View Full Version : You know you are addicted to the AT when......
I split my closet in half, one side for gear, and the other (smaller) side for clothes. Anyone else want to confess their funny AT addictions?
i have a nice view of the chattahoochee river from my loft, but i can't friggin' see it because of the 10 backpacks and copious ammounts of other hikin' s*** thats hangin' from the rail. however, a friend did point out that by utilizing the exposed beams in here there should be room to hang 40 or 50 more. this place is really starting to look like a hiker barn.
Just Jeff
12-06-2005, 10:57
We got this house because it has a separate office off the garage for me to get some peace and quiet for my schoolwork. But I can't use it for schoolwork because it's so full of gear, so I do my work on the couch.
if half your garage shelving it dedicated solely to camping hiking gear, you have a special shelf over your workbench solely devoted to alcohol stove making materials, and you know exactly where the big tree roots in your yard are from setting your hammock and tarp over the same spot repeatedly as you home-test different underpad and tarp theories, you might have a backpacking addiction...
Alligator
12-06-2005, 11:44
You have more sleeping bags in the house than extra blankets for guests. When your extended family comes for a visit and some get put up on Thermarests. Say this with a smile "Surely if I can sleep in the woods on that thing, you can sleep on it in the nice warm house;) ."
Footslogger
12-06-2005, 12:06
...when you have at least 4 back-up alcohol/propane stoves to use in case of a power outage (and we get a lot of use out of them here in Wyoming !!)
'Slogger
When you spend more time on WB than doing your work....
When you have 3 different backpacks of different volume size based on the length of your trips....
When you never stop thinking about the trail even after you hiked it almost 3 years ago!
Stoker53
12-06-2005, 13:37
When you go over gear lists in your head during sex instead of doing math problems.:datz
When it becomes a lifestyle?
Cookerhiker
12-06-2005, 14:37
When the Trail defines your geographic orientation, i.e. every time you travel, you think of what side of the Trail you're on, when you crossed it, where you crossed it (and you always look for the signs even when whizzing along the interstate at 75 mph), and every town/city is defined not by the state in which it lies, but whether it's east or west of the Trail.
[quote=Alligator]You have more sleeping bags in the house than extra blankets for guests. When your extended family comes for a visit and s
oh God! I've actually done this!
..when you make a spreadsheet of all the gear you have just to keep track of it (hats, gloves, tent stakes..you name it!)
...when you have five different stoves (two white gas, an alchy, canister stove, dual Coleman burner)
...when you have enough gear to complete outfit another person for a backpack trip
...when a friend walks into your apartment and calls it 'base camp"
the goat
12-06-2005, 15:03
.....when one thru just doesn't do it for you.
Kerosene
12-06-2005, 15:21
Check..when you make a spreadsheet of all the gear you have just to keep track of it (hats, gloves, tent stakes..you name it!)
Check...when you have five different stoves (two white gas, an alchy, canister stove, dual Coleman burner)...but no alkies yet
Double Check...when you have enough gear to complete outfit another person for a backpack trip
Nope...when a friend walks into your apartment and calls it 'base camp"...but only because the gear is stashed away downstairs.
[quote=Alligator]You have more sleeping bags in the house than extra blankets for guests. When your extended family comes for a visit and s
oh God! I've actually done this!
Me, too. And as I worried over whether the sleeping pad was too uncomfortable for the guests, I rationalized that if I can sleep on it on the ground, they should be more than fine with the pad on nice, soft carpeting.
Trooper347
12-06-2005, 16:00
....when you pack and re-pack, and weigh and re-weigh, decide and re-decide on what gear to take.....almost endless!!!
Skidsteer
12-06-2005, 19:29
I remember one time driving to trailhead for a weekend hike and I suddenly remembered that I had a lottery ticket that I had neglected to check for winning numbers. Oh well, I'll just check it when I get back, I thought, and began daydreaming about a scenario in which I was able to check it using the 800 number( I was out of cell phone coverage by this time ),and had the winning numbers. I asked myself what I would do in this situation and decided that although I might POSSIBLY turn around and put the ticket in our fire-proof safe, I would definitely still have gone hiking on that trip. I knew then and there I was addicted, content or both!:D
Tha Wookie
12-06-2005, 20:21
Addiction? ha! I don't have any problem with hiking the AT.... I can quit whenever I want.
