View Full Version : Regrets after finishing the trail
Billygoatbritt
02-08-2006, 11:53
After one completes the trail, what are your biggest regrets? Side trips, lost contact with friends, or what?:bse
Lone Wolf
02-08-2006, 11:55
Only regret was not taking enuf photos of people. View photos suck once developed.
That's a great point I had not thought of LW. Will keep this in mind on my TH this year
Wolf - 23000
02-08-2006, 12:20
My only regret is not always remember why I was there. I always set out to walk from point A to point B. Sometimes it would be to walk from Maine to Georgia or Mexico to Canada or were ever. Every year I would go out but being away from long distance hiking now for a couple years help me relies that it was more about just being out there than the distance. How being on the trail, felt so much like coming home.
Wolf
Footslogger
02-08-2006, 12:36
My biggest regret was having to return to a full time job after 3 months of post hike solace. The hike itself was everything I expected and more. Not a single regret about the hike itself. Only that it ended before I was ready to hang up my backpack.
'Slogger
the goat
02-08-2006, 14:28
ditto what 'slogger says, the hardest part is hangin' up the boots.
rambunny
02-08-2006, 16:17
Not getting names and addresses of people. Good place to do it is in the empty spots in your data book or companion.
Not getting names and addresses of people.
This is absolutely true. Being able to contact your friends post hike so you can suffer re-entry to "real life" together makes readjustment easier. And get lots of pictures of friends and special places along the way. Lone Wolf is right, views do suck and I miss my buddies 100x's more than most all of the views.
Alligator
02-08-2006, 17:40
Many digital cameras will record voice. This is another way to store contact information while at the same time getting some photos of trail buddies.
the goat
02-08-2006, 17:49
I miss my buddies 100x's more than most all of the views.
me too, with the exception of avery peak & katahdin maybe:D
clayrfarris
02-08-2006, 18:29
My biggest regret was having to return to a full time job after 3 months of post hike solace. The hike itself was everything I expected and more. Not a single regret about the hike itself. Only that it ended before I was ready to hang up my backpack.
'Slogger
Footslogger,
It is exactly what you have said that makes me hesitant to do a thruhike. I can barely stand my desk job now. I can't imagine how I would feel if I had to come back to it after 6 months of hiking. Just scared I guess.
Footslogger,
It is exactly what you have said that makes me hesitant to do a thruhike. I can barely stand my desk job now. I can't imagine how I would feel if I had to come back to it after 6 months of hiking. Just scared I guess.
What better reason to thru hike than having a desk job you can barely stand now. Gets you away, gives you time to think of what you want to do, you come back mentally refreshed. That's my plan!
David
Footslogger
02-08-2006, 18:48
Footslogger,
It is exactly what you have said that makes me hesitant to do a thruhike. I can barely stand my desk job now. I can't imagine how I would feel if I had to come back to it after 6 months of hiking. Just scared I guess.
====================================
Please don't let my comments hesitant. There's no getting around the reality (for most of us) of a return to work following a thru. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "REGRET". I really have no true regrets. I waited a long time for the chance to hike the trail and I lived my dream in 2003.
If you wanna hike the trail ...then hike. Deal with the afterlife when you cross that bridge. I faced a lot of demons when I was getting ready for my hike, most of which were those "voices of responsibilty" in head telling me that I was nuts to quit a good paying job to spend 6 months eating ramen noodles and poopin in the woods. When I look back now that was all nonsense and self made craziness.
Life if short. Chase your dreams ...whatever they may be !!
'Slogger
clayrfarris
02-08-2006, 18:59
====================================
Please don't let my comments hesitant. There's no getting around the reality (for most of us) of a return to work following a thru. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "REGRET". I really have no true regrets. I waited a long time for the chance to hike the trail and I lived my dream in 2003.
If you wanna hike the trail ...then hike. Deal with the afterlife when you cross that bridge. I faced a lot of demons when I was getting ready for my hike, most of which were those "voices of responsibilty" in head telling me that I was nuts to quit a good paying job to spend 6 months eating ramen noodles and poopin in the woods. When I look back now that was all nonsense and self made craziness.
Life if short. Chase your dreams ...whatever they may be !!
'Slogger
Thank you gentlemen. You may have pushed me over the edge.
