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quicktoez
03-14-2007, 18:52
Ok, I’m doing Springer to Harpers Ferry starting next week then sectioning the remaining 500 - 600 miles I have left this summer with plans to finish at Katahdin late July. I have gotten so much crap from people because they think I’m wasting my time, risking my life or just plain a loser for wanting to “walk in the woods”. How do you guys explain the woods time and am I really loopy for liking the solitude and consistency of the mountains?

stuco
03-14-2007, 18:55
Forget them, people will always knock you for doing something great. Generally they are either, jeleous, closed minded, not very bright, threatened.

Lone Wolf
03-14-2007, 18:58
Ok, I’m doing Springer to Harpers Ferry starting next week then sectioning the remaining 700 or 800 miles this summer with plans to finish at Katahdin late July. I have gotten so much crap from people because they think I’m wasting my time, risking my life or just plain a loser for wanting to “walk in the woods”. How do you guys explain the woods time and am I really loopy for liking the solitude and consistency of the mountains?

well it won't be solitary. you'll be with lots of hikers. after harpers ferry you'll still have almost 1100 miles or so. but anyway who cares what others think. just do it. it's YOUR life

quicktoez
03-14-2007, 18:58
Thanks, think I'm just looking for some clear thinking people like you all for suport. May your tracks be long.
quicktoez

atnewb68
03-14-2007, 19:11
Listen have hiked the trail in vt and have done a substantial amount of trail work in the area. i am planning a through hike to begin in march of 2008. People harrass me about it all the time, mostly at work but i also have a lot of support which make up for the misery at work. anyway man i wish you the best of luck with your voyage and just because you won't become famous for it...do it anyway.

Gray Blazer
03-14-2007, 19:15
Have them look at your photo gallery here on WB. You have a talent for capturing wildlife and amazing views on camera and you're not going to be able to do that in the city.

quicktoez
03-14-2007, 19:37
Take only pictures and leave only track - or somthing like that - Leave no trace http://www.usscouts.org/advance/venturing/LeaveNoTrace.html
Mother nature makes the pictures, I just like her work.

squeeze
03-14-2007, 19:43
They can't hear the music.

doggiebag
03-14-2007, 19:50
Ok, I’m doing Springer to Harpers Ferry starting next week then sectioning the remaining 500 - 600 miles I have left this summer with plans to finish at Katahdin late July. I have gotten so much crap from people because they think I’m wasting my time, risking my life or just plain a loser for wanting to “walk in the woods”. How do you guys explain the woods time and am I really loopy for liking the solitude and consistency of the mountains?

Reminds me of a quote:
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. (http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/362.html) - Friedrich Nietzsche
But then again that's Nietzsche - people just care about you that's why they're all bunched up. See ya on the wacky woods.

Brrrb Oregon
03-14-2007, 20:10
If they really want to know, have a discussion. Talk about their lifetime dreams, and yours. Compare and contrast. They might get it.

If they really just want to talk you out of it, detach. Don't get angry, don't get bitter, don't apologize, don't get defensive. Just resign yourself to the fact that not everyone is going to understand. The great things in life take both your heart and your mind to comprehend, and if their heart isn't tuned to yours, well, that is how life goes. If they're not open to even trying to understand you, that's their loss. Don't make it yours.

bullseye
03-14-2007, 20:43
Ok, I’m doing Springer to Harpers Ferry starting next week then sectioning the remaining 500 - 600 miles I have left this summer with plans to finish at Katahdin late July. I have gotten so much crap from people because they think I’m wasting my time, risking my life or just plain a loser for wanting to “walk in the woods”. How do you guys explain the woods time and am I really loopy for liking the solitude and consistency of the mountains?

Wasting your time? How many hours a week do these same people who criticize you watch tv or play video games or otherwise waste their time.

Risking your life? Do these same people ride in cars or cross the street or interact with the rest of the world (always a risky proposition).

A loser for walking in the woods? Only a loser would push their own agenda on others and berate them for not conforming.

