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Is it a bad sign when you start dreaming about hiking the trail? I've never actually seen the trail, other then the video's I've watched and the books I've read.
I had my first AT dream. I dreamed I said "F ya'll, I'm going hiking" and started on the trail. It felt exhilirating. I felt this was what I was missing all this time.
Am I getting too obsessed? :jump
You just have white blaze fever!!!
Are you thru hiking this year? I'm starting mid-March and I can't wait. It's all I think about. It's hard not to think about it a lot when you are busy getting gear together and making the huge adjustments needed to leave your "life" for 6 months.
Jack Tarlin
01-26-2006, 18:34
Nothing wrong with dreaming about the Trail before your hike.
Hell, I know people who still dream about it 20 years AFTER their hike.
Enjoy your dreams by all means, but then make them reality.
The Trail's even more fun when you're awake!
saimyoji
01-26-2006, 18:39
I dreamt about hiking the trail just yesterday....when I fell asleep at my desk during lunch break. :banana
Footslogger
01-26-2006, 18:51
[quote=Jack Tarlin]Hell, I know people who still dream about it 20 years AFTER their hike.
====================================
I'll be one of them ...
'Slogger
gsingjane
01-26-2006, 20:01
I wonder if I'm the only one who gets anxiety dreams about the Trail, though. Especially during hiking season, I have a recurring dream that I've goine out completely unprepared in terms of shelter, food, clothing, or water... and i'm always too far from the trailhead to get back before dark. I guess it isn't the worst thing that could possibly happen, you could always try to figure out a way to hunker down until morning, but I still fret over forgetting something important and this must come out in my dreams.
Jane in CT
I wonder if I'm the only one who gets anxiety dreams about the Trail, though. Especially during hiking season, I have a recurring dream that I've goine out completely unprepared in terms of shelter, food, clothing, or water...
Jane in CT
I still have dreams like that about high school. No homework, no pencil, no clue. Maybe its not a dream - just deja vu.
I wonder if I'm the only one who gets anxiety dreams about the Trail, though. Especially during hiking season, I have a recurring dream that I've goine out completely unprepared in terms of shelter, food, clothing, or water... and i'm always too far from the trailhead to get back before dark. I guess it isn't the worst thing that could possibly happen, you could always try to figure out a way to hunker down until morning, but I still fret over forgetting something important and this must come out in my dreams.
Jane in CT
Part of my dream was me not being prepared. I left in a rush that I didn't have any money and only my pack and tent with me. But I felt great and still knew I could do it. Meet people on the trail and they were helping me find all my gear.
You just have white blaze fever!!!
Are you thru hiking this year? I'm starting mid-March and I can't wait. It's all I think about. It's hard not to think about it a lot when you are busy getting gear together and making the huge adjustments needed to leave your "life" for 6 months.
Next year, unfortunetly. I still have a long wait!
coming up on my 11th year anniversary of starting my thru-hike and i think and dream of the at every day.every spring i get the "fever' and want to quit any job,no matter how good or bad a job it is,where im located in the us doestn matter either,and go thru-hike.and watching all these dvds that are out on the at doesnt do any thing to get the fever down...
maybe thats why ive applied to atc to be a virginia ridgerunner this summer.wont make much,but the love for the at and food is all i would need.
There is a very interesting trail journal entry on dreaming about the trail:
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=123080
I’ve been letting my magazine subscriptions expire. It doesn’t make any sense to have them forwarded to me while I’m hiking. Besides, lugging around issues of SAIL and Cruising World on the Appalachian Trail seems a bit incongruous.
Then a friend goes and gives me a subscription to Reader’s Digest as a Christmas present. That’s not a magazine I usually read – except to pass the time at a doctor’s office or in a friend’s bathroom. And then all I look at are the jokes and humorous anecdotes sprinkled throughout. Unless I’m sitting there for a realllllllly long time, that is. If I was reading a more substantive magazine, say Playboy, I’d start with the articles.
Well, the other afternoon I was sprawled on the couch, wiped out from a cold, grasping for a diversion to take my mind off my misery. The only thing on TV was soap operas. (I don’t have cable.) I wasn’t about to expose myself to the corrupting influence of advertisements touting the cleaning power of detergents and soaps. That could severely undermine my mental preparation for my thru-hike.
My eyes fell upon the most recent issue of Reader’s Digest laying on the coffee table. I picked it up and read all the jokes and humorous anecdotes. Dr. Phil wasn’t on yet. Maybe watching someone more miserable than I would make me feel better. Might as well read some of the articles while I waited.
An article titled “Dare to Dream” caught my attention. I’d tell the truth rather than accept a dare to skydive. But dreaming seemed like a challenge within my comfort zone.
Are you wondering what this has to do with thru-hiking the AT? Patience. I’m getting there. Plodding along in a roundabout manner is mental preparation for my hike.