Clay
Jack Tarlin
02-09-2006, 19:13
I think the best thing I've written for Whiteblaze might be a short essay called "What I'd do Differently." It's in the "Articles" section, and tho it was written a year and a half ago, I don't think I'd change a word of it.
If I had to pick ONE thing tho, one regret and one only, it'd probably be to slow down, and take more time to appreciate the woods and high country, as opposed to spending so much time either in town or rushing to get there.
Remember, you got the whole rest of your life to spend in towns. Go in, get what you need, get some rest, do what you gotta do, and GET OUT.
In the entire history of thru-hiking, I doubt there was anyone who said "I wish I'd spent more time in motels."
Blue Jay
02-09-2006, 20:59
After one completes the trail, what are your biggest regrets? Side trips, lost contact with friends, or what?:bse
After much thought, I must say not a single one.
Tha Wookie
02-09-2006, 21:13
I don't have one regret on the trail.
But the next steps were. I wish I had gone down the knife edge from Baxter peak. That's all I can think of.
Oh wait, one more -I regret that greasy dinner I had at the first restaurant in Hot Springs on the left. That was terrible!
EarthJourney
02-10-2006, 23:25
Quote:
Originally Posted by Footslogger
====================================
Please don't let my comments hesitant. There's no getting around the reality (for most of us) of a return to work following a thru. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "REGRET". I really have no true regrets. I waited a long time for the chance to hike the trail and I lived my dream in 2003.
If you wanna hike the trail ...then hike. Deal with the afterlife when you cross that bridge. I faced a lot of demons when I was getting ready for my hike, most of which were those "voices of responsibilty" in head telling me that I was nuts to quit a good paying job to spend 6 months eating ramen noodles and poopin in the woods. When I look back now that was all nonsense and self made craziness.
Life if short. Chase your dreams ...whatever they may be !!
'Slogger
From Clayrfarris:
Thank you gentlemen. You may have pushed me over the edge.
Clay
Hey Clay - I'm standing on the edge too! I'm hoping to take the plunge in '07 or '08! I too fear the return to work - but I've decided that if long distance hiking is not out of my system at the end of said trip - I'll work long enough to finance/take another trip (AT or another trail). Who knows, I may regret my "irresponsibility" down the road of life. But from all the older people I have talked with and listened to, I don't think that will be the case!
Or who knows one trip may be enough for me.......I hope not!
Only regret was not taking enuf photos of people. View photos suck once developed.
True. Which incidentally means that photo simulations of proposed trail developments, such as the proposed wind towers on Redington, also suck. What the human eye, coupled with the human brain, sees is totally different from what the camera lens sees.
When we look at a mountain scene we think we are seeing the entire view. We aren't. We are seeing multiple views of multiple narrow arcs. The eye focuses on the most dominant feature of a landscape, be it the mountain over the ridge or a wind tower.
The most accurate simulations are totally inaccurate in terms of impact on the view. Skilled photographers know this. That's why telephoto lenses were invented, and why skilled photographers frame their view photos with tree trunks, limbs, foreground objects.
I agree photos of people are important part of a trail photo collection. But also focus your camera on the small natural things, turtles, wild life, centipedes, whatever, and don't give up on views. Just look for natural framing objects that focus the eye on landscapes and avoid the disappointment LW mentions.
Having said all this, my biggest regret also is not taking more people pictures. I was 40-years older than most of the people I met on the trail and in the beginning especially I sometimes felt uncomfortable intruding with a camera.
Weary
I agree Jack.Towns are fun but ya just gotta get out of there.
Over 21 years after completing an AT thru-hike, I don't have many regrets. I had a great time doing exactly what I wanted to do. I met my wife on the Trail. We now have two wonderful kids, who are rapidly growing up. I finished with a group of five others, a terrific group that would never have gotten together in any other setting.
If there's any regret, it's that our group had to split up and get on with life. You deal with it and move on. Welcome back to the "real" world. I'm still in touch, only occasionally, with four of the group. One guy worked planting trees for awhile, then guided raft trips on the Gauley. None of our group knows what happened to him after that.
Now, I get an occasional phone call from the other four, a Christmas card. Life moves on.
I kind of regret that I didn't hike the CDT in 1985 like I planned. But it's still out there, beckoning. After another section hike this summer, I'll have all of Montana and Idaho under my belt. Then it's on to Wyoming.
I'm still chasing my dreams...