Quite frankly, the only thing that would make you a loser is if you caved in to the wants of selfish "friends". You'd lose out on the views, you'd lose out on the simple beauty of nature, you'd lose out on celestial views sans light pollution, you'd lose out on the satisfaction of reaching a goal each day, of being self contained, of being a free spirit. Most of all (and best of all IMO) if you go you'll lose all those nay saying voices that are afraid to step out their little box to get a look at what the world has to offer.:sun

Ronin
03-14-2007, 21:12
Ditto all of that Qicktoez! It's your life - make the most of it! I agree that most people are afraid of or disapproving of what they don't know or deem to be "abnormal". Forget 'em! Best of luck!! :) BTW, I still have your # so I'll give you a call & hopefully catch you before you take off. Cheers!

Gaiter
03-14-2007, 21:27
I'm willing to bet those people don't know much about what you are about to undertake, I'm also guessing that if you know just a couple people who are knowledgable about the trail, they don't think your crazy. Go to your local outfitters, there is probably someone there who thinks what your about to do is cool and amazing. I found that you could just spend a couple min. giving them a little education about the trail, that they won't think it is so crazy.

Hanna
ps there isn't anything wrong w/ being crazy

Tin Man
03-14-2007, 22:45
My friends think I am crazy for "going native" and "doing without", but then I think they are crazy for not "experiencing nature" or "getting away from it all". Everybody is crazy in someone else's mind. As long as you are happy doing what you like then don't be afraid to be crazy.

Regarding the "how can you risk your life?" or "aren't you afraid of getting eaten by a bear?" questions I get all the time, I merely reply, "do you know how many people die in car accidents every year? 40,000 in the U.S. alone. Do you know how many people have been killed by black bears in the last 100 years? 56. I have a better chance of being killed on the way to the trail than I do on the trail."

Brrrb Oregon
03-14-2007, 23:36
My friends think I am crazy for "going native" and "doing without", but then I think they are crazy for not "experiencing nature" or "getting away from it all". Everybody is crazy in someone else's mind. As long as you are happy doing what you like then don't be afraid to be crazy.

It all goes back to my saying, though: You can be as crazy as you want in this country, as long as you can hold down a job.

As soon as you quit the job, though :eek: , out come the straitjackets! :D

Krewzer
03-15-2007, 00:44
Ok, I’m doing Springer to Harpers Ferry starting next week then sectioning the remaining 500 - 600 miles I have left this summer with plans to finish at Katahdin late July. I have gotten so much crap from people because they think I’m wasting my time, risking my life or just plain a loser for wanting to “walk in the woods”. How do you guys explain the woods time and am I really loopy for liking the solitude and consistency of the mountains?

Try these on for size. Works for me.

What you think of me is none of my business.
--Terry Cole Whitaker


.....then again, you might just put on Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy"...really loud,
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gnarlsbarkley/crazy.html

warraghiyagey
03-15-2007, 01:04
Ok, I’m doing Springer to Harpers Ferry starting next week then sectioning the remaining 500 - 600 miles I have left this summer with plans to finish at Katahdin late July. I have gotten so much crap from people because they think I’m wasting my time, risking my life or just plain a loser for wanting to “walk in the woods”. How do you guys explain the woods time and am I really loopy for liking the solitude and consistency of the mountains?

Sounds like you got the more abrasive "friends and family reaction." That may - in part - explain why you are drawn to the trail.
If it's at all about one's sanity, the "American Dreamer, SUVer, American Idolers" would have us believe it's our sanity in question. When you're on the trail you'll become quite certain of the actual truth.
And when you're on the trail you think about the folks who gave you negative feedback and in your heart you wish they could be there to see where you are, if for but a moment.
It kind of gives you perspective on the people you know who are interested, excited and happy for you. Hope you have plenty of those as well.
I think the trail is a path to sanity in this increasingly despotic world.
Have fun when you leave. The trail and your friends here are waiting.
Maybe we'll cross paths in Vermont.
Peace:) :) :) :)

