I Fought the AT and the AT Won

“someone i know who thru-hiked the entire AT suggested talking to ppl who have tried and faild to do the entire trail so as to find out what NOT to do. that could be more instructive than talking to someone who actually succeeded. so, any of you trail-jumpers got any advice for someone who will be marching from springer this march?”

“WTF makes you think anyone here ever attempted a thru hike of the AT?


;-)”

“ummmmmm a little bird told me?”

“All I've ever done or wanted to do is hike sections of it, and I've been very successful at that.”

“anybody ever flip-flopped it? i dont have anything against that, but it really doesnt appeal to me.”

“go over to Whiteblaze.net - its the place for AT related questions like yours.”

“Flip-flops don't give you enough support...”

“There are a lot of reasons people don't make it on the AT. Mostly it's a question of head and heart. How badly do you want this thruhike? How willing are you to accept the trail for what it is and not as you want and expect it to be? A lot of people who start the trail have a romanticized expectation of what thruhiking is like. Reality can be hard to take. Sometimes it really isn't fun. Sometimes it really hurts. How well do you tolerate pain? You have to deal with long days, hiking all day every day day after day, rain, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, etc. Some people really don't like hiking, they like camping. But thruhiking is more about hiking than camping. Some people remember what it was like as a Scout and hope to recreate that. Many who start the trail have absolutely no prior experience with backpacking - they discover that they really don't like sleeping on the ground, walking in the rain, smelling like a dead skunk, picking up a too heavy pack, etc. Best way to prevent a short hike is to get some experience. Before you totally disrupt your life, find out what it is like to hike for a week at a time, all day every day. See if you like being out there in bad weather. Get your body used to carrying a pack up steep mountains. The happiest hikers are those who can find humor regardless of conditions. At the least, can you accept the bad with the good? For a lot of us, thruhiking isn't fun - but it is happiness. Do you understand the difference?

Some people leave for other reasons - the broken toe, sprained ankle, running out of money, family issues that require a return home, even job issues that send you home (one friend had applied for a job before he left, four months later he heard that he got the job and had to leave his hike to start work).”

“Don't play frisbee barefoot while drunk. I broke my foot that way. :(”

“"thruhiking is more about hiking than camping."

thats a good point.

as far as the romantic notions go, are there some myths you can dispel for me. i dont want to go with false illusions.

btw, im still a fairly new backpacker (since feb of last year). i had 30ish bag nights last year and will end up with around 50 this year. ive been to the rockies, the AT (3 nites in january), black hills, and a few other places. i think many ppl, including myself, dont know whether or not they will be mentally tough enough to last for that long until they actually do it. im kind of anti-social anyway, but i love the cameraderie of The Trail, theyre my kind of ppl. and i will probably go in to just about every trail town and hostel along the way for a hot meal and hot shower. at least as much as is economically feasible.”

“and i REALLY dont get those ppl who attempt the AT with no or very little experience. when i start, ill have two years experience and probably a 100 bag nights under my belt, and i consider that to be minimal experience.”

“Its all in the mind!!!!You have to tell yourslef that you are going to do it and are not going to take anything less then finishing it!


8)”

“"thruhiking isn't fun - but it is happiness. Do you understand the difference?"

absolutely. a hike at red river gorge with ductape was a perfect example of that. or my three nigts from amicalola to neels gap. temps in the teens with only a 20 degree bag. i was freezing but so happy i did it. you cant explain it to ppl. they have to experience it.”

“man, i would be so qualified if my kids would be in college and if I would not be scared sh...less all alone in my tent in the woods. heehee, two very big hurddles...I prolly will never make it.”

“"Don't play frisbee barefoot while drunk. I broke my foot that way. :("

..or horsehoes while drunk,.. i forgot later on that the spikes were still in the ground and well... i tripped and fell over it.”

“i think drunk and barefoot shouldnt go together in most contexts”

“outdoors anyway”

“I talked to an old timer once who made it half way twice. I asked him why he stopped.

He replied, "Well at home I sleep under a fan every night. I just couldn't stop thinking about how nice it was to sleep with a cool breeze from an electric fan."”

“oooooooooooooooookay”

“For whatever it's worth I think you'd do just fine on a thru-hike. You most definitely have the tenacity for it and in the little time that you have been hiking you've done more than most people do in ten years

You thinking about taking that buy out and doing the AT?”

“That second part sounded kinda backhanded. Sorry, I didn't mean it that way.

Gotta proofread more. sheesh.”

“the thinking about part is done. right now its tolerating my job for the next five weeks. and then its time to plan in earnest for the BIG HIKE.”

