View Full Version : So what's bad?
Okay guys (and gals) this is my first night on this site. I'm retiring two years from next March. I'm planning early and have yet to run across anyone other than my wife who is trying to talk me out of a thru hike. I use to be a long distance runner (many years ago) and am still in pretty good shape for my age. Everything I've read on these pages has a positive upbeat tone to it and I like that. I would like some of you to relate some of the drawbacks and pitfalls that you have experienced. Since I'm reading that there is more than a 75% dropout rate I know it can't be all a rose garden with terrific views.
How about it folks, talk me out of it. :sun
Many "successful" through hikers end up depressed and aren't right physically or psychologically for months afterwards.
You are apt to get Springer Fever each Spring for any number of years thereafter. Some give in, find it addictive and have little or no desire to hike other trails.
You might find yourself frequenting this website at all hours when anyone else would be making better use of his time. Worse still, you may realize it, but feel powerless to do anything about it.
Quit now, before you are drawn in any deeper.
Thank you. I just got a membership in the ATC a couple of weeks ago and have ordered several books including the one you mentioned. Hasn't arrived yet though.
Glad I could help. Go to bed and get some rest now.:)
If you wake up still unconvinced in the morning, play a round of golf instead. Do not type the URL for this website or click on it whatever you do.:eek:
Not Sunshine
11-27-2009, 04:09
i haven't thru hiked. but i do know that it RAINs out there. lots.
Okay, yeah I'm already crazy so the physco part won't work on me. As for going to bed: I've worked swing shift for over 40 years and the last three years on afternoon shift so this is just the evening for me. Rain? Come on, it rains whether you are on the trail or at home. Never rains on the golf course though. I think I like this site but you guys can do better. Come on, what is so bad about the trail? I've read about mice in the shelters, wierdos with guns, snakes, bugs, ticks, bears, dried up springs, blow downs, shoulder high underbrush, rock ledges, but I still think the worst part hasn't been written about. There must be something I'm missing or everyone would walk 2000 plus miles just because " It was there"
They do sell Scotch along the trail don't they?
Okay, yeah I'm already crazy so the physco part won't work on me. As for going to bed: I've worked swing shift for over 40 years and the last three years on afternoon shift so this is just the evening for me. Rain? Come on, it rains whether you are on the trail or at home. Never rains on the golf course though. I think I like this site but you guys can do better. Come on, what is so bad about the trail? I've read about mice in the shelters, wierdos with guns, snakes, bugs, ticks, bears, dried up springs, blow downs, shoulder high underbrush, rock ledges, but I still think the worst part hasn't been written about. There must be something I'm missing or everyone would walk 2000 plus miles just because " It was there"
They do sell Scotch along the trail don't they? The difficult can be done immediately. The impossible take a little longer.
Okay, you guys win for tonight. I'm going to bed. Hopefully tomorrow some of the really tough guys that have actually done something impressive will log on and smite me with their factual credentials. Until then "Old Smuggler" isn't that bad for a cheap Scotch. I'll log back tomorrow.
I'm only a section hiker, but in answer to your question. And ONLY because you asked,,,, it really isn't that bad:
A long distance hike soon becomes almost a job. Instead of focusing on a specific assigned job, you focus on FOOD & miles. The food is the pay the miles are the "Job".
Sleeping in late is a dream. True, you don't have to "punch the clock" every morning, but you do need to make a minimum of daily miles so, , ,
As mentioned above, it will rain, sometimes sideways,,,,, for days. EVERYTHING you own will be wet.
The bugs (at times) will be relentless.
After 5 days of going straight up & straight down, & you come to a section that is Worse (or seems so) your brain will short circuit. :datz
Places you didn't know you had will hurt.
That is the short list. IMHO all of the above are less than 20% of a hike, but while they are happening it will seem like 120%. A LD hike is mostly a mental exercise after the first 2 - 3 weeks.
I was going to put something profound here, but my brain has shut down & I can't remember what it was, so you make something up. :p
harryfred
11-27-2009, 10:41
I have not thru hiked nor do I see that as a possibility in the near future I do hike a lot I'm out every chance I get for as long as I can. I do get to talk to a lot of thru hikers as well as fellow section hikers. The truth is after a while you don't just endure the being wet, cold, hungry, the bugs, snakes, bears and assorted other critters, The puds and muds, poorly marked or maintained trails, rocks the list goes on. You actually enjoy it. At that point forget the weird people to sorta quote Bearpaw you are the weird person:eek:.
