When you make ramen noodles for dinner.
When you make ramen noodles for dinner.
I am planning a thru... but for now only have about 300 trail miles on my feet...
~If you cant do it with one bullet, dont do it at all.
~Well behaved women rarely make history.
I assume it is because you are thru-hiking. Sort of like being a Marine. If you are still in the Marines, you can call yourself one, you don't have to wait for an honorable discharge before you become one.
That said, where does boot camp end for a thru-hiker? Fontana Dam?
SGT Rock
http://hikinghq.net
My 2008 Trail Journal of the BMT/AT
BMT Thru-Hikers' Guide
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NO SNIVELING
When you're wearing a pack, even when you dream.
I would say boot camp ends when one looks forward to doing 20 miles and then gets it done in only 8 hours.
when you don't treat/filter water. when you eat off others plates in restaurants. when you don't use leki poles or slackpack and don't stay in shelters or hostels and don't hang your food
You know you're a thruhiker when you no longer need Kleenex.
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I've not yet thru hiked, but I did have dinner in my garage last night, which I cooked on the alcohol stove that I had just made.
When you wear your crocs to church.
www.trailjournals.com/CookerhikerCT11
Undulations - A Journey on the Appalachian Trail - find it here.
I am not a thru-hiker, but as a 370 mile section hiker I have been wet enough to stop worrying about where to step at stream crossings and just stomps through them.
When, at the outfitter, you ask: "What does it weigh?" before you ask: "What does it cost?"
When someone asks you how you feel about the weather and you reply "It is."
when walking twenty plus miles in one day is 'doable', not 'insane'.
When you ford the Kennebec!
when after washing your trail clothes for the 4th time your mother finally gives up on getting the stink out and threatens to toss them in the garbage if you don't get 'em out of her sight!
When your toothbruth, bandaids and Vit.I are all still in a ziploc bag in your bathroom and you've been off trail quite a while.
When you still have your headlamp hanging on your bedpost and use it regularly.![]()
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