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Tha Wookie
10-12-2006, 10:04
As many hikers know, experiences on the trial can test our mettle after we return home and are faced with decisions in life and which way to go. This thread is a place to drop advice or ask some in how to re-enter the "real world" and be satisfied with yourself while doing it.

I'll start with a great quote I turned over this morning:


"We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. It needs a divine man [or woman] to exhibit anything divine. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart in his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men [and women] have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the Eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating all their being. And now we are men [and women], and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendental destiny; and not pinched in a corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but redeemers and benefactors, pious aspirants to be noble clay plastic under the Almighty effort, let us advance and advance on Chaos and the Dark. [!]

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841, Self-Reliance, p.31



What words do you have to share, be they yours or anothers?

Maalox
10-12-2006, 12:21
1. When you get home, stop eating like a hiker. Reduce your calorie intake immediately. Don't give yourself a week to binge. Get on a program like Weight Watchers if you have to.

2. Don't waste too much time thinking about what you've learned about yourself. Don't force life lessons on yourself to justify "dropping out". If there are any such lessons, they'll come to you in due time.

3. Don't talk too much about the hike to others. People in the real world will be initially impressed, but they also will get bored by it a lot faster than other hikers will.

Lone Wolf
10-12-2006, 12:28
Life after the trail-any inspiring words?
Get a friggin job!:D

Footslogger
10-12-2006, 12:34
Give yourself time to comprehend what you experienced and accomplished.

We live life going forward but we can only truly understand it in retrospect.

'Slogger

Jaybird
10-12-2006, 12:41
Life after the trail-any inspiring words?
Get a friggin job!:D



hey...

got any job openings in the LONE WOLF CORPORATION?


hehehehehehehe:D

warren doyle
10-12-2006, 14:32
My life is the trail - past, present, future.

fiddlehead
10-12-2006, 16:30
Yeah, the journey doesn't end. It just the start of the rest of your life.

Ender
10-12-2006, 16:47
You never get the trail out of your system.

The Weasel
10-12-2006, 19:19
Six years past the start of the Trail, these lessons remain...

1) Shave, but not right away. This is true for women, as well as men.
2) Give a buck or so to homeless people when they ask. They're not much different than we were. We called it 'trail magic' when someone gave us something.
3) Eat the same way, but less. It is healthy, and most of us didn't eat that way before.
4) Look back, but don't stop moving forward. It works in life, as on the Trail.
5) Remember those who cared for you then. Also remember those who didn't.

The Weasel

Nean
10-12-2006, 19:43
Take the lessons you learn in the real world and apply them to the man made world.;)

:-?

:eek:

:D

sleeveless
10-12-2006, 21:55
Listen to Maalox and the others. I should have joined weight watchers! I have gained back all 38 pounds that I lost and (whine, whine) I feel really bad about it. Unfortunately I had to jump back into work and earn some money and I ended my hike with 2 stress fractures in my back so I felt bad for myself and didn't keep up the exercise (sorry more whining). Even a year later I still think about my hike and only wish I can do it again...maybe at 65.

Sleeveless

irritable_badger
10-12-2006, 22:20
My advice is to save your pennies and go back out on the (or a) trail next spring. Seeing as how you should now have all the equipment you need and you understand how unimportant your gear really, you know how to feed yourself and you know places you would like to skip or revisit you can do it again a lot cheaper. That way you don't ever have to worry about the "real world" except during winter.

Pokey2006
10-12-2006, 22:27
This is when I feel lucky for not having completed the whole trail...I get to go back and spend two more months hiking next summer! That way, not as much let down. Though I'm also having a hard time keeping up the exercise routine. Ugh!
Is anyone else still sore three weeks after getting off the trail??? Or is it just me?

irritable_badger
10-12-2006, 22:30
My feet still hurt and I'm beginning to think I'll never be able to sit cross-legged again, but other than that I'm fine.

Pokey2006
10-12-2006, 22:46
My feet have slowly been getting better. I still do the "hiker walk" every morning, though, and still groan whenever I have to get up and move after sitting still for more than a few minutes.
The mental/emotional stuff, I was prepared for. I was prepared for being unemployed, struggling to deal with what all this (the hike) means, where does my life go from here, etc. etc. But I was NOT prepared for how long it would take for my body to recover.
So any words of advice on that topic from those of you who have been there, done that?

Tha Wookie
10-12-2006, 23:05
My feet still hurt and I'm beginning to think I'll never be able to sit cross-legged again, but other than that I'm fine.
Haha I know what you mean.... I've had diffcult times after trails not being able to sit cross-legged. What it up with that?

