[at-l] Why and Purpose

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Ginny here:

First, Rafe, thanks for raising this issue - I love these kinds of 
discussions.

Several years ago, on this list or PCT-l, I asked the question, more or 
less, "To those of you who were not able to finish their thruhikes, do you 
regret having done it?"

There were some interesting responses.  One that comes to mind perhaps 
applies to you.  A young man attempted the AT, found it wasn't what he 
wanted or needed and went home after a couple of months.  But he still loved 
hiking.  He felt like he had left something unfinished in his life.  So a 
few years later, he went to the PCT and thruhiked that.  And had a terrific 
hike.  Later on he settled in Alaska.  In his case, it wasn't the thruhiking 
he hated, but the long green tunnel.  He said he did not regret his AT 
attempt as it prepared him for what came later, just not in the way he 
expected.

In reading what you wrote, one thought that crossed my mind was, if views 
are so important to you - why not hike where there are more views?  
Colorado, the JMT, the Cascades . . .

For me, while I love the grand vistas, I also appreciate the small details - 
mushrooms on dead logs, lichen on rocks, squirrels scrambling up trees.  
After hiking the CDT and PCT, I thought, "I wonder if I'll still enjoy the 
Pennsylvania woods after hiking such majestic mountains."  And I was happy 
to find that I enjoy our walks in the woods in Maryland just as much as I do 
the Bitterroots or the Beartooths.  For me, just walking in nature is enough 
as there is so much to see around me wherever I am.  I may prefer the wild 
places where I can see more wildlife and enjoy endless vistas, but I am 
happy wherever I am, as long as I'm hiking.

I remember a discussion on another list in which one hiker said, "I can 
never do a thruhike because I only want to see the highlights and on a long 
trail there are so many boring connecter stretches."  It has stuck with me, 
because he was right that there are connector stretches, but they are as 
much a part of the trail as the mountain top views.  The trick is to learn 
how to appreciate those as much as the highlights.  Or at least to not let 
them get to you.  For me, focusing on the details gets me through those 
places where there is no "Ooh aah moment".  But I do understand preferring 
the grand views.

A couple more thoughts.  I'm glad that the experience of thruhiking did not 
turn you against hiking.  Sometimes it does.  I remember one hiker I met who 
was thinking of quitting the trail.  She said to me, "Right now I just hate 
the trail.  If I keep going, I'm going to hate hiking."  She left that day.

Thruhiking means that you have to hike all day, every day, rain or shine, in 
the mood or not.  It can come to feel like as much of a tyranny as the job 
you left back home.  One way to deal with that is to get creative and make 
it more fun.  Go on a rafting trip at Nantahala.  Visit Washington DC as you 
are passing by.  Stop early and go for a long swim. Take a nap at a view. 
You are the one in charge of your time - no one else is forcing you to be 
there.  Yes, there is a need to keep moving forward up the trail if you hope 
to finish it - but there is time to play, to wander, to do something 
different for a while.  And better to spend six or seven months enjoying 
your time in the woods and not finish than to spend five months hiking all 
day every day, reach Katahdin and realize that you hated every minute.  
Stubbornness is a wonderful thing and will get you to your goal - but the 
value comes from how you did it, not just the fact that you did it.

Finally, about being crazy.  It is true.  It is insane to spend six months 
living in the woods, hiking long miles, in bad weather, in frequent pain, 
day after day after day.  More insane is to love it and be happy doing it.  
Jim and I have managed to keep a foot in both our worlds, to some extent.  
At work, no one has a clue that I am as crazy as I am.  They see me as a 
good little drone, likely to stay put because it would be crazy to give up a 
good secure job with benefits for the insecurity of life on the road.  
Little do they know. On the trail, no one looking at Jim would suspect that 
he spends his life immersed in technology. On the PCT we met a man at Crater 
Lake who talked to us for a while at the campground.  His words made me 
laugh.  "You guys seem almost normal."  I think he'd met a few other 
thruhikers. I know how to live straight.  But at heart I'm a gypsy -  and 
more than a little 'curly'.  Among hikers the walls come down.  And the rest 
never know what insanity walks among them.

Ginny

http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/