Re[4]: [at-l] Appalachian Trail: The Quick Way

[infpeace@yahoo.com (Nina Baxley)]

I'm glad I thru-hiked--I went through much slower than
some of my fellow thru-hikers, but of course faster
than a section hiker. The goal of my thru-hike wasn't
to see all of the historic places or to take every
side trail. That doesn't mean I didn't want to do it,
but my goal at the time was to hike the AT in a single
stretch. It's something I needed to do for me--for
confidence, a sense of accomplishing something, for
the challenge, etc. I also wanted to spend 6 months in
the woods and think about things. 2,168 miles in 6
months simply doesn't allow you to explore as much as
you might like, but it's a matter of priorities--if
I'd wanted to spend more time exploring (and I
explored quite a bit on the trail, particularly in
Maine and VT), I wouldn't have attempted a thru-hike
when I did.

When I spent several days on the AT in April, I hiked
about 8-10 miles a day. This gave me plenty of time to
stop and look at the wildflowers (and identify them if
I didn't know them already), do some exploring, take
long lunches and naps, even enjoy walking in the rain,
etc. My goal then was to immerse myself in spring and
just really enjoy seeing the woods coming back to
life--the same woods that were under snow in
sub-freezing temps when I was in them last December.

So it's all a matter of priorities. I agree with Weary
that we should share our "styles" of hiking and the
reasons for those styles. We all have different
"goals" when we go out there ... even if the "goal" is
to hike without goals--just to enjoy the woods and not
hurry. So I don't know why people feel like they have
to argue that their style is better or worse than
another's. And if a certain type of hiker--speed
hiker, thru-hiker, day-hiker--is rude or
irresponsible, that doesn't mean that that type of
hiker as a class is bad. It just means that that hiker
was rude or irresponsible.

Time to get back to work now!

Waterfall
ME-GA 2000

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Visit the Louisiana Hiking Club at http://www.geocities.com/louisianahikingclub
Visit my ME-GA 2000 thru-hike updates at http://www.gorp.com/gorp/activity/hiking/thruhike/nina/ninab_archive.htm.

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