I waited 30 years
like your style.Originally Posted by hikemikehike
ime and my buddys all fell in love with her on first sight prommising marrage every spring but allways failing to come up with the amount her daddy wanted for her hand so .........breathing.......we allways wanted to be her one and only and wake each morn in her bed, but it just never happened. her daddys mad and shes gettin other callers and im thinkin rob steal kill plunder . whatever it takes. im in love and have been since that day i was 9 in the smokys and my parents drove a smelly hiker to a gas station where he used a pay phone and bought an air freashner. when i asked him why the air freashner he said, smell this, and held his pack up. it was heaven. all the melted gorp and hot dog greese of time begot.i knew there and then. i would walk so long in those woods my pack smelled. kinda like a sour milk trick or treat bag. good and bad and wonderful. sorry. truth.
matthewski
well, thanks for the confidence, which I hope is not too far misplaced...I think starting a thread as to what surprised you would be good. I bet you pretty much feel like you know what you are getting into. If not a thread..............at least PM me.......
I have decided to keep a trail journal at postholer, as much for myself as for anyone else:
http://postholer.com/journal/viewJou...6033e1dafc0f91
Hope that link works; it's under Blitz
I do think I know more or less what I'm getting into, but part of the fun is not knowing most of it until it happens!
I do think I know more or less what I'm getting into, but part of the fun is not knowing most of it until it happens! - Blitz1
IMO, having this adaptable/flexible/humorous attitude is critical if a prospective thru-hiker is to complete a thru-hike! Some thru-hikers find this out and adopt it somewhere along their successful journeys and some start out with it. Others never comprehend or adopt this attitude; I think they are the ones who mistakenly believe they know how everything will unfold or they can control or plan for everything that will occur; they are the ones who I find are most likely to go home instead of making the trail their temporary home.
I started day hiking when I was in my late twenties. After about three years of short hikes I started backpacking - over the next few months I did a half dozen or so overnight trips plus my first ever trip that was four days long. Less than a year later I was climbing Springer on my way to Maine.
Experience can help in some ways, because at least you'll know whether you actually like to hike, like to camp and enjoy backpacking. A thruhike is much harder (but not impossible) if you don't enjoy hiking. But the reality of hiking day after day after day is different from what most people know before they get on the trail. Only time will tell whether that is something you can enjoy enough to go all the way.
I started a Harpers Ferry to Springer hike three days after I discovered the trail. I would have hiked the whole thing that summer but it was already July. I'd never backpacked, but I had lots of outdoor experience and the trail was so much fun, I thru-hiked the next four years in a row!
In my experience the AT seems to be the place most people come to do their first big hike...which is exactly why the drop out rate is so high, and so early.
My first long hike on the AT was in 1995, I was 19 and had thru-hiked the Long Trail the year before. Almost everyone on the trail as a newbie, with just weekend experience, two others were repeat long distance hikers.
In 2001 most of the people I met were first time long distance hikers, the same again in 2008, although I noticed a higher level of 'repeat' hikers in 2008 than other years...saying that, I also left Springer in peak thru-hiker season.
I think what others are trying to point out is that fact that long distance hiking is different from recreational hiking, there are different goals and objectives to each. Different things happen in each case.
I agree that weekend trips can prepare you for long distance, but only for the disciplined hiker who will choose to go out in the rain, which is not the norm...most hikers will wait another week for sunny skies.
Also, on a long hike, there is no real recovery time, unless you can afford to take 3 zero days in a motel on a regular basis (and not go stir crazy) so things like shin splints, tendonitis and blisters are a much bigger deal cause you will need to walk through them, also your gear breaks down much quicker, especially foams in packs and things like that, because it's either being used, or packed up damp all day...with the odd day off.
For anyone wanting to hike the AT with no experience, I would recommend hiking the Long Trail first...if you do that and still want to do the AT, you will be in a very good position. Also with the LT, you don't need to drop out of life to do it, 3 weeks is all you need.
For those in the IN, OH, MI, KY area of the country, you could hike the Knobstone Trail in southern Indiana (just north of Louisville, KY) and you'd get a glimpse of what Georgia will be like on your AT thru-hike.
Start the KT at Deam Lake State Park and head north to Delaney Park (about ~ 45 trail miles or so) and then return back to your car. That should give you a good seven to nine days of hiking and the ups and downs will show you what Georgia will be like (Georgia will be a little steeper than he KT). Depending upon the time of year you may need to spot water along the KT before starting your hike.
Of all the hiking I'd done in the Midwest, the KT was closest to the ruggedness of AT in Georgia.
