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View Full Version : why did you dream of and decide to hik the AT (or other long distance trail)?



DavidNH
02-19-2016, 11:02
i want to start a discussion about why you dreamed of and finally decided to hike the Appalachian Trail (or other very long distance trail)? Did your reason for hiking change during your hike?

I am looking for deeper answers than things like you thought it would be a cool thing to do or you had nothing else going on in your life so why not? You might also add if your expectations of the trail where met or if you found a different experience when you finally got out there than you were expecting.

Was it do confront a physical challenge? was it that you love the outdoors and wanted to experience wilderness and back country for an extended period of time?


For me.. I wanted to experience the wilderness areas of the East. To be self reliant and to experience the freedom what finds on a long backpack trip. I found this. But when I did my thru hike in 2006, I found something I did not expect to find... a frequently party type atmosphere especially through and including Pennsylvania. I wonder sometimes if thru hikers of the AT truly are out there to experience solitude and the pleasures of nature... some are for sure.. maybe even most.. but i am not so sure this is the case with all.


DavidNH

Traillium
02-19-2016, 12:14
I'm 65, retired, active, have spent much of my life outdoors, experienced wilderness paddler, novice backpacker. I also have low-grade non-aggressive non-invasive prostate cancer.
My wife and partner since 1968 suggested I tick off a long-held desire to do a solo wilderness trip. By turns, this has become tracing Spring northwards through my home territory of Southern Ontario along the 890km Bruce Trail. I'm a botanist and a general naturalist, so this has become my obsession since September when she opens the door.
I'm doing this solo, but am expecting various folks to be joining me for a day and maybe more.
The only items of my old outdoor and canoeing equipment I'm taking are our old coffee pot, a worn-out rain jacket (that will probably get dumped at my first resupply), my magnifier and my binos, and an old small headlight. The rest of my kit is new. …
Thanks to these online fora, to Shug, to Dutch — oh my! …, and to friends, family, and my wife!


Bruce Traillium

DuneElliot
02-19-2016, 12:39
I'm not sure I'd ever heard of any long-distance trails until I watched Wild. Even then I didn't have a conceivable notion that I wanted to hike it...the movie didn't inspire me at all. I've always liked walking...it's been therapeutic to me over the years to get out and find solitude in the natural world. I feel calm and at ease and more at home there than anywhere else. I spend so many nights in the local mountains every summer, or road-tripping to different places (and camping) because it feels right. I can't imagine living in a place where I couldn't camp or hike or ride outside of my back door.

I actually only found myself interested in hiking the PCT after I was doing some research into new light-weight gear for a light-weight horse-packing trip this summer. Researching small, light gear led me to backpacking sites and blogs and after I got to reading some of them, watching videos of thru-hikes and seeing so many incredible photos I felt drawn to it in a way I can't describe. Ever since I lived close to the Colorado Trail in 2003-2005 and 2007-2008 I wanted to ride it on horseback, but the logistics are extremely tough, so I figured I'd hike it instead. And that is my plan for next summer with the PCT to follow the year after.

While I love solitude in the backcountry I do look forward to meeting some great people and hiking with them for hours, days or weeks.

kimbur96
02-19-2016, 19:15
While I would love to do a thru hike of the AT it's not in the cards right now. So I will have to settle with some two week sections. Also interested in the LT. What has lead me to a point where I want to do a long hike? I love the outdoors and grew up tent camping in Yosemite for summer vacation while dad climbed the granite walls. Fast forward 40 years and a trip to the Colorado Rockies for a trail race and my love for the outdoors was rekindled. Throw in some major life changes and its a mind set ripe for adventure, connecting with nature, self exploration. Searching for something I can't find in my 9 to 5 in the city.

Sarcasm the elf
02-19-2016, 19:20
I just needed to get from Georgia to Connecticut and it was faster than taking I-95 through the beltway in D.C.

daveiniowa
02-19-2016, 19:53
Grew up in North Georgia, spent many summers at a summer camp on Lake Burton called "Camp Cherokee". Was on the AT before I was ten. Did lots of section hikes before I moved away when I was 18 years old. Came back a couple times to hike, then got into doing "stupid stuff" when I turned 21 and kinda left it. Last year I had to get something out of the basement and needed to move my old frame pack. And once again I though to myself "I really got to get back into hiking". So that night I propped my pack up beside the TV and by the end of the night I had my mind made up that I would get back into it no matter what. I did. I hiked all over where I live and returned last year for a section hike, after 20 years. Tears came to my eyes when I stood on top of Trey Mountain with my best friend I grew up with there, and I remembered all those times I thought I would never come back, even after breaking my ankle after a drunken bender years ago. Going back again this spring to do another 50 miles. I can't believe how much I really love being out there and how much I missed it. What was I thinking all those years ago not hiking? Now it is all I think about. Just want to see as much of wilderness as I can before I can no longer do it.

showtime_
02-19-2016, 20:06
I grew up in southern Texas, where my dad took me on a good number of car camping/mountain bike trips. Between those and running around the local woods any chance I got, I knew I liked being outdoors. Fast forward to 2012. I'm sitting on a FOB in Afghanistan thinking about how ugly and sandy the place is, wishing I was walking through the woods. I ended up finding a copy of "The Barefoot Sisters", which gave me my first "in depth" look at the A.T., and I fell in love with the idea of a thru hike. I came back from Afghanistan and was stationed in Okinawa again, where I began attempting to pickle my brain with alcohol. That continued for a while until I got stationed at Quantico here in Virginia. I went on a few backpacking trips while I was still pickling my brain, but it wasn't until I started getting sober that I discovered I really loved backpacking. It eases my mind, helps me think more objectively, and most of all it's just a helluva lot of fun. I could type a book about it, but that is it in a nutshell.

trpost
02-19-2016, 21:08
I first went on the AT as a young Boy Scout, and when I heard that it went from Georgia to Maine and that you could do the entire thing, I wanted to try it. It also helped that Ed Garvey worked at the local outfitter that we went to :-)

At age 28 I took a new job, and said when I took it that if the job didn't work out, I was going to hike the AT. Well, the job didn't work out, so I ended up turning 30 while thru hiking.

Looking forward to my south bound 26th anniversary hike this year. (Couldn't retire in time to do a 25th anniversary hike.)