[at-l] trail newbie

[infpeace@yahoo.com (Nina Baxley)]

Hi!

It sounds like you have the determination, and I think
that you'll discover, as you face your fears on the
trail (and when I thru-hiked I found that I had fears
I'd never known about), that you have the courage,
too.

I was sooo scared the night before I left for Maine (I
hiked southbound in 2000). I couldn't stop crying, and
I couldn't stop shaking. All the sudden, this
wonderful dream--for so many years something in the
"distant future"--was staring me straight in the face,
and it was frightening. "What have I gotten myself
into?!" I thought. But I knew it's what I wanted to
do, and I knew that no amount of fear was going to
keep me from taking the first step ... and the next,
and the next ...  I think that "fear" was more like an
adrenalin overload. It helped when I had to climb
Katahdin a couple of days later!!

I was scared of so much on the trail. Much of it was
realistic, like when I was going up and down those
rocky, rooty mountains in Maine during thunderstorms,
or when I was in sub-freezing temps in the south. I
was also scared of crossing bog bridges, walking down
rock faces, fording streams, and other things that
thru-hikers typically encounter on the trail. I'm
still scared of all that stuff, but I didn't let it
stop me, and I won't let it stop me in the future.

I wrote about the wimpy and pathetic wuss that I
sometimes was on the trail, but I also wrote about
what a good feeling it is to know I'm relatively brave
and don't wimp out when I'm scared. I'm sure you will
discover the same wonderful feeling (or something like
it) out there. And it does make you stronger.

Good luck! My updates from the trail are posted at
http://www.gorp.com/gorp/activity/hiking/thruhike/ninab.htm
 if you're interested in reading them.

Nina
"Waterfall"
ME-GA 2000

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