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wrongway_08
11-29-2007, 21:29
It has been about 4 months since I have told the guys/gals at work that I am leaving to hike the A.T. in March of 2008.

While the usual comments/questions from my direct co-workers are expected, for the last 3 weeks workers from other buildings of the compound have found out and ask about the thr-hike now. We have about 15 seperate buildings, not a small compound. Also, these are people I dont know at all...... its kinda cool!

While walking to a building, some one will just stop me and ask "Are you that guy thats hiking the trail next year?" Then it goes to the usual "How long will it take, what will you eat, what kinda gun/protection are you going to take, where do you sleep........ and so on" After we talk, every so often that same person wil stop by to get a 'update' of how things are going.
It has gone so far that when visiting off-sites, people ask about the hike.

While it kinda gets old being asked the same stuff over and over - its also neat that so many have takin interest in this thru-hike. One of the neatest things is the amount of support complete strangers want to give, a few have offered to give me a place to stay for a night here and there along the trail, one of my buddies from work wants me to call when I get above Harpers Ferry so he can throw a get together for 2 days (he owns a cabin a little ways from the trail)!

I have also made a lot of new friends already, its amazing how people open up when it comes to this hike! People will stop by and tell me about the vacation the just got back from, they drop me off booklets from different hiking areas, one lady I only met 2 times stopped me while working to give a vacationers guide to me - she said " I saw this while out west and thought of you" - she held on to it for over a week after getting back so I would be able to see it, it was a little raggady after all that time in her purse but I thought it was cool of her to do that.

Okay, I am done my little ramble.... :D



I have seen a few threads about the "negative" reactions from family and friends but I would like to hear about the "supportive" reactions like this that you all have had.

Frolicking Dinosaurs
11-29-2007, 21:33
He-Dino had the same reaction when he told co-workers he was going to hike after retiring in 2004.

Lone Wolf
11-29-2007, 21:34
if you fail, most of these folks won't be so supportive. best to pump one's chest and give interviews when and if you make it the whole way. never give a newspaper an interview prior to a thru-hike attempt

doggiebag
11-29-2007, 21:34
You're screwed buddy ... now you got to perform! That's great that you have such support. We'll see how you do in a week.

Jim Adams
11-29-2007, 21:43
good news?...once you start, everyone wants to help you!

bad news?.....if you fail, they all feel like you let them fail!

geek

icemanat95
11-29-2007, 22:05
good news?...once you start, everyone wants to help you!

bad news?.....if you fail, they all feel like you let them fail!

geek


Put away this talk of "failure." It's an ever loving vacation, not an Everest attempt.

However, I would also advise keeping a lower profile and don't allow the curiosity and attention to go to your head, after all, it's just a long hiking vacation; a series of week long trips that you just happen to be lucky enough to be able to string together. It ain't that big a deal.

Lone Wolf
11-29-2007, 22:08
Put away this talk of "failure." It's an ever loving vacation, not an Everest attempt.

really? it's a marathon. it's a destination not a journey. really

doggiebag
11-29-2007, 22:10
You'll be fine. I personally believe it's a grand thing to attempt. It is going to be a great adventure and I respect anyone who has completed or has given their best attempt at a thru-hike.

wrongway_08
11-29-2007, 22:17
No, its no big deal. I know it aint nothing all that. I was just tryn to get a few post on the positive reactions from people, thats all.

It is funny how many people think its a 4 month hike. It takes a little bit for some to understand its only 4 or 5 day trips following one another till it gets done.

Dont worry, to me its just a long hike, they wont get my head all swelled up:)

oldfivetango
11-29-2007, 22:26
What kind of prizes and awards do you get when its over?:D
Oldfivetango

Jim Adams
11-29-2007, 22:26
Wrongway 08,
only meant to give positive reactions...you will have a great time. I just wanted you to know that these people will feel like they are hiking the trail with you....maybe more incentive for you.

