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Datto
10-22-2012, 20:18
People who are currently contemplating an Appalachian Trail thru-hike for 2013 will be having questions about thru-hiking so I offer the following to those members of the Class of 2013 who are lurkers -- others can add to the list if they feel the urge:


Datto's List Of Top Ten Likely Benefits From Completing Your Appalachian Trail Thru-hike


10) You'll likely meet some of the best people you will meet in your lifetime -- some of those people may become life-long close friends

9) You'll likely see, on a regular basis during your AT thru-hike, some of the most stark raving beautiful scenery that you'll ever see in your lifetime -- I consider that a big bang into the benefits category that you'll bank from living fully on your AT thru-hike

8) You'll likely be in the best physical shape you'll ever be in throughout the rest of your lifetime -- aerobically as well as from a percentage body fat ratio

7) You'll likely save a ton of money during the subsequent five years after completing your AT thru-hike because the time you'll spend on the Trail will teach you how little it takes to make you happy -- you won't make near as many frivolous expenditures each month and that will save you tons of money over the long haul

6) You'll likely have a supreme level of confidence in yourself for the rest of your life -- actions or everyday challenges that would have seemed more daunting to you before your AT thru-hike won't seem to be that big of a deal after you complete an AT thru-hike

5) You'll likely have the most positive of attitudes about life and your lot in it when you finish your AT thru-hike

4) You'll likely have such warm and enjoyable experiences during your AT thru-hike you'll regularly be thinking fondly of your AT thru-hike on most days after your thru-hike -- even a decade after you complete your AT thru-hike -- what other activity can you do where you'll be thinking so fondly about it on a regular basis a decade later?

3) You'll likely treasure the time you spent completing your AT thru-hike and you can't imagine having spent that time doing anything else

2) You'll likely have even more passion for life that you may ponder the thought of taking on even more great challenges and adventures after completing your AT thru-hike

1) You'll likely experience the most peace you've ever had or will ever have in your entire lifetime during your AT thru-hike


Datto

dink
10-22-2012, 21:08
Nice , very nice!!!

camojack
10-23-2012, 04:06
How's "dat" toe? ;)

Hairbear
10-23-2012, 05:57
good post thx .....

buzz48843
10-23-2012, 07:26
What an inspiration! Thanks from a 2013 thru-hiker!!

Infinity

T-Rx
10-23-2012, 08:40
Great post! Thanks.

ATMountainTime
10-23-2012, 09:02
Not JUST on a thru hike, but this happens almost every day on the AT. I met some REALLY neat people near springer yesterday. Even gave a couple a lift from Springer to Amicalola falls because she bad sprained her ankle.

To me it's just a magical place. Im not sure what it is, but it feels different on the AT than any other trail.

rusty bumper
10-23-2012, 10:27
Very well said...thanks.

Dogwood
10-23-2012, 11:53
Completing a thru-hike is simply one of the most healthiest and empowering things you can do in life.

Good stuff Datto.

Absolutely, right on.

It's AMAZING what happens when humans take charge of their lives, gather themselves up, think and behave outside of the box and their present comfort zones, and start experiencing life on a level where they achieve their potential. Life was meant to be experienced in the moment second by second at a continuous miraculous level. Thru-hiking or being a member of "the Tribe" can be a vehicle to achieve that potential. It's why I keep thru-hiking.

fredmugs
10-23-2012, 13:51
Great post! Other than #1 those things also apply to the time I spent in the Marine Corps. It's a great investment in yourself that pays lifelong dividends.

Tipi Walter
10-23-2012, 14:57
Not JUST on a thru hike, but this happens almost every day on the AT. I met some REALLY neat people near springer yesterday. Even gave a couple a lift from Springer to Amicalola falls because she bad sprained her ankle.

To me it's just a magical place. Im not sure what it is, but it feels different on the AT than any other trail.

I agree these things happen on general backpacking trips and not JUST on a thruhike of the AT. I believe the AT feels different because it has a long history of illustrious individuals (Elmer Onstott and Dorothy Laker come to mind) and is for the most part a very cleared and opened path helping to make backpacking much easier. Many many trails in the Southeast and elsewhere are wild struggles with blowdowns and briars so be thankful the AT is so maintained and blazed.

