View Full Version : Life after the trail?
Spiritual Pillgrim
07-15-2006, 17:04
:-? I suppose this question has been asked somewhere before, but what is life like after completing a thru hike?
I hope mine remians somewhat the same as in, simple, no worries. :o
Bigger question, literally. How many of you got fat from keeping a trail appetite?:p
Johnny Swank
07-15-2006, 19:32
I gained back the 15 lbs I lost in, lemme think now..... 2 weeks. Ate like a horse and scaled back alot on the activity.
I struggle to keep in the right mindset back here in the rat race. I made a deal with myself to do something cool every five years to keep myself honest. I don't want to look back when I'm 80 and wonder where the years went.
Hey, I only hiked to Harpers Ferry and I gained 20 lbs by Christmas 05! I'm still trying to get it off!!!
fiddlehead
07-15-2006, 20:18
didn't lose much weight, didn't put much back on. LIfe got simpler. Better, although i often miss the trail when i'm not on it.
:-? I suppose this question has been asked somewhere before, but what is life like after completing a thru hike?
I hope mine remians somewhat the same as in, simple, no worries. :o
Bigger question, literally. How many of you got fat from keeping a trail appetite?:p
If you can keep the expansion you got on the trail, life will be a breeze... simple. If you let that feeling close down, well, you'll be back where you started.
Oh, and I gained back the 15 lbs I lost. Just go backpacking; it will disappear.
RITBlake
07-16-2006, 00:19
Physically I gained about 5 lbs after my thru hike. However just a few weeks after my hiked ended I was back at the gym lifting weights and doing cardio to keep the weight down.
Mentally I am a different person. I'm more patient and my entire view of the world changed. Most noticeably now, the pursuit of money and commerical goods seems almost laughable now.
It was wierd for me........... After 2 months on trail, I had only lost 3lbs, but went from a size 10 to a size 6. After 5 weeks at home, I had lost 10lbs, and was back to a size 10. Says somethings for the muscle women gain, huh?
Kaptain Kangaroo
07-16-2006, 22:01
G'day Pilgrim,
In the 4 days since I finished I have found life to be a difficult combination of the euphoria of finally completing the hike mixed with a deep sadness from missing my friends & losing the simplicity of trail life. I don't know whether to feel good or bad !
On the weight issue I found my appetite disappeared immediately I stopped hiking. I was very particular about eating enough while hiking though, so I never developed that ravenous hiker appetite that others had.
Hope things are still going well for you.
Cheers,
Kaptain
John Scott
07-17-2006, 06:51
I lost a ton of weight and it took a few months to get it back.
Returning to London, England was also really strange after 6 months in the woods - I couldn't get used to the speed of the city, its smells etc.
I reckon it took me as long to get used to normal life as it took me to complete the AT. Having spoken with other hikers who completed in 2000 - I took a very informal pole at Trail Days 2001 - the experience is very mixed. Some went straight back to work and didn't miss a beat; others hit the road again in various ways to e.g. cycle across the US or complete the PCT.
I have written about this in some detail if anybody is interested.
John Scott
07-17-2006, 06:52
I lost a ton of weight and it took a few months to get it back.
Returning to London, England was also really strange after 6 months in the woods - I couldn't get used to the speed of the city, its smells etc.
I reckon it took me as long to get used to normal life as it took me to complete the AT. Having spoken with other hikers who completed in 2000 - I took a very informal poll at Trail Days 2001 - the experience is very mixed. Some went straight back to work and didn't miss a beat; others hit the road again in various ways to e.g. cycle across the US or complete the PCT.
I have written about this in some detail if anybody is interested.
vaporjourney
07-18-2006, 18:16
i'd be interested to hear more detail John Scott
i find myself wondering what's the point a lot mainly at work.
Johnny Swank
07-18-2006, 20:30
That's the truth. I'd be going nuts right now if I wasn't diving into this book on the Mississippi. Work just pays the bills at this point, and I can't wait till the next trip.
i find myself wondering what's the point a lot mainly at work.C'mon mingo, thats not the happy fellow we're used to around here.;)
mnof1000v
07-18-2006, 20:53
That's what I say. Just keep telling yourself that you're a lucky bastard to have hiked the trail, and find a way back every now and then... or do something else that suits you and fulfills that nagging need that brought you to the trail in the first place. Maybe that means doing long division without a calculator, or maybe it's writing your name over and over in block letters, or maybe it's simply contemplating the square root of purple and its impact on my decision to boycott pants. Really that's for you to decide by yourself.:-?
Anyways, enough with my meaningless answer to your question...
It's good to see you finished the trail. Mrs. Gorp showed me your picture on top of Katahdin. Good to see you made it there in one piece. I'm plowing through ME as I write this.
I lost 55 pounds on the trail and it took six months to gain abour 40 of it back. The result was I have a set of clothing I bought after my thru hike only fit for a few months. I retired from a job that was extremely high pressure before my hike and found a job driving a school bus after. After the trail I became much calmer than I had been in the past and even a bus full of screaming kids doesn't rattle me. The job requires very little thinking, little pressure compared to my old job and is an excellent income suppliment to my retirement. I still hike alot, take one or two week backpacking trips and enjoy life. The trail had a great calming effect on me and I look back on it as the happiest days of my life. If I did not have a wife, family, and farm I love very much I would be out there every year like Lone Wolf and Baltimore Jack. I loved the AT and it is a difficult adjustment back to life after but the experience of a thru hike is something I will value and cherish as long as I live. Every day I miss the trail and especially value all the fellow hikers and trail people that became my friends.