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Plodderman
12-01-2008, 14:41
I have backpacked and hiked consistently for over 30 years. How many years have you put in?

Lyle
12-01-2008, 15:01
Took my first backpacking trip in 1976, five nights in the Smokies with my college roommates. Have been hooked ever since.

All my life before that I spent many hours walking and "messing around" in the woods - grew up in the country, never called it hiking tho'. :D

Lone Wolf
12-01-2008, 15:05
since 81 when i did an outward bound trip in colorado

Sly
12-01-2008, 15:16
Except for a few trips in my teens, the last 11 years.

rafe
12-01-2008, 15:23
"Serious" hiking (Adirondacks, White Mountains and such) since early/mid-1970s.

Marta
12-01-2008, 15:28
Wow...I'll have to think about this. I've pretty much lost count. Interesting question.

Footslogger
12-01-2008, 15:28
Went on my first real backpacking trip when I was 11 and I was hooked. Allowing for a few years when my kids were young I've been hiking and backpacking pretty consistently ever since. If I had to put a number on it I would probably say around years.

'Slogger

KG4FAM
12-01-2008, 15:32
I think my first backpacking trip was Panther creek in Ga probably around age 11. Camping and day hiking since I was too little to remember

Feral Bill
12-01-2008, 15:53
Forty four years. The last 39 with my trusty SVEA.

Blissful
12-01-2008, 16:01
Hiked since I was a kid. Backpacked off and on (more off than on) since mid twenties. Love it now in my forties.

buff_jeff
12-01-2008, 16:09
About 2 years now.

Kerosene
12-01-2008, 16:17
Let's see...35 years since I backpacked the AT from DWG to Unionville as a 15-yo sophomore in high school (April 1973). Add another 4 years of hiking/camping in Boy Scouts.

jhick
12-01-2008, 16:25
I got into hiking while camping as a kid. In the late 80's I did a bunch of hiking in PA, some in New Mexico and a little in Maine. When I got married I didn't get out much, but thats not a problem anymore... ;)

Slo-go'en
12-01-2008, 16:26
Humm, the records show October 1979 to Camals Hump, so 30 years. First long distance hike (Long Trail) in 1983.

Lilred
12-01-2008, 16:38
First time I put a backpack on was Nov. of 2003. Hiked from Neel Gap to Deep Gap N.C., mostly by myself. Been hooked ever since.

Tipi Walter
12-01-2008, 17:12
Started hiking early and backpacking a few years later.

Fotogs:
Early courtship of Miss Nature by a five year old, yours truly, Little Fungus, Colorado 1955
Texas backpacking gear-up with Yucca pack, 1963

Mags
12-01-2008, 17:16
Only 12 yrs...but I made up for lost time quickly. :sun

OldStormcrow
12-01-2008, 17:17
Cub Scout camping/backpacking in Germany in the early 60's, Webelos (sp.?) in the mid to late 60's, Boy Scouts in the early 70's, on my own and with friends ever since.

Toolshed
12-01-2008, 17:18
for a few years in the early 80's when I got out of the Army, then dropped out of hiking until 89 and have been a backpacking fanatic since.

Many Walks
12-01-2008, 17:21
Wow, this question took me down memory lane. 40 years if I count the heavy gear I carried in the USMC in CA & Viet Nam. After that I was all over central and southern CA. Then I went to the Midwest hiking parks and preserves, along the Mississippi, and the Superior trail. Now I'm hiking all over Northern CA. I have to say the most memorable civilian hike is the AT. It was a love/hate relationship, on parts of it I swore I'd never do it again, but now that the pain has subsided it's all nothing but good memories. I'm starting to get the urge to do it again someday, but the Tahoe Rim is next and the PCT thru is after that, with lots of other trails filling in between.

Quoddy
12-01-2008, 17:25
My first overnight hike was 57 years ago, but I consider my serious hiking really started when I did my first AT section (NE Pa and W NJ) 54 years ago.

Bearpaw
12-01-2008, 17:47
26 years ago this past weekend. Scouting backpack trip to Mammoth Cave National Park, Thanksgiving weekend, 1982.

warren doyle
12-01-2008, 17:56
Forty years.