A couple years ago the happiest people I've seen in a long time were backpacking the AT. This last year they were some of the most miserable and unhappy I've seen and in a crazy competitive hurry. Who knows why?

My hike of the AT and my time on it I see as a tiny fraction of a lifetime of bag nights. Peace, passion, joy, beautiful scenery, physical shape, positive attitudes---all these continue on other trails and in other woods and can come from any and all other backpacking trips---the AT is just a sliver of the whole. "ThruHiking the AT" could be an ambitious goal of a type A personality and when finished all backpacking and camping is finished too. I'm most interested in finding the people who treat their bag nights on the AT as just a fraction of their overall life pursuit of bag nights.

chief
10-23-2012, 15:33
Tipi has a "life pursuit of bag nights" and Datto is in "thru-hike la la land". I suspect everyone else will be somewhere in the middle. Those who don't complete a thru-hike (like me) will probably go on with life and choose to be happy anyway.

rickb
10-23-2012, 20:54
[QUOTE=Datto;1351900]8) You'll likely be in the best physical shape you'll ever be in throughout the rest of your lifetime -- aerobically as well as from a percentage body fat ratio

7UOTE]

rickb
10-23-2012, 21:04
8) You'll likely be in the best physical shape you'll ever be in throughout the rest of your lifetime -- aerobically as well as from a percentage body fat ratio


Best not to **** that up with even the occasional smoke along the way. Not to suggest that smoking has a negative impact on hiking-- it doesn't.

Marta
10-23-2012, 21:06
Very nice, Datto, and very true.

cabbagehead
10-23-2012, 22:33
1-10 are false.

RedRunnerJumper
10-24-2012, 07:38
Cant wait to experience that. Great post!

BrianLe
10-24-2012, 12:17
A really excellent summary. A few of those points are even more true for other trails.

Being on occasion a "glass half empty" kind of guy ... I can't help but start to enumerate the top ten bad effects of completing a thru-hike. I.e., you become somewhat of an unwashed hobo in normal life. You can't stop eating afterwards and get fat. It becomes an addiction such that you start to spend large chunks of your life either planning for or hiking another long trail --- sometimes regardless of the various costs of that. You feel at least a bit alienated and put off by "normal" life, and/or have a challenging reintegration period. It can be hard now to hike/backpack with "normal" people, as they walk too slow and spend way too much time at breaks or sitting around in campsites.
I'm sure that others have already done a more careful job of enumerating all of the potential downsides.

Actually, apart maybe from the getting fat part, the above "bad aspects" don't seem so bad to me. :-) You (O.P.) definitely did a great job of listing the upsides.

tiptoe
10-24-2012, 15:51
Yes, a very nice post, and the benefits are there for section hikers, too. The hiking experience might be less intense, but you revisit it for years and years.

4shot
10-24-2012, 18:46
an unmentioned benefit...if you have always thought about it and wondered "what if", then you don't have to anymore. The satisfaction comes from attempting/completing a dream. Sort of like the aqua blazer in the Hemingway book who was attempting to catch the white whale or the girl from Kansas who was swept away buy a tornado and had to yellow blaze back home. or the guys with the light sabres who stand tall aginst the empire plus Tallahassee and Ohio and the the two ladies they were pink blazing with and shooting zombies. then there's the snickers and the AYCE buffet,especially the Chinese one in Waynesboro, plus the blueberry bushes on the north side of sunfish pond and that really huge bluebeery bush just south of Dalton and the pancakes at Upper Goose Pond and that fish camp just south of the river in Maine where you have to be canoed across.

Or you can just stay home. But you don't get the patch.

MuddyWaters
10-24-2012, 22:18
Hiking long trails brings adventure which contrasts to otherwise mundane, boring, daily life. Its brings both a realization to people that simple things are what brings joy to you (and money cant buy them), hard manual work is cathartic, and living on the edge, is actually living. Most of what we call living today is merely existing.

The AT embodies the essence of that adventure, which shorter trails or hikes do not, even if they are wilder.