First inspiration to thru-hike

imported
#1

I’m curious as to what first inspired you to thru-hike the AT? Was it a book, website, person you spoke with? I know we all have different reasons for wanting to go on a long distance hike, but what was the catalyst that planted the idea of an Appalachian Trail thru-hike?. When did the light bulb first turn on? For me the dream of thru-hiking came in a roundabout fashion. I stumbled across an article in a magazine about winter camping. Winter camping was something that had never occured to me and I wanted to know more about it. I did a web search and wound up at a site called www.haeadventure.com, on this site was a journal of a thru-hike two guys did in '87. After I read that the idea of thru-hiking just never went away. I wonder if others came upon the notion of thru-hiking in such a serendipitous manner?

Serge

#2

Good question, but hard answer. I think for me, it all started when someone mentioned that they wanted to thru hike. I never even heard of the AT, but after he started explaining it to me I read a book, Walk across America, followed by dozens of others. Basically I caught the thru hiking bug. Funny thing is I never set foot on a trail til my hike. Nope, never camped in the woods or anything until I got droped off in Ga. Also Trailplace had an article written by Yogi in 99, and that just iced the cake. Soon I found myself working at Campmor then the next thing you know I was hiking.

scavenger2000

#3

I remember getting the bug to hike the trail right after I finnished college. I took a week long hike on the AT in mid-march and met several NoBo hikers. After that trip I had the bug and decided I would hike the trail. When I got engaged I thought I would have to wait but when my engagement ended short of marriage, I took the money I had saved and decided to hike the AT. I ended up going Sobo instead of Nobo. A choice which I have never regretted. That is breifly my inspiration.

Darth Pac-man

#4

Hiking a section of the AT with the boy scouts when I was 11.I was totally unprepared for that hike mentally and physically.We did 103 miles in a week and by the end I was hooked.It was a valuable lesson for a kid!

Chippawa

#5

My first encounter with the AT was driving under it on the Mass Turnpike!! I know it sounds pretty silly, but I used to pass under the footbridge every time I went back and forth to college in Boston and it just fascinated me. My curiosity got the better of me, and I did more research and found that there were people who actually hiked the whole length in one year. Wow. That seemed pretty novel. After 8 years of school, and a whole lot of time on I-90 looking at that bridge, I ran into an old friend of my brother’s who had thru-hiked. After that, the thought of a thru-hike just kept whispering to me…

Last year, a mere(!)13 years after my first exposure to the trail, my husband and I had a celebration on the bridge that started it all. It was one of the most exciting landmarks on the Trail for us. We even met one hiker who was so linked to that bridge (for the same reason), that he camped on it.

Chipper '02

#6

I was raised out west and had never heard of the AT. One day I heard a radio interview with Steve Newman, who walked around the world in the mid-eighties. (His book, “Worldwalk” is terrific.) I thought about how much I would love to do that, but knew that as a solo female, I would not be willing to take the risks involved in walking across north Africa, etc. About a month later, I ran across the 1987 National Geographic article on the AT. I read it and looked at the pictures and thought, “I can do that!” A few months later, I was on the trail.

Spirit Walker

#7

I don’t really know why I plan to do it next year. I have no real reason or inspiration. Maybe I just want to prove to myself I can. I’m not even a Backpacking enthusiast. But that is not important. What is important is that I’m responding to the challenge I imposed upon myself.

Bigfoot

#8

The River to River Trail runs 150 miles from the Miss R. to the Ohio accross Southern Illinois. It was my life long dream to hike it. One of the people I hiked with wanted to hike the AT and I told her she was crazy. After the RTRT I read A Walk in the Woods and noticed there were a lot of similarities between the two trails. The final straw was a hike in the Smokies. Atop of Gregory Bald I wrote in my journal that I had to hike the AT. I didn’t know why, I just had to do it. It was the greated decision of no real reason that I have ever made. I wish on last years hike I could have walked over to Gregory Bald but I decided not to. I still beleive that people who hike the AT are crazy.
TB

TurkeyBacon

#9

My dad help build the trail in the Smokies. He was in the CCC at NP11 in the Smokeys. As a young boy in the 50s my dad would take me hiking on the trail. We continued to hike it until his death in 1992. I had planned to thru-hike it earlier but college and life got in the way. God has blessed me in many ways, a wife that was willing to go with me, children, brothers and a sister who were willing to help and the time and money to do it. I look forward to now doing it again with one of my children or grandchildren.

Papa Smurf