[at-l] Why and Purpose

[athummingbird at dnet.net (Linda Benschop)]

Ginny,

What a refreshing and delightful post!  I do hope to see you at the 
Gathering.  What a treat to actually open a message and hear someone 
"talking" about the wonders of the trail......no arguments or anything 
else.  Thanks!

Hugs, Hummingbird

Jim and/or Ginny Owen wrote:

> 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/
>
>
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