in my humble opinion, hiking is something you do for yourself (generally), and only you know the reasons why or why not. Trying to categorize various hikers’ reasons for completion, performance or whatever based on a particular survey taker’s view of the world is not only irrelevant but a bit condescending to others (yes your opinion may vary)…why not recognize that everyone is different and leave it at that? HYOH :happy Freedom!
RockyTrail
There is an Army unit which the Dept of Defense stills insists does not exist that uses a line on all of their recruiting letters. The Only Failure Is The Failure To Try.
I think that takes the word “FAILURE” out of the equation.
Yogi was right. Not being emotional. Just being right.
Ragnar
Why not make a list of which hikers have got off the trail for this year and who had mentioned previously in a journal, etc. that they intended to thru-hike.
Desert Lobster
If you are trying to avoid certain preventable problems then I would say these are the top three.
I agree that the Success/Failure is a little severe. If you hike the whole think and hate every step was it a success?
reddog
gardenville, I guess the first ‘Failure Matrix’ indicator is not to piss off so many others. Actually, if you read other hiker’s journals you get an idea of who is struggling and who is not. A lot of times you can read who is struggling with injuries, who is carrying a lot of weight, who is missing loved ones back home, who is not eating the right food, who is running short of money. And just when you think there is no possibility that they will continue, they keep on going. Every year there are many that over come all ‘failure indicators’. I’m sure we could make a list. But just like in school, in business, in life there are plenty of lists that indicate that someone will fail. Maybe we could come up with a ‘success matrix’. The first indicator would be, ‘If you Try you are Successful’, no one can determine who is successful. And if for some reason you come up short of your goal, remeber the mark of a winner is not never being knock back, but getting back up after you have been knocked down. gardenville, maybe you could rephrase your question.
Bilko
Having read many AT journals, the main reason for thru-hike failure seems to be emotional issues. Many who attempt a thru-hike miss loved ones they left behind and leave. Others find the trail isn’t what they imagined it would be, and leave. They get tired of the monotony of the trail routine, as they perceive it.
Many others fail because of physical injuries, but they are fewer than those who just decide trail life isn’t for them, for one reason or another.
Yes, they failed. Nothing wrong with that straightforward word. Doesn’t mean they have to drag their head on the ground or go into a funk. But they indeed failed to accomplish the goal they set out to do.
Applesauce
For me, the question of doing permanent or at least serious injury to an old knee problem. Injured my knee many years ago, and thought that my training regimen over the last 18 months was enough. Naprosyn (the other little blue pill) wasn’t doing anything to help. 36 hours after leaving the trail, I was in Michigan with a tentative diagnosis of strained tendon and small tear in a ligament, confirmed a few days ago.
My heart is still on the trail, and I hope to finish it someday, maybe a section this summer and a little bit at a time, maybe all at once in ten years. Although my heart led me to the trail, my mind made the intelligent decision to back off vs. increase the risk of worsening an injury. One week after leaving the trail, even now I can barely walk down a flight of stairs, although I can walk up them better and on even ground ok and have regained 75% range of motion. Hoping for the best…
-xtn
airferret
Gardenville,
For someone asking for help your approach is way to emotional. You would probably be better served at www.trailplace.com.
footnotes
This emotional response is actually kind of funny. Gardenville never said people were failures if they didn’t finish the hike. Consider this:
Every thru-hiker on Springer has the goal of finishing at Katahdin (or vice versa). If they don’t, they’re not a thru-hiker. Ergo, if they don’t reach Katahdin, they failed to achieve THAT goal. Hence, failure.
That doesn’t mean the “experience” was a failure, or the person is a failure, just that this person failed to achieve the goal of reaching Katahdin. They may have achieved other goals in their trip, as Tha Wookie explains - self-discovery, learning their limits, learning about trail life, relaxing, getting away from civilization, etc. But many folks have those goals - what distinguishes a thru-hiker is the goal of walking, often carrying a rock, from Springer to Big K (or the other way, or both ways).
But whatever you choose to call it, I think compiling a list of why people do not achieve that particular goal could be helpful. A lot of potential hikers do research before their hike. Having a list of common reasons others abandoned the endeavor before reaching Katahdin might allow them to prepare better. For example, knees and feet will probably rank near the top, and reading this may cause a potential hiker to start a more robust training program before the hike, or to spend more time making sure they get a good fit on their boots.
Also, hikers could use it to “diagnose” their mental state. If they’re thinking about folks back home, it might help them to understand that last year 13% (random number) left the trail to be with loved ones. They might say, “Well, others have done it and I’m sure their lives are fine, so I’m going home where I belong.” Or they might say, “Only 13% left the trail because they missed being home, and I’m not going to quit.” The numbers make no judgment…the people reading them make the judgment.
In the end, I agree with Yogi - failure is probably the wrong word, simply because of the negative connotation it has. If this thread is any indication of the response you’ll get to your research, you’d definitely do better to rephrase your question!
