View Full Version : How long before second hike?
Toward the end of my hike I ran into two hikers doing their second hike, although for them it was PCT+AT. Anyway, they mentioned to me that thru hiking isn't a one time thing, but something that gets in your blood and that eventually it will be time to do it again. Well 5 years have passed so far and it seems like a long time since my thru hike. Maybe too long, I'm not sure. So how long did it take you before you scratched the itch?
Lone Wolf
06-20-2004, 22:31
Got off the AT in September of 86 and was back at Springer Mtn. March of 87.
Pencil Pusher
06-21-2004, 02:33
Got off the AT in September of 86 and was back at Springer Mtn. March of 87.Was there any hiking involved?:p
Lone Wolf
06-21-2004, 07:51
Yes dear, lots.
Spirit Walker
06-21-2004, 09:36
When I finished my first hike, I said, "That was good, but I don't need to do it again." But the following spring, Springer Fever hit. I would think about the trail, remember vividly certain places and moments, and soon started thinking, "Maybe I will go back someday." At the two year mark, I wanted to go back, but didn't have the money, so I hiked the JMT. Two years after that I had the money, and desperately wanted to go back to "see if the AT was as good as I remembered." I had started a new 'dream job' so didn't think it would be possible - but when that didn't work out, I was happy to quit and get back on the AT. Sure enough, it was great.
After that hike, I knew I was really hooked. I started buying PCT guidebooks. But again, I had no money. (I work as a secretary.) I moved east, started a new life with my AT partner, went through a couple of moves, and several financial and job ups and downs and saved as much money as we could. Seven years after my second hike, my husband and I went out to the CDT. We had had to wait an extra year because of job commitments, so we were able to save enough to do a back to back hike - CDT and PCT. It would have been better in some ways if we had waited a little longer between the hikes. I think we would have appreciated the PCT more if it had not come immediately after the more beautiful and challenging CDT. It doesn't take a lot of time in the city before we are anxious to be out on the trail again - but four months wasn't really enough time for our bodies to recuperate from the long miles. We started the PCT tired and it took a while to really get our enthusiasm for the hike back.
When we finished the PCT, we were happy to go back east and settle down for a while, buy a house, work in the garden, play with the grandchildren, etc. but about two years later, we started making plans for our next long hike. This time it will be six years between hikes. That will give us time to save enough money to cover the mortgage while we're hiking. It feels like a very long time, but it is the most sensible way to deal with our two lives - the trail life and the mundane one.
If I could, I would hike every other year or do a long hike one year and a short (one or two month hike) the next. But I am not independently wealthy. I have to work for a living. It has sometimes been hard getting a job with the various gaps in my resume as it is. Working four or five years helps me look somewhat responsible - even as I make my plans to head out again. And we have been able to put some money into retirement accounts so that, with luck, we won't have to keep working when we're 80.
Thru hiked in 72 before career & family. The next thru hike will have to wait a few more years.
hiker dude
10-17-2004, 11:12
You don't hike, you float on. Not to much matters anymore, you heard it all before. Only a few young and dumb want to sell their egos on the A.T. You have to put one foot in front of the other and you can't camp 2 nites at the same spot. Really simple stuff. The a.t. is better than ever.:sun :sun :sun :sun :sun :sun :sun RESPECK.
Kerosene
10-17-2004, 13:02
Thru hiked in 72 before career & family. The next thru hike will have to wait a few more years.Wow, one of the few people on this board who started before me ('73), and with a thru-hike no less. Kembo, the career and family should be stable enough by now that you can get out for a week-long section hike. I suspended hiking for about 20 years for the same reasons and kick myself for making excuses and not getting back to it at some level a lot sooner.
JojoSmiley
10-29-2004, 20:32
I not only did it the second time but waited only 2 years before setting out from Key West and let me tell you. Getting to the AT was like coming home again.
Khumbu Himal, Dec. 01-Jan 02.
Springer to Damascus in May 2002.
PCT Thru hike, May-August 2003
Damascus to Manchester Center, May-June 04
GDT Thru hike, July-August 04
Yeah, I like this stuff alot. I've got a 250 mile trip lined up for the winter, which is clogging up thinking about the next summer. CDT maybe. PNT maybe. India, maybe.
fiddlehead
08-05-2005, 22:51
my first long distance hike ('77) had to end at Del. water Gap because i ran out of money. I didn't have the money or time (bought a house) again until 89. i then started hiking again and did 7 thru hikes in the next 12 years + lots of international travel. The hiking desire was always there but i had bills. I will never go into debt again. It keeps you from doing the things you love.
I feel it's much more important to follow your passions than it is to have a lot of things.
Goes back to another thread..what is along hike?
As with many "repeat offenders", seems I am basing my life around the next long walk. :)
Did my first longd istance hike in 1997 (the Long Trail) as a a prep hike for the AT in 1998.
Did the AT in 1998. Did the LT again in 1999 and moved to Colorado (a big adventure in itself)
Did not do any major hikes until 2002 when I did the PCT.
Did the Colorado Trail last year (2004)..
This year no big hikes, but I am doing a solo bike tour in Italy. As I plan on not only seeing where my great-grandfather came from but also where my grandfather fought for the American army in WW2, it will be a very intensely emotional trip.
Next year? As it was four years between the AT and the PCT, seems about time for the CDT. Did a hike this weekend in the Monarch Lake area (Grand Lake). Saw all the CDT signs..I WANT TO BE OUT THERE! :)
docllamacoy
08-10-2005, 11:27
Next year? As it was four years between the AT and the PCT, seems about time for the CDT. Did a hike this weekend in the Monarch Lake area (Grand Lake). Saw all the CDT signs..I WANT TO BE OUT THERE! :)I'm feeling the same way, Mags. The trail bug is biting badly.:)
Like Mags, Doc and I thru-hiked in 1998.
It took us 4 years to get back out and thru-hike the PCT in 2002. Then we turned right around, and on a whim, decided to do the AT again in 2003. It's now been 2 years, and I'm missing the trail so much.
We're having to take a break since Doc joined the Army a year and a half ago, and now, we have a kid on the way. So, the CDT, hmmmm? Maybe in 2017.:( Maybe we'll just have to do another AT hike with the kid when he/she is 8 or 9.:rolleyes:
We're having to take a break since Doc joined the Army a year and a half ago, and now, we have a kid on the way. So, the CDT, hmmmm? Maybe in 2017.:( Maybe we'll just have to do another AT hike with the kid when he/she is 8 or 9.:rolleyes:
Woo hoo! Awesome! Many congrats!!!!!!!!!!
Be sure to tell everyone on the PCT2002 Yahoo group!
Many good memories, I tell ya:
http://gallery.backcountry.net/pmagspct02/afs
http://gallery.backcountry.net/pmagspct02/aft
http://gallery.backcountry.net/pmagspct02/afw (my favorite of the bunch)
http://gallery.backcountry.net/pmagspct02/agh