Did a section of AT in April, and I must admitt I had a hard time when I got off the trail, adjusting to the real world again. My mind just seemed to stay back on the trail. How do you long time hikers cope with that? Or was it just me, it was a different world on the trail, far removed from everything.I can only dream of doing it the whole way.
sallysot2000
Sometimes it never goes away. For some they get the bug and keep planning their next hike. When this happens your addicted and want to keep hiking leaving the “real” world behind. I still think about the trail every day especially in the spring and fall when I want to leave town and start walking.
Darth packman
Is the real world the one on the trail where most people treat each other like members of a tribe; where life is reduced to it’s simplest form or is the real world the one where everyone is out for themselves and big corporations and our corrupt as hell government keeps us oppressed? I really guess it is all how you look at it. The AT in 2000 was my first deep immersion into the realities of life. Coming back to the land of numbers is horrible and oppressive. My world turned from green and beautiful to grey and cold. Which world do you prefer? Since 2000, I have hiked a lot more. I now live in a community that is as close to living on the trail as can be. There isn’t a single day that I do not think about the AT or some other trail.
ASWAH
aswah
Which is real in the end, the world of greed, fear and loathing, or the world of simplicity and beauty. Man has traveled far from home, and he longs to return. Listen to your heart, it will tell you what is real.
“Last night I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky so free; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamed of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?”
Tao
Once the trail is a part of you, it’s there to stay. It doesn’t leave, and that’s a good thing! This is the first summer for 5 years that I’m not hiking. I just look at it as one long, extended town stop.
yogi
yogi
I am to the point now where I feel a lot like Yogi. When I see people around, I think of them generally as town people, and I’m just passing through. Even in the town I live in. But not everyone.
The AT for me confirmed thoughts I already had about the large majority of “civlization”. After pulling out of the groupthink, it is plain for a person to see how homogeneous in thought and action people are. Especially in America, I’ve discovered, after travelling abroad.
I think anyone with a conscience would have a tough time readjusting. It’s plain to see that many folks live completely for others, to fit into the big groupthink with the best status they can afford. But it is not based on reality, but rather a human-made mental construct that only exists between members of the groupthink.
The good news is that once you figure all of this out, you have the ability to move through the game without being phased. The risk is when you start worrying how you fit in the game. I’ve decided I’m out. Instead I use it as good entertainment. People are really silly in “civilization”.
When I asked Ray Jardine this very same question, I phrased it more in line with “how do you live with leaving paradise and entering the city?” He replied quickly, “The happiest place on earth is right under your feet.”
And it is. You’re always there. Keep your head up and know that you are not alone.
Tha Wookie
Ever read Colin Fletcher? If not, you should! In any case, he sums it up quite well:
It is always there, of course, when you come back from the green world. You have been living by sunrise and sunset, by wind and rain, surrounded by the ebb and flow of lives that respond only to such simple, rhythmic elements. But now the tone and tempo of the days switch. Instead of harmony, jangle. --Colin Fletcher, WINDS OF MARA
Mags
Most people don’t deal w/ it, rather they get out and find a new trail to hike…or repeat.
BearBait
Some people come home, long for the trail for a year or so, make it through the first year of Springer fever and get over it. Others, myself included, never look at a daily job and a schedule you have to follow the same way again. I’ve been home three years, and not a day goes by i don’t wish I was back on teh trail, and plan for the next time I can get there.
Grassy Ridge
How is the government oppressing us??? A non-liberal type answer would be appreciated. In other words, something with a little substance!
lobster
I’ll tell you what reality is. Reality is your children needing to be fed. Reality is the call from the mortgage company if you fall behind on your payments. Reality is your boss expecting more when you’re already giving 110%, or else his boss will make your division profitable in a way you won’t like. Reality is being served with divorce papers if you don’t do you duty as a responsible husband and father.
If you’re young and single, you may hide out in the woods for a while. But sooner or later you’re going to have to grow up and become an adult with its realities. Start now, it’ll be easier on you later on.
