I wana be a thru hiker!!

[hayjhooy]

Hey guys whats up.
For the longest time I have been wanting to do a thru-hike. Since i was a little cub scout in pack 10. Over the years in Boy Scouts and threw my own experiences I have finally decided to "try" and plan a thru-hike for March 2012. I have made most of my gear and love every second I have on the trail.
The only thing I am worried about is leaving School, Family and My Sweet girlfriend for so long. If I could get some input on what I can say or do to make it better for them. Also here are are some other questions:
Do students take time off to do AT Thru-hike?
Ill be 20 in August but my parents are tying to tell me that I cant thru-hike solo, what do I do?
Is it ok to thru- hike solo?

Thank you for your time and Ill hopefully see some of you on the trail someday.

[hayjhooy]

PS. This also is a stupid question but what is NOBO?

[Ox97GaMe]

HayJ. There are no stupid questions on here, especially from newbies. The worst thing you can do is not ask questions and look foolish out on the trail, trying to learn what you could have gotten on forums like this.

NOBO - NOrth BOund hiker; SOBO - SOuth BOund hiker; YOYO - starting and finishing at the same terminus; FlipFlop - Starting at one terminus and at some point flipping to the other terminus and hiking back to the point you got left the trail.

As for hiking solo.. you will only be alone hiking a few days of your entire hike, unless you do a really early or really late start. You will make friends and find folks with your similar hiking style.

Cant really give advice on what to tell family and friends. Mine never understood why I was going out there or why I continued to stay out there. But they all saw a different person come back from out there and said it was a good thing for me.

Someone once said... if they have to ask, you wont be able to explain anyway.

happy trails.

[tirebiter]

A NOBO is a NOrthBOund hike, Georgia to Maine. You can hardly "solo" a thru hike if you leave at peak season, and even if you weren't surrounded by other hikers, I think a 20 year old guy can handle himself just fine. As for taking the time... You can choose to finish school or not, but this is probably the freest you'll ever be. You can do it now or work a desk job until you get married and are trapped forever.

[XCskiNYC]

You could bring your girlfriend along. Check out this documentary.


http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/...365908tXZ9zRaE


Your parents are just trying to keep you from hiking. They're probably just worried that you'll get eaten by a bear or something like that. You could only be limited by truancy laws and the like but you're way too old for that. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd guess it would take quite a legal effort for your parents to rein you in like that against your will.

[hayjhooy]

I think a 20 year old guy can handle himself just fine. As for taking the time... You can choose to finish school or not, but this is probably the freest you'll ever be. You can do it now or work a desk job until you get married and are trapped forever.

I think I can handel myself too. I go on section hikes at least twice a year and it just breaks my heart to leave to wild. I love it. And I wont wait till im trapped.

[hayjhooy]

You could bring your girlfriend along. Check out this documentary.


http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/...365908tXZ9zRaE

Yeah this is in another language. And i have tried talking my girlfriend into doing it with me but she has never slept outside. Her family never went on camping outings like I do. If there were only a way to make her change her mind....

[XCskiNYC]

It's not a foreign language, it's German. 60% of the words are the same.

If your girlfriend just doesn't like bag nights, that's a tough one.

You do see a lot of couples on the trail. It seems like a good combination. But solo and lots of other approaches have also succeeded.

Here's a trailjournal that'll give you an idea of how one couple approached it:

http://www.trailjournals.com/Brakeman

[Spokes]

Check out this 10 page article from Backpacker Magazine (ignore the pop-up). It covers a bunch of stuff and was really helpful when I was in the planning stages.


The best YouTube video I've found (5 minutes) that captures the daily life of an AT thru hiker is here.

Cheers!

[jpm1628]

I haven't completed a thru hike, but when I was in college I joined a fraternity, and we had a saying.

"From the outside you'll never understand, but from the inside you can never explain".

It will be a personal choice and as long as you're happy with it that's all that matters. Right?

[sbhikes]

Just go. Your girlfriend can always come visit you in trail towns along the way.

[hayjhooy]

Thank you all so much. I really just wish I could leave right now or next month but that would be impossible.

[Jan LiteShoe]

Thank you all so much. I really just wish I could leave right now or next month but that would be impossible.

If you want a useful "taste" of thru-hiking this very year, you could thruhike some other trail, such as the John Muir (three weeks or less) in California or the Long Trail (21-28 days or less) of Vermont. The latter actually cojoins the AT for the first 100 NOBO miles. After that, it gets a little rougher, but nothing an experienced 20 year old can't handle.

As for your loved ones, that's hard. They will likely fear for you, no matter what. Have them read some trailjournals at Trailjournals.com, that might alleviate some of the anxiety.

Good luck, whatever you choose. Your journey has already started, sounds like to me.

And here's a poem that may help you settle things in your mind:
The Journey
(Mary Oliver)

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles...

http://www.panhala.net/Archive/The_Journey.html

[Sassafras Lass]

Hey guys whats up.
For the longest time I have been wanting to do a thru-hike. Since i was a little cub scout in pack 10. Over the years in Boy Scouts and threw my own experiences I have finally decided to "try" and plan a thru-hike for March 2012. I have made most of my gear and love every second I have on the trail.
The only thing I am worried about is leaving School, Family and My Sweet girlfriend for so long. If I could get some input on what I can say or do to make it better for them. Also here are are some other questions:
Do students take time off to do AT Thru-hike?
Ill be 20 in August but my parents are tying to tell me that I cant thru-hike solo, what do I do?
Is it ok to thru- hike solo?

Thank you for your time and Ill hopefully see some of you on the trail someday.

You're 20? I got married when I was 20 (against my parents' wishes). Loved every minute of it since.

Literally hundreds of thousands of people go on solo adventures.

Ultimately, you'll have to decide if you can be mentally strong enough to leave your comfort zone and have a great adventure.