Nah, they'll be fine, well, fine-ish. The cops will see someone walking with a pack and arrest them for vagrancy before they can get into too much trouble from the elements.
But for real, I know next to nothing about this sort of thing and even I know 1. Do not fuck around with mountains 2. Do NOT fuck around with desert.
Oh, and one more thing: You're not walking to Mordor, you're walking through Mordor. There's next to no water, the water that's there is poison, the temperature swings wildly between extremes, and most of the humanoids you'll come across will get angry and violent if they see youThere's next to no water, the water that's there is poison, the temperature swings wildly between extremes, and most of the humanoids you'll come across will get angry and violent if they see you
So
is pretty lore accurate- was enough to revise the Hitchhiker's Guide entry from mostly harmless — Ford Prefect, probably
Yeah, the idea of walking through Nevada, when you’re not extremely experienced, is insane to me.
Going through that part of the country for the first time was wild to me because until you're there it doesn't occur to you that there is no shade anywhere. Even in an air conditioned car you will still be uncomfortably warm because the sun will be beating down on you for the entirety of daylight. I can't even begin to imagine hiking through that, I'd be experiencing heatstroke within an hour.
Yeh. The walk to Mordor was much more hospitable than trekking across the American West.
I want to say that Mordor proper was actually pretty fertile agricultural land and that's why Sauron was able to project so much power - He had a very strong industrial and agricultural base to operate from.
That looks boring as fuck, imagine walking across the Great plains. Just days and days of corn and grass.
Why don't they do the Appalachian Trail or something else cool and normal instead?
Idk I feel like the first part of the walk would be pretty varied, but once they get past the Rockies it would be so monotonous
You know, I think the last time someone did a long walk through Navajoland 3,500 people died and they wrote a national anthem about it.
I hope they're just walking on the highway because that route is a death sentence if you try to pathfind your way to the end.
Literally going through the worst mountains, deserts, and basins just for a fucking bit.
Right, didn't Frodo go through relatively hospitable if extremely wild terrain for most of it? Like yes Moria sucked, but until Mordor I remember it being pretty varied but otherwise normal terrain
Yeh. The hike to Mordor was all through temperate England. And even Mordor wasn't anywhere near as bad as the Western US deserts.
Or you could go to New Zealand and hike from Hobbiton to Mount Ngauruhoe (the Mount Doom from the movies) in a quarter the distance, with more varied terrain, in a country with dedicated hiking huts, and probably chain together a bunch of hiking trails along the way.
But where is your sense of adventure? Where is the thrill of death lurking around every corner? Be it hypothermia, hyperthermia, dehydration, or Mormons.
Mormons
The worst of all, and not just the transphobia — you might even encounter Mitt Romney.
Wait this has to be a joke right? They plotted their way to walk through Death Valley. No one is that stupid right?
My first reaction was, is this guy literally trying to walk through the very aptly named death valley?
The Long March took place over many months. I don't think these two are all that comparable.
It was also with a massive group of people. Which makes an entire world of difference.
You would want to choose your start date very carefully for any hike this long.
is he stupid? does he think the fellowship would've walked all that way if they had access to trains?
Well if they're trying to do some fucked up Lord of the Rings style pilgrimage or whatever really what they should be doing is making the trek while avoiding the US surveillance state. You know, for authenticity.
I know you're probably just making a joke but Utah is legit like one of the top 5 most beautiful states. There's Arches and Canyonlands National Park to the east by Moab (as well as some beautiful state parks). As you travel south east from there you hit Capitol reef and then Zion! Also on the borders of Arizona and Nevada there's Monument Valley and Great Basin. Just got back from an incredible trip out there lol.
I don't like deserts.
If the desertic mountains have green valleys between them, maybe
Many of them do actually! The elevation is quite high around Zion/Bryce and gets a lot of rain, it’s loaded with cool foliage. Seconding that Utah is incredibly beautiful, my personal favorite nature in the entire continental US. If you’re into backpacking or any kind of outdoor shenanigans I can’t recommend it enough
PCT has become extremely hazardous in the last few years due to global warming. Less water, more fires, much more intense heat. It's pretty grim.
Yeah, it’s so sad. I did it a few years ago in a low burn year, and even then, we had to skip over maybe 200 miles of fires.
living is an elaborate way to kill yourself. the goal is making the rube goldberg machine go on as long as possible.
It's doable if you have a significant support group that can cache food and water for you and drive you too and from shelter at night. Long distance treks like this usually rely on having a lot of help.
Doing it alone, though, you're right, it's just a very complicated way to seriously injure yourself. If you're a hundred miles from anywhere and roll your ankle without someone who can come get you you're going ot have a bad day.
