[at-l] "Why" and "Purpose"

[jestbill at yahoo.com (william fitzpatrick)]

"What gets you through the pain, hardship,loneliness, and sheer boredom of a
thru-hike?"

I really like the "Thruhiking papers" where he says something like "I'm a
thruhiker and therefore crazy..."

I have thought for many years that whatever people tell you about emotional,
spiritual and motivational matters is--literature.  All of it is what they made
up AFTER they did whatever they did that they think sounds good and that you
might believe.  Some unconscious, uncontrolable, inner voice told them to do it
so they did.  Everything else they say is literature.

The rock bottom truth is that no one in his right mind could ever try a
thruhike.  If you want to see trees, you should go where there are trees, sit
down and look.  Same goes for rocks, animals, birds, waterfalls et. al. OK,
move a coupla times to see DIFFERENT trees, rocks and all, but there is no sane
reason to hike 2100+ miles on a single trail all in one season.

Toward the end of my thru, I had a conversation with "Uncle Mark" about "fun"
on the trail and such.  He finally concluded that I had no business out there
at all but was just too stubborn to quit.  Suits me:  I envy the guys I met
early on who called themselves IOWA (Idiots Out Walking Around) 'cause I felt a
lot like that much of the time.

I just bailed on a more local hike because it became clear that I REALLY wasn't
prepared properly.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)  I'll get it next
year, but I won't be beating myself up about it: you do what you do and there
is no "technique" that will make you do any different.  

To quote a sage on this subject: "I yam wot I yam, an' 'at's all wot I yam."

--- Raphael Bustin <rafeb@speakeasy.net> wrote:

> 
> At the risk of spooking thru-hiker wannabees,
> I'd like to pursue this discussion.
> 
> As a failed thru-hiker, haunted ever since by
> that failure, it's a hot-button topic for me.
> 
> Sloe and Jim O. seem to feel I don't get it, and
> that's clearly the case.  But neither of them have
> done much yet to enlighten me or set me straight.
> Their arguments, to my feeble mind, feel like
> linguistic/semantic sleight-of-hand.
> 
> One thing I know is that mine is by far the
> majority experience.  We all know the stats.
> For every ten starters, only one or two finish.
> Thru-hikers have something special.
> 
> I know that in '90 I completely misjudged who
> would quit and who would finish, including
> myself, most disturbingly.
> 
> I shed more tears, leaving the trail in Blacksburg
> in 1990, than at any other event in my adult life.
> 
> Mind you, I still love to hike, still love the trail,
> but apparently in smaller doses.
> 
> So someone tell me, really, what it means to "live
> in the moment" and "mind the miles."  Call me
> cynical, but these just sound like platitudes.
> 
> What gets you through the pain, hardship,
> loneliness, and sheer boredom of a thru-hike?
> 
> 
> rafe b
> aka terrapin
> 
> 
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JestBill  Ga--->Me '03


		
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