Foot care.
Specifically, good blister prevention and management on a very wet trail.
Originally Posted by rickb
This is one of those many other vital categories. Let's face it if a hiker's feet aren't happy and it's ignored it takes many off their hikes.
Hand in hand with this is learning about your individual feet and stride characteristics and matching footwear with these specific characteristics and trail conditions.
Setting up camp in the pouring rain.
It's all good in the woods.
I would have to agree with the comments on loneliness... or simply expand it to sheer boredom.
I have not done an AT thru, but a few years ago I did a JMT thru. Every single day was filled with spectacular scenery. But somewhere around day 10 to day 14, my mind started to develop the attitude of "same scene, different mountain". It would occasionally take extreme breathtaking views to shake my head out of that attitude.
So if I can develop that attitude on a trail filled with daily spectacular scenery, I can only begin to imagine the mental challenge an AT thru can become considering its often called "the green tunnel".
Nobody has mentioned this but one of the biggest adjustments imo was getting used to no showers/being dirty/putting on stinking, wet, dirty clothing every day. My former self was the type who would shower every day before work and sometimes again in the evening if I had cut grass, worked out, etc. So, I started with too many clothes thinking I would change more often than I did.
What was really unusual was how desensitized our nose gets to all the smells from laundry soap, shampoo, deoderants, etc. I could smell a day hiker or person in town from quite a bit aways. And, I'm sure the opposite was true as well. My wife met me on 3 occasions and we shuttled some hikers into town each time. She still tells others about how bad a car full of people who have been hiking the trail for weeks or months can smell.
Hunger/Food
Never could get it right but I lived haha. Towards the end I ate so much I couldn't keep up. Even planning 5,000 calories + a day towards the end was not enough.
Best balance was just to have it in the budget to eat a huge meal every time I hit town.
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GAME '16 4/18/16-8/12/16
Trailjournal: http://www.trailjournals.com/jjdontplay
Blog (Post Trail Gear Reviews): https://keeppushingon.wordpress.com/
I'd like to offer how some handle the scenario of boredom and lonliness.
First, I've never been on a LD hike - on trail - with endless spectacular scenery although this is a matter of perspective. Boredom is really a matter of perspective. What helps keep me engaged, present, and mindful is to not look at backpacking only as hiking. For me, curiosity is encouraged always picked by what's at or beyond the next bend or rise or in the next grove, what tree, wildflower, plant, animal, animal track, history of ruins, sounds, geology, scrounged natural edibles/medicinals, scenic overlooks, waterfalls, bluffs, knowledge and wisdom exist, weather might prevail, and whom I might meet. Keeping a journal and rereading about the 27 different Nationalities of hikers from around the world met on one AT thru-hike and inspiring quotes and what I've learned help. I want to soak it all in. I try to keep that alive. I try to stay appreciative. When in an attitude of gratitude we're not given to complaining.
Lastly, and this is huge, expand the hike's width of interest beyond that 30" wide path, lean-to's, elevation profiles, and on trail experiences to include experiencing music festivals, museums, botanical gardens, historical sites, trains, off trail family and loved one visits, being open to romance, and how one(you) are expanding while leaving good vibes wherever LIFE takes you.
Can we see how considering and engaging in these behaviors also addresses loneliness?
Don't allow to get deep into thoughts of boredom. Those thoughts tend to lead to choosing to be somewhere else doing something else.
That was a good post.
And the part about meeting people from 27 different countries, that is just wild.
Appreciate the comment Rick.
Finishing the thru-hike, walking back down Katahdin and then re-adjusting after the hike.
During the hike it's a lot of what you would already expect if you've been backpacking before.
for me, it is walking into a store and leaving with the right amount of food - food obsecion is especially bad the last day before a town stop, the food bag is picked over and not too appealing - so everything in the store looks good
one thing that helps is only using the child seat part of the cart - but I usually still buy too much
if I prepare shipped boxes beforehand the amount and weight of the food is always good
Your Highest Learning Curve
It took me a long time on my thru last year to learn how to walk out of a grocery store (resupply point) without anxiety. Too many years of Discovery Channel "What-If" disaster shows to be super confident in my food planning ability. Took me until New England to be able to walk out with what I felt was sufficient resupply food and NOT worry about "what if it's not enough?"
A couple of times on the hike, I found myself nearly without food and miles to go before town, so standing at the checkout counter stopped being such a worry. I knew if I DID run out before the next stop, it wouldn't be the end of the world, I'd been there, got the t-shirt.
The mental aspect. Not talking about general loneliness and whatnot, but your mind takes you to weird places when you spend a lot of time by yourself. It's especially strange when you are out of touch with the "real world" for days at a time. In 2010 BP had that rig spewing oil into the gulf. I assumed they would have it under control in a few days, yet every time I went into town I would hear about it again. This went on for over a month I think. It didn't even seem like something that was really happening to me. On a thru hike you live life in a bubble for the most part.
