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[at-l] Incomplete thru-hikes

Pilgrim wrote:

>How about those who have attempted an unsucessful thru hike commenting
on >what
>exactly convinced them to leave the trail.  Not those who planned to
section
>hike, but ones who began thinking they would thru hike and changed their
mind.
>What contributed to the decision?  Anyone?

Pilgrim, 
I don't know if I exactly fit the category of people that you're looking
for comments from, but I don't consider my thru-hike to be truly complete
although I hiked over 2K miles of the AT this year.  As I neared the end
of my hike, I was becoming quite depressed about the difficulty of the
trail.  My physical and emotional health were at all time lows as I
crossed into Maine.  I was basically gutting it out to the end and
deriving very little enjoyment from my hike.  

One evening I had a very significant conversation with a fellow
thru-hiker.  We were at dinner and he was commenting on how I had changed
over the duration of the hike.  He basically told me that I had gone from
being one of the most up-beat thru-hikers he'd ever met to being one of
the most down and "beaten".  Was this the way I wanted to end my hike? 
Are these the memories I wanted to carry with me of my last days on the
trail?

That conversation had a profound affect on me and the remainder of my
hike.  I made a decision that night that I was going to change the rules
of my hike.  Prior to that night, I had never slackpacked, never
blue-blazed, .....  After that conversation, I allowed myself the freedom
to complete my hike in any way necessary to ensure that I would enjoy it.
 I was scared to death of Mahoosuc Notch.  I had experienced some serious
falls during my hike and had no confidence to tackle the Notch, so I
skipped it.  I started slackpacking and found myself practically running
down the trail out of joy. I decided not to stress about going back and
picking up a 56 miles section I'd missed in Vermont due to injury. .... 
It was things like this that helped to get me to Katahdin in a good frame
of mind, and now I have some wonderful memories of my last month on the
trail.  I'm very glad that I made the changes I did.  

So, technically, I'm not a successful thru-hiker, but I don't care.  If
100+ miles of unwalked trail keeps me from being a thru-hiker, I have no
problem with that.  I had an absolutely fantastic journey.  I lived a
lifetime in a span of seven months and had experiences that many will
never come close to living.  I am at peace with my hike.  If I pick up
the skipped trail miles somewhere down the line, that's fine, but I sleep
very contentedly at night knowing what I did accomplish.

Happy trails,
Rachel
"Solophile"  GA-->ME  '97
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