sometimes it feels that the more I slow down for her to catch up, the more she starts to slow down as well.
I’m not sure there is a solution.
Q
There is a solution: Let her lead. As a slower girlfriend I go way faster when I lead. Part of this is psychological (it’s so much more fun to lead) and part of it is laws of motion:
If you come to a tricky part (or want to take a picture) and you’re leading, your girlfriend catches up and waits while you get through, then you bound off into the distance while she is picking her way through the slow section (which results in her having to run to catch up or you having to stop). If she leads, she can get through while you wait and get a bit of a head start while you get through then you just catch up easily after.
I like your idea. It won’t happen in most cases though as the one in front will suffer psychological effects of being a natural leader forced to walk like a snail (in his mind).
I have an idea. If he’s going 50% faster, give him 75% extra of the entire loadout weight. The one in front will either slow down or learn the hard way. Keep giving him more until your pace is similar.
My friend loves biking but goes unbearably slow. I’ve got a pretty fast pace on my own, and try to slow down, but no matter what I just can’t go his pace without fear of toppling over from sloth-like speeds. It doesn’t help that he’s a plant scientist so wants to stop every 100ft to examine a shrub or tree. I even make sure to switch to flat pedals so I don’t have to unclip every minute. I (sort of) enjoy biking with him but there’s only so many excuses I can think of to bail when he wants to bike every week. Any advice?
I use slower riders as an excuse to practice technique. Slow, technical moves are challenging. Or use the time to find alternate lines. Stump to pop over? Awesome! Rocky ledge to drop back on the trail? Sweet. You can build a ton of skills and make yourself faster on rides like this. Concentrate on weight transfers. Bunny hopping and manualing. Proper cornering. Doing it slowly makes you do it correctly.
Take a fat bike or anything slower than what they ride. Carry more stuff.
I can relate to this while running/training. I’ve had it done to me and done it to others. Sometimes when you’re ahead you feel like you’re pulling the others forward, trying to get them to train harder. When backpacking, tho, that’s a different story. The people I’ve packed with just assumed everyone walks at different paces and periodically we’d regroup without any thought of hard feelings. And sometimes you just want to be alone on the trail, not talking.
I have no sympathy for you fast people. I am the ambler, and I stop to look at interesting plants, bugs, and lizards…and I read all the interpretive signs.
I prefer being referred to as a mindful hiker– “in the moment”. 🙂
Just because your slow, doesn’t make faster folks unmindful … each person has their own pace, sometimes it works out, but more often it does not. Solo time is good.
If your gonna be “that guy”, then don’t be the one to initiate the group ride or hikes. If your just can’t ride slower, then stop and regroup and let the others take a breather. Chances are they are pushing trying to keep up. Ive got some riding friends I’ve grown tired of riding with. Yes they’re faster, and that’s ok. But if you take off and never look back, why should I go outdoors with you? Part of the group ride or hike is the extra safety it affords. It’s not much benefit if they summit an hour or two after you lose sight them and then wonder if you went the same way or got hurt
What a great topic. I am usually one of the slower riders when I go on a group mountain bike ride and this is one reason I prefer to ride by myself quite honestly. When I do go on group rides the friends I like to ride with always find a way to make waiting for me interesting. I suck at climbing so as I’m trailing off the back my faster friends will go back down the hill and climb again for more practice and at the same time give positive encouragement for all of us that aren’t so fast up the hill. I know it’s my own fault for not riding/training more but sometimes other things get in the way and our fitness goes down. These friends give me encouragement to get out and ride more and change my bad habits. For this I am grateful!
I am frequently that guy. But it’s usually because I’m out there for relaxation and quiet, and the “group” won’t stop chatting like a bunch of magpies at a hair salon. I prefer my woods quiet.
My dad used to do that to me as a kid when he’d drag me along on his too-technical-for-most-9-year olds hikes, deliberately, even going so far as to keep hiking ahead as I hit a loose patch and kept falling down. His issue was he was just an abusive horse’s asshole and wanted to show off his perception of “dominance”. Later years as I surpassed him in height, stride and caffeine usage I could easily leave him in my dust and did at least once, with a sense of compulsion in the spirit of “what goes around comes around”, as a reminder to him of his bad habits because justice is a dish best served cold.
