I guess I was a comparative veteran. I'd been hiking a lot the four years previous, including a couple of >10 day backpacking trips and lots in the 3-5 day range.
A "test" hike is to prepare your gear, not you.
The AT was my first hike (excluding a 5 day hike when I was 13 in Outward Bound). I was at Springer 30 days after finding out what the AT was. It took me 6.5 months and I was a fatty at the start.
They say looking at folks at Springer and predicting who will make it is a losing proposition. I believe it.Originally Posted by McBride
Fear ridges that are depicted as flat lines on a profile map.
I hiked the trail in sections from the age of 14 on. I am 49 now. By 2001 a friend figured that if you added up all my section hikes they'd add up to 7 thru-hikes ... but doing a week or two at a time is not the same pilgramage as a thru-hike. On my 40th birthday in 2003 I started my Thru-hike (which was my birthday present from my wife a few months earlie)r. With all my knowledge and experience as a guide / naturalist and having been an "AT Thru-Hiker Coach (consult) ... I still decided to carry creature comforts (pack heavy). I was fine - but my new Opsrey pack was not - and my heavy load snapped the left buckle so that the pack swung off my body dragging me down into a ravine near Unicoi Gap. The story hit the pages of the shelters and "Sir-Packs-Alot" was born. You don't need to be an expert - but the odds of getting injured and having the injury continue to be exacerbated with daily hiking (so that you quit in VA) are much higher if you don't do some homework. This site is great. Regardless of how good or bad your gear and logistics are though - you need one more IMPORTANT thing to prevent you from being one of the 15 to 20 percent of folks that quit at the "30 mile wall" (3-4 day point Neels Gap - for a northbound hike). You need to expect the trail to be a surprise - so that your SPIRIT doesn't get broken - that's the clincher that many disregard. . No matter how many things you read online - no matter how many people use all the adjectives at their disposal to describe the trail - a thru hike for someone who has not done this sort of long distance hiking is like a foreign food... unlike anything you have ever eaten ... we can describe it all we want and you can assume you know what it is - but you really only GET IT once you've tasted it - put it in your mouth - hiked it ! Many who quit at mile 30 quit because of the shock of it. You could stay at the hostel there for $14 per day and rest up, heal up, get better gear and have them ship stuff home ... even get great advice from veteran hikers - but many still quit. That's not because of blisters - but because their spirit is broken. Not many gear gurus speak of that - but that's the biggest "piece of gear" you need.
well put sir. A thru-hike cannot be described in words. It would be like trying to describe music to a deaf person. there is but one way to truly know what one looks/feels/tastes like. most people will find out they do not like it but at least they will have "scratched the itch". The vast majority of information available to potential thru hikers paints too rosy a picture imo of what's it is like to cvarry a pack for 2100+ miles.the single biggest reason most people get off...they go out expecting the wrong things.
Absolutely. When I was in Georgia and NC - everyone that I thought would make it didn't, and those that I thought wouldn't make it stood on top of the big K sign screaming.
6 weeks the first time....20 minutes the second time.
no gurus here...just people with alot of desire.
geek
Last edited by Jim Adams; 08-19-2011 at 17:39.
I did my thru as my first hike ever. No kidding. I had never put a pack on my back until I started up Springer. 191 days later I was on Katahdin.
most think it will be a great trip...the ones that make it usually adapt the attitude that it is not a trip but a 6 month way of life.
geek
my first hike ever was a thru. found out about the trail and probably 4 years later made the jump. slowly bought gear over that time period, so some of my gear was 1-4 years old alraedy before i used it.
might not be the same, but over the years i always heard most thruhikers never hiked before, and most of those college kids that go out,never hike again. just some trendy thing to do
my second hike was a thru :-)
I never overnight camped in my life before starting my hike, and only strapped on my Lowe Contour IV a half dozen times. Yeah, I made mistakes, but I found thru-hiking more about a strong mind than a strong back.
Just Plain Bill
GA>ME '90
My new eBook: Secrets Of The Long Haul: Training Your Mind For Successful Long Distance Hiking
Other than a couple of 3 day 'Shakedown' hikes, my thru hike was my first real backpacking trip. Even if you dont have much hiking experience, you learn and adapt quickly.
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