Thruhiker mentality

[Diplomatic Mike]

My apologies if you think i am picking on you, German Tourist. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I'm simply sick of folk spouting new age nonsense about thru-hiking.
It's only one foot after the other.
If you can afford to do it.

[German Tourist]

@Mike:
I totally agree with you on the "new age" nonsense. I have noticed that a lot of wannabee thruhikers romanticize (if there is such a word) the AT or the PCT and have no clue what they are really getting into. And this is one of the reasons why I want to post this text on my blog – I want them to get a realistic picture of what to expect on a thruhike.
Yes, you are absolutely right: You need money to thruhike. But you also need a lot less money than most people think. Money is often used as an easy excuse not to live your dream when in reality those people would have enough money but do not want to sacrifice on other things.

[EndoftheTrail]

@ German Tourist:

I am not a thru hiker at all, but I think I can relate, having done a seven month, round the world trip. I agree with the importance of pre-trip mental preparation. I would also like to suggest adding another factor, this one as an encouragement actually: that similar to running a marathon… once you overcome "the wall" that usually hits people somewhere in the 'first third' of the trip — then most all "hardships" — mental and physical — that's pressuring folks to give up — will become routine and downright easy! Hurdles that seem insurmountable will somehow morph into "non issues" in the latter part of the trip!

For me, after two or three months of hitting town after town, country after country — mastering the lay of the land quickly, only to have all that become useless and to repeat the effort quickly again for the next destination — all of that actually become "the new normal" — so routine that I didn't even have to think about it anymore! And I am sure that "hardships" such as hiking 30 or 40 mile days and setting up camp at a different places every friggin' night will also become so routine that they become simply… instinctive!

One other thing — for those who feel homesick. After a few months, when moving point to point to point becomes "the new norm" — one can actually look forward to the state of mind "your home is wherever you are"! I got to the point where staying in a different hotel every few days was so normal that I truly could just go on and on — or go home — it made no difference to me. I suspect many thru hikers actually don't feel homesick anymore, once they're a few months into their hikes.

Perhaps the above is all just 'common sense' — but I think it's worth putting into your write up to remind folks when things just seem "impossible" — that most all of that will fade away if they will just soldier on a bit more…

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

It's true the hardships get way easier. It's hard to convey to people after a trip like that how little gear you really need. I regularly forget crucial pieces of gear but I learned on the PCT that there are only a few truly crucial pieces of gear and most anything can be survived even without that crucial piece of gear. I also learned that sometimes after the surviving is finished, you discover the fun that was happening while you were so miserable.

As for being wealthy to thru-hike? You don't need wealth. You simply need financial flexibility and you can get that with very little money so long as you do not have debt. Debt is what keeps people at all financial levels from leaving jobs and cares behind to travel.

It is true I had money but I had saved it up myself and one day I realized hey, I could quit my job for a year and be okay.

It turned out I could actually quit my job for 2 years (because I was only periodically employed for 2 years after quitting) and I even tacked on a third year of half-time employment after that and still had over half of that money left.

[Steven Hanlon]

here is what it takes to be a thru-hiker. a buddy is about to start his AT hike in a month and this is what the discussions have been between us:

you have to have money – gear, food, travel to and from the trail, these all add up.

the time – can i put everything on hold for 4 months – family, job, income?

the will – do i really want to hike day after day for four months? really? do i?

the ability – can i stand to be alone for 4 months away from my family, heck away from everyone i know and trust?

he answered all of these with several shorter section hikes to see what it would take to be alone, isolated from everything he knows. what it takes to rely on food drops, on getting to the trailhead by himself. he is ready, i wish him the best and i know he will make it, as long as he doesn't run out of cigarettes :)

[EndoftheTrail]

Money — gear, food, transport… incremental expenses can be mitigated depending on how much you are now spending day-to-day on food and transport. Gear may or may not be expensive, depending on what you've already got. Grandma Gatewood's thru-hike gear was decidedly cheap!

Time — a great part of this is determined by one's own lifestyle choices and work / saving ethics.

Ability — Some hiking experience is obviously necessary to survive even the initial segment, but after that, one also acquires a lot of "trail smarts". Something about experience begetting more experience?

Will — This one is probably the biggest variable for most first timers?

[EndoftheTrail]

Mike – "When you have limited income, and a mortgage, kids, etc, it becomes much more difficult."

Ben – "All self inflicted, clearly avoidable pain. :)"

Mike – "Please explain why limited income is self inflicted, Ben? Are all poor folk deliberately poor? :)"

Yes, we must recognize that there are genuinely poor people in our society. However, except for the unfortunate languishing at the very bottom — most everyone above that are actually pretty darn high income earners compare to a great majority of 'third world' countries! As well, when one talks about "limited income" — that must be discussed in relation to lifestyle choices!

For most (not all, but most) of us, we have a fair-to-high degree of control over our earnings. Not every year, but more so over the course of years. One can switch jobs, one can relocate, the choices are many on the revenue side. And when it comes to lifestyle choices on the expense side, there is even more control — esp. near the front end!

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