Scotch is hard to damn near impossible to get from the trail in PA:mad: but if you run across a fat guy with a lot of home made , repaired and miss matched gear. That is a little over the edge. He usually carries enough to share:D.
Nothing is bad, its walking in the mountains! I suppose that the only bad thing that can possibly occur is that reality doesn't meet expectations (and apparently this happens a lot). However, if the expectation is to find out what reality is, and appreciate it for what it is, then again, what can be bad about walking in the mountains?
whatever you do, do NOT start making your own alcohol stoves... you will be in for a lifetime addiction, small children will shun you and call you a weirdo, you wife will disown you when you are seen picking cans from the neighbor's garbage, and your hands may never grow hair again. :D
For some people, it's mismatched expectations --- not ready for actual conditions. For others, it's specific physical ailments --- mostly foot issues. Later on it can just get to be a grind --- you're out there becauuse in theory you want to be, but you no longer really want to --- you're just grinding it out because you said you would do it, or something along that line.
I don't see a real downside to trying it and deciding along the way that it isn't for you. The upsides are significant; one downside I guess is just now working out with my wife for me to be gone for several months at a time for a next-trip experience ... !
One minor downside is post-trip physical (and indeed perhaps mental/emotionalal) stuff. I just had foot surgery for a prbolemm that cropped up in 2008, but I'l be trying the AT early next year ---- worth it. Like others I lost a lot of weight and then gained it all back again when I was home; I'[m sure I'll lose it all again next year. Hopefully this won't become a weird sort of slow motion yo-yo diet!
Bottom line: go for it, see how you like it.
What can be bad about walking in the mountains?
You could fall to your death, be struck by lightening, bitten by a venomous snake, get hypothermia or heat stroke. I mention only a few of the many possibilities.
:datz
Some people don't make good hiking companions. It's best for everyone involved when such persons remain in their houses as much as possible.
Okay guys (and gals) this is my first night on this site. I'm retiring two years from next March. I'm planning early and have yet to run across anyone other than my wife who is trying to talk me out of a thru hike. I use to be a long distance runner (many years ago) and am still in pretty good shape for my age. Everything I've read on these pages has a positive upbeat tone to it and I like that. I would like some of you to relate some of the drawbacks and pitfalls that you have experienced. Since I'm reading that there is more than a 75% dropout rate I know it can't be all a rose garden with terrific views.
How about it folks, talk me out of it. :sun
don't know anything at all about talking you out of it, but the problems i had were all psychological. i'm a loner and don't really like being around people, but even i got lonely. not necessarily for somebody to actually talk to, but because i was used to seeing somebody else on a day-to-day basis. you really just have to rearrange your thinking or you'll force yourself off the trail. plus sometimes, like normal, you just have a bad day, but when you're tired, a piece of gear breaks, and you're ill as hell, the answer can sometimes seem like going home. you can sike yourself out if you don't stop and realize that yeah, you're having a crappy day, but it could be worse. you could be at home.
Slo-go'en
11-27-2009, 12:11
Trying to get through PA/NJ/NY in 90 degree heat and 80% humidity. One day in PA, it was so hot and humid, even the rocks were sweating!
Trying to get through PA/NJ/NY in 90 degree heat and 80% humidity. One day in PA, it was so hot and humid, even the rocks were sweating!
or just come down south for a couple months and you won't even notice it..:p
Schuetzen
11-27-2009, 12:42
Slo-go'en:
Sounds like a cool low humidly day in Houston.
Jester2000
11-27-2009, 13:41
People quit for any number of reasons. I think people quit early on because of reality not matching their expectations, as others have mentioned. This can be overcome by recognizing that whatever trail you've got going on inside your head isn't the AT. It's also a good idea to do a shorter trail first, such as the Long Trail, or a 2 week section of the AT.
People do quit farther north because they run out of money or because of injury. But I think more people quit just because they lose focus on what they set out to accomplish, or they come to the realization that thru-hiking can be a grind, the hiking starts to feel like a job, and they're not seeing the rewards.
As Kanga mentioned, there will be crappy days. When a series of crappy days happens, a lot of people figure it's not fun anymore, they're not getting paid to do it, and they go home.
This happens a lot in Virginia.
But as Kanga also mentions, recognizing that being at home doesn't eliminate crappy days can go a long way towards keeping you on the trail.
