Backpacking versus Thru-hiking

Not having done a thru hike…yet, I have over the years backpacked with a minimalist attitude. The last two years have me at a 5-7lb base weight for all of my trips. Luckily I see food as simply something that fills what is empty and can eat darn near anything. THis article gives me some confidence in what I am doing, so I can complete a thru hike. There are always those nagging doubts. Even though i have done 100 milers in four days etc, the biggest for me is if I have the mental toughness to go day after day. Will I get homesick or will I grow to see the trail as my home. These for me are much bigger than the gear and technique issues. Listening to trail lore is a good tip. I have read many journals and try to imagine myself in their shoes. One day soon we will see.

Great articel. It took me several years to learn what he said. I still do the weekend trip, but I find I would rather do a three week trip. I do not start to have fun until about day 10. I hope thease longer trips have given me that knowalage I need to do the Thru-Hike in 2014 when I retire.

Yeah, what Ken said.

Some people that are new to backpacking and are non-ULers do bring a change of clothes for everyday since they're only out for 2-3 days. I saw people at trail camp near mount whitney with CHAIRS. I thought everyone used their bear can as a seat/dinnertable. Almost everyone we passed had brand new gear and kept the packaging the stuff came in (i.e. rei pad in the rei information sack).

I cringe to even admit this but when I was a dayhiker I kind of just hid my tp from my number ones in leaves. HORRID I know. Now that I "leave no trace behind" and I see all the tp from dayhikers and noob backpackers I get livid. I didn't start backpacking in places where the wilderness permit hander-outer gave you a 15 minute how to camp in the wilderness lecture so when I get the lecture and know everyone else got that same lecture and they choose not to abide is when I get mad.

Anywaay I think there is a huge difference from people who backpack a couple days in a row once a year and people who do it all the time and get into so much they read and post in forums. Articles like this show people different and better ways to hike.

I like this kind of article. Did it tell me anything new? … no, other than the tale of the $20 AT thru-hike. But I'm glad to see articles like this as part of the BPL publishing mix.

Was this article written for the BPL audience? I ask because so much of the methodology described seems to be what we ULrs have been doing as standard operating procedures.

True … but preaching only to the choir does not grow the choir. Consider Doug Prosser's ultralight at Philmont articles … I've shown them to countless scouters, didn't help some, few became ultralighters but many made very significant pack weight reductions (40%-50%).

It's not like a thru-hike must be 6 months long or a certain number of miles to be considered so.

Also true. But note that Francis opens with the info "About one in five prospective Appalachian Trail thru-hikers quit within the first week!" … that would apply to any trail long enough to qualify as a "thru-hike" and closes with "a whopping 50 percent quit within the first six weeks of a thru-hike". … not all of those are quitting in week 5 or 6, again could be applied to shorter long hikes.

What I find interesting is that many thru-hikers do not backpack if they are NOT thru-hiking (or participate in the outdoors at all).

Part of the reason I live where I do is that I need the outdoors part of my daily life, not just a trip every couple of years or so.

I loved my long trips (and I can't wait to get back out there again in about 2 yrs, but that's another story) but need the after work climbs, the long day hike, the hut trip or the long weekend backpack as well.

To only do something outdoors once every couple of years or so is not something I can wrap my brain around.

So, oddly enough, many thru-hikers do not backpack all that much comparatively speaking in the grand scheme of things. :)

FWIW, I've take the UL philosophy and applied it to my weekend trips. I might take some creature comforts depending on the trip (wine comes to mind. ;) ), but overall my gear does not change all that much, if at all in the case of solo trips, from the thru-hikes I've done.

Jennifer, you bring up a good point. This is another difference I noticed while thru-hiking. At least the year I hiked the PCT, I noticed very strict LNT principles such as carrying out TP, drinking the water used to clean a pot (and of course never draining food water on the ground), and never building a fire.

Paul, you are also right about thru-hikers not backpacking. I admit, I do much less backpacking now that I have completed long trails. It isn't the same. And I only day hike for exercise. I think thru-hiking ruined backpacking for me.

And James, you are right too. No one can take that kind of time off consistently. I had to quit a high-paying career to become a career backpacker. And now I work in retail during the months I am not thru-hiking. It isn't something that people can just do. They have to create it, and that takes way more sacrifice than most people are willing to make.

I was intrigued by the potential difference between thru-hiking and backpacking according to the article until I realised that for me it's the same thing :)

If anything, a thru-hike demands the mental strengh that usually comes with a determination to make it. Most of the hikers that left their thru-hikes that I saw were doing technically fine but couldn't handle it anymore.

And I know this is probably a very personal thing but for me backpacking and thru-hiking recall esentially the same feelings. Once I have to spend one night outside, it takes me to a certain level of consciousness that's way beyond the day-hike experience. Some of my most memorable thru-hikes were two day hikes :) Anyway, the mind adapts. If I'm out for a week my mind adapts to that and will feel like done when the week expires. It's worked the same for me when I've been out for several months in a row.