Icemanat95,
I'll bet that success rate per numbers attempted...Everest has a higher success rate than the AT.

geek

doggiebag
11-29-2007, 22:33
I would never discount a thru-hike as no big deal. It could be no big thing if you had full road support, yellow blazing and or plenty of slack packing. In that case why bother?

wrongway_08
11-29-2007, 22:35
Wrongway 08,
only meant to give positive reactions...you will have a great time. I just wanted you to know that these people will feel like they are hiking the trail with you....maybe more incentive for you.

Icemanat95,
I'll bet that success rate per numbers attempted...Everest has a higher success rate than the AT.

geek


Opps only meant to say just wanted to hear about others who have had positive responses. I know what you meant, it didnt come across wrong :)

doggiebag
11-29-2007, 22:38
What kind of prizes and awards do you get when its over?:D
Oldfivetango
I'm still trying to find out where to redeem my hard earned miles for the valuable gifts and prizes I heard about!:mad:
Let me know when you find the place. ok?

Lone Wolf
11-29-2007, 22:41
I'm still trying to find out where to redeem my hard earned miles for the valuable gifts and prizes I heard about!:mad:
Let me know when you find the place. ok?

ATC. patch and certificate. now get a job

Tin Man
11-29-2007, 22:44
I'll bet that success rate per numbers attempted...Everest has a higher success rate than the AT.

geek

death rate too

Lone Wolf
11-29-2007, 22:46
it only costs around 60 grand to do everest.

Tin Man
11-29-2007, 22:48
it only costs around 60 grand to do everest.

and nothing extra to die trying

Jan LiteShoe
11-29-2007, 22:52
It has been about 4 months since I have told the guys/gals at work that I am leaving to hike the A.T. in March of 2008.

While the usual comments/questions from my direct co-workers are expected, for the last 3 weeks workers from other buildings of the compound have found out and ask about the thr-hike now. We have about 15 seperate buildings, not a small compound. Also, these are people I dont know at all...... its kinda cool!

While walking to a building, some one will just stop me and ask "Are you that guy thats hiking the trail next year?" Then it goes to the usual "How long will it take, what will you eat, what kinda gun/protection are you going to take, where do you sleep........ and so on" After we talk, every so often that same person wil stop by to get a 'update' of how things are going.
It has gone so far that when visiting off-sites, people ask about the hike.

While it kinda gets old being asked the same stuff over and over - its also neat that so many have takin interest in this thru-hike. One of the neatest things is the amount of support complete strangers want to give, a few have offered to give me a place to stay for a night here and there along the trail, one of my buddies from work wants me to call when I get above Harpers Ferry so he can throw a get together for 2 days (he owns a cabin a little ways from the trail)!

I have also made a lot of new friends already, its amazing how people open up when it comes to this hike! People will stop by and tell me about the vacation the just got back from, they drop me off booklets from different hiking areas, one lady I only met 2 times stopped me while working to give a vacationers guide to me - she said " I saw this while out west and thought of you" - she held on to it for over a week after getting back so I would be able to see it, it was a little raggady after all that time in her purse but I thought it was cool of her to do that.

Okay, I am done my little ramble.... :D



I have seen a few threads about the "negative" reactions from family and friends but I would like to hear about the "supportive" reactions like this that you all have had.

Hey, that's great!
They are all secretly jealous, you know.
:sun
Few ever throw off routine, fear and inertia and actually start a thing they love, much less finish.
That's why they view you as a celeb. You are stepping out of the box, and they want to.
:)

doggiebag
11-29-2007, 22:52
and nothing extra to die trying
Plenty of challenges on this continent.

wrongway_08
11-29-2007, 22:57
I would never discount a thru-hike as no big deal. It could be no big thing if you had full road support, yellow blazing and or plenty of slack packing. In that case why bother?

Have to stop posting when I am tired :) . By no big deal I meant the way "non hikers" talk about it, they seem to think this hike is a 5 month surviving in the woods on your own - making clothes outta dead animals - eating bugs for breakfast ordeal.

As far as a personal mental challenge, one of the biggest deals most will go through. Not having family around every day, my dog not around, leaving the job, starting over from scratch when getting back, not being able to sit back on my arse and watch TV to kill time, getting hurt and having to leave the trail. I would say the trail itself is a big deal for each hiker but not a big deal as in the way others (non-hikers) see it.