There! I just quit right now! SEE!:D
Nightwalker
12-06-2005, 20:26
...when you have enough gear to complete outfit another person for a backpack trip
Hey, that's just being polite!
SGT Rock
12-06-2005, 20:37
When my wife told me I did. I don't know what she could be reffering too. Lets see...
I have enough gear to outfit a platoon.
I got my last assignment so I could be near it.
I take most of my vacations to go on it.
I started one website and helped with another for it.
I spend vacation doing work on it.
I refer to all my friends by nicknames from hiking it and don't know most of them's real names.
I put a trail marker on my house.
I am planning to build a fire ring in my back yard.
I carry a 2000 miler rocker in my wallet for luck.
I have an AT symbol on my dog tags.
Alligator
12-06-2005, 20:49
[quote=Mags]
Me, too. And as I worried over whether the sleeping pad was too uncomfortable for the guests, I rationalized that if I can sleep on it on the ground, they should be more than fine with the pad on nice, soft carpeting.
Pads are super nice on carpet.
greenman
12-06-2005, 20:50
When you get like Jester and start preparing for traildaze year-round!What up Bills?
Alligator
12-06-2005, 20:51
That was Marta I was quoting in #21. Don't know how that quote got transposed.
You've forgotten your wife's real name because you only use her trail name.
Your kids are named after shelters.
Your don't own a small dog because they can't do the miles with you.
You don't have a bed because you prefer to sleep on the floor.
Your car is 20 years old but you have the latest backpack, sleeping bag and tent.
Too Tall Paul
Limbohiker
12-06-2005, 21:56
when u have your backpack sitting next to you bed so that if u wake up in a panic u can see it......(its the new teddy bear)
when u go to a college cardio room with your backpack on to train...and dont care about all the stares u get
when u sleep out on your porch 50% of the summer cause your bedroom "suffocates" u
Waterbuffalo
12-06-2005, 22:00
My garage has more gear than an REI and it's all itemized and accounted for and to top it off she thinks I'm crazy I'm getting my AT tattoo!
Gear is a big part of the addiction,
But you know when you have a real affliction,
When you genuflect every time you cross an intersection,
Of the AT and say a benediction.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
12-06-2005, 23:24
When you have a bedroom that been converted to a workshop for making gear and nearly every piece of clothing you own is synthetic.
When WhiteBlaze is your homepage!
Nightwalker
12-07-2005, 05:05
When 3/4 of the symptoms listed on this thread only draw a "well, duh!"
When WhiteBlaze is your homepage!
Oh WOW, I thought I was the only one who did that :p
Also:
When you have read the guides & etc so much you could probably do a thru without carrying any sort of guide.
Ditto on the multiple: stoves, sleeping bags, tents, etc.
When you see a new type of aluminum (soda, beer, etc) can & the first thing you do is look at it to see what kind of alchy stove you could make & would it be better than the 20 or more yo already have.
Your basic pack & stuff is in your car "Just in case".
You can point in the direction of the trail from anywhere without thinking.
Doctari.
Alligator
12-07-2005, 09:38
You know the location of almost every post office along the entire AT corridor.
Auntie Mame
12-07-2005, 10:19
OK, So. Just tetting back to hiking after a many-year abstinance, its clear that we are sliding down the slippery slope again. I mean, just the shortest walk on a local trail and bam, we have to do every part of it as soon as possible. Those three maps are on the fridge, and that's all that's on the fridge.
Planning AT 07, he already has 90% of his gear, although he is a total shop-a-phobe, he drove to two different clearance sales to find his stuff. I brought a sleeping bag home two months ago, sample model from Bean's, real cheap, and its still in the living room so I can fluff it up and break it in at night when I read after supper.
There's a drawer in the kitchen dedicated to trail food experimental supplies, and the overall mass of kitchen stuff is dwindling by the week.
We read weights on EVERYTHING.
Most insidious, I check WB three times a day now, and he doesn't have a clue. I think..
So, there 'tis. Early stages, but all the signs of impending..."ATA."