“Ah, short timer syndrome. Been there, muddled through.
Good for you.”

“the wind at your back and your body strong.”

“tenacity? me? good heavens, where did you ever get that idea?”

“People leave the at for a lot of reasons. Some show up expecting it to be a grand exploration when the reality is day after day of slogging through rain and mud with nothing to look at but trees. Others have this idea that they can leave thier troubles behind when in fact they will follow you no matter what you do. Some hike to recover from life and many times after a few weeks they no longer have the need to hike any further.

In the end it isnt the pack that is the heavyest to carry but the emotional baggage you will bring that will stop you.If you arent comfortable with who you are remember there is no noise to drown out the voice in your head. You will have to face up to yourself and what you are. Not everyone can stand to look at their life with that kind of clarity.

you already have the rest.”

“thanks for the deep thoughts, jack handy, i mean dom : )

seriously, thats probably the most helpful advice anyone has given me about the mental aspect of it.”

“Have you read the Thruhiking Papers? A lot of that deals with attitude. There was a later group of essays on Thruhiking at the same site under the Page Bits that also deals with attitude and long distance hiking. http://trailwise.circumtech.com”

“"In the end it isnt the pack that is the heavyest to carry but the emotional baggage you will bring that will stop you.If you arent comfortable with who you are remember there is no noise to drown out the voice in your head. You will have to face up to yourself and what you are. Not everyone can stand to look at their life with that kind of clarity."


VERY good way of thinking about it... also very scarey.”

“yeah it is scary that I would post that. :}

http://www.nimblewillnomad.com/HTML/Poetry/The%20Three%20Wise%20Men.htm

Excellect reading If you want some deep philosophy about it.”

“There is no doubt that 2poops carries a lot of emotional baggage.”

“drunk n barefoot is always fun!....Just dont step on bannana slugs, ugh!”

“poops rhymes with scoops wow ya know that was funny the first 3001 times i heard that,....”

“knowing me, i feel sure i will make it to maine come hell or high water (and indeed, at least the latter of the two will come). but, i suppose the people who stopped trekking all felt the same way when they began. everyone thinks they've got it, ya know? i guess it's just hard to tell until you're out there wet and dirty and tired and loving (or not) every single minute of it.”

“Actually when reading AT trail journals I think it's pretty easy to figure out who is going to quit.”

“temps-wise, what is normal around springer for march?”

“One year, I tried to figure out who was going to quit. Some were very easy and obvious to guess, some people surprised me - they got their act together after a couple hundred wobbly miles and it. Others who looked like sure things couldn't make it - often due to major adversity, like broken bones... sliced fingers or a bad case of Lyme disease.

I remember one incredibily ill suited pair of Southbounders who ended up whining about the lack of hand rails and stairs in the 100 mile wilderness and got someone to take them out at a logging road after about 60 miles.”

“Hard to say, I've been there wearing shorts and I've been there with snow on the ground.

I'd bet on cold and possible snow.”

“I think injury and the like is a completely different matter. YOu can't predict that kinda stuff. I was only referring to where their heads are. The mental games people go through.”

“I remember reading a journal once where the guy was talking about how everyone told him he was a complete loser and never finished anything. He decided to try and hike the AT to "show them". Quit his job, gave up his apartment, etc., etc.

Didn't last a week on the AT.”

“I think I read that one!
LOL.”

“It's a heartbreaker when someone get injured and can't continue.

I remember the journal of a couple who was thru-hiking the AT together. She was the queen of all whiners, but managed to toughen up enough to make it all the way to Maine, where she broke her ankle. Tough luck.”

“I agree.”

“i was surprised at how quickly bill bryson and katz turned into lean, mean (well, mean anyway) hiking machines after going into it totally clueless. but i was disappointed they only did 500 miles.”

“this winter im going to spend a couple of weeks solid on one of the long trails deep south to acclimate to the mental aspect of being out for so long. maybe the florida trail or the natchez trace or pinhoti.”

“Let me know if you need any support along the FT.”

“2scoops, Johnny Malloy has a book out about all of the long trails in the south. The Pinhoti is one of them. You can find his books on amazon or johnnymalloy.com

Guys, just because I quit the AT after a week doesn't make me a loser. It only took 2 months to find another job.”

“I have that book. It's a good one.”

“I'm going to have to pick it up too. The Pinhoti is only 1 hr away and yet I've only done about 13 miles of it. The main reason, though, is that at Cheaha SP you can make all sorts of loops. That's what I end up doing for dayhikes. In a few weeks I'm tying an 18 mile and 13 mile loop into a nice weekend trip.”

“Oh yes before I forget.



Loser. ;-)”