Lone Wolf
11-29-2007, 22:58
I would say the trail itself is a big deal for each hiker but not a big deal as in the way others (non-hikers) see it.

that is correct

doggiebag
11-29-2007, 23:00
Wait a minute ... you mean I didn't have to wear that dead possum?
Dang.

icemanat95
11-29-2007, 23:05
really? it's a marathon. it's a destination not a journey. really

It's only a destination if you are stuck on the goal. But it really is the journey after all. The destination means nothing without the journey leading to it.

Katahdin is just another nice mountain without the journey, but if the journey is drudgery and every step a torture and regret, then katahdin becomes a hateful thing, and anchor dragging the hiker through the seven levels of hell. I knew a hiker who was fixed only on putting a notch in his belt. he hated the trip.

People who leave the trail do so in most cases, simply because it is no longer that important to them anymore compared to their other concerns, pains, homesickness, etc. It's no failure to abandon a goal that no longer means that much to you.

icemanat95
11-29-2007, 23:29
Wrongway 08,
only meant to give positive reactions...you will have a great time. I just wanted you to know that these people will feel like they are hiking the trail with you....maybe more incentive for you.

Icemanat95,
I'll bet that success rate per numbers attempted...Everest has a higher success rate than the AT.

geek

Here are some Everest stats and myths: http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=16554

The success rate is pretty bloody low for Everest attempts, and they count summiters who reach the top and die during the descent as successes. About 2% of summiters die on the descent...that sucks. People over 60 seem to die at a somewhat higher rate as do younger hikers...The older succumbing to age-related issues while the younger to the usual delusions of invulnerability.

Everest attempts are every bit as much endurance efforts as are thru-hikes. The need to establish successively higher camps and acclimate to the killing lack of oxygen and atmospheric pressure. It takes months to move supplies up to basecamp and then up to the higher camps, then up and down running ropes and getting used to the altitude, waiting for weather, etc.

Of course for every person who dies on the mountain, probably twenty or thirty suffer debilitating injury from frostbite, or lung damage from High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, or neural damage from High Altitude Cerebral Edema, as well as broken bones and other crippling injuries. Heart attacks are not uncommon either, nor sudden attacks of asthma and whatever other hidden maladies a person might have been waiting for a weakness before expressing themselves. Things that are quite rare on the AT.

Also take into account the fact that in general, the level of technical skill and experience among those attempting an Everest, or even harder, a K2 attempt, are FAR beyond those found on the AT. The success rate on Everest is a meager 1 in maybe 5 or 6 out of a pretty darned elite field. AT thru-hikers, by and large, are novices with little backpacking experiences and they still get knocked out at a similar rate.

Lets keep things in perspective.

Mags
11-30-2007, 01:30
Just smile and say "Thanks for the good wishes". Living for X mos doing what you want is something very few people care to do. And that is why I think people are so curious about your journey.


IT does not matter how hard or easy something may be, just do it for the joy!

I'm envious of you! Have a blast!

Frolicking Dinosaurs
11-30-2007, 09:56
if you fail, most of these folks won't be so supportive. best to pump one's chest and give interviews when and if you make it the whole way. never give a newspaper an interview prior to a thru-hike attempt
good news?...once you start, everyone wants to help you!....bad news?.....if you fail, they all feel like you let them fail!
I just wanted you to know that these people will feel like they are hiking the trail with you....maybe more incentive for you.Lot of good insight here. The Dinos had planned to do an extended section hike beginning in Septempter of 2004. On August 6th of that year, we were involved a serious head-on collusion that left she-dino seriously injured (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=202410#post202410). Many of the people who knew of our plan - he-dino's coworkers, people at church, people among our friends and family - took the disruption to our plans personally. The phenomenon is real.

yappy
11-30-2007, 10:13
The interesting thing is the 1st time they find it intrigueing... the 2nd or going on to the Pct etc they find bewildering and sometimes suspicious at least they do with me. My family doesn't understand why I do the hikes and doesn't ask a question or show much interest. They did at first though... and I still get a box from my sister ...:) I have long since figured out that I do it cuz I LOVE it and I know that, for me, it is way more then a " vacation " I yearn for that way of life when I am not on a hike...not with an all emcompassing ..life destroying passion..but like I have a delicious secret. Cracked a code I guess of what I value and what makes me sinfully fullfilled.