Datto
For anyone wanting to hike the AT with no experience, I would recommend hiking the Long Trail first...if you do that and still want to do the AT, you will be in a very good position. Also with the LT, you don't need to drop out of life to do it, 3 weeks is all you need.[/QUOTE]
I agree. That's what I did. I started dayhiking, then overnighters, then a few 4 or 5 dayers, then the Long Trail, then the AT thru.
I think doing the Long Trail first is smart because it is as hard physically as anything you will encounter on an AT thru, and you will see if you like the whole hitchhiking into town and resupplying thing.
Good Luck!
"The wind that blows, is all that anybody knows"
Thoreau
.
IMO the KT is harder than the AT in GA. GA has much better grading but, of course, the climbs are longer.
Fear ridges that are depicted as flat lines on a profile map.
For those who live out west who want to hike the AT as their first national scenic trail thru-hike, you could hike the all or part of the John Muir Trail in California (Mt. Whitney to Yosemite -- 215 total miles or so) or you could hike a portion or all of the Washington section of the Pacific Crest Trail (500 total miles or so). Both of those hikes are spectacular and will give you an indication of the ruggedness of the AT in Georgia. That assumes you wouldn't just go to Georgia and hike from Springer to Damascus (450 miles or so) and see the AT for yourself.
Note the most rugged section of the AT is a) the White Mountains of New Hampshire and then b) southern Maine but Georgia is up there in ruggedness. For most thru-hikers Georgia will be the first taste of the ruggedness of the AT and by the time northbound thru-hikers reach the White Mountains they're pretty much ready for anything.
You could also do a hike from Katahdin through the 100 Mile Wilderness for a long-week hike and that will give you an indication of how things will be in Georgia but some may want to save Katahdin for the end of their thru-hike.
Another good option, and this is what I did, would be to hike for a short week on the AT north from Damascus, VA to Old Orchard Shelter and exit out at Troutdale, VA. I'd stayed overnight at the Fox Hill Inn in Troutdale on that pre-thru-hike trip and then I'd paid the folks at the Fox Hill Inn to drive me to Damascus. Then I hiked on the AT back to my car at the Fox Hill Inn. The terrain in that section of the AT is representative of the terrain you'll find on the southern AT from Georgia to Waynesboro, VA.
Datto
After they see the JMT they may not want to come out east......
Fear ridges that are depicted as flat lines on a profile map.
My AT thruhike was my first overnight hike since scouting, which was probably 30 years earlier.
very well said good advice
I'll probably step on some AT lover's toes(I love the AT too!) and this is just my opinion which is certainly debatable, but I have to slightly disagree with you Datto. IMO, both the JMT, if you don't limit yourself to a short more gradual northern section, and the PCT in Washington state(Cascades, Glacier Peak Wilderness, Pasayten Wilderness, etc) are more rugged and harder when just starting out without your trail legs than the mostly gradual low elevation ups and downs of the AT in Georgia. Yes, in GA on the AT, there is the slight climb out of Amicalola Falls, if you include the approach trail on an AT hike, and the hike up Blood Mountain, are rugged, especially for someone just getting their AT thru-hiker/hiker legs, but both the elevation and elevation changes and consistent outstanding scenery of the PCT in WA and the JMT outweigh the ruggedness, hardness, and scenery of Georgia on the AT. IMO, a hiker, after doing either the PCT in WA or JMT, will find the AT in GA to be rather "easy." And, as far as scenery, IMO, both the PCT in WA and the JMT, whether section hiking or thru-hiking the JMT, hands down beats the scenery of the AT in GA.
That does not mean I have not thoroughly enjoyed hiking on the AT in GA though!
Well, my folks claimed I had climbed my first mountain at age 4. I don't remember. But I remember a lot of trails after that. I stopped climbing for a decade or so. Minimum wage jobs, Army, more no future jobs, finally an education of sorts.
I got back into walking about age 35. I've been doing it now for 45+ years.
Last edited by weary; 04-13-2011 at 10:45.
damm stranger,... even to my nonewbee ears,....you know stuff. very impressive teaching. we need you.
matthewski
My longest hike before my thru was 3 days/2 nights. I quit a good-paying job to hike a trail that I had no idea whether or not I was going to make it or not. I knew on the second day that I was gonna make it all the way. Both veterans and beginners drop out. Experience probably helps but thru-hiking is all about your attitude and willingness to adapt to change. Bob Peoples says that all thru-hikers have 3 things in common: 1) a goal-oriented personality 2) a lot of self-confidence 3) I forgot the third thing (maybe it was a short memory?)
Perhaps it was...
a very foul odor about them and their gear?
I have loved hiking the trail when I was in boy scouts, but when I read A Walk in the Woods in 2005, I made a plan to do the whole thing sometime during my lifetime. The timing opportunity has arisen and so I'm going this summer! It's the best way to deal with getting kicked out of grad school IMO
Trailname: Reboot
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