Ender
12-01-2008, 17:59
Since I was a boy scout, 24 years ago.

Footslogger
12-01-2008, 18:04
Only 12 yrs...but I made up for lost time quickly. :sun

==============================

Yes you have, Sir !!

'Slogger

No Belay
12-01-2008, 18:42
More than 10 years. I did several 20 milers in the 60's with my local Girl Scout troop. In 71 I quit high school, ran away from home, and hiked almost 1700 miles of the AT before I was caught by a NH fire warden. He loaded me on a bus and sent me back to the farm in Ohio with a letter that my folks were suppose to return to him on my arrival. He advised me that if he didn't get that letter back in 2 weeks that he would put me on the federal wanted persons list and my life would be ruined. Being 17 and naive as a virgin blond, I believed every word he said. I even went with my dad to post office to make sure it got mailed. I've been hiker trash ever since .... and I still keep my eye on that federal wanted persons list. You never know.

TaTonka

Lellers
12-01-2008, 18:50
Wow. Let's see. I turn 47 the day after Christmas. I assume I learned to walk about age 1. I had 6 older siblings and cousins and we lived on the edge of some woods. I can't remember a time when I wasn't walking on a trail. Even as kids we'd go and sleep in the woods and out in the corn fields of NJ in the summers. Our families camped together, and I have pictures of me out in the woods when I was a toddler. I do, however, remember clearly when I learned about the AT. I was maybe 7 or so and my family went camping in SNP and stayed at Lewis Mountain campground for a week. I remember meeting a guy who looked like a hobo who told us about the little trail we were walking on and how it went all the way from Georgia to Maine. I don't know if I even knew where Georgia and Maine were. But I do remember that my mom was completely freaked out when she heard we ran into someone in the woods and actually talked to him. "He might have killed you! There's crazy people on the trails! Don't you dare do that again." LOL!

Bare Bear
12-01-2008, 18:52
Serious hiking since age 19 in 1971 so nearly half my life or about 40 years so far with forty to go.

rafe
12-01-2008, 18:58
Serious hiking since age 19 in 1971 so nearly half my life or about 40 years so far with forty to go.

You're expecting to get to 96? Just curious.

rootball
12-01-2008, 19:25
I started in 75 when I got my first pack, bag and tent for Christmas. I had been once before I got my gear and borrowed a canvas rucksack, canvas pup tent with wood poles and stakes. My first trip was brutal, but I got better gear and kept going. We went year round in the troop I was in. I have been hiking ever since.

TJ aka Teej
12-01-2008, 19:37
My first solo backpack trips were Caratunk to Gorham and Monson to Baxter in '73, but my Dad took me out on multi-night trips starting in '66 when I was about ten.

clamb-1
12-01-2008, 19:37
Been Hiking since I was a little tike...Lets just say it's a way of life for me.

rickb
12-01-2008, 19:41
Not sure, but 25 years ago today I finished my SOBO. That was a good day.

Caveman of Ohio
12-01-2008, 19:47
My thru hike was the first time that I ever backpacked. It was the best time of my life.

sticks&stones
12-01-2008, 19:53
since 81 when I hiked Maine with an outdoor group, nothing as posh as outward bound, but the economy version of the uninsured same.

Cookerhiker
12-01-2008, 20:00
Started day-hiking as an early teenager and joined the Green Mountain Club's New York Section (now defunct) at age 21. First backpacking trip was in 1977 and I struggled - I'm in much better shape now despite having turned 60.

Tinker
12-01-2008, 20:10
I did my first overnighter in 1975, I think. Lots of dayhikes before that.

buff_jeff
12-01-2008, 20:13
My thru hike was the first time that I ever backpacked. It was the best time of my life.

haha, I started backpacking in 2007, too. Looks like we're the noobs on here. :banana

shelterbuilder
12-01-2008, 21:51
Since 1973. Heavy equipment, heavy clothes, heavy food - but the load's gotten a lot lighter since then.:D

I was hooked since that first day hike through the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and down to Eckville via the AT in Pa.

