"Are you car camping?"
This from one of the past AT thru-hikers who was helping me with preparing for my upcoming AT thru-hike.
I had been taken on as "A Project" by a few past AT thru-hikers.
I can not express to you how much I'm so appreciative to them for doing so. Their assistance to me was so important it was a direct effect on me completing my AT thru-hike. There were points in time where they may have given up on me and this was one of those times.
"This is a thru-hike, not car camping."
I had defended the decision I'd made about my $150.00 purchase of what I see today as being a preposterous purchase of equipment for my upcoming AT thru-hike. It was hilarious -- at least 10,000,000 step-pounds of completely unnecessary weight and effort toward an AT thru-hike. Part of the equipment of the year from Backpacker Magazine and many other people who'd had positive comments prior to my purchase.
It was the sarcasm and bluntness of what past AT thru-hikers -- the people who'd done it -- are about at times.
As I had approached the start of my AT thru-hike, one of the past AT thru-hikers had expressed succinctly what the other past thru-hikers had also expressed to me -- "When you reach Katahdin, help the people behind you."
I'd remembered what had been said to me only because it had been phrased, "when" rather than "if".
The idea really hadn't sunk in much until I had reached somewhere along the New York/Connecticut border.
Version 2.0 of 2017 Datto Tips -- an expanded version in PDF format-- will be available at the end of this summer. More tips, more commentary, more unrepentant opinion. It will be a direct download and, of course, completely free with no begging, no nag screens, no requirement at all. Spend your money on a fabulous adventure for yourself, not on me.
This is about you, the 2017 AT Thru-hikers In-Planning. It's not about me whatsoever. I had told those past AT thru-hikers who had helped me that I would help the people who were behind me. And so I am. You can make up your own mind -- I'm only giving you a starting point in time. You will make your own decisions, have your own opinions. I'm just getting you to a point in time where you are encouraged to start. To begin on this fabulous journey.
June, July and August of this year you should be backpacking overnight for one weekend per month. It's warm so your backpack will likely be light. Figure out whether this is for you (or not). Way before you have a big investment of money and time. Significantly before you turn in your resignation next near and start northward from Springer Mountain, Georgia.
Begin now determining whether this is for you.
If it is, I want to do everything I can to help you succeed. If you choose to do so and carry your full backpack past every blaze of the Appalachian Trail, I'm confident it will change your life.
For the better.
Datto