For those of you who have repeated...

[4shot]

your thru hikes, can you describe the difference (if any) between the first trip and the other(s)? I find myself thinking more and more about another walk up to Maine sometime in the near future.

While I realize that there all sorts of other long trails in the world besides the AT to walk on, logistically this one makes things a lot easier than the others so I need to rule other hikes out for the time being. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Spirit Walker]

I went back to the AT for a second hike just to see if it was really as good as I remembered. In my case, it was better the second time around. I knew what to expect. I knew what I was capable of doing. There was no fear that I couldn't finish. I knew I could, I just had to figure out how to make it the best hike possible. For me, that meant trying to do things a bit different - taking different routes, staying at different shelters, trying out different towns. Obviously, the people I was hiking with were completely different. If I were to do it again, I'd go a different direction. We did that on the CDT - did one hike northbound and one southbound. It makes for a really different experience, but still there as the familiarity of being in country I knew and loved.

After doing the AT twice, I was more than ready to move on to new challenges. There is so much out there to discover, it is worth dealing with the logistics in order to explore new territory. The Western mountains are a very different experience and really worth the effort.

[garlic08]

My AT partner, Pickle, hiked it the second time with me. It was interesting hearing his perspective on a repeat hike, which was much the same as Spirit Walker's, especially the mental part about knowing he could do it. He also hiked it as a fund raiser, raising well over $15,000 for medical research. He said that really contributed to the experience. He had also hiked the PCT and CDT before repeating the AT, so his is a different story. His second hike bore little resemblance to the first. The Western hikes completely changed his style, gear, and approach to hiking.

[Moose2001]

I totally agree with everything both Spirit Walker and Garlic have said. I've done a long section, 1300 miles, on the AT and three complete thrus. I've also done a thru on the PCT. Each of my hikes were totally different. So many things make each hike special. The weather, the people, the things that happen are always different. My third AT hike was the year after I did the PCT. Hiking east or west are totally different but still enjoyable. If you have the urge to hike, do it. We only get so many chances in life. Pick the hike that your heart says to do and enjoy life on the trail.

[Different Socks]

Since I did my first thru in 1992, and i have heard that many things have changed or been added/taken from the vicinity of the trail, I am anticipating that my next effort(in 2 years) will be considerably different(especially when off trail). But I am looking forward to it.

[CrumbSnatcher]

4 completions of the AT.
to me, it got better everytime!
my hiking partner was a big ole black dog, and the green tunnel was the best place for us to be :-)

[Papa D]

This may not be what you are looking for but I'm working on re-hiking the whole trail. So, far, I've got just short of 850 miles re-hiked. The trail has been re-routed in several places and we have transitioned to larger and more roomy shelters, more mountain tops and less road walks, but being on the trail is essentially the same. What is not the same is the convenience of towns and re-supplies. When I went thru, we had no internet, smart phones, and gas stations sold gas (not mac and cheese and wine) - mail drops were actually more or less necessary - this past year, I've just powered up my phone on several occasions to call a hostel or inn and they have sent someone to the trailhead to pick me up - this never happened in the 80s - it was always a mystery partially assisted by other hikers, shelter journals, and how good a hitch hiker you were - overall communications and convenience stores have changed the way people hike the trail more than the trail has actually physically changed. I miss the challenges of obtaining re-supply and getting to towns (it's still a trick sometimes) - it's different now but still ok.

[Jack Tarlin]

This is a good thread. Interested people might want to check out the thread in the "Articles" section of Whiteblaze called "What would you do differently?" Some good stuff there.