Ennui

[sbhikes]

Waited with much anticipation for my summer backpack trip. It came and went. Now there is nothing to look forward to. I'm feeling quite full of ennui. After the thru-hike ends, there are only these brief moments of reliving the life, and they are so very brief. Fleeting. The photos on my office wall don't make up for it. It's summer, which means it's too dang hot to backpack locally so I have to drive, but anywhere worth driving to is just too far away for a 3 day holiday weekend. Meanwhile it's been 5 years since I long-distance hiked. 5 years! Where did the years go? Why doesn't a 4-day trip satisfy? Even bug bites can't make me hate it when I'm out there. Complain complain complain. I can't seem to snap out of it.

[ChrisJackson]

I can very much relate.

[Hikes in Rain]

As can I. My summer trip was coming up, too. Somehow, I managed to fracture the third metatarsal in my left foot. Snapped that sucker like a dry twig. Been hobbling around in a walking cast (walking is a stretch!) for the past four weeks, with two more to go to see if the bone knitted, or if I'll have to have an open reduction where they'd install a plate or pin. Even if it has knit, it's going to take weeks to get it back into shape. Grumble, grouse, whine!

[Traveler]

Maybe getting involved with something that is as equally larger than yourself as the thru hike is a ticket out of Ennuiland? For example, your experience may lend well with taking kids who have not ever been exposed to backpacking into new environments. You can't control the summer weather, but you can control when you will do the hikes and overnights, which may scratch the itch of looking forward to something major like a thru hike.Just an idea, but a lot of kids could probably benefit from your attention and possibly connect with wilderness to the point a few of them become avid backcountry people.

[garlic08]

Another sport (bicycling does it for me) may be the ticket. Good luck.

[LoneStranger]

Weather and schedules permitting I get out several times a month, though June was bad with only six nights on trail and a few day hikes. It doesn't really matter how much you get out. It is never enough.

Cultivate those memories when you are on trail. Save them for the times you can't go. If you can't keep them in your head then take lots of pics and video so you can remind yourself and go there mentally. Putting myself in that frame of mind isn't as good as physically being there, but it gets me through the times I have to be somewhere else.

[illabelle]

Waited with much anticipation for my summer backpack trip....

Maybe you need to plan another trip so you'll have something to look forward to, and dream about, and plan for, and research gear for, and talk to your friends about, and make lists for, ...

Works for me, anyway! :D

[FlyFishNut]

Hey - is there any room around the pity-party campfire for me??

I was having a great summer - running trails, mt biking, whitewater kayaking... getting out and doing something almost every single day... then a week and a half ago...

WHAM! my neck got stiff, the next day I had pain in my arm and tingling in my fingers. MRI revealed a herniated disc c6/c7. Out of the blue, whamo.

I'm pissed, depressed, determined to get out and do something - if I don't I'm going to pickle my liver. Tomorrow I get a shot in the area that supposed to hurt like hell and "might" help.

Grrrrrrrr

[Tipi Walter]

We make our life choices due to our desires. Is living out in nature and backpacking more important than anything else? Or do we desire other things in life?

Some people want marriage and a family, to own a home, and therefore to fill their time with gainful employment. Having security and loving companions is THEIR beautiful forest and an open trail.

Others will do nothing to jeopardize their ability to live outdoors, to backpack, to stay out, to live in a wall tent or a tipi or a yurt. If that's what you really love, you will do everything possible to make it happen. How important is it to you?

When I lived at my NC ridgetop tipi I worked one day a week at a church 10 miles away and this simple job supplied me with enough cash to buy food and tools and tipi stuff. Of course I never made more than $5,000 a year at the church but it allowed me to stay in a tipi for 21 years.

There are always creative alternatives to any problem. No time for a thruhike? Make different choices.

[WingedMonkey]

Pack.... Pedal... Paddle... Or any combination gets me outdoors and into the woods.

[upstream]

Orienteering, peak bagging, trail maintenance, hiking club trips, checklist hiking. Oh yeah, it's summer.

[sbhikes]

All I've got to look forward to is to squat 225lbs ("two plates!"). I got up to 202.5lbs before my trip. It's going to take me a long time to get to 225. I'm a small woman so that will be a big deal and making progress lifting heavy is what I spend most of my time focusing on, succeeding at and looking forward to. Otherwise, work is sooo boring. I'm reading Carrot Quinn's book while I sit there waiting for stuff to do. I want to make hiking and backpacking my priority and that's why I work and squat. If I can stay in my job to age 55 (I'm 50 now), I'll have a $650/month pension. If I can make it to 60 I'll have something like $1600 a month. Plus I have a 401(k) type thing. But I don't have any of it right now. My heavy squats and working for this pension are my plan to make hiking my old age retirement plan.

[moytoy]

Just be aware that no matter what condition you keep yourself in there is a huge difference between 55 and 65. At least there was for me and my plan has been pretty the same as yours is. The one difference for me is that I get complete fulfillment from my work. So if I die without seeing my AT thru hike complete that's OK. All I'm saying is you need to do what makes you happy now. MHO ;)

[illabelle]

All I've got to look forward to is to squat 225lbs ("two plates!"). I got up to 202.5lbs before my trip. It's going to take me a long time to get to 225. I'm a small woman so that will be a big deal and making progress lifting heavy is what I spend most of my time focusing on, succeeding at and looking forward to.

Impressive! Wow, I feel weak and inferior! Guess I'll get off my butt and go lift a measly 30 pounds or so. :( Or maybe I'll lift a biscuit to my face. :(
Good for you, girl! :)

[Spirit Walker]

Since I can't do long distance hiking now, and my hiking has been pretty limited, I took up running. I thought that since I had bad knees from the backpacking I would never be able to do it. I was wrong. I enjoy racing and even win or place in my AG in some of the local races. Training for and completing my first marathon a couple of months ago (but not my last) gave me a huge satisfaction. Not quite like doing a trail, but there are similarities.

[August W.]

Waited with much anticipation for my summer backpack trip. It came and went. Now there is nothing to look forward to. I'm feeling quite full of ennui. After the thru-hike ends, there are only these brief moments of reliving the life, and they are so very brief. Fleeting. The photos on my office wall don't make up for it. It's summer, which means it's too dang hot to backpack locally so I have to drive, but anywhere worth driving to is just too far away for a 3 day holiday weekend. Meanwhile it's been 5 years since I long-distance hiked. 5 years! Where did the years go? Why doesn't a 4-day trip satisfy? Even bug bites can't make me hate it when I'm out there. Complain complain complain. I can't seem to snap out of it.

Yeah it's hot during the day but think about the cool ocean breeze along the Lost Coast at sunset or the near perfect silence in a Redwood forest at dawn. It's well worth a long drive, missed sleep, and hiking in the blazing heat IMHO.

[Patrickjd9]

Just be aware that no matter what condition you keep yourself in there is a huge difference between 55 and 65.
I'm 55 now, feeling pretty good about my condition, and am absolutely itching to get into the second half of my AT section hike.

Still have six semesters of college tuition ahead of me.