I was an outdoors person before I was a thru-hiker. Just love being out there.

My thru-hikes tended to reflect that feel as I spent a lot of time by myself, enjoyed the social interaction but did not necessarily seek it out, same thing with the ongoing linear community, etc.

I love looking at maps, making my own route and having my own experience.

When I do a long hike again, I just may make my own route off the beaten path or no path at all. I, of course, reserve the right to go back on my own words. ;)

An example of hiking my own hike:
Seven Days Solo in the San Juans

The long trails (even the CDT) are too linear at times. Nature of the beast.

So, guess my weekend (or more) backpacks are about being outside much like my thru-hikes. I do love the journey and being out for weeks or months at a time admittedly.

Don't get me wrong I LOVED my thru-hikes. The AT was responsible for me moving out to Colorado and everything else that followed in my outdoor 'career'.

But, if all I did was hike the long trails, I'd miss out on the canyons of Utah off the Hayduke, never explore the Sangres, not see the sun set over the distant Rockies while at the Pawnee Buttes, being immersed in winter while gliding along on skis deep in the backcountry, feel what it is like to rope up and attain the summit of the mountain or climb the glacier.

I treasure those experiences too much. And doing just thru-hikes would not me experience all that.

Everything involves a sacrifice. Darn if I know the balance!

Anyway, works for me. If there was a best way for everyone, it would be a freakin' boring world! :)

One aspect that was touched on that I found to be most critical was attitude, and specifically whether people enjoyed the lifestyle of thruhiking. For people who bought into the lifestyle everything else was secondary. When I did the PCT two people stood out – one hiker with a 60lb+ pack (solar charger, Marine Corps knife etc) who just trucked along without a complaint and ground out the miles, and another who graduated from college in FL with a bunch of mail-order REI equipment and who had never spent the night in a tent before that first night at Lake Morena. Neither finished, but both made it to OR and were just stopped by early winter snow.

What kept them (and me) going was that they loved doing it. I did view thru-hiking as a job – I worked 6 days a week, and each work day I'd get up at 6am, have breakfast, pack up 'the house' and go to work for 10-12 hours. On the seventh day I'd do chores (laundry, grocery shopping etc) and then start the work week again. The key thing is that I liked my 'job' and looked forward to going back to it each week. Thru-hiking is a profession in a way and thru-hikers become professional hikers for 5 months or so. If you like the job you'll probably finish and if you don't like the job you'll quit and find another one.

Maybe not the BPL readership, but, as suggested, others can benefit. Print the article (it can be copied to a word processor, with a little work) and give it to anyone you know who might be considering an extended backpacking trip. I was on the AT for three months and noticed people shedding weight and gear, including me.

There's another reason to cut down on pack weight, regardless of trip length: it's kinder on the body. Less body strain cuts food need and lessens the tiredness that can lead to accidents and injuries. That's especially so on the AT in Maine, whose difficulty makes it the postgraduate school of backpacking. Someone who had done the PCT quit the trail in Monson, just before the "100-mile" wilderness and Katahdin, in a huff over the unexpected difficulty of clambering close to straight up and down steep mountains of less than 4,000 feet in height. She'd have been better off with less weight on her back, improving her balance and endurance, both desirable, perhaps essential, on the AT in Maine.

I say this with a touch of humor, but also with some sincere seriousness. Thru-hiking ruined my life…or at least in the eyes of some. Although unlikely, it may not be all that unreasonable to warn aspiring thru-hikers that it can be an extremely addictive thing. You are, for a period of 4-6 months, adopting a completely new lifestyle that is absolutely nothing like your other life, and afterwards it can very hard to find peace of mind in the old daily grind.

In 2010 I thru-hiked the AT with my girlfriend and we had the time of our lives. It was the most rewarding thing I'd ever done. Afterwards though adjusting back to the real world was difficult. It was unbelievably boring and full of stresses I found much more burdensome than waking up to rain. I managed to get my old job back and kept it for about two months before getting fed up, and quitting. I sort of ran away to New Mexico to work on a farm in the middle of the high desert along the Sawtooth Mountains. Doing this not only ended up costing me my relationship, but it was also a decision not to go back to school and finish up my degree. Being in New Mexico was rather exciting because it was all very new to me and I hiked about 3 days of the week, but after a while I knew what was going to happen…I was going to hike the PCT that spring.

I just finished on September 16th and I'm already missing it. It is safe to say that I'm a thru-hiking addict…or an epic adventure addict…I'm not 100 percent sure. I'm already planning next year's traverse across Iceland and the CDT the year after that. How I'm going to get myself to suck it up and make the money to afford these things I'm not quite sure, but I know I'll do it. But the chances of me keeping a job for a year or more, or finishing up school, that all seems rather jeopardized by my hiking. The parents aren't too pleased.

Anyway, thats my two cents on the risks of thru-hiking. Its not for everyone, but fore some there's nothing better.

-Rainer