How to handle the after...now what? All the planning, trudging and work to finish, then what? Scary for me.
I'd second this as my steepest learning curve. I've spent my life playing in the mountains and backpacking. I'm pretty comfortable with hunger, thirst, walking, climbing, most of the various skills from cooking to pitching camp to navigating, etc. BUT, I still get stuck fighting with blisters and other overuse injuries at times. I've got my techniques and tools and I manage them pretty well, but damn, it takes discipline to slow down, say goodbye to your friends as needed, and give your body the opportunity to catch up with your expectations. . . or adjust your expectations to slow down to your bodies demands.
I'm not lost. I'm exploring.
Carrying too much food for the first few days, not much of a learning curve. I just stopped doing it right away.
For me, although I'd day hiked a lot, I'd never camped before. That was the biggest thing I needed to learn. I learned most of it pre-hike, right here. All sorts of great advice on where to set your tent to deal with wind, with cold, elevation, settling cold overnight, away from likely water channels if rain was expected, etc. Then it was just a matter of putting it into practice and trying to remember it all.
I remember feeling a bit annoyed one night when a guy who was bragging about his $700 tent, and all his gear that was far lighter than mine. I then noticed that he set the tent up, on a cold afternoon, like a wind scoop, with the head facing directly into a strong wind. Remembering how totally clueless I was, and how much help I got here, I asked if he might be more comfortable setting the foot into the wind.
The other learning curve for me, was just deciding to legally stealth camp more often, instead of whining to myself about the noise at the tent sites. Some nights I felt like socializing, and other nights I was sick of inconsiderate people, or even nice people.
1) sleeping on my back on the ground- should have practiced that before I started.
2) not doing too much- I get bored sitting around camp. I had a couple of overuse injuries. Thankfully I’m independent and don’t feel the need to keep up with a trail family.
3) not to stay in shelters- too many days where I stopped to eat dinner at the shelter because of rain, had all my stuff out, decided to stay and then got little sleep due to snorers. Also not being able to identify widow makers before the leaves are out chaser me to the shelter two nights.
4) adjusting back to the real world after 4+ months in the woods.
Folks have hit on pretty much all of the little mechanical things which are frequent issues when hiking. But most of them seem secondary issues to me. Some you will encounter and others not all based upon what you bring to the table and what the peculiarities of your way of hiking are.
To me there is one universal critical component of medium to long duration hiking which is applicable to everyone.
The state of your mind.
The thru hiker who literally lives to be out on the trail and finds any other life situation confining and limiting is extremely rare. Most of them are well known in the hiking community and held in some awe by hiking community.
The rest of us to varying degrees have to deal with an endless cavalcade of mental adjustments. Loneliness is a big one. Mid hike blues when the beginning has faded and the end is not in sight. The magnetic pull to rush onward (or deliberately dawdle along) as one nears the end of the trail. Are you neglecting your 'real' life and your family. Conversely are you wishing you did not have the guilt of neglecting your family and your real life as they are not all that attractive to you. Do you really 'love' nature or is hiking an extended form of conquering it and overcoming its difficulties. Hiking with others or without others are very different kinds of hiking and require very different mind sets. And going from one to the other during a hike can be really difficult on one's mental peace. Some hikers thrive on the good days and suffer through the tough ones. Others just love the challenging days and don't seem to pay much attention to the really nice ones. Some love towns and others hate towns. Some 'need' their music like they are hooked on drugs and others find that kind of noise in the wilderness somewhat obscene.
There are endless variations on the above and similar issues which you will have to deal with in your own way. This is where the true meaning of HYOH is found I think. A large percentage of new thru hikers find that they cannot settle into a internal mental rhythm which carries them forward in a reasonably comfortable frame of mind. And they leave the trail to return to a place which seems more suited to them. And some very experienced hikers sometimes go out and things just do not go well for that trip and they return home. We see both all the time as what works for us one day for some reason does not necessarily work the next. The ability to recognize when your mental place is not where it needs to be and to adjust yourself is to me the hardest and most important issue to have a handle upon.
And no one can do all that much to help you as the key to that is found inside you.
I hiked 635 miles in 2016, Springer to Pearisburg, Va. I hiked 806 miles last year, Pearisburg to Pawling, NY. Hiking 747 miles this year, Pawling to Katahdin. The 2 biggest issues for me was keeping the weight on, and missing my wife. I loved hiking the trail, and the daily challenges. But 2 months for me on the trail is enough. Physically, I could do a thru hike; no physical problems other than general soreness. But mentally, I'm ready to get off the trail after 2 months; that's why I've divided my "thru" hike into thirds. It's what works for me...
Food.
I couldn’t control the hiker hunger (I don’t think you can actually control it on a they but still) and had trouble fueling for bigger miles towards the end.
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GAME '16 4/18/16-8/12/16
Trailjournal: http://www.trailjournals.com/jjdontplay
Blog (Post Trail Gear Reviews): https://keeppushingon.wordpress.com/
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