However you ask it, though, I’m sure you’ll irritate some people. Some folks don’t want the AT quantified. Others want everything on it quantified so it can be better preserved. Others don’t care about the trail, but want to quantify things like this as a study in human performance. Some don’t want any development, some want burger stands at each road crossing. You can’t make everyone happy, but I think a study like this could be useful if you draw the right conclusions from the numbers.
Jeff
Jeff
Thanks Jeff for taking the time to really read my 2 posts. I used the word Failure becaused I didn’t want to denigrate the word Success. You are correct this is not about WHO failed, but WHY. Thanks also to those few others that offered something construcive.
gardenville
Knowing why others left, or in what proportions, is really meaningless. What matters is what it takes for you to continue, or not. I have known people who hiked with broken bones, and a lot who hiked with really painful knees - not to mention those who started the trail with serious physical issues like MS. I have also known people who went home when they got their first blisters or because the shelters were dirty. I have known people whose hikes were in rain every day, who hiked with joy. And others whose hikes were blessed with good weather, who were miserable. I have known people who left families behind who were able to continue their hikes, because finishing had meaning to the individual – and others who decided that their first loyalty was to their family and not to themselves. I’ve known hikers who trudged with 90 pound packs who hiked the trail, and others with ultalight packs who got bored at their 30 mile a day pace and went home. Rich hikers make it, so do very poor ones. Good gear won’t get you there, bad gear won’t stop you, though it may slow you down. Experience may help, but I’ve known a lot of people who had no experience at all who walked all the way, and some with many miles under their boots who decided that thruhiking wasn’t what they wanted.
It is what is in your head that matters, and only you know waht is there, and even you probably don’t know that yet. I certainly didn’t. I wasn’t really sure I would climb Katahdin until I reached Catatunk. But I knew I had to keep going as far as I could - one day at a time, one step at a time, until I really had no choice but to stop. And I never saw anything bad enough to stop me. How badly do you want it? Seems to me you’re looking for reasons to quit, and you haven’t even started yet. Try looking for reasons to stay, instead.
Spirit Walker
As I was reading down this list,I’m thinking,"He never called anyone a failure"Let’s thicken up the skin a bit.The bottom line is;if you set a goal and don’t achieve it(whatever it is )you have failed to reach your goal.Nothing else was implied.Yogi,I understand your intentions but he didn’t call the hikers a failure,he called the hike a failure,which it was.Oo
Onlyone
Say someone had a extreme challange with a goal at the end.They plan,train and try to anticipate all possible problems that may occur.Something happens and they cannot achieve their goal.That in my opinion is not a failure,they were just UNSUCCESSFUL at achieveing their goal.The only failure is to not dream or try.Your approach is the opposite of what i would choose.Why dont you ask successful thru hikers on how they achieved their goals and what challanges they encountered along the way.THINK POSITIVE!
newb
gardenville, when I first read your post I saw no malice in the word failure, I took it as I believe you meant it. Good stuff here. Peace.
freeranger
American culture is all or nothing. You are a success or a failure, there is nothing in between. No wonder we work more hours than the rest of the world. It is a wonder anyone hikes at all, since you are “wasting” good time when you could be becoming “successful”. It’s hard to imagine we could turn hiking on the AT into a commodity or a contest where all you can do is succeed or fail. We are good at taking the fun out of things.
Blue Jay
newb,
Webster’s New Riverside University Dictionary defines “fail” as “2. To be unsuccessful.”
And “failure” as “1. The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends.”
Though I understand what you’re saying, people must have a good understanding for reasons of failure so they can make sure it doesn’t happen to them.
One of the major critiques of the failed operation to rescue the hostages in Iran (Operation EAGLE CLAW) was that they did not plan for failure. What do you do if Segment X of the plan fails? How do you compensate for that failure so that you end up reaching the end goal, and the whole mission is not a failure?
If you plan only for success and do not CONSIDER the other possibilities, one of those other possibilities will likely bite you in the arse!
Just like the fantasy vs reality comment - an educated hiker is more likely to be a successful hiker, in pretty much whatever goal he chooses.
Jeff
Jeff
“As the AT Hiking seasons gets into high gear for 2004, the list of this years “Failures” is already starting to grow.”
The best you can say is that the above sentence is ambiguous. When I first read it, I interpreted “failures” as referring to the hikers themselves, not the hikes. I was put off by that, even though, reading the rest of the post, I was sympathetic to your goal. I know that if I were one of the people who had spent a year or more planning to hike the AT, and some circumstance had caused me to leave the trail prematurely, I would not respond well to someone referring to me as a failure. I would not even appreciate my hike being referred to as a failure, since I would most likely be trying to salvage something from the experience.
Reaching Katahdin is just one of many goals that people have when they set out on the trail. Whether the hike is a success or failure depends on whether they got out of it what they wanted. Some goals are more spiritual/emotional/social, and the only person who can measure the success or failure of those goals is the person doing the hiking. They could have very legitimate reasons for considering their hike a success even if they don’t reach Katahdin. So if your goal is to get people to provide you with information, I think you will fail unless you find a way to word this question that doesn’t offend them.
Ardsgaine
when I was in boot camp if a recruit dropped out of a run he was called a run drop. Hmmmm.
freeranger