I spend a lot of time thinking about my relationship with the outdoors. And a significant chunk of that thinking is about backpacking as it relates to, well, time. Setting aside the time to backpack, recognizing that there is a finite lifetime in which to backpack and that obligations and unforeseen circumstances will inevitably limit that time even further.
As I described in my essay The Backpacking Tithe Project, I’ve spent well over a year of my life on backpacking trips. But the time has all come piecemeal. I’ve yet to undertake any trips longer than six days. I have never intentionally done any section hiking on long-distance trails. Yes, I’ve been on parts of the Pacific Crest Trail, the Pacific Northwest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Appalachian Trail. But only because they were overlaid on other routes I was exploring.
I stepped on these famous paths without any intentionality applied to the experience of being on a long-distance trail.
I took pride in knowing that I was traveling near and deep, rather than far and wide. I was piecing together an understanding of how best to travel in and experience the public lands whose peaks I could see from my yard. I felt a bit of insider satisfaction at knowing where the best campsites were, which lakes had the best fishing, and which couloirs weren’t as sketchy as they looked. Intimate knowledge of my immediate landscape allowed me to piece together safe trips that looked unreasonably difficult on paper. This focus on exploration over mile-making has served me well and enriched my experience immeasurably.
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For instance, I timed my trips for peak wildflowers, foliage, or other conditions. I became intimately acquainted with the landscape near my home. Once a year, I also tried to get to some bigger-name destinations – like Glacier or Yellowstone National Parks. And I had some absolutely exceptional trips with friends that we could only pull off because of the location scouting I’d done on prior solo trips.
There is so much to see just a half-mile or so off any trail. I know I’d have difficulty staying focused on a long-distance trail when I’ve seen how many amazing places are just a few steps from the dotted line.
But I did have a bit of anxiety about whether I was missing out by not prioritizing a multi-week thru-hike. There is a level of immersion that comes with long periods in the woods.
On the other hand, I noticed that some of my friends who’d completed long-distance trails were less-than-excited about overnights or short multi-night trips.
Some of my thru-hiking friends hadn’t undertaken an overnight trip in years. It seems like long-distance hiking had merely been a post-college phase. For others, it was an all-or-nothing attitude where if it wasn’t some big adventure, they had little interest in pursuing it.
These anecdotes seemed to indicate that some people have chosen an all-encompassing, identity-heavy, short-term approach to backpacking. In contrast, I seemed to have gone with the small-scale but consistent option.
In the Forums: browse these Backpacking Light forum posts about thru-hiking
I certainly don’t intend to advocate one option as better or worse. Still, there are differences and distinctions between the two approaches worth considering. The reasons for choosing one or the other – if it is even a choice, as financial and familial pressure can narrow options to nearly nothing – vary greatly from hiker to hiker. But reconsidering one’s patterns and habits, whether regarding gear, diet, route planning, or anything else, can be useful even if you come full circle.
While I don’t think I’ll be quitting my job and becoming full-on hiker trash any time soon, I had an interesting conversation last summer with a Backpacking Light member who’d read my backpacking tithe essay. He stopped by my house while on a road trip, and we enjoyed wide-ranging conversations about backpacking, Gary Snyder, fly fishing, Honda Elements, and life in general. He’d hiked the John Muir Trail through the Sierra decades ago. While he appreciated my perspective regarding the backpacking tithe, he urged me to try and prioritize experiencing a weeks-long trek for myself.
He described the experience in a way that really clicked for me as being a different experience than my usual backpacking. Not just a longer experience, but a fundamentally unique one that isn’t comparable to the pattern I’d adopted. I found the idea of getting all 37 nights of my backpacking tithe accomplished in one fell swoop to be more compelling than I’d anticipated.
I keep thinking about his advice – to embark on a weeks-long hike at least once in my life – and am seriously considering making it happen sooner rather than later. There’s a Colorado Trail guidebook within arm’s reach as I type this. In terms of length and logistics – not to mention scenery – it seems like a good fit for me. I’m thinking about committing to planning and perhaps even hiking it next summer.