Mags
11-30-2007, 10:56
The interesting thing is the 1st time they find it intrigueing... the 2nd or going on to the Pct etc they find bewildering and sometimes suspicious at least they do with me. .


Heh....

In my family, most of the cousins have married by the time they are 24 or so. Have their first children within 2 yrs.

Poor Mom is wondering when she is going to get HER grandchildren. ;)

Whenever I go on another walk, she just throws up her hands (metaphoricaly speaking) and wonders when I'll settle down. At this point, her hopes are on the two younger brothers...

In any case, remember what Steinbeck wrote "Once a bums, always a bum"

After doing the AT, you just may be ruined as well. It is a wonderful way to be ruined, but be prepared - most people will not understand it!

Jim Adams
11-30-2007, 10:57
Here are some Everest stats and myths: http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=16554

The success rate is pretty bloody low for Everest attempts, and they count summiters who reach the top and die during the descent as successes. About 2% of summiters die on the descent...that sucks. People over 60 seem to die at a somewhat higher rate as do younger hikers...The older succumbing to age-related issues while the younger to the usual delusions of invulnerability.

Everest attempts are every bit as much endurance efforts as are thru-hikes. The need to establish successively higher camps and acclimate to the killing lack of oxygen and atmospheric pressure. It takes months to move supplies up to basecamp and then up to the higher camps, then up and down running ropes and getting used to the altitude, waiting for weather, etc.

Of course for every person who dies on the mountain, probably twenty or thirty suffer debilitating injury from frostbite, or lung damage from High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, or neural damage from High Altitude Cerebral Edema, as well as broken bones and other crippling injuries. Heart attacks are not uncommon either, nor sudden attacks of asthma and whatever other hidden maladies a person might have been waiting for a weakness before expressing themselves. Things that are quite rare on the AT.

Also take into account the fact that in general, the level of technical skill and experience among those attempting an Everest, or even harder, a K2 attempt, are FAR beyond those found on the AT. The success rate on Everest is a meager 1 in maybe 5 or 6 out of a pretty darned elite field. AT thru-hikers, by and large, are novices with little backpacking experiences and they still get knocked out at a similar rate.

Lets keep things in perspective.

EXACTLY! That is what I was talking about.
Do you think the thru hiking ratio is better than 1 in 5 or 6?:-?

geek

maxNcathy
11-30-2007, 11:17
Good luck, Wrongway08.
Enjoy,enjoy,enjoy,njoy,joy,njy,................... ...ENJOY! Katahdin!!!.

4eyedbuzzard
11-30-2007, 14:26
EXACTLY! That is what I was talking about.
Do you think the thru hiking ratio is better than 1 in 5 or 6?:-?

geek

The success rate on Everest for climbers on commercial and private expeditions is, in recent years, about 1 in 3, far above even the most generous estimates of success rates of thru-hikers. Everest attracts a lot less tire-kickers than the AT.

But as you note, it's also just not a good comparison. Someone with absolutely NO backpacking experience can start at Springer and learn enough along the way to get up Katadin - and without putting their or other's lives in danger. The same simply can't be said of 8000 meter mountaineering.

For many reasons, accessibility, (lack of) skill level requirements, the modest money required, and the perceived romantic appeal of living simply in the woods and hiking from Georgia to Maine, the AT thru-hike attracts a lot of potential participants looking for a goal completion experience. Given the quickly realized reality that there is no real reward or recognition beyond the hike itself(that, basically, no one else cares), most simply seem to figure out that hiking day-in day-out for weeks and months on end just isn't as much fun as they thought.

DuctTape
12-01-2007, 02:25
It has been about 4 months since I have told the guys/gals at work that I am leaving to hike the A.T. in March of 2008.

"How long will it take, what will you eat, what kinda gun/protection are you going to take, where do you sleep........ and so on"...While it kinda gets old being asked the same stuff over and over

hahahahahahahaha

already? you poor thing.