FatMan
12-01-2008, 22:03
Been hiking since I was a wee tot. Got my first backpack when I was nine or ten. Stopped in my early 20's started up again when my kids were 8 & 10. So probably about 25-30 years.

handlebar
12-01-2008, 22:23
38 yrs. My wife and I did the Belly River Loop in Glacier NP on our honeymoon in 1970---then recovered at the Chateau Lake Louise in Canadian Rockies :sun which may explain how it is that we are still married. Crazy heavy gear, cook fires, camping in unapproved locations, but we had gorgeous weather. That was BC, before children.

When my three girls got old enough I started back into backpacking around 1992 with decent gear. Went to Mt. Robson. Since then many, many trips with the girls.

Since I retired in 2005, my plan has been to do a lot of backpacking. Thus the AT in 06 and PCT in 08. My wife can no longer backpack due to an injury, so I've hooked up with a group of 30-something singles for trips.

weary
12-01-2008, 23:22
I don't remember the hike, but my parents insisted that I climbed the Imp in the White Mountains at age four. If they were right, I've been hiking for 75 years. What eventually became six siblings (It took a while for all of us to get born) spent 8-10 weeks annually camped in the Whites starting in the late 1920s. Three of us are still at it. The other three have switched to golf. Such is life.

I drifted out of serious hiking for a few years in the late 40's but resumed in the early 60s and continue hiking and occasionally backpacking to this day.

WEary

Bare Bear
12-01-2008, 23:30
You're expecting to get to 96? Just curious.

Hell no. I will live to be 105 but I figure to stop hiking the last few years to save my energy for women.

Bearpaw
12-01-2008, 23:33
Hell no. I will live to be 105 but I figure to stop hiking the last few years to save my energy for women.

Bare Bear, you are my new idol! :banana:D

JAK
12-01-2008, 23:37
I've hiked and cross-country skiid 30 years now, but never too seriously.
It's just in the past 5 years that I've gotten more questioning about marketing crap.

Bare Bear
12-01-2008, 23:40
Bare Bear, you are my new idol! :banana:D

Aw shucks us Tn boys got to stick together. Oliver Springs the spring of 1952, the whole town shook.

JAK
12-01-2008, 23:41
Too cynical perhaps. That's part of it. I don't mind being a Cynic, but I would rather not be cynical.

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

Serial 07
12-01-2008, 23:43
my first real hiking was last year...day hiked, camped...but never combined the two to any real extent...though i had the bug...now that bug has become a fever... :)

Feral Bill
12-01-2008, 23:57
Hell no. I will live to be 105 but I figure to stop hiking the last few years to save my energy for women.

Sounds like a plan to me.

George
12-02-2008, 01:19
32 yr less 12 when first married

Ron Haven
12-02-2008, 01:54
Plodderman this is a good thread.I was around 16yrs old when I went on my first hike and I soon will be 51.I have hike some every year since then.Although I started in the woods with great grandparents ramp digging,hunting and looking for ginsang earlier than that.Sadly to me,I have never done the whole AT. :o Some day some way I would love too.

I love the story of Jack Ritter which is the mayor of Mechanicsburg,Pa.He just finished the trail in July 2008 while I was on vacation up in Kansas I think.He said it took him 21yrs=100 miles or so a year.I had the pleasure of doing some of the trail with him.He became a great and cherished friend.I hope to do the rest of the AT some day.:)

Serial 07
12-02-2008, 02:12
ronny, i would definitely like to be apart of that hike :) ...i've seen some of the mischief you can get into... ;)

The Mechanical Man
12-02-2008, 02:23
I started hiking mountain trails in the late 60's, and early 70's while looking for good hunting spots here in Pa.
Backpacking with my wife Linda, "The Crayon Lady", started in the late 70's.
We moved in near the AT at Smith Gap Pa. in 1989, after hiking a few more states, ...........see your thru-hiker handbook for more information

It goes on and on, and gets even better. :sun

HikerRanky
12-02-2008, 03:01
My first hike was in Cub Scouts back in 1968... My first backpacking trip was in 1972 with the Boy Scouts to a section of the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi. I kept active at it until 1989... The highlight was my trip to Charlie's Bunion in June 1987...I had a sabbatical between 1989 and 1994... Once I got back into it, my wife and I would take day hikes and we even spent 9 days in Cades Cove in a 2 man Eureka tent, with a big air mattress and sleeping bags.... Since then, I have been REALLY getting back into it. I've done quite a few overnight trips in the Smoky Mountains, in prep for some sectioning in 2009!

