By Ed Zieralski STAFF WRITER

Reinhold Metzger was backpacking the rugged and demanding, 211-mile John Muir Trail a few years ago when he happened upon a group of fast-moving hikers nearing the end of their trek.
"You guys must be Marines," Metzger said, spotting the men's white-walled haircuts and fit physiques.
"We are British Royal Marines," one of the men blurted.  Metzger, who is German by birth, German-American by choice and was a U.S. Marine, asked them the universal question, one that everyone on the trail asks everyone else.
"How many days did it take you guys?" Metzger asked. They told him 14 days, and that ignited a competitive fire under Metzger's hiking boots.

"I knew the average time to hike the John Muir Trail was 21 days, but most people take much longer," Metzger said. "When they said 14 days, that started the whole thing for me, wanting to set a speed record for an unsupported  backpacker on the John Muir Trail." Metzger's thinking was, if the British Marines can cover it in 14 days. . .
'Then a U.S. Marine should be able to do it faster," Metzger said.

Metzger, 61, of Point Lorna, set out to prove it, to be the fastest through backpacker the John Muir Trail has seen since, well, old John Muir himself.

And earlier this month, Metzger did just that, backpacking the country's most physically demanding and mentally challenging route, covering the distance from Mt.
Whitney to Yosemite Valley in an amazing five days, 10 hours. He beat his two previous marks of nine and seven days, also unofficial records.

"Backpacking in the Marines was misery," Metzger said. "But backpacking now is a lot of fun. In the Marines, I had a sergeant barking at me and ready to plant a boot up my rear if I didn't keep going on our all-night, forced marches. When I hike now, I don't have that big boot to keep me going, just my own determination." Metzger learned sleep deprivation on those Marine marches. On his last day on the Muir Trail he slept all of a half hour after getting just three hours the day before. He averaged about three hours of sleep over the five-day trek.
BackPacker Magazine, based in Emmaus, Pa., is the unofficial clearinghouse for such records, though there is no official book or rules and regulations.

But Peter Flax, features writer for Backpacker Magazine, knows of no one who has completed the trail without support any quicker than Metzger. He said Brian Robinson of the Bay Area, known as the "Barry Bonds of backpacking," was rumored to be attempting it this year, but he hadn't heard from him. Robinson is the only person to ever hike the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail, the Triple Crown, all in one year.

"Reinhold is the real deal," Flax said. "I know that for a self-supported walk of the Muir Trail, it is a record. And that will be a super hard one to beat. That's 211 miles with nearly 50,000 feet total elevation gain and loss throughout that trail. That's hiking 40 or more miles a day up and down some very steep passes, wearing a backpack, and he's not a young guy. It's a pretty incredible mark for a guy his age to do without support of any kind"

Metzger has been to the top of Mt. Whitney "a dozen times" and has hiked the entire John Muir Trail seven times, including one back-and-forth loop, from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney and back to Yosemite, 422 miles in all, in 14 days.

"The first time 1 hiked the John Muir Trail I did it as a high wilderness leader with the Boy Scouts," Metzger said. "It took me 21 days, but I also carried a 75 pound backpack. I realized that to go for the speed record, I'd need to be as light as possible and take along only what I needed." Metzger, through careful planning and thinking, reduced the weight of his backpack to 9.5 pounds, minus food and water. It's 22 pounds when he adds food and water.
But getting light is just part of the equation.

Metzger said a backpacker must have three qualities to be able to finish the John Muir
Trail in five days, 10 hours. He. must be a strong hiker, a terrific planner and be mentally tough when the body begins to shut down.

"At 61, I don't pretend to be as strong a hiker as I was when I was younger," Metzger said. "I can go fast on straightaways and downhills, but I struggle with uphills because my lungs don't work as well as they did when 1 was young." He said most backpackers don't pack enough food.

"You'll burn 4,000 calories a day up there," he said. "I packed mostly high-calorie food like potato chips, nuts and cookies and freeze dried food." But someone can be a good, strong hiker and a great planner, but all is lost if the person isn't mentally tough and . . . "Determined," Metzger said. "Determination overcomes a lot. You have to push yourself. Have to go on.
It's like a marathon where the winner always isn't the most fit or gifted, but the most determined." One of the scarier moments for Metzger on his trek actually happened the night he began it from the summit of Mt. Whitney. A fast-moving snowstorm trapped him and forced him to take shelter in the stone hut up there.

His plan was to leave at midnight, but when he stepped out to see if he could find the trail, a whiteout caused him to get disoriented.
Suddenly, he couldn't find his way back to the hut.

After walking dangerously close to the edge of 300- to 500-foot ledges, Metzger finally found his route back to the hut.
"It could have ended before I started," he said with a hearty laugh.

Metzger says people often ask him why he doesn't take his time and hike the trail slower and smell the flowers and enjoy the views.. He tells them he did that the first time, when he hiked with Boy Scout Troop 500.
He also explained why he hikes the] John Muir Trail so often:
"Because it's awesome," he said. "It's the most scenic, spectacular and challenging trail in the U.S., maybe the world. People from all over the world come to hike the John Muir Trail." But right now, no one has backpacked it faster without support than Metzger.

About that hike. . .

Reinhold Metzger, 61, Point Loma, backpacked the 211-mile John Muir Trail from Mt. Whitney to Yosemite National Park's Happy Isles in five days, 10 hours, the fastest known time ever for an unsupported backpacker. He beat his own records of nine and seven days.

The Passes: The John Muir Trail is said to be the world's most physically challenging trail because it includes nearly 50,000 feet in total elevation changes up and down 10 passes. The trail is strewn with rocks and boulders and not easily walked. The 10 passes are, from Mt. Whitney at 14,495 feet; Forester Pass, at 13,200 feet; Glen Pass, 10,800 feet; Pinchot Pass, 12,100 feet; Mather Pass, 12,080 feet; Muir Pass, 11,955 feet; Piute Pass, 8,050 feet; Silver Pass, 10,900 feet; Island Pass, 10,200 feet; Donohue Pass, 11,050 feet; and Cathedral Pass, 9,700 feet.

In the backpack: Metzger carries only the most necessary items, and his tent, sleeping bag and mat are ultra lightweight. His backpack is 9.5 pounds without food and water, 22 pounds with food and water. His stove is an old tin measuring cup that he heats with military issue heating tablets. He uses iodine to purify his water, which he says is abundant on the John Muir Trail. He mostly takes foods that are light but high in calories. He also had cheese and crackers. He figures he burns 4,000 calories a day on the trail.

Highlights: The trail passes through three national parks - Kings Canyon and Sequoia and Yosemite. It includes Mt.Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states at 14,495 feet. Mt. Whitney, reachable from Lone Pine by an 11-mile hike that ascends 6,000 feet from Whitney Portal, is on the southern terminus and Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley is on the northern terminus. It also divides Yosemite National Park from the Ansel Adams Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest and has the largest glacier in the Sierra on the face of Mt.Lyell.

- ED ZIERALSKI