Good time in our lives to hike the AT?

[RLC_FLA]

The header above is the saddest epitath I've ever seen.

My wife and I were 39 and 43, respectively, in 1989 when we decided to hike the AT.

At the time we were living on our boat in Fla. We quit our jobs, put the boat into try storage and took off. My hiking experience was very limited, a couple of week long trips "car camping' and a few overnighters. My wife had done 250 mi of the AT a few years earlier.

When we hit Neel Gap, we sent back aprox 25 lb of stuff we didn't need or couldn't use and I had to buy a new pair of boots because the ones I purchased in "civilization" were useless and incorrectly fitted. We had the wrong mid layer clothing & many other thing that we thought were wonderful, again for car camping, but were not working for us on the trail.

By the time we got to Duncannan, we had replaced, our tent, both our backpacks, water filter and both of us had gone through 2 pairs of boots.

Our experiences, the people and places we met and saw, during our thru hike will remain with us the rest of our lives.

You'll make mistakes, your friends will question your judgment, your family will think you've lost your mind.

I was downsized last Aug, and as soon as we can sell our house we'll be back on the trail!

Just do it!

[old fat guy]

And hey! Come up with another name! Old Fat Guy doesn't exactly form a picture of adventure or inspire great things! You'll find that the AT is at least 80% a mental challenge - if that name is in your head....... You're younger than us and we DO NOT consider ourselves 'old' by any stretch! I have far too many friends our age (and some younger) who think of themselves as "too old" and I truly hate that attitude. It's defeating before you even get started.

When asked "how are you doing", my normal reply is "pretty good for an old fat guy". Sort of an oxymoron, I'm 5'11" and just under 190 but six years ago I was 250.

As to the mental challenge of hiking, that sounds a lot like marathon running. My legs and lungs are trained for it but my brain wants to know just what the hell are you thinking running 13.1 miles without stopping.

[Mrs Baggins]

My husband did a half marathon last year - and said that was that. He likes to run but he felt that was not enjoyable. Our daughter runs marathons. I'm no runner and never will be. But I can walk all day. We realized on the AT that as much as we prepared gear-wise and physically (the injury had nothing to do with our physical stamina) it was the mental part that we had not anticipated. We'd bought every single AT DVD and VHS tape read every single AT book....and still we did not know. When the day came that my husband turned to me and said "this is not fun anymore" we knew it was over even if the injury had not happened. Now we know. When it becomes work, a drudge, something you dread every day and/or find yourself doing it only because you don't want to tell friends/family you quit........wrong reasons to keep going. It was horrible to make those phone calls and tell everyone we were done. I still cry when I try to tell someone about it. But we made the absolute right decision.

[DapperD]

Don't be in too much of a hurry to be homeless and don't sell off everything. We did all of that with the absolute belief we'd do the whole trail and we wanted to be "free." In 10 days we were off the trail (injury), no place to live, our furniture sold off. We made a too-rushed decision to buy another home in a new town and spent $1000s on replacing everything we had sold off "to save storage costs." It would have been vastly cheaper to keep it and store it all. The really fortunate thing was that my husband had taken a leave of absence rather than quit his job (at age 52, 25 yrs with the same company but we lived all over the USA) and we did have the money in the bank from the house sale before we left. We spent 3 months seeing the country on a road trip, and then his company put him right back to work. I'd just caution that if you do have to leave the trail, your family and friends aren't going to put up with you on their sofas for very long no matter how sincere they may be to start with. Have a Plan B ready to go. That is NOT insurance that you'll fail as some seem to think. It's common sense. You're not in your 20's, you're not going to be as marketable as you think you'll be (private industry doesn't have much use anymore for people with nothing but government experience - my husband's global employer turns them away in droves), so at least have a home of some kind to return to and definitely try to do it on a LOA rather than flat out quitting, especially if you aren't ready and equipped to completely retire. By all means pursue your dreams - just be realistic about it.

Sounds like good common sense.

[fiddlehead]

To The Old Fat Guy!
Sounds like you are one lucky fellow to have all of those points in your Original Post going for you.

I wouldn't worry about the naysayers.
Everyone is different and if you really want to complete a thru-hike, you will.
Up to You!

Have a great hike.

ps. when you finish, you, and your wife, will have no problem completing a full marathon.

[Appalachian Tater]

Sounds like there will never be a better time for you to do it. You never know what the future will hold so go for it!

[RBrauerei]

RBrauerai,
Must be a slow day if I inspired you to make your first post. Thanks!

I'm new here also but welcome aboard!!!! Seems like a great bunch.

Thanks for the welcome - been lurking for almost a year. I'm a man of few words.

[Graywolf]

OFG, RB, Welcome to WB.. I have read books, guides artcles, on the AT for years now. Never went on a hike on the AT though. I kept saying I will do it next year. Well, last year, I obtained a job that allowed me ot take some months off thru the year, so last year, after our summer season, I thought, "Hey!! I can do a section hike!!" My family, friends, employer, everyone I knew told me not to go, save the money, buy a new car, etc. etc. etc. I stood firm on my plan. Even though the plan was for 2 months, It failed 3 days into the trip because of old gear. But it was three days that I will remember. And I have had a year to get new gear. Now, 1 month before the end of teh season, and one month before my next trip, I am excited. I do not regret these moments. They will last a lif time.

Weare only here for a very short time. You can spend it in 2 ways:

1) Living everyday of your life by a time clock, then when it comes to retire, say to youreslf, " I sure wished I had done that."

Or, 2)

Live your life and enjoy the Planet that the Creator has given us and live life to the fullest of your capacity..

DO IT!!

Graywolf