JAK
12-02-2008, 03:32
In Port Cartier where I was born I was told I once ran out the backdoor naked across the deep snow as my mother was hanging out clothes. She had to post hole after me and I made it a few houses down. That would have been 1964. I was 1.5 years old.

Ron Haven
12-02-2008, 03:46
Plodderman this is a good thread.I was around 16yrs old when I went on my first hike and I soon will be 51.I have hike some every year since then.Although I started in the woods with great grandparents ramp digging,hunting and looking for ginsang earlier than that.Sadly to me,I have never done the whole AT. :o Some day some way I would love too.

I love the story of Jack Ritter which is the mayor of Mechanicsburg,Pa.He just finished the trail in July 2008 while I was on vacation up in Kansas I think.He said it took him 21yrs=100 miles or so a year.I had the pleasure of doing some of the trail with him.He became a great and cherished friend.I hope to do the rest of the AT some day.:)we could get JAK in on this.All he ever done was run from them deep tides.

JAK
12-02-2008, 05:03
Yes indeed. Time and tide wait for no man.

Old Hillwalker
12-02-2008, 09:47
My first overnight solo was in 1954 as a fourteen year old. It was up Mt Major next to Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. I lived near the woods and mountains and my parents didn't see any problem with my tramping all over the mountains alone. Since I had fairly intense Attention Deficit Disorder (never called it that in those days) it was a Godsend to them since the woods would offer less distractions to me than civilization and it was my medication. Nowadays approaching 70 I still prefer to bushwhack and hike alone much of the time.

My kids fully expect me to die in the woods. OK with me. If I carry a big trash bag and a toe tag I wonder if I would have the time to get inside the bag if I feel a "Code" coming on. Wearing a toe tag in preparation is hard on socks however.

A couple of years ago I discovered Appalachian Trail Corridor Monitoring. Being out there on the AT boundary in a bushwhack mode is precisely what I need in my life.

http://www.atcboundary.blogspot.com/

TomWc
12-02-2008, 10:18
I grew up in Ohio, but my parents were from New York City, and NOT into the outdoors. I was completely the opposite and asked for a tent for my 7th birthday. I started backpacking and dayhiking with the boyscouts, then took up canoe tripping and then sail camping for my twenties and early thirties. About 8 years ago I got a gregory reality and loaded all my canoe (heavy) camping gear into it. I lugged that a couple of weekends a year, thinking that I was too old for this crap, then about two years ago I learned about lightening up cheaply and that got me going more often. Dropping 12 pounds of pack weight was a revelation!

My son started on canoe and sail weekends with me as soon as he was out of diapers. He's 7 tomorrow and has come on many of my hiking trips. We don't do many miles, but we sure have fun.

Plodderman
12-02-2008, 10:18
Thanks Ron Haven, it is good to go down memory lane once in a while. It is pretty cool that so many have so many years in backpacking. I am hooked on backpacking.

earlyriser26
12-02-2008, 11:01
40 years ago someone suggested we go backpacking. At first I thought he was crazy. I have hiked every since. I still remember the traffic in NY from Woodstock as my parents drove me to Maine for one of my early hikes.

rampli
12-02-2008, 11:38
Did some backpacking as a Boy Scout in the 70's but lapsed into relative inactivity until this year.

Been making up for lost time though. http://dugzhikes.shutterfly.com

Lyle
12-02-2008, 11:48
I think another question would be interesting too. How many people thru hike, then never hike again?

Unfortunately, they probably aren't here to answer.

Anyone have any guesses?