I guess the lesson for me was -stretch out more completely on the next trail, and after. Of course I still never do enough. But seriously Chi Gong helps.

Pokey2006
10-12-2006, 23:10
Ya, I am so totally going to stretch out all the time on the trail from now on. I never did during my hike, and now I'm paying for it. Ouch! I'm starting to wonder if it will EVER get better!

irritable_badger
10-12-2006, 23:20
Chi Gong helps.

Can you give me a bit more info on what Chi Gong is? My first impression guess was slang for "alternative medications" but I'm guessing that's incorrect:)

Pokey2006
10-13-2006, 01:09
My guess is yoga will give you the same benefit?

skeeterfeeder
10-15-2006, 01:45
My feet have slowly been getting better. I still do the "hiker walk" every morning, though, and still groan whenever I have to get up and move after sitting still for more than a few minutes.
The mental/emotional stuff, I was prepared for. I was prepared for being unemployed, struggling to deal with what all this (the hike) means, where does my life go from here, etc. etc. But I was NOT prepared for how long it would take for my body to recover.
So any words of advice on that topic from those of you who have been there, done that?

I thought that after finishing in '05 I would never be healthy again. I was doubtful this 57 year old body woud recover, but it has. No longer do I have the stabbing pains in the souls of my feet or stand up doing the 'hiker shuffle'.
I've found that Osteo Bi-Flex with glucosamine and chondrotin are wonderful. They really work.
As far as dealing with the world again, I have no advice on that. I discovered that I have been changed and the world hasn't, therefore there is more of a disconnect than ever. That's why I am constantly coming back to Whiteblaze. At least a few people here understand.

1stCavSoldier
10-15-2006, 02:15
As far as dealing with the world again, I have no advice on that. I discovered that I have been changed and the world hasn't, therefore there is more of a disconnect than ever.

It is funny, that's the way I have felt about most Americans after moving back to the states from Germany. People are so different over there. Then to move back, and have to deal with the arrogant, it's all about me, can't drive my SUV/rice burner worth a lick, my time is so important, who cares what you think, talk to a computer because we really don't care about customer service, and my comfort is more important than the environment, 90% of american public. Makes me want to move far away into the farthest depths of the woods where my nearest neighbor is a bear. IDK maybe it's just me?:(

skeeterfeeder
10-15-2006, 03:03
Warning, bears can be pretty self-centered, too. And they don't drive worth a damn. :)

Footslogger
10-15-2006, 12:03
I've just had to accept the fact that I have relatively little in common with those who have never done any serious backpacking/hiking or who plan to at some point in the future.

That's not to say that I don't "get along" with non-hikers. But more and more I find that I am surrounded (at least in my line of work) with young people in reasonably good physical condition who set themselves out as nature lovers or outdoor enthusiasts and yet they cannot/do not relate to my experience(s). They are "fascinated" by the concept but seem unable to grasp the meaning or see themselves "out there".

Makes me happier every day to have a soulmate and partner who's "been there".

'Slogger

alanthealan
10-15-2006, 12:10
Don't go back to something you left that was stagnate or that you know made you unhappy. Move on, and keep challenging yourself.

LostInSpace
10-15-2006, 12:44
“Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach.”

~ Seneca

spandau
10-16-2006, 11:24
1stCavSoldier, you're not the only one. :(

Almost There
10-16-2006, 12:59
For those of you who are sore and can't sit cross-legged it's because your legs are tightening back up to normal levels and it hurts. I have never had a problem doing butterfly stretches, in fact I have always been pretty limber...they hurt to do now and I know it had to do with the hiking.

woodsy
10-16-2006, 14:27
1stCavSoldier, you're not the only one. :(

As a 3rd Cav Soldat(once upon a time), I'll 3rd that. Although only an avid hiker,I am most at home in the woods and mtns and don't hesitate to tell people that. And yes, that is where I belong too.:) I find society rather uncivilized.

DiamondDoug
10-16-2006, 15:22
Quit trying to find the closest parking space to the store you are going in. Park out in the lot where it is not crowded and walk. :-)

K-Man
10-16-2006, 16:45
Can you give me a bit more info on what Chi Gong is? My first impression guess was slang for "alternative medications" but I'm guessing that's incorrect:)

Qigong is a practice of Chinese energy healing, very similar to Tai Chi. It focuses on movement of the breath/Chi/life energy throughout the body to where it is needed for healing purposes. I recommend this book by Ken Cohen. Very interesting stuff...

http://www.kennethcohen.com/qigong/tapes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong