Warning- Warning

[Hammock Hanger]

The TRAIL and TRAIL LIFE can be addicting!

Just a word of warning to those of you new to trail life. It can really get under your skin, especially after any kind of long distance hiking. Where you LIVE on the trail, not just visit.

I have been hiking, backpacking or instructing both for over 20 years. I spent most vacations section hiking with my husband for many of those years. In 2001 I attempted a thru-hike. I did not make it but the "thru-hike mentality" and lifestyle stuck to me like glue.

Where once hiking or backpacking was my hobby it has now become a passion. I think of it constantly. I just got back fom 9 days and it just wasn't enough. So I have prepared my husband for a spring hike on the Bartram Trail. Then next summer where I hope to finish the northern half of the Long Trail and NH/ME sections of the AT. Then there is the Colorado Trail in 2004. Then I promised my husband I would stay home for a few summers and vacation with him, before attempting another AT Thru-hike. He laugh like hell, then said I don't want a mopey chick on my hands dreaming of the AT, just do it. He says he loves me even with my affliction.

Look at Jack, 7 times!!! He says he is done, yeah right. Then all those folks at the Gathering who went on to do the PCT, CDT, CT....

Like I said, it is addicting. Just a warning for ya.

Hammock Hanger

[DebW]

You don't even need to attempt a thru-hike to get the affliction. A two week section hike last year got me hopelessly hooked. Since that hike, I've been sleeping outdoors several days a week (just because it's nicer outside). I think about hiking constantly. Have volunteered as a trail maintainer. Can't wait to do another long section of the AT, or the whole LT. I have hiked and backpacked for 30 years, but nothing longer than one week previously. You're right HH, about the difference between "visiting" the woods and "living" in the woods.

[MedicineMan]

Sectioning for 30years but NEVER caught the bug for a thru or
anything more than a week....too many other passions like paddling and biking. I love living out of a sea kayak as much as I do a backpack, for me the ultimate would be to have an RV that can handle 4 boats on top and several bikes on the back...hop from state park to national park and slowly make the rounds through this country with a 2 week stop here and there for a round of the AT, the CDT, the PCT and all the other trails. I guess I am lucky in that I have discovered so many incredible trails out of so many parks that I realize that the AT in all its historical grandeur is not the only trail that can take the breath away.....take GSMNP as an example-900 (well 800 now that some are closed) miles of trails in that one park alone, and +/- to the mystique that is building about becoming a '900 miler' there, a mystique like that of a thru on the AT that will eventually kill the trail with love I'm afraid.....so I emplore and beseech those in my circle to broaden the horizon realizing that one could spend their life in pursuit of the AT and miss so so many jewels in between....for most of us it is the undeniable truth that we will never see even 1/10000th of the jewels this country has....now with all that said I will admit that daily I fantasize on a nightly basis about my next section hike (Fontana to Wesser) in November.

[Hammock Hanger]

It just seems that once you live outdoors you feel the draw to continue. Weather it be on the AT or another trail. The water is good also.

That said the AT does seem to have some special pull tha has hikers returning to it year after year. HH

[Newb]

How prophetic this old post turned out to be for me. Besides...now I've resurrected it.

[kyhipo]

for sure! its like a bag chips 1 wont do!besides I like the ideal of hiking all over the states,the world whatever door opens I take it when i can.ky

[ed bell]

Sectioning for 30years but NEVER caught the bug for a thru or
anything more than a week....too many other passions like paddling and biking. I love living out of a sea kayak as much as I do a backpack, for me the ultimate would be to have an RV that can handle 4 boats on top and several bikes on the back...hop from state park to national park and slowly make the rounds through this country with a 2 week stop here and there for a round of the AT, the CDT, the PCT and all the other trails. I guess I am lucky in that I have discovered so many incredible trails out of so many parks that I realize that the AT in all its historical grandeur is not the only trail that can take the breath away.....take GSMNP as an example-900 (well 800 now that some are closed) miles of trails in that one park alone, and +/- to the mystique that is building about becoming a '900 miler' there, a mystique like that of a thru on the AT that will eventually kill the trail with love I'm afraid.....so I emplore and beseech those in my circle to broaden the horizon realizing that one could spend their life in pursuit of the AT and miss so so many jewels in between....for most of us it is the undeniable truth that we will never see even 1/10000th of the jewels this country has....now with all that said I will admit that daily I fantasize on a nightly basis about my next section hike (Fontana to Wesser) in November.

Right on MM.
Nice job Newb for reviving an oldie but a goodie. Like this:http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/necromancer.htm only in a good way. BTW, Mags first pointed out that site. Good stuff.

[Smile]

It just seems that once you live outdoors you feel the draw to continue. Weather it be on the AT or another trail. The water is good also.

Have to agree with HH on this one! Definately.