Hiking in Your 70s: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

If you happen to be young, why would you care about hiking in your 70s? I have been surprised to learn that many young people do care. When I have talked about hiking the RCT Challenge in my 70s, three people in their 20s and 30s responded saying, “I want to be you when I grow up!” Three others said in different words that they hope to be like me when they are older. Some have used my example to motivate their parents to work more on fitness.

Is a person in their 70s old? I can’t do many of the things I did in my 20s and 30s now, but I don’t feel old or even know what such a feeling would be like. I can still hike 18 or more miles at a time over the RCT hills. It’s not easy for me but doable if I keep in shape year-round. Those of you much younger in good health can take winter off from training and with serious training, complete one of the RCT Challenge events. Those over 70 need year-round training.

This is the good part. It is possible for many of us to do distance hiking on challenging trails in our 70s. If you are in your 20s or 30s and love to hike, you have many years of enjoyment to look forward to. The key is to keep doing it. How did I get here?

I had asthma so bad that I almost died from it in my early years. By the time I got to high school the risk of dying was long past, but I wanted to be able to keep up with other kids, and I decided to go out for track my freshman year to build up my lungs. It worked, but the price was intense asthma attacks when running outside early in the season. Asthma didn’t tend to bother me in warm weather. I only had to keep going until things got better. I wasn’t good at running but learned to love it, and I kept it up for 50 some years until getting serious about hiking.

But hiking 34 to 37.5 miles in one day seemed crazy. After volunteering in the RCTC and helping in the last check point of a Challenge in 2016, I was convinced that the worn-out hikers coming through were doing something I would never do and couldn’t do. But I was also starting out as a trail steward and wanted to learn the entire RCT. The easy way was to hike it on Orientation and Training hikes. Eventually I found that I was conditioning so well that as the Training Hikes got longer, I was going at the same pace or even faster. If I got in hiking shape over the winter, I might be able to complete the Challenge.

In 2018 I started and completed my first Challenge at age 70. That was incredibly difficult! I hiked through pain and fatigue and through mud after heavy rains came at my halfway point. This is part of the bad. Many more people can hike 5, 10 or 15 miles at a time in their 70s, but few will find it easy to complete the Full Challenge. Then again you don’t need to in order to enjoy distance hiking. Do what you enjoy.

Most of the bad part about hiking or trying to hike in your 70s is that you learn about bodily limits more than ever before. Unless you are unusual, you will hike at a slower pace each year. I didn’t slow much from year to year in my 5 completions, but I did get slower. It also seems in my case and in looking at results of other hikers that there is typically a big drop in pace somewhere after age 73 and more definitely after 75. My last completion was at 75. The next year I had severe knee pain that was eventually solved at an orthopedic practice. But then there were many problems with my feet. The body is wearing out in your 70s if you’ve used it a lot over a long time.

Another problem for hikers over 70 that shows up much earlier is that if you get sick or injured, recovery time is much longer than when you were younger.

The oldest hiker to finish the Full Challenge is Jim Antoniono, who amazingly did it at age 77 with Achilles Tendon issues! Those got worse, and Jim has since Perhaps temporarily retired from Rachel Challenges. From what I’ve seen of other hikers in our 70s Jim’s achievement was more than amazing. And he set the age record 3 years in a row at ages 75, 76 and 77.

Here's more good news. The number of people 70 and older hiking the Challenge in recent years has grown considerably, and Jim isn’t the only one to blast past age expectations. For the first 23 years of the Full Challenge no one over the age of 73 finished. In 1921 Jim Antoniono finished at age 75. Since then three of us finished at age 74, four, including Jim, finished at age 75. Bob Webb joined this group as the oldest finisher this year. And of course Jim made it at 76 and 77. Clearly hikers are staying fit longer than ever before.

One of the reasons that more distance runners and hikers are active in our 70s is that we have learned more about the importance of good nutrition. Basically we should eat plenty of fruits and vegetables every day and minimize consumption of processed foods.

Another is the research that shows that interval training reduces mitochondrial damage in muscle cells. This is really amazing! Interval training has been shown to change muscles at the cellular level so that the cells can process energy more efficiently. Running, hiking, biking, lifting weights and other activities done with intensity followed by short rest periods in multiple intervals increases our ability to stay active as we get older. This is not something that you should wait to do until you get older. In fact you shouldn’t start this when older without first checking with your doctor, and always do a good warmup before starting interval training.

After thinking about interval training, I wondered what it would do for heart health. It does a lot! Your heart will respond by pumping more blood more efficiently and your resting pulse rate and blood pressure will be lower. Arterial blood vessels will become more flexible. These changes improve longevity.

For those of us who hike the Rachel Carson Trail it’s good to know that the many hills provide a natural type of interval training. Our muscles are pushed hard on the way up the hills, and we get relative rest on the way down and on the level parts of the trail.

Even with the advantage of hill training, resistance training with weights or machines is essential to hiking longevity.

What about the Ugly? Anyone who started the Full or Homestead Challenges in 2024 or 2025 knows about those. In 2024 it was intense sunlight and temperatures in the mid 90s. It was burning hot! Less than half the starters finished when normally slightly over 80% finish. With my knee issue reducing training time I didn’t have a chance. In 2025 it was the ever-present and deep mud. I was trying to match Jim’s record and might have made it in conditions like we had this year, but the mud did me in. Ten of us in our 70s started the Full Challenge, but only Doug MacPhail, age 72, finished. Normally most of those starting in their 70s finish. It has something to do with experience.

This year included some of each of the good, the bad and the ugly for me at age 78. After last year, I wanted to enjoy hiking more and opted for the Homestead Challenge, also known as the Half Challenge. Then I got extremely sick in early April and spent 5 days in the hospital not able to walk without help. That was even uglier than the mud of the previous year. Even making 17.9 miles looked out of reach for nearly 4 weeks until I was able to get serious about hiking again. The bad part was the last 2 Training Hikes. I finished the second last but couldn’t have made it without a lot of help from my friend Leigh Paich. I didn’t finish the last training hike. Finishing the Homestead was definitely going to be a Challenge and not as sure as I had expected before getting sick.

The good part was that hiking conditions were perfect, and I paced myself nearly perfectly and finished well under the official time limit and not totally worn out. Another good thing is that the hiking community is incredibly supportive. Even in those good conditions, I wouldn’t have made it without the support of many other hikers on the Training hikes and during the Homestead Challenge itself. Of course, in trying to demonstrate that I wasn’t worn out, I made the mistake of trying to jog the last 50 yards up the hill to the finish. Suddenly my right calf muscle cramped and I went down. Oops! After a minute or two of massage, I got up and walked to the finish.

The more serious point in all of this is that most people can stay more active than has been expected into their 70s and possibly 80s and 90s. Enjoy hiking!