The Hardest Hikes in America?

For me "hardest" means fighting your way through thick brush. Bonus if there are thorns. Sometimes it takes hours to log a single mile.

I had never experienced that until last June on a 4 day hike. On the 3rd day it took us 10 hours to accomplish a whole 2 miles. It would have been longer if it had not been for a 1/2 mile stretch on a trail that wasn't on the map and then it disappeared.

Well it wouldn't have been overly difficult but the Cats Claw seemed to have over taken the Red Tanks Divide trail as both us ruined our shirts and received numerous wounds. Sometimes it would grab my pack and seem to pull me backwards. Oh how I got tired of fighting that stuff. Next time I'm bringing a small set of pruning shears or maybe machete.

The weight of which may add to the severity of the hike. Excellent point, reuben.

I’m not a backpacker, just a nature loving car camper, day hiker but I’ve had some people from the forums use my place to park and get ferried part way up the Bigfoot trail that ends at out lighthouse here. I’ve never hiked it but have explored several parts of it over the years via long drives and short walks. Three of them who have hiked many terrains over the years agreed that this trail was the hardest they have done. I think just due to overgrowth. Everything grows here, and fast. Trails get covered in nettles, poison oak and thorny brambles but also fallen redwoods.

No, she carries her own. lol. My granddaughter has been reading a series about a small, female Bigfoot, “The Smallest Bigfoot” but that old video of the female Bigfoot strolling past and glancing toward the camera was shot near here.

Okay, I thought of another. For sheer nastiness, the trail from the Siberia Valley (NZ, S. Island) up to Crucible Lake wins. Two cold, wet stream crossings, a very steep climb up basically a tangle of (wet) roots. Then back down it. The lake is really cool, though, and it might have been a more pleasant hike on a warm sunny day.