The Snowman
03-15-2007, 18:45
Find some new friends who understand hikers. Maybe hang out more with the AMC or mayby NH hiking club

corentin
03-16-2007, 02:34
I gave up trying to explain to people. My boyfriend asked me how he was supposed to explain to people and I told him "Just say I'm crazy" Most people who are going to understand will know without explanations why, the others probably won't ever get it.
It doesn't make a difference to me, in 40 years I will not be sitting in my wheelchair worrying about what random people thought of the way I lived my life.

kyhipo
03-16-2007, 06:56
tell them to take a hike:D .Well most people wouldnt understand unless they do it.And besides who cares what they think.Ky

Tin Man
03-16-2007, 08:04
tell them to take a hike:D .Well most people wouldnt understand unless they do it.And besides who cares what they think.Ky

Actually, this can work! My brother used to give me grief all the time. I finally told him to put up or shut up and now is a stark raving mad hiking lunatic who is on the 40 year AT plan with me! :cool:

maxNcathy
03-16-2007, 09:13
Maybe you should ask everyone you meet what he thinks you should be doing... then do it right away to please him.

mambo_tango
03-16-2007, 12:06
If you act weird all your life then telling people you are leaving on a hike for 6 months shouldn't surprise them. 'Oh there she goes again! I wonder what strange idea will pop into her head next year!'

hammock engineer
03-16-2007, 12:35
I feel you on this one. A few months ago I had to tell my mom to stop telling me it was ok if I changed my mind or stopped part way through. Something about the bad vibes in those conversations I had to put a stop to.

When people ask me why I am doing it, I tell them that I am taking off 6 months of my life to live out a dream of mine. If they still don't get it, I ask them when the last time they research, planned, saved, leaned, practiced, and put this much time into following one of their own dreams. Usually the answer is something to the fact of never and probiblty not going to.

For me I don't want to wake up and all the sudden to too old to do the things that I want to do with my life. More people need to live out their dreams. Plus if you are going to have a life changing experience, I think I should do it early in life. That way it effects a bigger portion of my life.

To quote a favorite show of mine, "Life is short, death is forever" and "What if life is the vaction and death is the real world". Of course this is from Dead Like Me, with all of its strange takes on things.

minnesotasmith
03-16-2007, 13:25
But, so is rotting in front of the idiot box eating any food advertised on TV. Worry about what your spouse thinks, and just inform everyone else what you're doing without giving them the idea they get a veto over it.

Brrrb Oregon
03-16-2007, 13:42
When people ask me why I am doing it, I tell them that I am taking off 6 months of my life to live out a dream of mine. If they still don't get it, I ask them when the last time they research, planned, saved, leaned, practiced, and put this much time into following one of their own dreams. Usually the answer is something to the fact of never and probiblty not going to.

Another thing to try is to ask people about what they think would have more value.
Is it money? Would this be of value if I came back with money? Well, I have enough money.
Is it resume? Would this be of value if I came back with some sort of career status from having done it? Are you worried that future employers aren't going to like this, that I will have lost ground on the job market?
Is it connections? Do the friends and family I have need such constant attention that I cannot leave to make new friends without our relationship dying? Is that the way human nature works? What is your evidence for that?

Then tell them this: This is what I value. I value an opportunity to completely immerse myself in nature. I value an opportunity to completely immerse myself in a journey. I value an opportunity to spend time with myself and my own thoughts that I can't evade by finding outside distraction. I think that by doing this, I will never look at myself or the world we live in the same, ever again, and I think the picture I come away with is going to be deeper, more intimate, and more grounded in reality than it is now. I'm not just seeking the Appalachian mountains. I am seeking to find that place in myself that I will be able to return to for the rest of my life. It is a place I need to find.

This not simply something I got out of a hiking magazine. What did the wise people do, what did the mystics always do, in times past? They fled to the wilderness and spent time in the desert. There are things that can't be learned by the hearth of home, that can't be learned in the marketplace, that can't be learned by spilling your guts to a therapist.