Auntie Mame
12-07-2005, 10:19
OK, So. Just getting back to hiking after a many-year abstinance, its clear that we are sliding down the slippery slope again. I mean, just the shortest walk on a local trail and bam, we have to do every part of it as soon as possible. Those three maps are on the fridge, and that's all that's on the fridge.
Planning AT 07, he already has 90% of his gear, although he is a total shop-a-phobe, he drove to two different clearance sales to find his stuff. I brought a sleeping bag home two months ago, sample model from Bean's, real cheap, and its still in the living room so I can fluff it up and break it in at night when I read after supper.
There's a drawer in the kitchen dedicated to trail food experimental supplies, and the overall mass of kitchen stuff is dwindling by the week.
We read weights on EVERYTHING.
Most insidious, I check WB three times a day now, and he doesn't have a clue. I think..
So, there 'tis. Early stages, but all the signs of impending..."ATA."
I was telling my husband about this thread over breakfast this morning. He asked if someone had started a 12-step program for the addiction. I had to tell him it's more like a 5,000,000-step program... And relapses are as frequent as can be arranged.
when you put an AT sticker on a new worn out car before you have insurance on it.
I was telling my husband about this thread over breakfast this morning. He asked if someone had started a 12-step program for the addiction. I had to tell him it's more like a 5,000,000-step program... And relapses are as frequent as can be arranged.
Ooooh..I like that! Can I steal it for future use? :)
I'll add one to the list:
...when your girlfriend says to you "The outdoors is not just a hobby for you, it is a lifestyle".
(she is now a fomer girlfriend. But that's another story ;) )
You give your firstborn son a name so his initials will be AT.........(Austin Tyler, born almost 15 years ago)
You have too many AT stickers on your rear window to actually see out of it.
Your other car is a pair of hiking boots.
You're crazy enough to do it, even if you only have one leg.
When you go out of your way on a business trip or vacation, to find a trail head, just to walk in to the register, read it, and sign it. Two weeks ago I was in Pennsylvania and did almost that, as the trailhead I went to had no register that I could find, but it did have a large hiker board about 100yd into the woods, with tattered messages from and to hikers long since passed through (or thru), and I wondered who they were, what the weather was like when they went through, where they would be staying (and eating:D ) etc.
I wanted so badly to keep walking, but I had no pack (and my family was back in the car :p).
If you have a bit of the gypsy blood in you (which,based on this thread, many of us do), you should read TRAVELS WITH CHARLIE by Steibeck. Nice travelogue about his travels in the US by camper (with his dog Charlie) in the early 1960s.
Think this quote may strike a chord with some of us:
"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked... In other words, I don't improve, in further words, once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is incurable."
It has been a while since I have read the book. Time to re-read it!
When you go on a vacation or business trip anywhere near the AT, and you seek out a trail crossing just to walk down to the register, read and sign it. I was in Pennsylvania two weeks ago and did almost that, but I didn't find the register, just a large sign board about 100yd. into the woods. I read some of the old tattered messages and wondered what the people were like who wrote them, whether they'd been read by the intended recipient, where they were sleeping that night, where they'd eat that evening, etc. Somehow, your heart gets glued to that little brown path in the woods and the people who walk it, and you can't tear it away.:o
walkin' wally
12-07-2005, 16:16
Every time I drive by an AT crossing I have to stop or slow down to see if there are any hikers around. I may get out and walk a little both south and north just to see what I see. It's fun to pick up hikers in Monson and give them a ride to the trail at the Rt 15 crossing.
I look forward to the first AT trip in the spring to get to "my" section to work on it. As the winter slowly passes by the urge to get back out there grows and grows. Going over and over my frame pack to see if I can make my saw equipment lighter. In the spring I watch the rain and temperatures to try to guess when mud season will over so I can drive there. What is weird is being on the trail working for 2 or 3 days and not seeing anyone. The buds on the trees not open and some ice still on the lake. No bugs Ha Ha.
Wading icy Rainbow Stream in the Spring. :eek:
Checking WB every day to see what is new. :)
The Maine ATC meeting in April. :sun
Planning an AT thru attempt in about three years. :-?
Its all good :jump
ATSeamstress
12-07-2005, 16:28
You know you have too much gear when your daughter and her friends decide to camp out on the sidewalk at Best Buy all night long to be first in line for the latest gadget . . . and they raid your gear closet for sleeping bags . . . and you actually have enough for all of them. Thankfully she's allergic to down and left the Feather Friends alone!!
