Did doing a thru hike change your life?

[Break:Away]

One of the messages I've heard over and over again, has been that doing something like a thru hike can change your life. I'm wondering if you did indeed complete the AT as a Thru Hiker, what happened to you after you completed it? Did it really change your life and if so, how?

Thanks in advance for sharing. I know this is a bit of a personal question :)

[Pedaling Fool]

I was becoming a typical aging fat person. I did the trail to turn that around, it worked, so in my case, yes it did change my life, but I had a very specific goal. I also wanted to start running using my hike as a way to develop my legs for running, since I very much hated running but I knew running was essential to staying healthy for life -- true health. Hiking mountains is very much like running and when I got back I started running and I'm still running today, 7 years later.

[Pedaling Fool]

I was becoming a typical aging fat person. I did the trail to turn that around, it worked, so in my case, yes it did change my life, but I had a very specific goal. I also wanted to start running using my hike as a way to develop my legs for running, since I very much hated running but I knew running was essential to staying healthy for life -- true health. Hiking mountains is very much like running and when I got back I started running and I'm still running today, 7 years later.
I should emphsize something I said in the above post. "I had a very specific goal". I don't think a thru-hike on its own necessarily changes one's life. But I could be wrong, other than my specific goal, my hike did get me addicted to m&m's; I used to hate them, so it changed me that way.:)

[wcgornto]

It has definitely helped me have well defined priorities that I will not compromise. After my thru hike, geographic location became more important than job content or amount of pay. I drew a line in the sand based on where I wanted to live and refused to consider new employment opportunities elsewhere. I took a job earning a fraction of what my previous position paid, and was delighted to do it, to live with close access to Alaska mountains rather than in the 5 million plus megalopolis of Atlanta. I have since become properly employed where I live, but the priority was and is location first.

[wcgornto]

I also wanted to start running using my hike as a way to develop my legs for running, since I very much hated running but I knew running was essential to staying healthy for life -- true health.

I can't say I agree with this. I don't run and won't run. I value my knees, hips and ankles very much and will not sacrifice them to the rigors of regular running. I will do intermittent running as part of a broader, Crossfit type exercise regimen, but I will not run regularly for its own sake.

I believe a more accurate statement would be that some form of regular cardiovascular fitness training and strength training is essential for optimizing long term health, along with proper diet and nutrition. I don't believe there is consensus among the fitness experts that running is superior to other forms of exercise.

[Liminal]

I'll get back with you in about 5 months, but right now I do know that planning my hike and getting ready to go (in just a few days) has changed my life already... every time I go out into the woods I grow a little :sun

[Grand Poobah]

Check out this blog of a guy who finished SOBO in Dec. Dangerranger99.WordPress.com. this
May be the answer to your question. Great guy with big aspirations.

[BrianLe]

It changed my life insofar as I got hooked on doing a lot of hiking --- insofar as I can, I like to get in several hundred miles in one way or another each year now (sort of my annual weight loss plan if nothing else).

Being on a thru-hike you sort of take on a bit of a different persona, you play the role of "lean long distance hiker". Play a role long enough and you become that role to some degree, so in that way too I think a thru-hike can change all of us at least a little.

[Mags]

I can honestly say if it was not hiking the Appalachian Trail, I would not have moved out to Colorado.

Hiking the AT gave me the initiative to change my life, leave the life I had grown up with and then changing to the life I have now.

I suspect hiking the AT at a young age (24) is part of the reason as well.

[Dogwood]

If I had not thrued the AT I probably would not have gone on to thru the PCT, CDT, JMT, LT, SHR, HDT, CT, WLT, etc or have moved to Hawaii part of the yr. No one is really the same after completing a thru-hike. It's one of the healthiest, enlightening, self-actualizing, empowering, etc things one can do to break from the status quo. It may even be hard to communicate this in words to someone who has never thru-hiked or done a lengthy section hike.

[Chaco Taco]

so you disagree with what worked for him, makes absolutely no sense.

I can't say I agree with this. I don't run and won't run. I value my knees, hips and ankles very much and will not sacrifice them to the rigors of regular running. I will do intermittent running as part of a broader, Crossfit type exercise regimen, but I will not run regularly for its own sake.

I believe a more accurate statement would be that some form of regular cardiovascular fitness training and strength training is essential for optimizing long term health, along with proper diet and nutrition. I don't believe there is consensus among the fitness experts that running is superior to other forms of exercise.