I made sure to remind him of his arrogance on the trails on his death bed 18 years ago with metastatic kidney cancer from years of alcohol use. Some people are just pieces of shit.
Wow, you may want to see a therapist, that’s not really what this article was talking about.
Hey, not everybody has good parents. I’d say his comment was therapy. And took this page to a whole new level. Do go on Sasquatch. I know I’ve got an ex-stepfather whose deathbed I’d like to visit.
All three of these comments just made this whole page.
Well, there’s not really all that much more to be said that’s terribly relevant. He ran off a couple years after I was born (figure around the time Challenger blew up) and didn’t come back until I was in kindegarden (figure just before the Berlin Wall fell), and he basically drank himself to death while I was in high school stocking groceries, under the early Bu$h II economy yet, just to support myself and mother to a lesser degree (she also was working then, as a secretary).
On the other hand, he was an OK cook, but a proficient mechanic and had exquisite taste in music.
I have a friend I backpack with. I go at a moderate pace, and hate to stop. Think 3 MPH for four hours, lunch, then four more hours. He walks faster than I do, but takes way more breaks. We have come to determine that the best way for to go backpacking is to walk separately and camp together. Sometimes he is in front, sometime it is me. Sometimes we meet up for lunch, sometimes we don’t. I don’t think the issue is someone ditching their friends, but one of communication.
Loved everyones comments. My husband and I do a lot of hiking and some backpacking but I am ok with him going his own pace and being ahead since I am going my pace which allows me to keep going and not have to stop to catch my breath on those long steep hills. But also he is never that far ahead of me and he still can keep an eye out for me while still going his own pace. He is not a talker on the trail either and with that being said when he does stop and I catch him he continues to hike on and most times with going my own pace I don’t need to stop so I am right behind him for a little while anyway.
If you are that far in front, you might want to consider more solo jaunts or pick a different group for your activities. Typically I’m out front, so when I know I’ll be with a slower group, I try to get in some exercise the day before so I’m a little more tired and relaxed.
One of the issues I have is being invited for a group activity and feeling pressure to go, when what I want to do is go alone so I can go at my own pace.
So yeah, don’t be that guy/girl who pressures folks to go on a group outing if you know they are going to faster than your group.
I have a friend who I hiked with a lot but he always complained that I walk too slow so I stopped hiking with him. Now he complains that he doesn’t have anyone to hike with…
adopt a burro from the b.l.m. wild horse & burro program, to hike with. the burro will likely set the pace, whether hiking solo or with others! but at least she’ll be packing your gear while the others will be “sufferin’ to sing the blister blues” carrying all their gear……..
Busted.
I hike primarily w/my kids, who are now 15 & 17. I have done this since I used to carry the eldest in a backpack. I would typically let my daughter lead (the older) and we would have to ‘drag’ my younger son the entire route. To this day he still can’t tell us what he was doing in the back where we would have to stop and wait for him incessantly. Now…. they fight over who leads, and I am the guy in the back, they kill me on the hills (I’m 57), but I figure its good for me – lol. Do your best to hike w/the people you choose to hike with, I mean isn’t that the point ?
Everyone having their own pace is real. I find if I slow mine to match others, I don’t just get impatient, it’s mentally draining and physically harder to the point of courting repetitive stress injury. Going at your own pace is effortless and unconscious. I think that’s the source of the ‘that guy’ phenomenon, more than personality traits.
On the phenomenon of peoples’ paces self-adjusting when in front or in back, when my wife and I ride bikes together, I insist she goes in front so we can stay together. I stay on her wheel and she gradually slows down from like 12 mph to 10 until I give up and go out in front. From that point, she locks into position 200 yards behind me maintaining 16 mph the rest of the ride. Can’t figure that out. I mean, unless she just doesn’t want to be around me 🙁