According to the article “Dreaming of something you’re worried about ... is the brain’s way of helping you rehearse for a disaster in case it occurs. Dreaming of a challenge, like giving a presentation at work or playing sports, can enhance your performance.” In a study of recently divorced adults, those who were angriest at their ex-spouses while dreaming “had the best chance of successfully coping with their divorce. ‘If their dreams were bland ... they hadn’t started to work through their emotions and deal with the divorce.’”
Several entries ago, I related a hiking dream I had. Nuts described a thru-hike nightmare in one of his entries. Undoubtedly, other members of the Class of 2006 have dreamed about their upcoming hike.
If the Reader’s Digest article is correct, that’s good. Our subconscious minds are working through the quandaries we may face. That should improve our chance of success.
For those who have not yet had disturbing emotion laden hiking dreams, dare to dream before your start date. Concentrate on the words you are reading. Empty your mind of all other thoughts. Your eyelids are beginning to feel like lead weights. You are getting sleepy.
That last bit was copied from my first journal entry. But I was joking then. Now I’m serious. Close your eyes. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
-honu
Wolf - 23000
01-27-2006, 05:56
Nothing wrong with dreaming about the Trail before your hike.
Hell, I know people who still dream about it 20 years AFTER their hike.
Enjoy your dreams by all means, but then make them reality.
The Trail's even more fun when you're awake!
YEA, I know. I'm a four seasonal hiker. It hits me all year round. It get really bad after working all day and all I want to do is take a hike and escape it all.
Wolf
wacocelt
01-27-2006, 07:59
I have monthly dreams about the AT, if not more often than that. I dream about hiking and camping along the trail, though my favorite dreams are when I'm running down the trail on all fours like a wolf. Enjoy em while you got em!
Puck
RockyTrail
01-27-2006, 14:54
I still have dreams like that about high school. No homework, no pencil, no clue. Maybe its not a dream - just deja vu.
And then there's the dreaded final exam dream....
Oh...what?....Oh no.... oh my gosh I have a final exam at 0800 but I forgot to go to class all semester...:confused: :datz
sherrill
01-27-2006, 15:03
Wow, Rocky, I thought I was the only one who had dreams like that!
gsingjane
01-27-2006, 17:15
This is OT, but if we're talking anxiety dreams... after I had my first child, I had a recurring dream where I had him out someplace and just forgot about him and walked off and left him -- and then remembered several hours later that I'd left him in a box by the side of the road, or on a store counter someplace, or some other bizarre place. When I was travelling a lot for my job, I used to dream that I was running to catch a flight through an endless airport - up stairs, down escalators, through passages, from terminal to terminal, and would always get to the gate just in time to see the flight lift off!
So I guess for me, AT anxiety dreams are competely par for the course.
Jane in CT
maxNcathy
01-27-2006, 17:17
And then there's the dreaded final exam dream....
Oh...what?....Oh no.... oh my gosh I have a final exam at 0800 but I forgot to go to class all semester...:confused: :datz
I have THAT one too!!!!... maybe 4 times per year. Sure good to wake up, eh?
maxNcathy
01-27-2006, 17:19
Is it a bad sign when you start dreaming about hiking the trail? I've never actually seen the trail, other then the video's I've watched and the books I've read.
I had my first AT dream. I dreamed I said "F ya'll, I'm going hiking" and started on the trail. It felt exhilirating. I felt this was what I was missing all this time.
Am I getting too obsessed? :jump
Kendrah, Can you tell me which videos you would recommend. I have never seen any yet. Thanks, Max
I always dream I left my pack or something important at the last shelter and have to walk back. I do this all the time in real life, too...I've even hiked 5 miles without my poles before noticing (that ol' ADD)...My AT daydreams get me through lots of dreary, mundane moments. I try to keep myself from refferring to regular life as "the real world" while hiking, trying to condition my mind to think right...
RockyTrail
01-27-2006, 17:29
, I used to dream that I was running to catch a flight through an endless airport - up stairs, down escalators, through passages, from terminal to terminal, and would always get to the gate just in time to see the flight lift off!
Jane in CT
Oh yes, the dreaded "OJ Simpson - Hertz rent a car" dream...:)
mweinstone
01-30-2006, 18:08
i have a dream ,that one day,all people..............oh yeah that one allready happened.my AT dream is about these secret people i meet who live year round on the trail and are never seen.they show up in the nite to take mates and make you one of them.their names are numbers and this chick called seven of nine shows up and,.................
Wow, I'm gonna try to lucid-dream that one tonight...
Is it a bad sign when you start dreaming about hiking the trail? I've never actually seen the trail, other then the video's I've watched and the books I've read.
I had my first AT dream. I dreamed I said "F ya'll, I'm going hiking" and started on the trail. It felt exhilirating. I felt this was what I was missing all this time.
Am I getting too obsessed? :jump
when i am not on the trail i am thinking and dreaming about it all the time
we all understand,you are not alone here:cool: neo