Folks,
Finished a SOBO hike in 2K and now I’m in the middle of my thesis. Just trooling for ideas now. Thinking back, what would you consider your primary motivation for hiking on the trail. I’d consider mine the challenge of the trail, and also a chance to jump off the rat race for awhile. Any comments would be welcome.
BTW - I’ll be handing out my survey during Trail Days if anyone’ interested. I’ll also be conducting a few interviews.
Take care,
-Johnny Swank
Johnny Swank
I saw a white blaze in Harpers Ferry one day and just wondered what kind of mysteries and secrets the trail held. What would be around the next turn? Were would it take me.
To walk 2000 miles! All the towns and states. NewEngland in the fall. The more I researched, the more I became drawn. Also when you tell all your friends and your boss ,well youve basicaly set yourself up for failure. Then you have to make it!! HA HA
Virginian
Hi Johnny, don’t know if my opinion counts, since I haven’t hiked the AT yet…but my Motivation boils down to two things. 1)I’m a solitary sort of person, and have always been most comfortable being alone, so walking in the woods has always been a peaceful, rejuvenating experience. 2) Ever since I can remember, I’ve been drawn to discovering what’s around the next bend. I can hardly bear to pass by any path/trail/dirt road that leads off into the woods. As Virginian put it so aptly, “Where would it take me?”
Jonna
My dad worked in the CCC in the smokies in the 30’s and helped to build the trail. He started taking me on hikes on the trail in the 50’s. And I’ve hiked it ever since. It was a childhood dream to hike the trail in one season. And I got to do it last year! GA-ME '02
Papa Smurf
Good question. Everyone has their reasons. Hiking the AT was always on my mind. I tried doing it on the installment plan, but after so many years, I realized that at that pace it would never get finished.
But, in hindsite, I really think that after you overcome a major life threat like cancer, you want to prove to yourself and others that you still have strength and stamina. Many survivors do charity walks, or run marathons. Myself, I did the AT.
Peaks
Folks,
These are great reponses. Thank you for your thoughts. Anyone else have anything to add?
What this boils down to is that there are as many individual motivations as there are hikers. A good thing that.
Take care,
-Johnny Swank
Johnny Swank
I think i was nurterd into it, not on purpose however. To keep me out of trouble, my mother who managed a cemetery, put me to work. It was like working in a park. I spent my summers up in Maine in a very rural area, and you either played in the woods or the potato fields, (angry farmers).
Then for a while I worked for Natinal Geo, as a maintenance man and read a book by Ronald Fisher, about hiking the trail. The dream was set, and over the next 20+ years it was on hold, but still lurking. Now I’m section hiking and am an overseer as well.
So, I don’t know that I had a choice, it’s my mother & grandmothers fault!!!
Thanks to them both…
moonman
Johnny,
I never knew a thing about the trail till January '94, when I stumbled on “As Far as the Eye Can See”, by Brill. I could never list all the things that happened to me in 1994, but let me sum it up that I was drawn to the trail by non-stop events in 1994 that I now believe were divinely inspired…(and I’m not particularly religious).
I always thought that somewhere along the way, I might want to quit or get discouraged- just from what I had read in books the previous year- that never happened. I woke up early every morning, so excited to be out there, so happy to be alive, so glad to be hiking the trail. Sure, there were occasional moments of aching feet, tired back, pain in the neck flies, but I felt so lucky to be out there experiencing the trail. I have never so much thought of it as an accomplishment but as the most enriching experience imaginable. It far surpassed all my expectations. I think the trail brought out the best in me and every aspiring thru hiker out there, perhaps because our lives were so simplified and we were all leveled by the same joys and hardships each day. Not hearing news made you realize that we have it so good in this country because your experience with hikers and the good people you meet alongside the trail who are not hikers is so positive… that is the reality we often don’t see back here in the real world, where we are daily assaulted by so much negativity. The fast lane does not bring out the best in people, unfortunately- we have to make much more effort here than on the trail. But the experience of the trail makes you want to reach higher and it enables you to appreciate so much of what is good.
Lucky Laura