I am hoping to hike the AT someday soon. After all the blazes crept by, what did you take away from your life on the trail? Did you gain knowledge about yourself; about nature; about creation; about a creator?
Bikeandhike
Post-hike question
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#2
Items one and two and that the real world sucks like a hot barbwire enima. People are so meen and self absorbed enough that they will never smell the roses from the moldy fries on the floor of their get-tow mobiles. I WASN’T THRU HIKING YET!!! Other than that Ramen is not food.
Bushwhack
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#3
The kindness of people along the way renewed my faith in human nature. To quote the music of Takama Ted, the people are the trail.
Peaks
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#4
Oops, what I meant was that after so long in the good life away from the job it was like velcro trying to get me to leave. If you let the magic happen all the woods is like Never Never Land.
Bushwhack
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#5
You realize what you really DONT need in life. All this crap that we get caught up in is just that , crap. The woods will take you and you dont want to be released. But then again thats easy to say as long as you have a cash flow.
Virginian
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#6
There are a lot of lessons you learn on the trail - about yourself, your relationship to the world, to God, to people. Your specific lessons will be uniquely yours. The hard part can be to hold on to what you have learned after you leave that world. i.e. when you remember that on the trail you learned that Life is Good! and people are fantastic, and then you have to deal with a dead end job with a boss who drives you nuts and everyone around you saying that ‘life sucks’. Sometimes the lesson is about how much you love the long distance hiking life, and sometimes it is about how you want more in your life than just living for yourself. For some of us, the hardest lesson is how to find those things that gave us joy while we were hiking in our non-hiking lives. I tried to explain once to someone about why I wanted so badly to go back to the trail: yes, there can be comradery, challenge, beauty, happiness, etc. in my non-hiking life, but it is a moment at a time, maybe a day at a time. On the trail, I was deep down happy for six whole months. Life was lived intensely. Every day had meaning and moments of joy. I was fully alive. That’s hard to do in ‘ordinary’ life.
Spirit Walker
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#7
Thru-hiking is true living! I think you will come away with a sense of accomplishment and confidence that will continue to motivate you and those around you. You may find it tough to leave the trail and for a year or so you might become a tad cynical of the ecological ineptitude exhibited by mainstream society, sort of a hiker-withdrawl syndrome I reckon. After a while, with the aid of physical activity, greener living and the joy of assisting others in preparation for their hikes, a less radical and more constuctive mindset will replace the edgier attitude. In other words thru-hiking = good.
Sweeper
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#8
I’m not really sure what I got out of hiking the trail. I think that I really appreciate material things a lot more than I did in the past. Once your whole world is reduced down to a 25 lb pack for 5 and a half months, it’s hard to take things for granted the same way I used to. I really like running water and refrigerators. Also, I think I’m a lot tougher now. I didn’t really gain any knowledge about myself, but I made a couple really close friends, which is pretty awsome.
Jessie
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#9
I learned that my cathedral is the woods, my higher power is close to me here in the woods, on the trail. I did miss a chair with a back on it the most.
FreeForce
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#10
mind over matter will get you thru
the outside world will always be down there no use in hurrying back
i also missed a freaking chair to sit in. jajhahah
mindset
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#11
You guys don’t hike with a chair? What’sup with that? I though everyone has a chair. I have a chair. Go get a chair, you’ll never go back. Or being naked in a soft chair.
Bushwhack
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#12
I have a post hike entry in last year’s journal titled “My Thoughts on Going Solo” which captures my thoughts looking back on my section hike and what I learned. It’s pretty long, but you might find it interesting regarding the questions you pose above. Direct link to the page below, or you can go to my 2002 journal and look at post hike entry # 1. I don’t have a trai name, but last year’s journal is under davepaumen.
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=22902
davepaumen
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#13
well, the thing is that the AT is magic, but it is not the only magic. i have done extensive traveling (for months at a time) in asia, madagascar, south america, alaska, and hiked many many places (and done about 500 miles of AT and also the PCT - if i have 6 months off i usually want to go somewhere exotic for my hiking). The thing that is magic is the freedom from everyday crap, living a simple and/or outdoor lifestyle, pushing the comfort boundaries, and learning a different way of living. my message is: don’t stop with the AT, there is alot more out there in the world to challenge you, alot more to experience. Maybe when i get out of grad school i will do a thru hike, but i have a feeling the PCT will be calling me first, or maybe patagonia…
by the way, a few years ago after 3 months traveling overland from england to nepal and 3 months trekking in Nepal i came back to the states to pure and utter culture shock and was pretty depressed for about a year. i suggest having a plan for when you get back to the “real world” BEFORE heading out, usually when you are out there it is just too fun to be planning your new life. if you quit the job, house, sell the car, it will be way too shocking when you get back. now i try to have something concrete and exciting planned for when i return from wandering. plus i love my life now, i am getting a doctorate in botany so my work is in a museum and in the great outdoors plant-hunting.
hell yeah
system
#14
Sounds familiar. We have a post thru hike friend at law school, Berkeley. He doesn’t know what he wants to do. We suggested something like an environmental field position. “Alex, we need someone to go in…go in deep if you know what I meen.”"This could involve staying overnight in the woods and not seeing anyone for like days or maybe weeks:. “Can YOU DO it son?”“The world is counting on you”. Who cares if you make any money, the web footed tripe wuzzler is in danger of being smelted to death. Those guys from Time Warner are to blame.
Bushwhack
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#15
ok, so you lost me on the “smelted” and “web footed tripe wuzzler” part. some secret “2000 miler” lingo?
hell yeah
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#16
Like hell yeah, I haven’t had the block of time to thru-hike YET, but run off every chance I get to explore some beautiful, remote, locale. Hate to come home. Found great book “Living on Wilerness Time” by Melissa Walker which helped me mesh the two ways of life. Working now for local Friends of the Forest to bide my time until my husband retires in March. Life is good!
Kathy
:lol
system
#18
yeah, I was pretty messed up by the thru, but in a good way. I went out there to “accomplish” thru-hiking the AT and found emptiness in such a quest. What I did retain was a keen sense of the environment and a “who gives a shit” attitude about a lot of stuff, i.e. careers, status, toys, etc. society deems important. Most important, I learned how to live in nature and the art of travelling at ease. Many post-thru journeys have ensued. Also many beautiful friends made along the way.
But like HELL YEAH said, have a post-journey plan. Once them endorphins stop rushing to the brain from 15-20+ mile days on the trail, depression sets in. The post-hike doldrums can be fought with more exercise, continued travel and, of course, frequent visits to trailjournals. :cheers
raru
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#19
What? I enjoyed going back to my thankless job working for and with idiots. The only thing I can say I enjoy about it is the money and watch one doofus break out three of his teeth in a week. He perty too. Now he has a nice big hole what he can shove his dip through. I never should have gone back. Plan, get a plan. Been biking my butt off and plan a solo trip around the state with my new tent tarp. Still hard to get up every morning. 
Bushwhacky