GoldenBear
12-02-2008, 13:40
My earliest memory of hiking was at Badlands National Monument (yes, that it was back then) in 1962.

twoshoes06
12-02-2008, 13:51
I have lived in the "woods" almost all 28 years of my life, but seriously backpacking since I was 16. What would that be? 12 years, and just in those 12 years I am amazed at how much technology has changed. I can't imagine being a backpacker for 30 years or longer and seeing all this new technology.

twoshoes06
12-02-2008, 13:53
I think another question would be interesting too. How many people thru hike, then never hike again?

Unfortunately, they probably aren't here to answer.

Anyone have any guesses?


I thru-hiked in 2006 and didn't see another trail (other than a short day hike here and there) for a year. I am starting to get the bug to get out again, mainly because I have forgotten about the blisters and the rain.

I am now planning another thru-hike of somewhere other than the A.T.

In my experience though, I know quite a few thru-hikers that decide to not see a trail again for a long long time. I think it is common not to hike for a while after a thru-hike.

kanga
12-02-2008, 13:57
since i was about 5

Gray Blazer
12-02-2008, 15:11
since 81 when i did an outward bound trip in colorado


Did you get to drive the covered wagon?

Lone Wolf
12-02-2008, 15:12
huh? don't get it

Gray Blazer
12-02-2008, 15:15
huh? don't get it
Must be a different Outward Bound. Never mind.

Lone Wolf
12-02-2008, 15:21
Must be a different Outward Bound. Never mind.

i did this one http://www.outwardbound.org/index.cfm/do/exp.course_detail/courseID/169

Gray Blazer
12-02-2008, 15:26
i did this one http://www.outwardbound.org/index.cfm/do/exp.course_detail/courseID/169

Looks pretty cool. There used to be groups of Juvy boys that would walk up the backroads of FL and a lot of them would walk, some ride horses and they had a chuck wagon. I think they referred to their trek as Outward Bound.

b.c.
12-02-2008, 15:59
My first backpacking trip started on June 6, 1979. My uncle dropped me off on the Appalachian Trail at Route 23 in MA. I was 22 years-old and he was 52. This coming June 6 we will re-enact at the 30th anniversary. Now I am 52 and my uncle, still in great shape, will be 82!!!

JDCool1
12-02-2008, 16:03
55 years. first hike was at Philmont Scout Ranch. Since then, numerous trips of a few days to a few weeks. Primarily in national parks in the west.

mudhead
12-02-2008, 16:37
Before there were kid carriers, there were woven picnic baskets.

Cathedral Trail at 8 or 9. Acadia before that. Out the back door during. Maine. Hard to avoid. Even "city" folk hike.

Big break in between to practice barstool shining.

Anyone remember Spreadables? Gag.

Lyle
12-02-2008, 16:39
What would that be? 12 years, and just in those 12 years I am amazed at how much technology has changed. I can't imagine being a backpacker for 30 years or longer and seeing all this new technology.

Yeah, you whippersnappers have no idea how good you have it! :D

Course, same could be said of me, if compared to the 50's. But you are right, the ultralight revolution has truly been remarkable. I still carry the same plastic mug I did in 1980. Oh, and the same P38, but that's about it.

Plodderman
12-02-2008, 16:49
I am still very much old school but man the new stuff and light but the greatest thing for me has been the shirts and shorts that whisk away the water. There is always something new to buy but I like what I have and just keep fixing my pack. Planning on going form Springer to Fontana this May to celebrate my 50th birthday.

Lion King
12-02-2008, 17:13
10 Years this year.

Life has been better for it too.

Red Hat
12-02-2008, 18:22
My first real hike was at age 7 with the Girl Scouts (Brownies). It was short, probably only a mile or so, but led to a love of hiking and many longer hikes. So I guess I have been hiking for 54 years. That's a lot of hiking! After reading the whole thread: Weary has me beat, of course, as does Quoddy, and JDCool. Hillwalker and I started about the same time, but I was 7 years younger.

Speer Carrier
12-02-2008, 18:35
Went on my first hike with my cousin and a few friends in 1947. 61 years ago

Plodderman
12-03-2008, 19:18
So many trails so little time. 30 yearsof trails and haven't made a dent.

weary
12-03-2008, 19:47
So many trails so little time. 30 yearsof trails and haven't made a dent.
Nor have I -- even after 75 years of trying. My advice is to just hike the trails that strike you as interesting. Leave the rest for the next world, if it comes.

