To Thru or To Section?

[goldielocks]

What lead to your decision to thru hike the AT rather than section hike portions?

[garlic08]

1) Logistics. If you can take the time, a thru hike is much easier (and cheaper), especially after you get trail-hardened. 2) I wouldn't enjoy going home just as the walking gets easy, only to have to break in again next year. 3) Continuity can be rewarding, gaining life-long relationships and a sense of completion.

[Hikingjim]

From the other perspective, people section hike so that they can enjoy the trail and have some continuity with their normal life (family, work, etc)

A thru-hike is a great way to break away from things. If you've done any long hike you will know that your mindset changes a lot as time passes.
if you have time, money and a desire to hike for months, then why not?

[evyck da fleet]

If I had to do it two weeks at a time for 10-15 years I never would have finished. Committing to do it all at once was easier logistically and took less time. But I'd argue the opportunity cost of not working for 7 1/2 months was far greater than the addition actual costs had I done it while I was on vacation getting paid as a section hiker.

[Spirit Walker]

I wanted the challenge of a thruhike, to see if I was strong enough physically and mentally to persevere for the whole distance. After the first one, I just knew I loved the lifestyle and wanted to do it again. So I did.

When you are thruhiking, the experience is much more than just a vacation, easily done and soon forgotten. For the most part, one vacation is much like another - nice but not life changing. A thruhike, for some of us, is very different.

[Spirit Walker]

There is also the fact that if I am going to spend 10 or 15 years of vacation time hiking, I'd want to go to more than just one part of the country. There is a lot of beautiful country out there. Spending every year on the AT precludes spending much time in Colorado, California, Montana, Alaska, etc. By thruhiking, I got to see the eastern mountains one year, the far western mountains another year, the Rockies another year, the Canadian Rockies another year and Alaska on yet another. I was able to explore a lot of incredible country.

[Slo-go'en]

For a young, twenty something hiker, it would be mostly a question of money. You might have the time and the stamina, but do you have the cash?

For a middle aged hiker, time is often the limiting factor so a section hike is more likely.

For the older hiker, a section hike is less stressful on the body.

Of course, many a thru hike ends up being a section hike for any number of reasons, regardless of age.

[Kerosene]

I did my first section (NJ) as a 15-year old sophomore in high school with two other guys the same age during our spring break. We did two more 100+ mile sections the next two spring breaks. It was a bit harder to get out in my college years, but I was able to find the time for another two sections, plus a thru-hike of the Long Trail after graduation. It was on the Long Trail where I realized that I enjoyed 2-3 week outings and wasn't really interested in spending 5 months on a thru-hike.

After college I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to start my career. Outside of a section hike of the Shenendoahs in '86, I didn't get back to the AT until 2000 -- yet I thought about my experiences pretty much every day. I committed myself to completing the entire trail and did so with at least one annual hike until finishing atop Katahdin on 10/4/2014 (two years ago today!).

You will spend a lot more time on the logistics of getting to and from the AT as a section hiker, and correspondingly more money. For me, a 9-day outing was just enough to satisfy my "itch" for another 9 months, after which I'd realize that I needed to get back out there again.

[Starchild]

Thought I would do the AT in sections, but after talking to many thru hikers something inside me cryed out that I need to experience life as a thru hiker --- it is very different and very wonderful to be a thru hiker.

[AfterParty]

I'm starting in April and I'm fishing at least once a day when possible maybe not for long but none the less I will go as far as I go. If I do 2 sections I'll be OK with that if I make to ME I will go some other place the next year. I don't wanna walk so much each day its not fun. But I also wanna finish in one year if I can.

[RockDoc]

Thru hiking, at it's best, is swift and elegant. But often it is good, bad, and ugly as people start out fresh and optimistic but soon feel bored and trapped by a commitment that they can't escape. Look into the eyes of thru hikers coming north through Maine in the late summer. You see resignation, sadness, hunger, and boredom. The life went out of their hiking a long time ago. There's not much to admire besides a big fat hike.

Sectioning is underrated. You get to choose the section that excites you the most. So, enthusiasm and excitement stays high, yet you keep your other life from completely falling apart. Your friends and co-workers don't forget and replace you after you are absent for month after month.

[Hikingjim]

Look into the eyes of thru hikers coming north through Maine in the late summer. You see resignation, sadness, hunger, and boredom. The life went out of their hiking a long time ago. There's not much to admire besides a big fat hike.

this is a good point. I did 130 miles SOBO in VA in May and passed a couple hundred thru-hikers, and chatted a fair bit along the way. And many of them didn't seem to be "living the dream" and were having a lot less fun than I was. And then others couldn't get enough and thought it was one of the best experiences of their life.

[Sarcasm the elf]

What lead to your decision to thru hike the AT rather than section hike portions?

In my experience, life usually makes that decision for you. (I chose to abandon my thru hike plans when the housing crash destroyed the value of the house I needed to sell:datz)

If it's on your bucket list to hike the whole trail I'd say save up some money and do it while you're young and still have your knees. Once career, marriage, kids, home ownership, etc. enter the picture then you won't likely get another chance to take six months off until you are close to retirement.

