Post Hike Doldrums

[Lion King]

1998, Oct...I remember riding that greyhound from Bangor heading back to South GA and thinking..."Man, what have I just done? Where am I going?"

then I got home, and everything was as I left it, only I had changed, grown and --in my opinion-grown as a person in a better way---

14 years later and I am writing this from a Motel on the AT in No GA after being out for 3 weeks.

I have over 19,000 miles off hiking (plus near that in Yellow blazing!)
and I still MUST get out in the wilderness, be in West Coast, East, or mid America for a bit each year, and I cant explain why I need the healing, but I know there are a few in this thread like me, once I did it, life has never been the same.

Some times thats great, sometimes its not cause I cant stand staying anywhere very long...feet itch and its an itch gold bond cant fix

[Spirit Walker]

One of the things I learned after my first thruhike is that there are a few people out there who aren't long distance backpackers, who do 'get it'. They understand why you would give up your comfortable life to do something so far out of the mainstream. One woman I met had lived in Indonesia for a year. Another person had bought a boat to sail around the Caribbean for several years. Another moved to the hinterlands of Alaska. One man hadn't yet lived his dream, but I knew from the expression on his face that he had one, and that someday he would do his best to realize that dream. In a sense, long distance hikers provide an example to others that they too can up anchor and sail away, if they really want to. Some people can't stand that thought. We met one young man who got mad at us, saying, "What do you mean you just sold your house, quit your jobs and took off for a couple of years. That's not right." He felt trapped and wasn't willing to see that he had the key to the door of his prison. He was much too scared to open that door to see what was on the other side. But some people aren't scared of the unknown, or maybe they are, but they're willing to risk it anyway. Those are the people who will understand, and who will share their adventures with you and allow you to share yours with them.

[1azarus]

Even though I've never hiked for longer than 2 weeks at a stretch, it is always hard for me to stop hiking. I can't imagine what it would be like to hike for several months and then just stop. I deal with my addiction by day hiking parts of several days every week, by walking everywhere I can and by section hiking every other month. and that is just barely enough to keep my sanity. White blaze lurking seems to help a bit! I hike enough so I think of myself as a "hiker" first and foremost, and that somehow feels good.

[chief]

we are reading entirely different books, much less being on the same page.

your replies are the ones IRL that I need to avoid entirely. I avoid contact with people like this all day long because I am endeavoring to re-integrate from the trail for the last 6 months. It is extremely maddening to have to deal with this kind of attitude. Maybe down the road I will be able to.
In the mean time, I will surround myself with more compassionate, sensitive people until I have learned to re-adapt.

Though my original comments were directed to the OP in a generic sense, it seems I've hit a nerve with you. Maybe its your own attitude that needs to be dealt with. Even the cocoon of compassionate, sensitive people you've wrapped yourself in will eventually get bored with coddling you.

[Datto]

By the way, after your long-distance hike if someone makes the humorously ridiculous comment to you, "So...you took a vacation?"

The correct response (SYOR) is to start laughing out loud and say this:

"Vacation? Ha, if I was going to take a vacation I'd have gone on a cruise with Shania Twain. What'd you do worthwhile when I was gone?"


Datto

PS: Or, I suppose, you could say, "It's twue -- I went on a twain twip with..."

[4shot]

^^^ it was fun but how can it be a vaction if the daily menu consists of snickers,Knorrs instant rice and PB on a bagel? :>)

[chief]

By the way, after your long-distance hike if someone makes the humorously ridiculous comment to you, "So...you took a vacation?"

The correct response (SYOR) is to start laughing out loud and say this:

"Vacation? Ha, if I was going to take a vacation I'd have gone on a cruise with Shania Twain. What'd you do worthwhile when I was gone?"

I took a cruise where I met and hung out with Shania Twain. She was alone. Seems she was stood up by an idiot who would rather carry a smelly pack than vacation with her.

[max patch]

By the way, after your long-distance hike if someone makes the humorously ridiculous comment to you, "So...you took a vacation?"

Well OF COURSE its a vacation.

[Sailing_Faith]

Take up sailing. It's not nearly as cheap as hiking, but amazingly rewarding.

When I retired I spent the next 9 months sailing. While i did come back 'physically' I never really did come back. Going for a hike is a good tonic, am leaving to go for a long cruise to the islands this fall....

I might say that I was not the same after, but really I think I never did fit in.... Probably true of some who will read this thread.

I am very thankful to know some fellow 'aliens' who do not fit in also... for any who might read this I will suggest that trying to 'fit in' is probably just as hard as trying to get someone to 'get it' if they don't.

[sparky2009]

Well, it's been a little over 2 years since I through hiked. When I came back home and opened the door to my house, I looked at all of the stuff that I had and realized that I was perfectly happy with what I had on my back. I gotten rid of a lot of stuff but there's still much to there. I don't really care about material possessions like I used to. Relationships with others are far more important in my way of thinking. Chasing the dollar and missing out on life is not the way to be. It took a lot of tough circumstances and a thru-hike to think about it to make realize that. I think that's the result of a shift in priorities and needed to simple realize that.

