What is Your Motive for a Thru-Hike?

[illininagel]

In Roland Mueser's "Long-Distance Hiking", he documents three fundamental motives of long-distance hikers. He notes that hikers typically identify one of these as their single, main reason for hiking:

Challenge and Adventure: This is the thrill of experiencing something totally new, of doing something totally different, and perhaps being noticed and admired for the achievement.

Love of the Outdoors: These people belong to a select group of career hikers who would like to spend 12 months a year on the trail. They truly love the trail and the wilderness. If we attempt to classify any motive as a pure one, this would seem to be it.

Escape and Simplicity: These hikers are not so much attracted to the challenge or beauty of the trail as they are repelled by what life is offering them at home. These backpackers seek a change in their environment and often stress simplifying their lives.

I'm not sure what this forum poll will show, but the author summarized his survey responses as:

Challenge and Adventure- 60%
Love of the Outdoors- 20%
Escape and Simplicity- 20%

The book also goes into more depth on this topic. I found the book to be very interesting.

[chris]

I wished for an all-of-the-above button, but had to settle with number 3. I could have been tempted by an option like, "I can eat any thing I want, even a tub of butter, and still feel healthy."

[attroll]

Yes I agree with Chris. I would have picked all the above button if there was one. But as it was I picked #2.

[Spirit Walker]

You definitely need an all of the above button. Most of us have mixed motives, not one sole reason for hiking.

[TedB]

How about "Simplify and Come Alive!"? Watching TV and shutting off your brain is escape, escape from reality, you are sitting there watching blinking lights and the recorded laughter of people long since dead. On the trail I'm escaping the unreality that much of our culture seems to embrace: the mindless pursuit of money and material possessions, the wackos on the freeway, the dreams of a vacation in the tropics where you drink your brains out, none of that is real to me. To push myself on the trail, to surround myself with nature, it is in effect the opposite of escape, it is to embrace what is real.

"... you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance, Neo. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more." -Morpheus

[Kerosene]

Another vote for an "All of the above" button.

[illininagel]

I didn't want to offer an "All of the Above" option since I thought that most people have several reasons for undergoing such an endeavor. I should have phrased the question a little better. I'm really looking for your PRIMARY reason for doing the thru-hike. I think mine would be for the Challenge and Adventure. Of course, I love the outdoors and wouldn't mind escaping from some things...but, my primary reason is for the Challenge.

[Sleepy the Arab]

My motives for thru-hiking? Well, it just seems like a good idea to spend 1/4 of the Bush administration in the woods. God help my knees should he be re-elected.

[Virginian]

My motivation for Thur Hiking changed as I headed down the trail. I started for the adventure and challenge,and though they both stayed with me the whole way, my underlaying motives changed from week to week. But the one thing that I never figured on, was that it just became such a cool way to live. I haven't been that free---------------ever!!!!

[chris]

That is what is making life in Indiana so depressing: Remembering the freedom lost. How far, oh how far I've fallen in just a month.

[Colter]

Of course my motiviations, or perhaps my PERCEIVED motivations are no more or less valid than others, but I'd like to say this:

I think people START a thru-hike for many different reasons, including love of the outdoors, escape etc, but I think most folks that FINISH do so because of the challenge and adventure.

I believe a thru-hike is still a bit of a "stunt" when you get right down to it. Walking down the trail does become your job to a certain degree, in that you have to put in the miles in all types of weather if you are going to finish in a year, whether you are in the mood to hike or not.

When I'd get up early on a rainy day to head north, I wasn't doing it because I loved the outdoors, (which I do,) I was doing it to continue my journey to Katahdin.

A thru-hike gives you freedom in some respects, and takes your freedom in others. I've often thought that if challenge and adventure WEREN'T the primary motivator, that a long summer spent out west, hiking stretches of the Rockies, would be a great way to go. Hiking when you want, camping and resting when you want, spending as much or little time in town as you want, and heading to an entirely different Range when the mood strikes you. That would clearly make your primary goal the enjoyment of your summer outdoors, and not following a certain route at a certain pace for a predetermined goal.

My thru-hike was GREAT, and I loved it, but for me it was clearly the challenge that was my primary driving force.

Colter
My Thru-Hike Webpage

[Doctari]

I too would have picked 4: all of the above.

Plus: I need the excersize, I'm obsessive, and many other reasons.

[warren doyle]

I like walking through the Appalachians.

[sloetoe]

"... you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance, Neo. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more." -Morpheus

How about "Red Pill" button?

I loved Muesser's book, but have a problem with the choices presented -- just look at "Escape and Simplicity" for example: how many of us didn't follow Thoreau into the woods? And ultimately, how many of us didn't also *finish* following Thoreau as well?

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live life deliberately; to confront only the essential elements of it; to..."

I went to the woods to simplify and confront, not to escape and simplify.

OldPhartNote: And for that matter (having returned to the backpacking fold years later) I continue to live life as a "civilian" as close as practical to use-it-up-wear-it-out-make-it-do-do-with-out so necessary on trail. I just wish *I* could turn the TV off more often and do more "confront" action...

Sloetoe
GA->ME'79

[Peaks]

Well, in hind site, I think what motivated me to do the AT at the time I did it was to prove to myself that I was not disabled by cancer.

I think that for many, part of the healing process for cancer is to do a major physical challenge. For many, it's run a marathon, or do the 3 day walk for cancer and such. For me, it was to hike the AT.

I may not have been aware of the reason why hike the AT when I did, but as I look back on everything, it's become more obvious why I did it then.

[squirrel bait]

I just simply like walking. It's the one thing I don't suck hind t*t doing.

[Furlough]

My primary reason is Love of the Outdoors. But, if given the option I would have chosen all the above. HH

[gmu]

How about: all of the above

[Smooth03]

I hear ya Chris. I'm moving to NYC in about three weeks and am excited because I will actually be CLOSER to hiking trails, mainly being the AT. Just nothing in Indiana. I can go down to Hoosier National Forest only so many times.

That is what is making life in Indiana so depressing: Remembering the freedom lost. How far, oh how far I've fallen in just a month.

[retread]

I am priviledged to know Bill Irwin. We are both from the same hometown and I went to high school with his two younger brothers.

I called Bill to talk to him about the trail after I decided to thru-hike. He asked me, "What's your reason for hiking the trail?" And as I was about to answer he said, "No...I mean the REAL reason."

Sure made me think.