Then again, if you just like hiking, section hiking is pretty awsome too, I hike where I want whenever I can and do it while having a job and a family. I've been doing regularly for seven years now.

[dudeijuststarted]

Originally I just wanted to NOBO to Harper's. A friend of mine told me I should just do the whole thing. My girlfriend was moving across the country and life was upside down so I just stayed out there and sort of inadvertently ended up hiking the whole distance.

While it was wonderful and honestly the highlight of my life to date, I think that breaking it up into a few nice extended journeys would have been equally rewarding. Section hiking is also easier on the health and for some, finances, if your job requires continuity. The trail speaks to everyone in different ways, and from FKT holders to weekend warriors I think everyone is the same tribe. Do what you are compelled to do but don't ruin your experience by doing it to appease others' impression of what it means to hike the Appalachian Trail.

HYOH

[Starchild]

Thru hiking, at it's best, is swift and elegant. But often it is good, bad, and ugly as people start out fresh and optimistic but soon feel bored and trapped by a commitment that they can't escape. Look into the eyes of thru hikers coming north through Maine in the late summer. You see resignation, sadness, hunger, and boredom. The life went out of their hiking a long time ago. There's not much to admire besides a big fat hike....

Um never saw this, perhaps in GA/TN/NC - and I would extend it to VA, but in Maine? Have you been there??? Smelling the barn man, they are about to accomplish a great life bucket list accomplishment and they know it and can taste it, get with the trail or the trail goes without you. But don't rain on the thru hiker parade.


Sectioning is underrated. You get to choose the section that excites you the most. So, enthusiasm and excitement stays high, yet you keep your other life from completely falling apart. Your friends and co-workers don't forget and replace you after you are absent for month after month.

Section hiking is OK, I have done both and will one day complete the AT as a section hiker too. There is nothing like the thru. It is a difference between jumping in the air and flapping your arms really really fast and a startrek type starship flying between the stars. Though your speed is walking, you are really really getting places very fast.

[Spirit Walker]

I'm starting in April and I'm fishing at least once a day when possible maybe not for long but none the less I will go as far as I go. If I do 2 sections I'll be OK with that if I make to ME I will go some other place the next year. I don't wanna walk so much each day its not fun. But I also wanna finish in one year if I can.

You won't be doing a lot of fishing for most of the trail. The AT is up on top of the ridges, where water is a small spring, not a lake or large creek with fish. In the mid-Atlantic you'll get some good creeks which may have fish but the lakes don't start until New England.

[4shot]

this is a bit late but it is not an either/or proposition. You can do both. i thru hiked first. Now i just have time to do sections. Both are great and yet completely different.
Section hiking: the biggest pro is the complete freedom to hike in terms of time rather than miles (i.e I am out for x weeks rather than 2180 miles. It's way more relaxing (imo) that way. The thru hike - the biggest plus is the people you meet and friends you make. I also liked the fitness aspect of hiking every day,all day long except for the occasional zero's. I cannot say their is a "best" option for becoming a 2,000 miler.

[Praha4]

for me it came down to not wanting to be away from family and business concerns for 5-6 months,


I would probably have completed the AT by now if I hadn't detoured to hiking Vermont every fall since 2010

I love section hiking, u can pick which season u want to hike, but biggest challenge is logistics and travel costs getting back up to the AT from Florida
have done planes, trains, buses and automobiles

next trip is back up to Front Royal, VA to resume the hike NoBo, and that's going to be next spring
probably stick to the AT now and try to get the rest of it knocked out in next 2 years

[rafe]

Quitting an attempted thru hike, but still wanting to finish the whole trail.

[Dogwood]

Do yourself a favor. You'll have much less consternation...and so would others if we forget what we've been led to believe defines a thru-hike or section hike. Redefine the terms yourself. You might like this - every hike is a thru-hike. Consider, many so called thru-hikes are actually section hikes as the trail goes on to elsewhere. Termini are usually arbitrary starting/ending points that are often chosen because each supposedly should convey something outstandingly special. It's in our minds that we place special recognition on Flagg Mt(southern end of the Pinhoti Tr), Springer Mt(which really is just a junction of several trails on a so so Appalachian Mt., oh the heresy) or Campo CA(which is just a spot in the desert with a column designating it as the southern PCT terminus), or Columbus NM(one of the acceptable alternate southern termini of the CDT), or one of many places in Glacier NP or in Waterton Provincial Park(several potential northern termini of the CDT, but the trail/a trail continues from some of these points North, East, and/or West). The hike doesn't somehow magically end atop Mt Whitney on a JMT thru-hike, the "official" JMT southern terminus unless you have a helicopter. I guess the Whitney Portal Parking Lot wasn't special sounding enough? It is only when you need recognition from others you have to define these terms as they do.

[shelb]

Do what's best for your family... I would LOVE to thru=hike now; however, it would not be good for my family. So, instead, I section hike. I hope to thru-hike in about 7-10 years, when my family is gone...