Purpose for Thru Hikes

[The Weasel]

Share your purpose or goals for your thru hike, both for those who have attempted one, and those who plan to. A life change? Walk 2,160 miles? Do what Benton MacKaye suggested? Share!

"Well a promise made, is a debt unpaid, and the Trail has its own stern code." -- Robert Service

[Hammock Hanger]

I love long distance hiking and having done many trips of varyng lengths, I felt it was time for the ultimate long distance hike, the AT. It was everything I dreamed of and more... Hooked on it for life! HH

[SGT Rock]

Honestly I'm happiest in the field. I come home and love cold beer, good food, family, etc. But I'm always thinking of the next time I can get to a trail. Ending a hike is always torture for me. If I could get paid to hike for the rest of my life, I would do it.

I want to hike the AT because it is a good excuse to be in the field for 6 months.

My family all think I'm nuts, but somehow they can grasp it as a stunt or wierd goal (which in a way it is) to walk the whole length. But If I could just walk in circles for 6 months in the field - I would do it.

When I read a journal or book on thru-hiking, the end seems sad, the end of a great lifestyle. Maybe if I still have some time left at the end of my hike before I have to leave the trail, I'll invent an excuse to turn around and head south a few weeks.

Maybe I'll change my story after 6 months on the trail LOL.

[Hammock Hanger]

No you won't change your mind after six months, you will want it even more. I've spent 2 summers working on my goal to hike the length of the AT, it is always in my thoughts and feels so like home to me. I related to every word you wrote... To be out on the trail is the best thing for me, it is there that I feel the most alive. Is that weird or what? HH

[The Weasel]

This is mostly a reply to Rocky, but it sort of sums up why I enjoy backpacking generally, and how the AT fits into it so well. Some of you will recall my previous "signature" to messages here, and know that I like Robert Service, sometimes called "The Poet Laureate of the Yukon" and one of Canada's (and the world's) great poets. This is one of his shorter messages, from his book, "Ballads of a Bohemian":

The Wistful One

I sought the trails of South and North,
I wandered East and West;
But pride and passion drove me forth
And would not let me rest.
And still I seek, as still I roam,
A snug roof overhead;
Four walls, my own; a quiet home. . . .
"You'll have it -- when you're dead."


The Weasel

[SGT Rock]

Sweet. I like it.

[EarlyRiser]

i love the outdoors, and when im out there i just feel like im at home. every time i go out i feel closer to my roots and to myself. the peace and solitude draws me but so does the comradery of fellow hikers who see things the same way i do, and at times differently than i do, and that makes it all the more fun. the outdoors is a place for me to just get rid of all stress. a thru hike would also offer a great challenge, and challenges make life interesting. im hoping to hike in 2006 and i cant wait for it.

"Do what you love, love what you do"

[wacocelt]

Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail is a goal for me because of FEAR...
Fear of becoming an 'average' American, content to sit on my duff with my eyes glued to a babble box, mind full of inconsequencial nonsense that has no true bearing on me or mine. Fear of losing contact with nature and myself, physically, mentally and spiritually, thus losing the ability to be the best humanimal that I can be.
That which does not kill me, makes me want to hike.

[Hammock Hanger]

Such truth be printed!!! HH

[Moose2001]

Man, that’s a tough question to answer. What are my goals and why do I hike? After retiring from the Air Force, 24 years of service, I found myself needing something new to keep me charged up. I missed the people I used to serve with and the sense of a shared goal. Rock… I’m sure you understand what I’m saying. I had long had a dream of hiking the AT but had kind of put it away and figured I’d never get to it. One day I stumbled upon Dragon’s Breath AT99 website. I read his entire journal in less than 24 hours. I was instantly hooked. I knew what I wanted to do, what my goal was. Once on the AT, I fell in love. I loved being with the other hikers, loved being out on the trail, loved seeing what was over the next ridge, what the next town was, what tomorrow would bring. I loved having a shared goal again with those around me. The camaraderie was as close to being on active duty as I could get again. However, my trip ended at Bear Mt, NY. By the end of Sept 2001, I knew I had to go back to the start and give it another shot. Working 9 – 5 everyday in a little cube was just making me insane. I needed to do something to make me happy. Luckily, I have a wife who understands what’s driving me. I always tell her this might just be my mid-life crisis!! Hey… some guys go nuts, buy expensive sports cars, leave their wives, and try to act like they are 30 something again. Me, I just quit the best paying job I’ve ever had and go live in the woods for 6 months at a time. Not once but twice! (oh.. and I keep hearing this little voice in the back of my head whispering PCT. Haven’t told my wife yet thought!!!)

[Jumpstart]

We hiked in to get away from work burnout, becuase it was something we had both always wanted to do, and becuase we could finally afford it. People all along the way asked us this question, and I always wished I had had a more "romantic" answer, but there it is.

[moresky]

To have fun, be free, and because we can!!!!!!!!

[Bad Ass Turtle]

I really had two reasons to hike:
1. I've always been motivated by the thought that (as my mother told me over and over again as a young girl) I can really do anything I set my mind to. That has been reinforced for me over the years by my determination not to let fear stop me from doing something.
2. It was a way to do my dissertation research and accomplish a fantastic goal -- two birds with one stone!

[Footslogger]

Not sure this is a purpose per se but for me it is about not wanting to grow old and wish I had done things I had always dreamed of doing. From the time I knew that there was such a thing as the AT I was drawn to it.
I spent most of my youth as a scout out in the woods. There was just something more "real" about being out there than inside. I used to take off on Saturday mornings with a lunch bag and a pair of binoculars and just disappear into the huge park at the end of our street. I'd climb a tree and sit there for hours and observe. What I found was that after a while even the birds and ground animals would start to accept me as part of the scenery and just go about their business.
Even after 3 years in the Army ('68 - '71) I still can't get enough of the outdoors. As Sgt Rock put it ...being out in the "field" is where it's at. Anyone who was in the service during that period can relate to the difference between being in the field and being in base camp where there always seemed to be a "mickey mouse" preoccupation with a bunch of senseless rules and monotonous details.
Anyway ...nuff said ! Bottom line is if I could make a decent living hiking the trail my permanent address would likely be "General Delivery".

[Blue Jay]

There really is no purpose. Does a sunset need a purpose, does a Lynx need a purpose. It's just a great place to be, for no reason at all. You don't have to think about the past or future, in fact you don't have to think at all. Most people live in the past and the future, the now just slips away. We get to enjoy the now, therefore tiny little things like drinking at a surprise spring, becomes a trancendant experience. If you make it a purpose, the joy slips away.

[Kerosene]

Bad Ass Turtle, what was/is your dissertation topic?

[Footslogger]

Kerosene ...I'm BA Turtle's partner. She's out of town at a conference and won't be back until late Monday. But I can tell you that her dissertation dealt with "The Literacy Practices of Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers". It was an in depth study of how AT hikers uses various means and methods of communication with themselves and with others. Definitely some groundbreaking research (Naturally I'm a tad biased !)

[MOWGLI]

My reason for hiking the AT? As Lester Burnham said in American Beauty "I wanna look good naked." Alas, the results were but temporary.

[Redbeard]

Gawd I hate that question. Worse yet "What did you learn about yourself?"
Being a bit of a Heathan my whole family wants some mystical sphere of knowledge. I think the pictures alone should answer the question!

[Lugnut]

I have a question for Baltimore Jack: Having hiked the trail so many times I was curious as to why you do so over and over. I think it's fantastic that you do and I'm sure it's different each time but is there any other reason (that would be anyone's business) or do you just need a life?