Ok. So this is a bit broad but I'm curious about other's experiences hiking over time. What's changed for you?
When I started seriously hiking the AT I was full of excitement and pent up yearning. I had the AT fever bad. I obsessed with reading Trail Journals, found White Blaze, ordered my AT Guide and The Companion and more. Retirement was (and is still) far off and a thru hike was out of the cards but why keep waiting when a section hike could start now? So in we dove with each hike more exciting, more challenging, more comfortable, more-everything than the last. That beginning was two and a half years ago.
Since then, we've covered almost 3/4ths of the trail in hikes of ever-increasing duration and greater challenge but also greater fun and more wisdom. I know what the psychological toll is like on a thru hike, at least I've read about it - how much of the hike is a mental battle more than a physical one. And I've met several burned out hikers at many points of the trail who just weren't sure they should keep going (and some who didn't). I wonder if this can't also happen to a long distance section hiker too.
For me, I find that I am much more lazy about hike preparation and have a more relaxed, que sera, sera attitude. On our hikes, I'm less keenly worried about logistics and happier to just let it roll. I don't worry about the best new-fangled hiking toy anymore and just worry about having all the stuff we know works. And I care even less about making our section goal and more about stopping to smell the roses and enjoying the unexpected (getting caught in a blizzard last spring is one of the best/worst trips we've had). I've even been less of a tightwad about my grams
. Ok, sort of less...
The one thing I've noticed that I hope is just a passing sentiment, is that I don't crave the next hike like I used to. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather be hiking than...[fill in the blank]. But, now that we've done so much of it I think I'm feeling a bit of the "routine" that I read about in thru journals, where a hiker finds themselves just putting one foot in front of the other and whiling away the time. This doesn't happen to me ON the trail, it happens OFF. I miss some of that all-consuming fire before hopping in the car to get on the trail.
So, that's some of what's changed for me since I started. What's changed for you? Please share