[Chaco Taco]

My hike saved my life. I was on a path that would probably have lead to my death. Met a great woman, hiked the AT together, worked out some stuff in my head while on the trail for 6 months and had a better outlook on life. Livin the dream and continuing to hike. It keeps me sane and it took my thru to realize how important it is to me

[Meriadoc]

My thru hike changed my life. I have a better handle on who I am, what the world is, and how to live. It was truly a spiritual journey (not a religious one).

If you keep an open mind, a thru hike will change you.

[Chuckie V]

One of the messages I've heard over and over again, has been that doing something like a thru hike can change your life. I'm wondering if you did indeed complete the AT as a Thru Hiker, what happened to you after you completed it? Did it really change your life and if so, how?

Thanks in advance for sharing. I know this is a bit of a personal question :)

I have yet to hike the AT, but I've done other long-ass trails and multiple times. Most the changes others mention here are positive ones, as mine generally are too. But I also changed in ways that aren't necessarily favorable to living a "normal" life within the confines of society. Ever since my first long thru-hike in '02, it's been tough to integrate back into US society and tougher to accept the "direction" society is generally heading. More than ever I feel more like an outsider (so to speak), disconnected from anything but the wilderness and perhaps those who appreciate it like I do. I've developed almost a hatred for conspicuous consumers (which our society is full of). There is very little in today's world that I now believe in and I don’t give a damn how it all turns out in this country—or anywhere else, for that matter. I just want to walk and think and be in the woods.

As per George Carlin...

I think the human game was up a long time ago (when the high priests and traders took over), and now we’re just playing out the string. And that is, of course, precisely what I find so amusing: the slow circling of the drain by a once promising species, and the sappy, ever-more-desperate belief in this country that there is actually some sort of “American Dream, “ which has merely been misplaced.

The decay and disintegration of this culture is astonishingly amusing if you are emotionally detached from it. I have always viewed it from a safe distance, knowing I don’t belong; it doesn’t include me, it never has. Now matter how you care to define it, I do not identify with the local group. Planet, species, race, nation, state, religion, party, union, club, association, neighborhood improvement committee; I have no interest in any of it. I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to.

It's not that thru-hiking has ruined me...it's just made me less tolerant!

[Tinker]

Did doing a thru hike change your life?

Not yet.

Doing section hikes is changing my life every year, though. :)

[wcgornto]

so you disagree with what worked for him, makes absolutely no sense.

Wasn't my intent. What I was disagreeing with was the blanket statement that running is essential to staying healthy for life. There are other forms of exercise with the same and perhaps more benefits than running.

For those that choose running, more power to them.

[Carry-On]

My 2012 AT thruhike was my first long distance hike and I took almost 8 months to complete it. It ruined my former life. Thank goodness. I was bored, unhappy and completely jaded on people. I was angry a lot and frustrated, overweight and argumentative. I worked in animal rescue and regularly saw the worst that people can do to helpless creatures and I hated people, though I loved the animals-which was the one bright spot in my life. It just wasn't enough.

During my thruhike I regularly received trail magic from family and friends as well as complete strangers. People who I might have argued with on the internet about politics or religion helped me, getting nothing back from me but a thank you. We never talked about the things we might disagree on. All that mattered was that I was hungry, cold, tired, in need of a ride, and they offered me help, from one human to another. I am friends now, with some of those trail angels, even though we have very different "beliefs".

I have come away from my thruhike with a new faith in the goodness of humans. I saw evil in humans, too, on the trail and off, but the good was overwhelming. I have faith in humanity again and that makes me incredibly grateful. I don't see it as being blind to the evils of humans, but of seeing more good than bad in individuals. I trust groups less than ever, however, and feel even further removed from the politics, religions and other things that I hated before my hike. In some sense I could say I hate them even more, but feel less reactive towards them and less inclined to argue with people about them.

I also learned that I am a badass. Seriously. I was night hiking in the rain in December in Virginia, almost done with my thruhike and I realized. I am a badass. I kick ass. I am tough and stubborn and resourceful and determined and I am about to complete this amazing journey (which I did a few days later). The self confidence that came from my thruhike can never be taken from me.