This is the kind of journey that young men used to always take--pregnancy and childbirth in the old days having been thought to have been plenty of a journey into life and death for women--in order to ground themselves to reality. Every society used to have mythologies about great journeys, taken alone or with a special inspired guide. It is what turned their hearts and minds to transition from childish ambitions to the vision of a grown man. It just could be that it is the kind of journey that people in our society, cut off from nature as we are, might well profit from....and that goes for women as much as men.

In other words, the question is not "Why am I stopping my life to take the great journey of heart and soul into the wilderness?" The question is, "Why has doing something like this never occurred to you? Are you hiding from yourself? Because if you had made a journey like this, I don't think this trip would be such a puzzle to you."

If they say, no I never want to make a journey like that, I don't need to, it is a waste, then you can simply reply, "Well, I must have different needs from you, and I'm satisfied that this need I have is age-old and real. You don't have to understand that, but you'll have to accept it. You choose to stay home and I choose to journey, and we'll both have to accept that. There have always been those like each of us. Probably we balance each other, in the big scheme of things. At any rate, that is the way it has always been, and always will be. So wish me luck."

hammock engineer
03-16-2007, 14:27
Another thing to try is to ask people about what they think would have more value.
Is it money? Would this be of value if I came back with money? Well, I have enough money.
Is it resume? Would this be of value if I came back with some sort of career status from having done it? Are you worried that future employers aren't going to like this, that I will have lost ground on the job market?
Is it connections? Do the friends and family I have need such constant attention that I cannot leave to make new friends without our relationship dying? Is that the way human nature works? What is your evidence for that?

Then tell them this: This is what I value. I value an opportunity to completely immerse myself in nature. I value an opportunity to completely immerse myself in a journey. I value an opportunity to spend time with myself and my own thoughts that I can't evade by finding outside distraction. I think that by doing this, I will never look at myself or the world we live in the same, ever again, and I think the picture I come away with is going to be deeper, more intimate, and more grounded in reality than it is now. I'm not just seeking the Appalachian mountains. I am seeking to find that place in myself that I will be able to return to for the rest of my life. It is a place I need to find.

This not simply something I got out of a hiking magazine. What did the wise people do, what did the mystics always do, in times past? They fled to the wilderness and spent time in the desert. There are things that can't be learned by the hearth of home, that can't be learned in the marketplace, that can't be learned by spilling your guts to a therapist.

This is the kind of journey that young men used to always take--pregnancy and childbirth in the old days having been thought to have been plenty of a journey into life and death for women--in order to ground themselves to reality. Every society used to have mythologies about great journeys, taken alone or with a special inspired guide. It is what turned their hearts and minds to transition from childish ambitions to the vision of a grown man. It just could be that it is the kind of journey that people in our society, cut off from nature as we are, might well profit from....and that goes for women as much as men.

In other words, the question is not "Why am I stopping my life to take the great journey of heart and soul into the wilderness?" The question is, "Why has doing something like this never occurred to you? Are you hiding from yourself? Because if you had made a journey like this, I don't think this trip would be such a puzzle to you."

If they say, no I never want to make a journey like that, I don't need to, it is a waste, then you can simply reply, "Well, I must have different needs from you, and I'm satisfied that this need I have is age-old and real. You don't have to understand that, but you'll have to accept it. You choose to stay home and I choose to journey, and we'll both have to accept that. There have always been those like each of us. Probably we balance each other, in the big scheme of things. At any rate, that is the way it has always been, and always will be. So wish me luck."

Very well put. I think I hear more negative comments than good ones.

You hit it on the head with the career comment. Most people I know are really career, money, or job future based. They think that they are failing themselves if they are not making the most money and about to buy the most possions they can. They cannot see why I would put off my job future to do something like this. In the end to each their own.