Jim Lemire
12-07-2005, 16:38
One might be addicted when he hears his wife telling people that he married her to have someone handy for shuttles.
AT2000
... when finding that you are allergic to down you get desensitized so you can use a down sleeping bag
RockyTrail
12-07-2005, 17:56
when you keep a supply of unblemished Pepsi and Guinness cans in the basement "just in case" you need to make another stove...:)
Cookerhiker
12-07-2005, 18:23
I'll add one to the list:
...when your girlfriend says to you "The outdoors is not just a hobby for you, it is a lifestyle".
(she is now a fomer girlfriend. But that's another story ;) )
Along that vein,
When a relative tells my wife re my hiking: "It's not a passion, it's an obsession":o
When ALL of the things on your Xmas list are gear or AT related.
lilmountaingirl
12-07-2005, 19:51
The value of your gear is more than the value of your car...
You look forward to power outages (gear testing time!)...
When there are no groceries to be found, you've eaten out of a ziplock bag in your living room...
Tents in the living room are not uncommon...
Your neighbors stare at you when you gear test in the yard/house... (what the hell is she doing NOW?!?!?)
Your gear has it's own closet or room...
In the winter, you sleep in your 20* bag on your bed instead of turning up the heat...
Ain't life grand? :D :clap
06 looks like a sweet year....think i am starting my 06 hike in 05 so you newbies can cathc me......
Just Jeff
12-07-2005, 19:59
Your neighbors stare at you when you gear test in the yard/house... (what the hell is she doing NOW?!?!?)
Or when they've stopped staring at you...
When you are in your car, you stop and point when you cross the trail even if no one else in the car cares or even if there is no one else in the car.
When you are planning a trip near the AT, you make sure you know where the trail crosses the road so you can stop and point.
When you are on a family trip to Gettysburg, you plan a side trip to Antietam, and, using Civil War History as an excuse to also include Harpers Ferry, you also manage to stop by the ATC HQ and get your picture taken, since you were in the neighborhood anyway. And your spouse did not fall for it for one second, but knows better than try to stop the charade.
When your Holiday/Birthday gift list is all about AT gear, books, calendars, maps, etc.
When you home is decorated with an AT motif, including a 4 foot map of the AT with pins indicating the sections completed including year and mileage. When guests come, this is the first thing you show them before showing them your gear room.
When you have redirected your charitable gifts to all things AT.
When you follow trailjournals postings to see when someone is passing through, so you know when it is time to go out and give some magic.
When your browser bookmarks are organized by AT topic and frequency of use AND is your largest browser bookmark area.
When you wake up in the morning and check WB, check it at work, check it when you get home, and check it before going to bed.
When your boss congratulates you for being the biggest Internet user of the month and asks you what "WhiteBlaze.net" is and you smile dreamingly and he says, "oh it is an AT site, I should have known."
When you spend so much time crafting WB posts like this, your spouses asks, "what is so important that you are typing so furiously" and you smile dreamingly and they say, "oh it is that AT site, I should have known."
Whenever everyone you know asks "what's new?" or "what you are smiling so dreamingly about" and they quickly answer their own question, "oh, I know it has to do with the AT".
When you find yourself the center of an "intervention" and are sent you to a psychologist. You are diagnosed with "whiteblaze fever" for which there is no permanent cure. The doctor prescribes the only temporary relief available - more hiking time.
When towards the end of a 10-mile day of explaining that it's only 7 point 5, miles, or 6 point 1 miles .... to the shelter, your 7-year-old demands, "how many more points?"
Weary
when my feet are not on the trail,my heart and mind are always on the trail:cool: neo
fiddlehead
12-07-2005, 22:21
3 out of 5 of your very best friends you met while hiking.
Skidsteer
12-07-2005, 23:00
If you spend more money on denatured alcohol than drinking alcohol.:p
Sleepy the Arab
12-07-2005, 23:50
When you start referring to weekends as "zero days" and don't realize it.
When the first thing you do upon moving into an apartment is pick out which tents can be seam-sealed in which rooms.
