Hi - have any of you that live in persistent a-fib hiked any sections of the Appalachian trail (in a-fib)?
(or have second hand experience ).
I am interested to learn about sections of the trail that are "a-fib" friendly, if any. I am assuming that if one plans and selects a section carefully they could have a fun month out.
Ps i know that the Appalachian trail is in the US and most people on this forum are in the UK 😉
All I know about the Appalachian Trail is in a book by Bill Bryson, he tried to do it and eventually gave up. It is many years since I read it but his overwhelming impression was trees, trees and more trees, and never being able to see landscapes, rivers or valleys. Sorry! Might be worth reading first if you are set on doing it.
I can only say that I guess it will all depend upon what happens to your heart rate when you exercise. It must be an individual response that matters, I feel sure. My elderly friend has permanent AF with a "normal" rate and during a walk, on any incline, he has to rest occasionally, but manages.
When I get AF (PAF in my case) while out walking, which doesn't happen nearly as often as I might expect, I notice that my pulse quickly rises from its resting rate of 90-130bpm or so to 180+bpm, which is too much for me to feel safe to continue. This forces me to rest and then make my way slowly back home or to the car.
Steve
Thanks, generally the challenge i have to deal with when exercising is that my heart rate does not keep up with the level of exertion - so i need to stop to catch my breath, which I think your friend probably also experiences. The steeper the incline and the heavier the pack the more often I need to rest - so if its steep i can walk only very slowly (even without a pack).
But I am sort of hoping there are sections of the AP that are flat enough to venture out for a week or two on ...
I would feel sure there are, and what an experience it will be. I envy you. You will be fine and have a memorable time.
Ignore the following if you have some decent binoculars...
If you haven't any, a good pair of binoculars will be essential to increase the enjoyment pf your trip. I am an avid birdwatcher myself and use expensive Leica Noctivid binoculars but recently my wife bought a far less pricey pair made by a leading Japanese optics company called Hoya. Well, they have seriously impressed me just how good they are both optically and in manufacturing quality. If it's of interest, it's the Hoya BD32-II XD model. Ignore that they are "only" 6.5x magnification since this actually turns out to be their strength with a super wide, steady and sharp field of view inside a light and compact, waterproof body: all-in-all superb. Edge to edge sharpness isn't the equal of the Leica but this is, seriously, of zero practical concern since the sweet spot and filed of view is so enormous making viewing easy, natural and nothing less than a pleasure.
Steve
I have hiked a lot on the PCT, and a little bit on the AT. The New England sections of the AT can be very steep - the trail tends to follow drainages straight up and down, no switchbacks. There can be a lot of scrambling and rock-hopping. It can be difficult to control your exertion level. I definitely would not recommend the AT in Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine. The PCT is the opposite - the trail is well laid and graded. Even in the steepest sections of the PCT, the Sierra, you never gain more than about 700ft per mile, whereas the AT has sections that gain 2,000ft per mile. If you get the AllTrails app, you can check the elevation profiles of the various sections of the AT. When I hike, I choose sections that allow me to retreat downhill to a trailhead if I get a bad episode of afib. I don't like to be between peaks, where I might have to go up before I can go down. You can find long sections that allow this strategy.
Thanks for this. For some reason I hadn't thought about the PCT, i will look into that too.
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