[at-l] 2005 thru-hike soapbox...

[MedusaJ at aol.com (MedusaJ@aol.com)]

This is *absolutely* THE best advice I've *ever* heard for all thru-hikers 
everywhere.  I'm not having any problem avoiding too much pre-planning for my 
PCT thru-hike <<cheeky grin>>, but I only wish I had heeded this advice before 
my AT thru-hike last year.  Actually, I did heed it, and I knew it all along as 
I was hiking, but the peer pressure was still the single absolute most 
difficult part of my hike.  I kept saying that the hardest part of my hike was other 
people:  other people going faster than me, other people judging my gear or 
mileage choices, other people talking smack about people hiking different kinds 
of hikes than theirs...

The peer pressure was harder than the dirt, harder than the mountains, harder 
than the walking, harder than the stink, harder than the food, harder than 
everything.  I just wished, a lot of times, that I could be really, truly 
*alone* out there, because only then would I know what my "own hike" was, my "own 
hike" that I kept trying to hike.

The people who had pissing contests with others about gear or mileage were 
hard to deal with, but harder still to deal with were the people I kept losing, 
the people who kept zooming on ahead as I determinedly stuck to what I 
considered the mileage that was right for me.  But I really didn't know.  How much 
did I really want to hike a day?  How much was the right amount?  Was I going 
too slow or too fast?  Should I stop now or later?  Your decisions are 
simplified on the trail, but they're just as difficult.  

Anyway, just some thoughts on Pittsburgh's so-called rant.  If only all of us 
could learn this in any part of life, not just the microcosm of life that is 
the trail--how to let others be and let ourselves be.

My two marzipan cents--
Marzipan
AT04


In a message dated 2/10/2005 12:49:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
at-l-request@backcountry.net writes:

> As with anything else on your long hike, do not do too much pre-
> scheduling or pre-planning.  Your hike, and everything involved in 
> your hike, will morph daily, and your planning will be all for 
> naught.  The six-month schedule that you slaved over, and gave to 
> your family and friends, will be nothing but toilet paper within a 
> week or two from Springer.  The six-months of food drops that you pre-
> packed will become a source of anger/distress/depression when you 
> open one up in Catawba VA and find the same old oatmeal and pop-tarts 
> and freeze dried chili...
> 
> AND, for-the-love-of-pete, take your time in the beginning of your 
> hike.  Do less miles than you perceive that your body can handle.  
> You have no clue, in the begining of your hike, what your limits 
> are.  So, 'hiking-to-your-limit' is not possible.  You cannot imagine 
> the damage that you are doing to your body right out of the gate, and 
> your body has no idea why you are doing what you are doing.  Give 
> your body two or three weeks to adjust to this new lifestyle.  If you 
> don't, then your body will rebel, and it will present you with diarrhea
> or headaches or tendenitis or shin splints or any number of hike ending
> 
> maladies.  And, you can push yourself so hard that the burden of the
> experience will cause a mental or emotional breakdown.  Many hikers cry
> themselves to sleep every night...
> 
> Peer pressure is a huge bane to hikers.  Please keep your experience 
> in perspective, and do not hike someone else's idea of your hike.  Do 
> not push to keep up.  If you think that the group that you hooked up 
> with is the 'best-damn-people-that-you-ever-met', just hold back a 
> day, and another group of the 'best-damn-people-that-you-ever-met' 
> will come along.  Please hike-your-own-hike, even if you don't know 
> what that is.  I recommend purposely avoiding becoming a member of a 
> group.  There are hundreds of hikers out there, and saying hello to 
> them all as they hike past you would be a great idea...
> 
>