When all you medical supplies (i.e. bandaids, tylenol, ibuprophin etc.) is not in your medical cabinet but in first aid kits. Give yourself bonus points if you have more than one, and have them spread out amongst your various gear caches throughout the house.
When you have gear caches. And a shelf in the kitchen of "hiking food" just in case.
When you have trekking poles in your living room and don't put them away 'cause you'd rather be able to look at them and, hey, you might have to scare away a burglar. Or a bear.
If you spend more money on denatured alcohol than drinking alcohol.:p
Best one yet....
And a shelf in the kitchen of "hiking food"...
too funny... that's me too... i forgot about the shelf in the kitchen cupboard... entirely hiking stuff... baggies, liptons, dehydrated veggies, leftover cheesy crackers, oatmeal, cup-a-soups, cocoa, and powdered milk... posted with a 'do not touch dad's hiking stuff under pain of death' sign...
here's a few others:
-if your freezer contains at least one ziplock baggie of dehydrated meat...
-if you regularly munch on parched corn because it's a good, healthy snack...
-if you have a bulletin board in the home office covered with data sheets you've run off the internet about gear you want...
-if that same bulletin board has pinned to it a small pile of graph paper cut out in 'to scale' tarp shapes (diamond, square, and hex) you're eventually going to make and try out...
-if the recipe for parched corn is pinned to that same bulletin board...
-if you have a bag on your gear shelf containing scraps of fleece and silnylon that might come in handy someday for making 'something'...
-if your kids can go into your gear closet and get something out of the bottom of it, because you were able to tell them exactly what sack in what bag in what box on what shelf on which side of the closet to look in...
-if you've ever brought an alcohol stove to the walmart craft lady to explain what the heck you're doing looking for wedding tins and silnylon on the $1 rack...
-if you carry a scrap of silnylon in your wallet to show the folks at walmart, when the regular craft lady isn't there, what you're looking for on the $1 rack...
The Desperado
12-08-2005, 01:24
When all your friends call you by your trail name rather than your 'given' name.
When anyone in your town/area/county has an a/t question......they call you
When you take vacations to work around "the season".........
Nightwalker
12-08-2005, 01:48
Your other car is a pair of hiking boots.
Or a pile of hiking boots, in my case. I have way too many not-worn-out hiking boots. :)
Nightwalker
12-08-2005, 01:53
when you keep a supply of unblemished Pepsi and Guinness cans in the basement "just in case" you need to make another stove...:)
Just bought a 12-pack of sodas that I didn't need this evening. And 2 red bulls today, though I really don't like them. (Sobe, actually.)
Been working on pressurized stoves and have a 16 oz boil down to 20 ml of alcohol!
:D
smokymtnsteve
12-08-2005, 01:56
Or a pile of hiking boots, in my case. I have way too many not-worn-out hiking boots. :)
then get to walking frank..wear those boots out.
btw this is my anniverasary...it was back in dec of 1995 when I entered the hospice,,,right before checking in the the hospice I bought a new pair of boots..thinking it would be my last pair,,
but I have worn out several pairs since then,,,this year I bought another new pair..a pair of Bunny boots...gotta keep my ole feet warm at -40 :cool:
so get to walking frank and wear those boots out.
Nightwalker
12-08-2005, 01:58
The value of your gear is more than the value of your car...
than both my cars...
Your neighbors stare at you when you gear test in the yard/house... (what the hell is she doing NOW?!?!?) You leave a tent in the yard for weeks at a time in Winter because you just sleep better out there.
Your gear has it's own closet or room...2 rooms
In the winter, you sleep in your 20* bag on your bed instead of turning up the heat...
Ain't life grand? :D :clapI feel so much better to be among peers...
Nightwalker
12-08-2005, 02:05
so get to walking frank and wear those boots out.
Doing Georgia from Amicalola to Bly with mapping gear next week, including mapping the new, as yet unopened, section between Tesnatee and Hogpen.
Life is absolutely grand...
it'll be my 3rd GA AT this year. No, I'm not addicted!