So if you don't mind weeks on end of rain (and believe me, there's a big difference between lots of rain when you're at home or on a weekend trip and lots of rain when you're thru-hiking), pain that seems to move around to different parts of your body, sore feet much of the time, constant hunger, and the boredom that can set in after more than 100 days on the trail, you'll be fine.
But chaffing really, really, sucks.
Okay, yeah I'm already crazy so the physco part won't work on me. As for going to bed: I've worked swing shift for over 40 years and the last three years on afternoon shift so this is just the evening for me. Rain? Come on, it rains whether you are on the trail or at home. Never rains on the golf course though. I think I like this site but you guys can do better. Come on, what is so bad about the trail? I've read about mice in the shelters, wierdos with guns, snakes, bugs, ticks, bears, dried up springs, blow downs, shoulder high underbrush, rock ledges, but I still think the worst part hasn't been written about. There must be something I'm missing or everyone would walk 2000 plus miles just because " It was there"
They do sell Scotch along the trail don't they?
I've been section hiking the AT since the 1980s. Believe me, it's the rain. Even after a week of wet feet you can get blisters where you never had them before. At home you can change into dry clothing. On the AT (or LT, for that matter, which I completed in sections in 2000) you will eventually reach a point where none of your clothes are completely dry. Your socks will fall victim to the perpetual soggies first and if you're lucky, they won't take your little piggies with them.
There's the mental aspect of the rain, too. If you're a shelter user (I was at one time) and you arrive at a shelter and it's chuck full and you have to go set up your tent in the mud for the 6th time in 10 days you'll get a new appreciation for the term "depressed".
Then there's the heat - which brings out the bugs (spiders and ticks seem to have a special interest in my skin. Mosquitoes and blackflies, too). Some days you'll dread leaving your tent to face them. Again, it doesn't happen in a long weekend. It wears on you.
You have to really LOVE hiking to continue doing it, in my case, for a couple of weeks in a row (I could keep on going, but I haven't retired yet).
The old adage is "No rain, no pain, no Maine". I believe that. For some would be thruhikers there reaches a point where Maine is no longer worth the rain and the pain.
Btw: I suggest a large tarp and a nice hammock to keep your fanny out of the mud and giving you a sitting space on rainy days (that rules out hammocks with attached bug netting). If you guy the netting away from the sides of the hammock you'll be able to sit without the bugs chewing on you.
Red Beard
11-27-2009, 14:30
I work in a tiny cubicle, speak to people over instant message and email all day, and am so badly bored with my job, I intend to quit working in the industry altogether after my thru-hike is complete. I guess when it gets bad on the trail, I'll just have to remember I could always come back to a 6 x 6 space, stare at an LCD screen all day, and deal with morons who drive up my blood pressure. Somehow being all wet for two weeks doesn't seem so bad.
I'd say the toughest part of the thru is managing expectations. How far have I gone? is a question you will ask yourself many times a day. The answer to that question can really dampen a mood if you have gone as far as you'd thought. How much more climbing until the top? is another question you will ask yourself multiple times a day. The less progress you've made to the top of the hill or mountain the harder it becomes to get there. Yeah, the rain sucks and the cold sucks and the wind really sucks and you'll get hungry and trip and fall and all that jazz, but IMO it is how you approach each day and your ability to not get pissed when things aren't as you thought they'd be that carries the day. Some days the trail will just kick your ass. If you can accept that, there are no bad parts.
Correction: "if you've NOT gone as far as you'd thought".
Lone Wolf
11-27-2009, 15:29
I would like some of you to relate some of the drawbacks and pitfalls that you have experienced. Since I'm reading that there is more than a 75% dropout rate I know it can't be all a rose garden with terrific views.
there ain't no pitfalls or drawbacks. don't overplan. don't do mail drops, have about $5grand and take about 5.5 months. it's just walkin'. really, that's all it is
How much more climbing until the top?
my first walk up sassafras. god i hate that mtn. it's small but jeez louise does it suck..
Chance09
11-27-2009, 15:55
the toughest part is the rain and knowing it's not going to stop and there is nothing you can do but embrace it. Up until you embrace it, it sucks. On my thru hike this year there was an 18 day stretch of rain. It was by far the hardest time on the trail for me.
there ain't no pitfalls or drawbacks. don't overplan. don't do mail drops, have about $5grand and take about 5.5 months. it's just walkin'. really, that's all it is
I like Lone Wolfs approach.
A lot of negitive posts are from folks who quit their thru for various reasons and therfore they want to make it sound a lot badder than it is.