In the meantime, I’ll keep making the most of the public lands in my backyard, secure in the knowledge that however one enjoys the outdoors, the rewards are always worth it.
Do you prefer fewer – but longer and more immerseive – wilderness expereinces? Or do you lean in the direction of frequency over distance? Share your experiences in the comments!
Related Content
- Read more by Mark Wetherington.
- Listen to the podcast episode based on Mark’s Backpacking Tithe essay.
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Discussion
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Companion forum thread to: The Backpacking Tithe Revisited
Further reflections on short trips vs. thru-hiking.
Thanks for this article Mark!
I’m fortunate enough to live a simple life (low overhead, flexible work, no kids, etc) which gives me quite a bit of time to get in the woods. Each year for the past 6 years, my wife and I have taken a 2-week backpack trip in addition to 1-2 week-long trips and a number of 1-3 night trips. Last fall we did a 30-day trip (ending in your backyard) – the longest trip either of us had done. I should say that these trips tend to be in remote wilderness and we try to stay away from trafficked areas. These are routes that we’ve but together and don’t follow established thru-hiking routes. Thru-hiking likely offers a different experience than we’ve had.
These trips have encouraged us to think about how the length of time out plays a role in what we get from our trips and how they affect us. Obviously, the answers to these questions are very personal and relative to your other experiences. Before I started doing 2-week trips, a week-long trip felt long and committing. Now I can do a week trip with very little planning and it goes by like nothing – it feels like a 3 day trip used to. After last year’s month-long trip, I’m curious how this fall’s 2-week trip will feel! Hopefully someday we’ll do an even longer trip to see what there is to learn.
I’m of the mind that any night spent out in the woods is a good one. When I’m short on time and only have a weekend, I’m just as driven to do a one night trip. But I enjoy the camping aspect and a night spent out in the woods as much as the hiking. I know for some, the camping is just a means to make their hike longer and a night out in the woods is just something that’s tolerated.
To me, a “long” trip is one in which the worries, anxieties, stresses, and routine of everyday life fall away and you’re just left with the present life on the trail. For me, this takes around a week, sometimes more. When I get to this point, I feel absorbed by the routine and life on the trail. Life on the trail may not be easy, but it tends to be simple. We have a well-defined purpose and most tasks we do serve that purpose. Especially on our month trip last year, life on the trail began to feel like “normal” life rather than something we’re doing temporarily.
I have never had the inclination to do a through hike; 10 days is my maximum length. After that, I have an itch to do something else. Not that I don’t enjoy hiking, if I were to take say a month off, I would rather go to distinctly different locations. A week in the Sierra, a week in Slot Canyons, week hiking along the coast and so forth. My 2 cents.
I’m with Jon. Eight to ten days (what will fit in our two bear canisters) is about our limit. When we take off on one of our long car-camping expeditions, that also about how long we go between hot showers.
But we’re old (almost 70) and I’m sure that younger people have more fun with this.
My dear friend John and I hiked the PCT by section starting in 2010 when we were 60. We hiked 100 miles 5 days the first year to test our gear, food, hydration and physical selves. The next year we hiked the John Muir trail from Tuolumne south and summited Mt. Whitney on the 10th day. These were highly educational shorter trips, and we refined every aspect of gear, food, hydration, clothing and training. Year three we hiked Washington PCT, 525 miles in September and enjoyed crossing paths with many thru-hikers and hearing their stories. We completed the trail in 2015 at age 65 and were fortunate to dodge all the closures and forest fire events. It was a spectacular experience. One benefit on our 120 days/nights over 6 years on the trail was we never got sick, got bad water, injured ourselves. We avoided the big snow years that plagued some in the Sierras we met, the early snow years in Washington Cascades that stopped many, hit wild flower & butterfly blooms to die for, hiked many sections in September generally with few hikers. Now we are rowing from Seattle to Alaska, 800 miles, in our 17 ft rowboat (Facebook or Instagram – “Rowing to Alaska”), in our early 70’s. We made in 400 miles to the north end of Vancouver Island and a health event ended our trip. We decided we are “section rowers” and will finish next year, build upon our experience and pickup at Port Hardy where we left off. It’s all amazing no matter how you do it! Now it summer vacation and time to take grandkids to our cabin in Alaska.