BOOKWIZERD2
12-08-2005, 09:27
1) You manually filter the water from your house faucet
2) When people come over you are excited to show then your new hiking boots
3) Your perfect Christmas gift would be anything with Gore-Tex on the label
4) You have ever setup a tent in your house to see how it looks and how long it takes you to put it up
Big Dawg
12-08-2005, 10:36
....when you pack and re-pack, and weigh and re-weigh, decide and re-decide on what gear to take.....almost endless!!!
yea, no kidding,,,,,, my wife says I need to be admitted to a treatment facility. She's amazed at how often I obsess. I admit I have an addiction, one that will only intensify. :D
Kerosene
12-08-2005, 13:57
One day I was getting ready for work, doing the usual regimen in front of the bathroom sink, when my wife walked past the door doing a few errands. I started out saying something like, "I was think about something...", and she finished it with, "...about the logistics of your next hike or something you saw on your last hike?". Now, remember that I'm only able to hike the AT once a year, and it had been four months since my last hike. She knew exactly where my mind tends to drift.
I recently put in a wireless hub so that she could use her new laptop to surf the Internet from upstairs. She gets on my case every time she sees the forest green background of this site, since it usually means that I could be doing something else "more important."
Limbohiker
12-08-2005, 14:09
when u have more pictures in your wallet of the AT then of your spouse and children
If everyone in the room leaves when your AT photos come out...again.
"Hey!!! Wait a minute you guys, I'm sure you haven't seen these."
Cookerhiker
12-08-2005, 17:57
1) You manually filter the water from your house faucet
2) When people come over you are excited to show then your new hiking boots
3) Your perfect Christmas gift would be anything with Gore-Tex on the label
4) You have ever setup a tent in your house to see how it looks and how long it takes you to put it up
Bookwizerd, you're a CPA? So am I. But I'm now retired.
Pennsylvania Rose
12-08-2005, 18:14
You know every shelter, and the date you stayed in each, from Springer to Erwin, sixteen years after you hiked that section. And, you've kept up to date on the new shelters.
Instead of sending juice boxes to school and the babysitter, you send your kids' drinks in Nalgene bottles...with duct tape wrapped around them (the bottles, not the kids).
Instead of buying pop from the machine at work, you drink out of a Nalgene bottle...wrapped in duct tape.
PartnerShip
12-08-2005, 18:55
When you want to do this so bad that you sell everything you own (we did this past weekend) and have in your living room a tent and sleeping bags and when not working you are on here reading and researching and buying equipment.
All your food purchases now are mac & cheese and tuna and anything you can experiment with to eat on the trail.
You wake up in the middle of the nite to look up gear reviews on your computer and read for humor "A Walk in the Woods" to help you stay balanced during this and then every other book you can find, "Backpacking for Women" A Season on the Appalachian Trail" ,Walking with Spring. Watch "Trek " and "North to Katahdin" over and over and show all your friends. Tell at the local outfitters and Video stores they should have these movies.
Read Trail Hournals and look at pics. Call in to work to look some more.:banana
And loving every minute of it. Hope to see some of you at the RUCK. We are excited.
MoBeach42
12-08-2005, 19:55
.....when reading your Databook is more entertaining than "A Walk in the Woods"
PartnerShip
12-08-2005, 21:30
I agree MoBeCH42, BUT for now the humour allowows me to laugh in the middle of the seriousness of the life altering event that is to take place soon.
Definately read all those books and then get on here to read that they ) the guidebooks) dont have all the answers and the terrain just right.
But so glad to have them all, and others like you who have "been there, done that " to remind me. Thanks
PartnerShip
12-08-2005, 21:31
sorry for the typos MoBeach42
You read the above (& below) posts, and nod to them all.
Or even worse, you read a post & think:
"Hey, I havn't done that yet, Ill try it!" :datz
Doctari.
Here's one I discovered today after NJ got hit with like 10" of snow...You are excited it snowed that much because you can wear your gaiters around all day even though your not hiking.
tiamalle
12-10-2005, 03:04
When your friend wants to take you up in his helicopter and show you scenes of your town and mountians from the sky and you are trying to see the A T more than the town.
I had it badddd, real bad. I retired then thru hiked. The last three months I worked I just sat at my desk with my data book and AT Companion. I planed every mile, every stop, miles between water. Even my zero days. When my boss walked by I quickly started on my PC but my office was out of the way and my boss didn't walk by much. I was in middle managemont and I delegated all responsibility for my job to the person who was going to succeed me when I retired and no one was the wiser. On paper I had my whole hike, day by day, mile by mile, my food, my gear all chosen, and all on company time. I stayed on schedule about a week and was off it by the time I got out of Georgia. Experience had me change much of my plans for gear and food but I had almost as much fun dreaming the hike as actually doing it.