Weary

johnnybgood
12-03-2008, 19:50
Great question! It makes one think hard - ouch !!....not used to thinkin' hard. My early camping experiences as a wee little shaver hiking down to the camp store from Loft Mountain and back with my parents was my first account I remember. I didn't really do serious hiking until my late tweentys.

Phreak
12-03-2008, 19:53
33 years (first hike was in 1975)

Marta
12-03-2008, 21:01
I dimly remember doing a little hiking and camping at Camp Arcadia in the summer of 1960 (I was five years old, the youngest camper at the place), and few excursions at Girl Scout camp over the next few years. At home I mostly played in the woods--not really hiking, but just messing around, making believe and building stuff out of sticks and stones and leaves and moss.

The bug really bit in 1966 when my father took my (whiny, little, 9-year-old) brother and me on an overnight backpacking trip near The Flume. We went up the AT, spent the night in a hut that I think is now Liberty Spring Tentsite, and walked down into The Flume.

Doctari
12-03-2008, 21:30
Hiking all my life, lots of all day "day hikes". As far back as I can remember, & I remember my brother comming home from the hospital the first time, so: at least 52 years.
Dreamin about a thru on the AT: 45 years.
Backpacking 11 years.

Wolfclan
12-04-2008, 07:39
I did day hikes from the time I was a young boy. More importantly to me was the time I spent out in the woods playing as a child. It inspired me to see more, and to do that I had to go or walk in the woods. 1978 was the year of my thru hike and it still has a powerful impact on me.

Plodderman
12-04-2008, 09:57
weary (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/member.php?u=1955) 75 years of trying hope I am still trying after that many years.

yappy
12-04-2008, 10:07
I can remember tooling around STT... hiking the steep, green hills and hiding in the mango trees. That island in the 70s was a wild, growing place...full of secrets to find and scramble. Not anymore... I did'nt really hike a stateside trail til the 89 hike of the AT. Wow, what a difference !

celt
12-05-2008, 09:13
I started hiking the NH 4000 footers under my own power in 1974 and soon after I was going on overnight trips with my dad. I seriously took up solo hiking and backpacking in 1988.

rlharris
12-06-2008, 11:30
If one ignores tramping around the woods near home, I've been day-hiking since 1952 or 1953. My first 4000 footer was Mount Osceola (which I revisited this past summer). Most of the hikes have been in the White Mountains. The exception has been the AT from Bear Mountain Bridge through the first section in Connecticut while I was living on Long Island (and of course the Greenbelts on Long Island).

Mrs Baggins
12-06-2008, 12:53
Just day hiking - since elementary school, so I guess since I was about 10. Didn't put a pack on until 2002. So that's 42 yrs of hiking and 6 years of backpacking. I had a 4th grade teacher that climbed Mt. Whitney and backpacked the whole John Muir Trail and would show us pictures of her trip. She seemed like the most adventurous woman I'd ever met and I always wanted to give backpacking a try - just took me alot of years to get there.

Josh
12-06-2008, 20:54
My Dad took me on my first overnight hike when I was 6 or 7 years old on the AT above Bristol, TN and I have been carrying my own pack since I was 10. So I would have to guess 44 years.

blackbird04217
12-06-2008, 22:03
Well if like everyone else I ignore walking through the woods, I would say I haven't truly started hiking yet. Sure I've been up a few summits in Maine, and camped a lot, but this year is where it all gets serious. Get to Springer Mountain, put a backpack of supplies on my back and one foot in front of the other. Repeating over and over :D Can't wait!

CrumbSnatcher
12-06-2008, 23:16
98' approach trail,was my(and beardogs) first hiking/backpacking trip

bigmac_in
12-06-2008, 23:30
Learned to walk before I was 1 yr. old.

sheepdog
12-06-2008, 23:41
My brother and I used to fill up old canvas packs with pork and beans and sleeping bags when we were about 9-10 years old. We then would sleep in the woods about 2 blocks away. Does that count?