I learned to appreciate basic things, like four walls and a roof, chairs, tables, clean water, hot running water, electricity. I have already lost the constant appreciation of these things, but I regularly have flashes of gratitude for these luxuries of American life that I enjoy. I understand how others in much poorer parts of the world can be happy with much less, because I was extremely happy on the trail, with much less.

I appreciate my luck in being an American much more than I used to. I don't need things anymore. I am working on getting rid of "stuff" I had stored before my hike that I now don't see the need for. The stuff I do keep I appreciate much more. I enjoy it, but don't need it.

I learned to trust myself, my instincts, and the things that are important to me in the companions and people I bring into my life. I learned that life does provide what you need, even if it's not what you want. Sometimes it only provides what you need for the next couple of days and you don't know what will happen after that, but then it provides just enough after that to keep going for the next few days.

I learned to find joy in just breathing and walking, whether in the sunshine or the rain. I felt strength and weakness in my body, and I conquered challenges that scared me.

I came back from the trail and had major withdrawal. I had to reevaluate everything in my life and it took several weeks. I was unemployed and felt that any job other than on a trail somewhere was a horrible idea. I considered finding new homes for my pets so I could go be a ridge runner or caretaker on the AT. I chafed at my responsibilities and regular life. I became a hermit and worked only on my blog and the pictures from my hike.

Finally I realized I could keep my pets, who are my family, and work in the outdoor retail industry and feel as if I had the best of both worlds. I start my new job tomorrow with people who are thrilled to have me because I did my thruhike. I am thrilled to work with them as well, and learn about all the hikes in the desert around me. My pay per hour is almost half of what it was before my hike. It worries me, but I feel like it's worth it to stay in the outdoor world and work with people who understand my new obsession.

I am planning another thruhike, of a western trail. I am still addicted to the AT, and it will always be the one, the first, but I look forward to my new life and I am excited for it. I hope one day to revisit the AT, whether in sections or another thruhike, because I believe it is special in the culture and people who make it what it is.

I made many friends on the AT, who I am still in contact with, and I treasure them greatly. I relate more to them than most of my pre-thruhike friends, who aren't all that interested in what I did and how it changed me now that I'm back. My old friends are just trying to figure out if I'm going to be able to participate in society again. So am I, but I think I've found the way that works for me, at least for now.

[Bronk]

Its been a long and strange journey for me...I didn't complete the trail, though I did hike 850 miles of it. Re-entry is difficult and it took me a couple of years to refocus and gain direction. I've never really become normal again...some things that used to seem so important just don't matter anymore. I haven't owned a television since I left for the trail. For 3 years after getting off the trail everything I owned fit in 4 boxes and 3 suitcases and my pack. I've now lived completely off grid for the last 7 years in a small cabin in the woods...no running water or electricity. I enjoy the freedom of not having a monthly electric or water bill. I am free to travel because I don't have to worry about monthly living expenses continuing on while I'm not at home. I guess I just fell in love with the simple freedom that I experienced on the trail and didn't want to be tied to material things or the trappings of a "normal life."

[fiddlehead]

Hiking the AT opened the doors for me to so many new adventures.
Each one opened more doors but it all started with my first thru-hike in '77 (didn't finish that year though)

I used to be quite the redneck.
Now, I live on an island in southeast Asia with a Thai wife and 7 year old son.
Love my new life.
But I do miss hiking.

[Donde]

Change it? Yeah a lot. Is all of that good, or did I find some enlightening non sense or whatever, no. IMO if you are looking for something, you better bring it with you.

My thru (though lots of other stuff creating context of course) destroyed my old life. It changed what I wanted, what I found satisfying, what I found unbearable. I no longer have a career, a steady romance, I have not maintained an address for more than 18 months, have not held a job for more than two years, I own a lot less stuff. I am going to be taking it further and trying to go semi-retired, hiking bum 8-10 months out of the year. Now all of these things are choices, but I know they are choices I would never have considered let alone chose, before. I am satisfied with this course but it sure does have drawbacks, just ask all my ex's. After my thru all life decisions started to be tailored around the next hike. Now I know that I can do what I want for about 18K a year, I have no desire to be doing stuff I don't want for 60K a year.

[garlic08]

My first thru hike was the PCT, and it changed my life for sure. When I left on the hike I was an aggressive young man, a fire department lieutenant, and came back a reserved and careful older man and got promoted to captain. I was humbled by what I saw and did out there.

Later hikes, like the AT, were more fun and carefree and did not change my life directly but definitely improved it.