Well said Mark.
I think the term “thru-hike” is fairly useless as a categorical description of a hiking experience. After all, the starts and ends of long-distance trails are fairly arbitrary. They are mostly defined by human politics and history. Geography and ecology are secondary considerations at best.
That said, a long-distance hike is a categorically different experience from shorter hikes. For me, that difference comes at the point where I become wholly immersed in my present surroundings and present experience. It’s when I stop thinking about returning home because I am home.
This is an experience every hiker (and every human being) should have at least once. Maybe there are other ways to get to this state of mind, but walking long distances is the only one I know of.
I’m not a fan of through-hiking even in the best of circumstances, but I really wouldn’t recommend the Colorado Trail, unless perhaps you are a millennial looking for a hookup. I have hiked sections of it many times, and always found it to be a truly terrible experience. It’s an ant trail of hikers and cyclists, with dozens of people camped every night at the obvious places.
I wish I had the stamina and physical condition needed to do longer than 2-3 weeks. I always regret coming back. Unless the trip was nothing but type 3 fun, constant rain, etc.
Thanks, Drew. Your comments reinforce the advice I’ve gotten from other others and where my thoughts have evolved to as well. I’d really like to reach the state of mind you’re talking about, and it seems like a hike of several weeks if probably the only way to get there — no shortcuts : ) And I also agree that it’s probably more the duration and immersion that would help me get there than the title of a name-brand thru-hike.
Dan: Thanks for the insight on the Colorado Trail. That’s a bit discouraging to hear as the landscape looks incredible and the length and the logistics are a fairly good fit for me.
I suppose maybe it’s a better idea for me to consider just putting together my own long distance hike here in Western Montana and just plot out a two to three week trip here. Certainly no shortage of options in that regard, and resupply could be fairly easy since I could cache supplies ahead of time and/or have friends meet me at road crossings/trailheads. Only issue is that trail maintenance on some of the connector trails can leave a bit to be desired. But I’m the type of hiker that usually prefers solitude and blowdowns over crowds and perfectly manicured tread.
I’ll have to respectfully disagree with Dan about the desirability of thru-hiking the CT. There definitely are a few sections with lots of bike traffic, especially on weekends (Buffalo Creek, Kenosha Pass, Monarch Pass). But the bikers are courteous and their organizations are major contributors to trail maintenance. I am happy to share the trail with them, even if it gets a bit annoying to have to step off the trail frequently.
There have been a couple of times when a place I planned to camp was already occupied, but nothing like the JMT, where if you don’t have a spot by 4pm you are pretty much out of luck.
The CT is well-maintained, it’s scenery is spectacular (especially the west Collegiate route), it has fun trail towns, there are plenty of places to bail in the first 200 miles if things aren’t working out. It is an excellent choice for a first long-distance hike.
” like the JMT, where if you don’t have a spot by 4pm you are pretty much out of luck.”
That doesn’t match my two section hike experiences on the JMT, at all. We never had trouble finding campsites, no matter what time we rolled in. And folks coming in after us also found spots. I didn’t find it all that crowded, to be honest. The only spot that was a challenge was at Mono creek where several trails converge. Even still, there were spots available, and thanks to some nice campers who directed us to a very private spot near the creek, we had almost complete isolation there.
If I do the JMT again, finding a decent campsite is off my list of things to worry about – easy peasy.
Something I don’t think has been mentioned yet is the difference between a long-duration hike (solo or with a group) and a thru-hike on a known trail. The thru-hike has a social and maybe even a “historical” component that can be part of the charm – many have hiked it before you, several will hike it with you, and many will hike it after you.
You can keep to yourself or make friends as much or as little as you like, but the feeling of traveling a great distance by foot with other people can be special, even if you don’t want to hike with them day after day.
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