Skyline
12-06-2008, 23:46
About 17 years. It was a factor in my choosing to relocate close to Shenandoah National Park. First hit some trails when I came here as a tourist. Got hooked, liked the area, and moved--all within about six months.

weary
12-06-2008, 23:53
My brother and I used to fill up old canvas packs with pork and beans and sleeping bags when we were about 9-10 years old. We then would sleep in the woods about 2 blocks away. Does that count?
It should. And we would be a wiser country if more kids did the same today.

Weary

Tin Man
12-07-2008, 02:17
55 years. first hike was at Philmont Scout Ranch. Since then, numerous trips of a few days to a few weeks. Primarily in national parks in the west.

I started wondering in the woods on family camping trips at the highly impressionable age of 4, then joined the boy scouts primarily to hike and camp. It was the Philmont slide show on recruiting night that hooked me. I came in dead last on my first backpack/scout trip at age 11, sniveling the whole way under the weight of my canvas backpack and canned "food". But, I stuck it out and did 50 miles at Philmont at age 14. Did another 50-miler a year later. Car-camped/day-hiked in my 20's and started backpacking again at 30, some AT, but mostly 'dacks until 2001 when I started section-hiking the AT. Presently focused on converting my sons' car camping scout troop into a backpack/hiking troop.

Tin Man
12-07-2008, 02:33
I don't think about it much any more, but I try to get as much walking into every day life. While everyone is driving up to the closest spot to a building (and some actually bragging about the great spot they got), I park at the far end and walk. While everyone is crowding into an elevator, I take the stairs. While everyone is focused on sitting around, I walk around.

Egads
12-07-2008, 06:56
I've hiked & camped all my life, but started backpacking just 3 years ago.

Plodderman
12-14-2008, 10:12
Ran into a guy in the Grayson Highlands who was in his 70's and his wife drops him off of for day hikes and he logs in with the rangers as to where he is going so they will know where to look if he has a problem. Man that is how I want to go.

ScottP
12-16-2008, 00:22
six or seven

Plodderman
12-30-2008, 21:49
Seems like many hikers once they get the bug do a good job of getting in the woods reguarly.

stumpknocker
12-30-2008, 22:37
I just found this thread and scanned through the pages. Seems like a lot of you have been backpacking a long time!!

I'm fairly new at it. My first time carrying a backpack was in December of 2001. It was almost dark when I got to the trailhead and I almost went and got a motel room. I had no idea what I was in for that night.

I faced my fears and walked north from Dick's Creek Gap in Geaorgia to Plumorchard Shelter. Got there just after dark. Met Hippie Longstockings...the only other hiker around.

I still remember the uneasy feeling of walking off into the woods with only a little daylight left. I have to smile about it now because it's so natural to walk into the woods whether it's day or night.

I didn't know it then, but Hippie and I would end up walking a lot of miles together on the Trail in other years. ( I knew I should have gotten a motel) Ha!! :)

bwb49
12-31-2008, 09:49
My first backpacking trip was in 1966 while I was in boy scouts. First trip was into Linville Gorge in the spring, followed by a section trip on the AT in December 1966. This was followed by a long break until 1993 when I started backpacing again with my sons in boy scouts. Been at ever since. I don't get to do it enough though. I will be retiring in about 2 years and plan on hiking a lot more after that :sun

BackTrack1
12-31-2008, 11:38
I backpacked as a kid , and camped all my life, i didnt start backpacking again until about 6 yrs ago when i became single again.
now i get out quite often

Summit
01-01-2009, 12:12
First hike was in 1973 from Dick's Creek, GA north for about 35 miles. There have been a few years here and there that I didn't get in a hike, but have resumed with fervor the last three years . . . overall, over 35 years. Making a living and family responsibilities have not allowed me to do a thru-hike. Longest single hike was 300 miles on the PCT in 1977. There have been too many 100+ mile ones to keep track of.

Plodderman
01-08-2009, 14:18
Hiking becomes a habit and that habit has lasted over 30 years.