Bedrock Bob
Life is about choices. Most people never make a choice they become breeders and make babies because that is what they are supposed to do. Many long distance hikers question this and choose to do something else. The trail will change you if you are open to it. However, many thru-hikers head to the AT and try to finnish it to put a notch in their belt. Speed and an agenda dimminishes the effects of the trail. As for growing up. Why do you have to take on debt becoming chained by money for worldly possessions. After I finished the AT, I felt that all the stuff I has owned was pointless. I have since managed to gather many possessions, a house, and a car but I am no happier for owning more. I now have to work everyday to make the payments for these things. Hiking is easy you get up and walk everyday. Sometimes you stop in town to buy supplies then you leave again. I find backpacking very liberating but now it’s like a drug. A short over night trip leaves me want to hike further and not come back. Read “As far as the eye can see” by David Brill for a great account for thru-hiking and how it changes your view.
Darth Packman MEGA '99 GAVA '01
Darth Pacman
I’ve found this kind of reaction in many endeavors I’ve encountered; not just hiking. An incredible music festival in Michigan that I’ve gone to 2x, a camp that I worked at 3 summers in college, a retreat (hiking in the Rockies…wow!) in Colorado; all made me wish in my very soul to be back there. Every yr after wking at the camp over the summer, in the fall, I’d go thru a mini depression of sorts; it was def. hard to adjust back to others around me being different than the folks I loved so much. I missed them, the atmosphere, the lake, etc. But that’s life; we all change, & make changes. And what’s neat to me is that cuz of what’s occurred to me, I’m changed too; & cuz of those changes, there’s new things unfolding in front of me. No they aren’t the same as the old things I’ve missed, but hey, they might teach me something I need to know. Interesting thing that I’m learning now, is to both celebrate what has occurred to me that was so important, & to also not try to hang on to it. It’s a challenge…
leah
so why not go back to the trail. got a job? got a car? got a boyfriend? whatever. you wont remeber that crap from jack. you always remember the trail as the finest in life. and it is. so why the hell not base your life around getting the finest out of life? at least for a while. cars and crap will be around later on. you got the bug. give in.
milo
In addition, reality is seeing your children grow into very responsible adults and having grandchildren that get super excited whenever they see you.
Bob J
Bedrock Bob and Bob J… those may be your realities… Don’t be too mad when others reject your reality and decide to forge a life that has value to themselves. I respect your views and opinions. Reality is that big corporations care more about the dollar than the people that work for it or it’s effects on the world and nature. Reality is when you realize that companies do not want to make products that last. It is far better for the bottom line if their product fails and neeeds service. Reality is when you realize that many people want to be left unawakened - they want the Disneyification of their life experience. Reality is when you realize that Daniel Quinn actually had a lot of important things to say in Ismael. Reality is that our government forces our way of life on others. Reality is that if you raise your children to worship money that you are enslaving yet another generation. Reality is taking the blinders off and thinking for yourself; not getting your history from horrible movies like Kingdom of God, Not getting your literature from horrible movies like Last of the Mohicans… Reality is not found in the constant onslaught of multi media offered to us by televisions programming… Reality is realizing that everything and everyone is for sale.
Lobster: instead of closing your mind why don’t you try to open it? Get out of the mentality that if you don’t agree with W then you must be a liberal. Just because you choose to live your life in a black and white world doen’t mean everyone else does. Open your eyes… there are many shades of grey and many beautiful colors. If you want to get answers to your questions then email me directly and we can converse as much as you like.
Lobster, did you hike the trail? If so, did you feel that the trail experience mirrored what one finds in the rest of our country or did you notice that people in general seemed to be more respectful of others. Did you not form bonds with other hikers, whether they were liberals, conservatives, doctors, hippies, dreadies, gay or whatever? My experience on the AT was that no matter who or what you were most people respected your beliefs and treated you as an equal… In 2000, I hung out with admirals, doctors, stonerds, old people, younger people, people dying of diseases, people escaping the harsh realities of city life, people who loved nature, white blazers, blue blazers, etc. I found people to be really tolerant and understanding… All these debates and differences we find here on this site simply do not exist out there on the trail. How often in your reality do you interact with others coming from points of view that differ from you? The reality of the trail is whatever and where ever you come from, the trail is the common denominator. What happened to us outside the experience is irrelevant. For most it is a great time to ponder life and what truly matters.
Peace and Respect,
Aswah
aswah
To Everyone:
There is only one reality.
The issue is how close one can come to accurately perceiving it.
Sincerely–Conan.
Conan
I used to create my own answers to math problems, too. And if my answer was wrong, what did it matter? Can’t I have my own opinion on it? Why does everything have to be so black and white?
There is no spoon.
Just Jeff