Tin Man
03-16-2007, 14:31
Oregon, I think you are onto something here. In the old days, an adventure was to leave another continent to come to America and maybe never go back or leave the developed east coast and "go west young man" to discover new country and maybe never go back. The AT adventure is like a long vacation, life altering perhaps, but not a permanent relocation where everything and everyone you knew is forever in the past. We should count our blessings that we can still take such a trip and return to our loved ones when the adventure is over. Loosely paraphrasing a quote from Jurassic Park, "we go on life altering adventures not to escape life, but to live life."

superman
03-16-2007, 16:06
My older son was going to Bentley College as I hiked the AT. He took my decision to hike the AT as proof that I'd slipped off my rocker. One weekend his roommate’s dad visited the college. His roommate told his dad that I was hiking the AT and the guy said "wow, what a great thing to do." That made my son re-think my hiking and it was ok after that.
The point is to live your life and let others adjust to it.

Brrrb Oregon
03-16-2007, 16:32
Oregon, I think you are onto something here. In the old days, an adventure was to leave another continent to come to America and maybe never go back or leave the developed east coast and "go west young man" to discover new country and maybe never go back. The AT adventure is like a long vacation, life altering perhaps, but not a permanent relocation where everything and everyone you knew is forever in the past. We should count our blessings that we can still take such a trip and return to our loved ones when the adventure is over. Loosely paraphrasing a quote from Jurassic Park, "we go on life altering adventures not to escape life, but to live life."

I think it is so much more than a vacation. It is more like a sabbatical, and for some, like a walk-about or a spirit quest. Young men have long done these journeys which return home, but from which one can never return home.....not because home has changed, but because you will have. You bring back something that you could not have had to offer, had you stayed.

The whole point is that there is nothing material to be gained from it. It requires sacrifice without guarantee of anything you could quantify as "success." The end of the trail is like the dissertation for a doctoral candidate: it is the candidate that is truly the project. The quest is not about the destination, so much as the journey used to reach it. The journey seeps into you, becomes you--or rather is the tool by which you discover what you are--and goes with you when you leave. Once that happens, it does not matter which signposts you have passed. You have arrived, and nothing will ever take that away. If it does not happen by journey's end, well, you just have to keep looking, but you'll have picked up tools for the quest, at any rate.

Some people can never understand there. It is hard to imagine this not to be evidence of deep impoverishment, but each one has their own viewpoint.

Tin Man
03-16-2007, 17:00
Oregon, I have not thru-hiked, but I am sure the experience means everything you are saying to some. Likewise, as I think you are saying, it may mean something entirely different to others. We each gain something unique from our experiences and a thru-hike would certainly be an experience that would have deeper meaning than most other types of experiences. For me, I would hope a thru-hike would be a long vacation and not change me too much as I like who I am. I hope someday I have a chance to find out what a thru-hike really means to me, but for now I am on the 40 year plan.

emerald
03-16-2007, 17:22
I think it is so much more than a vacation. It is more like a sabbatical, and for some, like a walk-about or a spirit quest. Young men have long done these journeys which return home, but from which one can never return home.....not because home has changed, but because you will have. You bring back something that you could not have had to offer, had you stayed.

The whole point is that there is nothing material to be gained from it. It requires sacrifice without guarantee of anything you could quantify as "success." The end of the trail is like the dissertation for a doctoral candidate: it is the candidate that is truly the project. The quest is not about the destination, so much as the journey used to reach it. The journey seeps into you, becomes you--or rather is the tool by which you discover what you are--and goes with you when you leave. Once that happens, it does not matter which signposts you have passed. You have arrived, and nothing will ever take that away. If it does not happen by journey's end, well, you just have to keep looking, but you'll have picked up tools for the quest, at any rate.


That one's a keeper! Katahdin is a destination appropriate for such a journey, but, I agree, it's really more about a journey, one that shouldn't end on Baxter Peak. What remains afterwards is to take what's been learned and do something more with that transformed life to make the world that supports it a better place.

emerald
03-16-2007, 17:29
I'm not at all convinced that hiking the A.T. continuously from one terminus to the other in a single direction is an ideal which should be sought or even desired by every A.T. hiker. If hiking the A.T. is really about the journey, there is more than one way to get there and the journey will be different for each person.