Just remember..When you start a thru, it's because you want to . It's probably something that you thought about doing for some time..So go do it.
Many normal comforts have to be given up. Realize that. It won't always be fun..Realize that too. If you decide you like what you are doing..Keep doing it. If you decide you don't...Come home. You have to decide if you want to be part of the 80% or the 20%.:-?
Wow, you folks really came through for me. Now I have lots of reasons not to do it. I was planning several shorter hikes to see how I felt about it and that sounds like a must do now. My first taste of the AT will be on the N.C./Tenn border in January. Spending a week in N.C. and only doing a couple of day hikes because I don't want to take any chances on the weather. Thanks to everyone for all your candid replys.
How about it folks, talk me out of it. :sun
The last line of the opening post appears above. Some of you need to work at it a bit harder if we have any hope of succeeding. Keep it coming!
Cookerhiker
11-27-2009, 16:25
I've completed the Trail but am "only" a section hiker with my longest stretch at a time a mere 302 miles. But now and then I think of a possible future thruhike. When doing so, I think of cons that pertain to me:
Rain - yes, it's dreary
Heat, humidity, and bugs of the Mid-Atlantic. If hiking NOBO starting in early March, you reach the low elevations and humidity of the Mid-Atlantic (PA,NJ,NY,CT) in mid-summer at their muggiest and buggiest worst.
Conversely if hiking southbound, the black flies encountered by starting mid or late June in Maine. They're not an issue if hiking northbound unless you start in January/February and hike big mileage.
Getting my knees battered on the descents
Rockfields which BTW are not limited to PA. Virtually every state has them. One of the worst I experienced was in Central Virginia (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=92493).
Getting tired of trail food.
You notice I didn't mention cold weather or tough uphills. I figure I can deal with them but it doesn't always make for a comfortable hike.
I like Lone Wolfs approach.
A lot of negitive posts are from folks who quit their thru for various reasons and therfore they want to make it sound a lot badder than it is.
Just remember..When you start a thru, it's because you want to . It's probably something that you thought about doing for some time..So go do it.
Many normal comforts have to be given up. Realize that. It won't always be fun..Realize that too. If you decide you like what you are doing..Keep doing it. If you decide you don't...Come home. You have to decide if you want to be part of the 80% or the 20%.:-?
yes, all those posts are horribly negative. well read, troll.
paradoxb3
11-28-2009, 00:31
I also have not thru-hiked yet. I've always liked this guy's description of the trail... he seems to sum it up pretty well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKC7_mChDOw
superman
11-28-2009, 00:55
Okay guys (and gals) this is my first night on this site. I'm retiring two years from next March. I'm planning early and have yet to run across anyone other than my wife who is trying to talk me out of a thru hike. I use to be a long distance runner (many years ago) and am still in pretty good shape for my age. Everything I've read on these pages has a positive upbeat tone to it and I like that. I would like some of you to relate some of the drawbacks and pitfalls that you have experienced. Since I'm reading that there is more than a 75% dropout rate I know it can't be all a rose garden with terrific views.
How about it folks, talk me out of it. :sun
Hiking the AT is delightfully life expanding. Instead of working with boneheads for money, you can hike with boneheads for nothing. Instead of other people telling you that you are nuts for hiking the AT you may be telling yourself. If you drop out of hiking the AT the rate of what other people do becomes irrelevant. If you keep going you can hug a tree every day. Bear in mind that the people you didn't like at work have twins who will be sharing shelters with you on the AT. :cool:
stranger
11-28-2009, 01:15
I've never thru-hiked but made a couple of attempts, what I've come to realize is that although I love long distance hiking, somewhere around mile 500-600 I start losing interest.
Years ago this really bothered me, but now I just accept it and keep doing 500+ mile trips every few years.
I have alot of friends that have thru-hiked, some multiple times, and some have done the triple crown. They all seem to struggle with the fact that when you are on the hike, you are in a hiking community and it's an amazing experience. But once you are done, no one really cares, and those who do don't seem to understand what it takes to be out there week after week anyway.
I might imagine this would be frustrating.
Some of the people I know can't stop hiking, because it becomes who they are, and they really don't have anything else. I love long distance hiking but I have other loves as well, equally important, if not more important, so for me leaving the trail, although sad, just means starting another interesting part of my life.
For some people I know, they get off the trail and count the days til the next thru-hiking season...and some of them don't seem all that happy.
But for most of us...hiking long distances along the AT is an amazing expereince.