I am still addicted as an alumni, I relive the trail every day but it sure was a wonderful time getting paid to plan my hike completly addicted to the trail.
Rain Man
12-11-2005, 15:32
... I had almost as much fun dreaming the hike as actually doing it....
From the preface of "Camping and Woodcraft" by Horace Kephart
"Solomon himself knew the heart of man no better than that fine old sportsman who said to me 'It isn't the fellow who's catching lots of fish and shooting plenty of game that's having the good time: it's the chap who's "getting ready to do it".'"
Rain:sunMan
.
You've spent 2 consecutive anniversaries on the trail (with your spouse) (wedding anniversary)
Your wife conceived on the trail whilst "sleeping" in a Black Diamond TeePee Tent (with her husband, not with another hiker)
Great thread.. It's so easy to get addicted to the AT. It's also very difficult to explain this addiction to someone who isn't. May we all continue to enjoy our addiction and the good life that it brings. :)
I think I became an addict in 1998 when I did my first backpacking trip. I continued being a addict attempting a failed thru in 2000, after I retired. Attempted again in 2001, with sucess. Afted my hike almost all of my thoughts were of the AT and the folks I met, places I saw and all the wounderfull experiences I had. Each night my dreams were of the AT. I couldn't consentrate on anything like reading or watching a movie or TV without the AT flooding my mind with thoughts.
I now spent time being a trail angle and a volunteer caretaker at a AMC cabin.
Monitoring Whiteblaze helps with this addiction. It let's me know that I'm not alone.
For those of you who feel that you won't become an addict I have some advice: Don't fear. It's a wounderfull thing that we share.:welcome
Uncle Silly
12-16-2005, 07:23
I now spent time being a trail angle and a volunteer caretaker at a AMC cabin.
Gotta love them trail angles ... acute, obtuse, and the ever-popular, switchback!! I got so addicted to switchbacks I had to find myself a twelve-step program ...
..for the third straight year, you answer all family requests for "what do you want for Christmas?" with "a giftcard from REI". And FINALLY buy yourself THE geek Santa Gift - the one-person tent you have been coveting and need for the upcoming thruhike because it's REALLY here....
Sukie:sun
Your wife conceived on the trail whilst "sleeping" in a Black Diamond TeePee Tent (with her husband, not with another hiker)
Did you give the child some old-timey name like Myron or Benton, or Emma, or Earl? Or heaven forbid, Jack or Warren? Or dare I say, Hammock Hanger?
For the record, Sue would be a fine name, but could you imagine the teasing you'd get if you went through life with a name like Hammock Hanger Rogers? :D
When you donate twice what you think you can afford to ATC efforts to stop the Pennsylvania race track, the industrial wind towers on Redington --- and yes, even the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, which is fighting a rear guard battle to keep the trail in Maine wild.
Weary www.matlt.org
...when you gaze out the window and see the trail, and, you're not even daydreaming....:D
Big Dawg
12-18-2005, 07:27
...when you gaze out the window and see the trail, and, you're not even daydreaming....:D
Lucky dawg............
...when you buy a street/trail motorcycle that will fit into your pickup truck so that you can shuttle yourself between road crossings, eventhough you have never ridden a motor bike before! (including getting a motorcycle license)
Nean, exactly where do you live in Greeneville? Viking Mtn Road maybe?
Skidsteer
12-18-2005, 19:24
...when you buy a street/trail motorcycle that will fit into your pickup truck so that you can shuttle yourself between road crossings, eventhough you have never ridden a motor bike before! (including getting a motorcycle license)
Nean, exactly where do you live in Greeneville? Viking Mtn Road maybe?
Why didn't I think of that ?
Nice meeting you today A.T. Noticed the Tripod but not the motorbike. Talked to Squeaky at Miss Janets.
Cookerhiker
01-01-2006, 16:51
When you're driving near Harrisburg, PA and you want to stop for a bite to eat and despite having many nicer, better quality, and more convenient restuarants available, you confound your spouse by going to the Doyle.:o