For some, the journey isn't even about hiking oneself but rather providing opportunities for others to enjoy. Much can be learned though these efforts, there is fellowship to be enjoyed and a sense of satisfaction in knowing there are others who benefit from one's efforts. Sort of like cutting firewood, it's good for you, twice.

johnny quest
03-16-2007, 17:58
get new friends.

Brrrb Oregon
03-16-2007, 19:25
Oregon, I have not thru-hiked, but I am sure the experience means everything you are saying to some. Likewise, as I think you are saying, it may mean something entirely different to others. We each gain something unique from our experiences and a thru-hike would certainly be an experience that would have deeper meaning than most other types of experiences. For me, I would hope a thru-hike would be a long vacation and not change me too much as I like who I am. I hope someday I have a chance to find out what a thru-hike really means to me, but for now I am on the 40 year plan.

I'm not thru-hiking, either. I did the PhD, instead. There is an analogy, though. I think, too, that if you think these big journeys are about the status of it or the romance or some other tangible gain, you're on a journey to bitterness. That is especially true if you don't finish the physical trip. It is worth knowing at the outset that the most important journeys you take never turn out to be the one you started on. On the most important trips, that is practically the whole point.

Once you've done whatever is your initiating journey--and for some people, part of what defines that journey is that it is not universally approved--I think all the others you ever take have a whole new meaning. You don't feel a need to explain them, anymore. You'd like people to understand, but after going through it once, you come to the realization that not everyone will. The truth is, I think it is as true of law school as it is of thruhiking the AT. You just have a different set of naysayers, and a different set of people who find their journey in it with you.

One thing I would caution, though: whether you're going to grad school or thru-hiking the AT or writing a novel or whatever inexplicable journey you are drawn to, you may find part-way through that this is not your journey. It can be very difficult to disengage from that and decide what to make of it, especially since the journey poses its discouragements and difficulties for everybody, especially since it offers unique rewards and a unique circle of fellow travellers, and especially if you have the significant people in your life having a big stake in whether you find what you set out for--for or against.

Maybe it is graduate school, and you decide that, oh well, it's a job, or "this isn't it, but I finish what I start", and yet still have that journey in you that you need to do even after you have the sheepskin in hand. You finish, but still have to go out looking for that heart's journey. Maybe you take the master's degree, though, and set out in a different direction right away. Both are OK. If the AT doesn't turn out to be the turning-point journey that someone had felt it would be, maybe they bail, maybe they finish. Once you're done mourning "Plan A", though, you gotta remember that there will be another day and another direction. You have no one to apologize to, including yourself. All those directions are profoundly acceptable.

The day we got married, the priest told us that nobody who really knew what they were getting into would have the courage to do it. There is something to that. Or, as I once heard about show-jumpers: you just throw your heart over the fence. The horse comes after. Life is like that....so just hike the hike. Whatever it is for you, set out on that big journey. No matter what happens, you won't come back the same. The person in the mirror, even when you hardly recognize him, will be able to smile back at you, and wink.

Someone once said that prayer is taking the mind deep into the heart in order to meet God. If you're not theistic, you might say discernment is taking the mind into the heart to face reality. In either case, if your mind and your heart look straight at the biggest reality they can find and say, "This is the trip"....then I say, young fella, get your boots on. That's all you need to know.

Brrrb Oregon
03-16-2007, 19:32
get new friends.

Better yet...be yourself, keep your integrity, and if they don't like it, let them find a new friend.

KellyZ
03-23-2007, 12:58
I just gave notice a week and a day ago. I have two weeks left of work, and then my husband (Knees) and I are going off to thru-hike the AT.

The last 8 days have been an eye-opener in terms of watching people's reactions. As one person (who Gets It) said to me today, "Some people live in the box. They have no openings in the box, can't see outside of it, and like it that way. Some people live in the box, but have openings in the box. They can wave to things outside the box, but they'll stay in the box, anyway. Other people jump outside of the box and can't wait to explore what's out there. You're moving outside the box, and it will be the best thing you'll ever do for yourself."

