Confessions of a wannabee Thru hkr.

[Doctari]

I have come to the realization that I will most likely never get to do a thru hike. This is a (mostly) financial “thing” I can retire in about 16 years, so the soonest I could do a thru is in 17 years. To do so, I would have to save about $160.00* a pay period from now till then. Yes, I could do that, but it would mean: NO recreation, at all. No more hiking until the start of the thru. No more Renaissance festival, not even as a patron. No Internet. No cable. Etc.
I think I could do it, but it would be a strain on the family. And, I guess I could put in lots of overtime, but I think I would rather be drug naked through a salt mine than do that :-)

So, what have you given up, or not to do a thru hike?
Have you ever said: “I could do it if only __________.”
As W/F says: the only way to do a thru is if it is the most important thing in your life. Perhaps a bit drastic, but after prematurely ending a few section hikes because I was homesick, and being with a few thru hikers when they bailed, I feel this just about hits it on the head.

So, for now anyway, I am a “Sectionist” I have been averaging about 80 miles or so a year for the past 6 or 7 years. With a few missed years in there. So I should be at Harpers Ferry in about 16 years, just in time to retire :D

* Gots to leave enough for the wife to live on, SSI aint enough.

[Lone Wolf]

Doctari. Thru-hiking is WAY overrated. MOST who attempt it never make it. Sectioning is the way the AT was intended to be hiked. Keep doing it the way you are.

[attroll]

Doctari

I have the same issues here on my end that you have right now. I am 45 and I am not financially able to do a thru-hike any time soon. I am retired from the military but my retirement check makes my house payment. So I still have to work to pay all other bills. I have a family to support also. The last kid leaves the house in 5 years (I hope). But I have to have a goal. My goal is to do my thru-hike in the year 2010. With this in mind here is what I am going to do. Figuring that is will cost me at least $3,000 to do a thru-hike and I will need 6 months worth of bills to be paid while I am doing my thru-hike.

Starting in April of 2004 I am going to start and putting away $25 a week into a saving account that I will not touch until 2010.

This should get me up to $12,000 dollars buy the year 2010. Minus my $3,000 for the thru-hike leaves me $9,000 for the payment of bills and supporting my wife during the six months. Don’t know if that will cover my bills exactly. But I think I should be alright (fingers crossed). Now in 2010 I will be 51 years old. That worries me also. But many others have done it older then I will be.

I will not be at retirement age because I will only be 51. My job will not give me any leave of absence or any sabbatical leave. So I am going to have to give my notice. This is really scary, because I will not have a job to come back to. But this is something I really want to do. If I have to I will work at McDonalds wiping tables when I get done. LOL.



Well this is just my plans. Maybe it will give you some food for thought or you can just laugh at my plan. It does not matter to me. The worst case scenario is that if I can not do the thru-hike in 2010 I will have $12,000 to spend.

[Skyline]

I agree with Lone Wolf, you can have a great experience section-hiking, and you don't have to put off your dreams until the next decade. Maybe, just maybe, you can find a way to do more than 80 miles some of those years too.

I've met a bunch of thru-hikers who made it all the way and many have said if they had it to do over again they'd section hike. Not all, but many--a majority (of those I've met) for sure. There is certainly a kind of romanticism about a five or six month unbroken journey in the mountains and woods but there are also benefits to section hiking--like having new trail and new experiences to look forward to each year.

This has been discussed before at ALDHA's Gathering and at other times hikers get together--even on the Trail itself. There seems to be a consensus that it's more difficult physically and logistically for the section hiker, but more difficult mentally/emotionally for the thru-hiker. As the journey does tend to become more of a mental/emotional challenge anyway, thru-hikers have my utmost respect but I don't think I'd want to be one...section hiking worked fine for me and it "only" took eight years.

[TedB]

As I think you have discovered, planning for a thru hike requires some tough choices. In some cases it might not be worth it, although I believe if the desire is strong enough, you will find a way to make it happen. You seem to think there are only two choices: 80 miles at a time or 2000 miles at a time. That isn't true. There is a third choice which is more than 80 but less than 2000. It can be a chance to get a taste of long distance hiking without committing to a full thru hike of the AT. In my opinion, six weeks on the trail is long enough to really get into the rhythm of trail life. You'll get your hiking legs, you can grow a beard, you get to enjoy some comraderie and you'll probably experience some culture shock when you return home. In other words long enough for a truely memorable trip.

[Doctari]

I did 170 miles this year it was great!!

Yes, looks like section hiking is a good way, i just hate getting off the trail. Yet I seem to always get off early, Homesickness gets ahold of me and, off the trail I go.

My theory is, once I'm on the trail for a long enough time, I'll just stay there :-)

And attroll: I do not laugh at your plan, I applaud it!

Only wish I had the courage to do something like that. My youngest turns 18 In Feb. If ,,,,,,, (ran out of thought here)

Perhaps, something will change in the next few years. In the mean time, I will continue to plod north, one week long trip at a time.

Doctari.

[splinterfinger]

I've section hiked Springer to Davenport Gap over the years, but I still have that thru hike planned for 2015. I'll be 61. Lot's of people do it when they retire - who says the kids have to have all the fun!

Don't get discouraged - there is no constant in life except change.

splinterfinger

[alpine]

with drawn

[steve hiker]

This problem is common. In addition to finances obstacles, rare is the person over 30 who does not have ties that make a 6 month thru-hike difficult or impossible. I would love to do a thru and would be able to save enough within a year, but the woman in my life would not appreciate me taking off for six months. So choices have to be made. And section hiking, even in small sections, looks like a good compromise.

There also seems to be advantages in section hiking that you don't have with a thru. For instance, I would avoid the miserable heat and humidity of midsummer, and do a lot of sections in the fall. (Yeah I know, summer's part of the 'trail experience,' but I hate hiking in tropical steam and being eaten alive by bugs.) Also, you'd have a brand new stretch of trail each year, instead of the whole thing being over in one year.

If you can do a thru-hike, consider yourself lucky and do it while you have the opportunity. If not, the trail is grand any way you hike it. HYOH.