I'm still in the doldrums. Work isn't what it used to be and now, after completing such a grand adventure, it's even worse. I found that my co-workers don't understand where I am mentally and they certainly don't understand how wonderful it was to hike for 6 months. I think the only reason I'm still there is that I need the money for retirement. Short hikes are fun but it's not the same as taking off for even a couple of weeks. Love to do another long hike, PCT, CDT, maybe even a repeat of the AT, southbound or northbound. I did the El Camino the spring following my through hike. That helped me a lot in the those months just after completing the trail due to the fact that I had an another adventure to look forward to. I would love to find something I could do that would help me earn an income and give me the freedom to do long distance hiking.

As other who have posted, I have found that people generally don't really understand what thru-hiking the AT is all about. By focusing on all of the wrong things, they really don't give themselves the opportunity to consider all of the beauty of the trail, the wonderful friends that are made, the time to just work through things that are pressing on one's mind, the simplicity of trail life, and the confidence that one gets from accomplishing a great endeavor. I'm sure there's other things I've left out. (I'll think of them a couple of minutes after posting this. LOL!) Even after a couple of years, I find it hard to express this. I have a summit picture of the group that I hiked with for the last 5 weeks doing a group hug. It was in the low 20's, sleeting, windy to the tune of 50-70mph and there was ice on everything. Yeah, we got caught in tough weather once we got up there. What is not shown in the picture is the emotions of the group. We stood there in that awful weather doing the group hug for about a minute or two. A vast majority of those outside of the thru-hiking community can't understand that if they're honest with themselves. Those who are in this community would look at the picture and know exactly what we're feeling. I'm not trying to be arrogant here but felt the need to explain that most people just don't understand. I've quit trying to make them understand. It has never worked. I tell them it was a lot of fun and they reply with something like "oh, that's great".

[lush242000]

The first thing to do after a long hike is get over yourself. You aren't that special. Sure, tell your friends about your hike, but don't expect them to sit thru endless trail stories along with thousands of photos. Boring...

Good post. The majority of people could care less.


Sent from somewhere.

[RED-DOG]

Lots of EATING, REST, and HEALING,Going back to work, After each of my Thru-Hikes i had to sleep out side in my back yard,Smelling the fresh air , trying to get readjusted to real life is the hardest thing about a thru-hike.

[AAhiker]

Explain it like this.... It was awesome! It sucked! I know I still smell funny. Nope, my feet probably never will be the same. Why?! Because the woods are amazing that's why. Yea I know it sounds crazy, that is the same thing you said before I started my hike. Everything seems sooo much louder now, being back is pretty overwhelming to me at the moment. It was a good time, not sure if I'd do it again, but maybe. And... There is no really way to explain it. The peace and the calm I managed to find in my exhaustion, the beauty...I just can't quite explain it...sorry. Or, depending on who your are talking to; Yes I know I am a month late, I promise I'll get you the money soon. NO NO, you don't need to repossess my car!

[Special K]

Not to start a war...but the reentry seems to be a lot harder for men.

[stranger]

For me the key to 're-entry' after any trip is to make sure I've lined up my life before going away. Often I've made the mistake of using the trip as the 'be all end all' of my life, then the trip comes, then eventually it ends...now what? If I haven't put a plan in place, I can get real depressed.

I find for me the smart approach is rather than focus on one big trip - like a 5 month thru-hike, I plan smaller trips, but do them every year. But it depends on your preferences, the great thing about a thru-hike is the time away from society, but likewise...the longer the trip, the easier it is to take it for granted.

I have some cool things coming up - I'll be doing a month long tour with my band in February in the US, then coming back to Australia for March and part of April, before taking another 4-6 weeks off before moving to Switzerland, so will probaby do another hike. My job is stressful right now, really difficult, so it's VERY easy for me to just put my head down and say:
- get to the Christmas shutdown
- get to Feb
- get to late April
But guess what? My life will continue in May and June and if I haven't been smart about my future, when those trips are over I will have nothing to look forward to. It's going to be a tough transition to Europe, but being my 3rd immigration I have plenty of practice, but I need to give that the respect it deserves.

In short...life can't be lived hiking, or traveling...or on tour. Those things are little glimpses of life, months at best...the rest of the time we need to be happy getting up for work and doing less exciting things. A good friend of mine gets very depressed after each tour she does in her band, she was happy because they were playing 128 shows this year over 4 tours - so that's how she was going to deal with her discontentment with life, only problem is that there are 365 days in a year, not 128.

It's how we live the 237 days that leads to happiness, not the 128.

[4shot]

Not to thread hijack but I am always amazed at the number of respondents in most (if not all) of the threads in the thru hiking forum who haven't thru hiked. disclaimer for the sensitive types here: not that there is anything "special" about being a thruhiker but most questions here, including this one, are specific to a that group.

[stranger]

Not to thread hijack but I am always amazed at the number of respondents in most (if not all) of the threads in the thru hiking forum who haven't thru hiked. disclaimer for the sensitive types here: not that there is anything "special" about being a thruhiker but most questions here, including this one, are specific to a that group.

Sorry comrade, the OP is not about thru-hiking, it's about an 800 mile section hike...and post hike blues. Whether these feeling come following a 2100 thru-hike, a 800 mile section hike, or a 450 mile thru-hike...is irrelevant. Mourning the experience is a common problem, and it's not unique to hiking, or thru-hiking in my experience and those I know.