It's tough to choose to turn your back on what "society" says you should do. At least, it is until you realize that doing what you say you should do is the way to happiness.

I'm not on the trail yet, but my heart and my dreams are there right now. Whatever the Trail throws at me, I'll find a way to handle it. If determination, perseverance, and a lot of walking are crazy, then sign me up!

bfitz
03-29-2007, 00:38
Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something...

warraghiyagey
03-29-2007, 01:17
Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something...

Brought to you by Annie Lenox:)

Texasgirl
04-03-2007, 23:44
How do you guys explain the woods time?

What is accomplished by explaining your decision. Key word: "your". (disclaimer, I've not hiked the AT, but done just enough alone hiking, backpacking and trail running to hear similar comments. I figure I don't have to justify these decisions to the naysayers and timids of the world)

wolf
04-08-2007, 15:55
Ok, I’m doing Springer to Harpers Ferry starting next week then sectioning the remaining 500 - 600 miles I have left this summer with plans to finish at Katahdin late July. I have gotten so much crap from people because they think I’m wasting my time, risking my life or just plain a loser for wanting to “walk in the woods”. How do you guys explain the woods time and am I really loopy for liking the solitude and consistency of the mountains?

they are envey of you

superman
04-08-2007, 16:36
If you just relax and accept that you're crazy you will be liberated to do any crazy thing you want to. If you keep resisting the obvious you'll just be all conflicted. Crazy is not such a bad thing...it's not like "insane" or some other heavy duty labels. When you accept that you're crazy you are free to do crazy stuff.
When each of my sons were old enough I took them sky diving with me. I taught them both how to ride my motorcycle. I've spent some significant range time with them also. I've done all kinds of crazy stuff so if I am what I do I must be crazy.
It wasn't until I went to hike the AT that my older son took it as proof that I'd slipped off the edge of sanity. His opinion changed when his roommate's dad said that it was a great thing to do. Other people will either adjust to what you do or they won't but that's their issue...not yours.
If you wait for the approval of the world you will live a very dull life.

trlhiker
04-08-2007, 18:48
I have never gotten any flac from my family as far as backpacking but co-workers have. But these are the same ones who either will spend hundreds of dollers to go to NASCAR and get so wasted they don't know who won or the go sit in a tree stand all day in 30* weather to shot a deer. I usually just ignore them because I know how much I enjoy being on the trail even if it is just for the weekend.

quicktoez
04-16-2007, 10:21
They may think I'm crazy but I,m almost 200 m in and loving it. Boo to all who don't get it.
TY all for you coments and see you on the trail.
Quicktoez

wolf
04-16-2007, 19:29
all i can say is go for it,i do get it, i know were you r coming from good luck,i will be on trail in sept in n.y to mass.:sun

SGT Rock
04-16-2007, 19:31
Just do it. Most times people express why they wouldn't do something - usually out of ignorance, when they say stuff like this. I think this probably applies to many endevours in life. I mean after all, there are some folks that spend all their life going to malls and think that is fun. At least I went to a mall once and know it wasn't LOL.

wolf
04-16-2007, 19:35
:cool: right on sgt

BigwaveDave
04-19-2007, 14:05
Quicktoez,
I got the same reaction from my neighbors and friends, I'm prepping//practicing for next spring. They think I'm nuts humping a 50 lb. pack through the woods and up and down sand dunes just for fun. I asked a couple of them if they would like to give it a go. The answers were basically the same, everyone is in a hurry to make a living, they smoke to much, way over weight, drink to excess and are stressed beyond the limits. I don't know what they're waiting for but I think life's to short, there's to many trails to hike and to much to see, but its they're choice and to hike is ours. Bottom line is who cares what they think, you're doing something good for yourself and will experiance things they never will and your not hurting a soul while doing it. I'll step down from my soapbox now.