Post-Trail experience?

imported
#21

you can’t remember to put on deodorant in the morning in the non-trail world!

zero

#22

At least for me. I am in pre-hike mode for April 05, and I think that your assessment sums up what I could not put into words. I think that is exactly what will happen to me. At this point in my life, I definitely feel like I don’t fit in among a lot of family and friends. Luckily, I plan on continuing my adventures after my hike, so maybe I will be able to skip that whole nasty depression part!!! :tongue

reggaemylitis

#23

When I returned home the number one question was “What will you do now?” The CDT didn’t exist, the PCT was just a dream. Living in a city of 8 million was unreal. I took to walking everywhere, as Billy Joel said “I walked through Bedford Sty alone”. I couldn’t get hiking out of my blood. Until one day on the Brooklyn Bridge I just sat there,lookin at all the people walking home and realized that maybe they didn’t know what was out there. Surely there was some group that organized trips to the mountains for cityfolk. That’s when I discovered AYH (American Youth Hostels) They were primarily a cycling group in NYC but they always had room on their bus trips for a small group of hikers. Before I knew it I was leading busloads of fellow pilgrims into the woods and teaching a beginner backpacking class. It was the catalist I needed to establish a double life and a secret identity. The corporate warrior with the muddy boots. At home in both worlds neither of which can exist without the other.

CitySlicker73

#24

You want to solve the post-hike stress? Don’t go back home - stay on the trail and start a yo-yo (not the diet).
If the trail (and all it signifies) truly makes you happy, then BE HAPPY!!!

(All of the above should be disregarded if you have a family, expenses, etc.)

JAWS

#25

i’m not a thruhiker, but i played one on the AT for 3 months… what an experience…what a load of laughs…what great people to share any excursion…

i planned a month to resettle, to regroup and to heal from what i expected would be a completely devistated body…facts are, i enjoy talking trail with the folks i work with…see they hunt, or fish, or play golf, when they discuss their stuff, i understand the comrodery they experience with their outdoors friends is not too much different than what we experience when we hike. when they share their “big excursion”, tho not a 6 month endevor, they share the same excitements and when i listen to them, they listen when i talk trail trash.

i work outside and enjoy weather every day. I enjoy elevation changes every day, tho limited by how quick we as a team can get a wall up, a roof decked, the ridge line level. So in a way, my mountain climbing is not over, my excursion goes on.

the people i meet every day are figuratively thruhikers to me in the great thruhike of life. their journey in today is important to me and so mine has become important to them. we get along, we pull together, and we get 'er done!

When I am down, and I do get down, I know that my florida trail hike is just around the corner, Crash Test Dummy will round the corner in my neck of the woods and we’ll do a few miles in each others shoes.

March 1st is closing in on me again, and maybe you’ll see me for a week in GA, and who knows, maybe i’ll get permission to just jump up to virginia and keep going for 3 more months and in a 3 year period, i’ll get the best of the best of the AT experience.

I guess, my reentry was capitalized with the clear fact that my journey as well as your’s is never over.

taking the next step as if it holds an unexpected amazing revelation or viewpoint i might never have envisioned, helps alot.

real thruhikers, disregard, cause you went the distance and are allowed to be more distraught…hehehe

burn

#26

I like what the writer above, “burn” wrote…it’s not an “either/or”; our adventures go on in diff. forms; all yr, for our entire lives, on trail or off, thru hiker or not. Have a good day all; I’ve got to do my “hike” for the day! (also called going to work, but I’m going to try to reframe that using the concepts Burn mentioned above!!:cheers

leah

#27

Prior to my hike this summer, I read from numerous sources that I wouldn’t be able to stand watching television.

When I finished in August, I returned to my home, my fiancee and my dog. I picked up my web development business where I left it and was fine sitting in front of the computer most of the time. I coached my high school volleyball team and enjoyed the interactions with players, coaches and parents more than ever. And I wondered at how quickly the trail experience had slipped away from me.

Then, as the weather grew colder here in MA, my flashbacks to trail life grew more common. I started taking time out of my day to lean back and think about all the great people I met. Burn - you were a wonderful part of the trip for me! The trail’s sinking in as a huge part of who I am now and I’m craving contact with the people who understand why we hike.

And my TV’s been driving the point home - I can’t stand having it on anymore! OK, I can watch occasional movies & sports. Yes, I watched every minute of my Red Sox gettin’ 'er done. But the everyday drivel drives me absolutely and ridiculously crazy! I think that’s the trail talking to me, telling me to stop wasting life and start living it.

Squish

#28

“telling me to stop wasting my life and start living it” -

RIGHT ON! Isn’t that what it’s really all about?

Burn and Leah - I like the concept of thinking of your daily life in terms of your hike life - seems to make things go along much more smoothly.

Random: I finally figured out why I could relate to these “post-hike adjusting” threads so well. When I left university, I didn’t want to leave. I liked life, my friends, going to class or not depending on what I felt, napping at two in the afternoon any day of the week if I wanted to. Unlike most of my friends, I thought we had it great in university, and I was not anxious to leave, at all. When I finally got into the “real world”, I did not like it at all. 2 years later, I’m still adjusting to all this “grown-up stuff”.

nunyet

#29

After returning home from Katahdin on October 8th I’ve continued to eat as if life is one big AYCE buffet, consequently I’ve put on 12 pounds in a month! I was given a leave of absence from my job so after I’d been back to work for a week it seemed, sadly, almost like I’d never hiked the Trail. I’m very happy to have my job back, which I enjoy, and that I don’t have the stress of finding new work and learning a new job, but as I’m planning out meetings for late January and February I keep thinking that I should be getting ready to head for Georgia in late March. That’s when I’ll really hear the Trail calling me. And now, I think I’ll head out for a snack.

The Walking Stomach

#30

I still fold the tp in little squares trying to conserve it…while looking at the other ten rolls in the cabinet. :oh

Bushwhack

#31

Anybody know the lines to the Robert Service poem-There’s a race of men that don’t fit in-a race that can’t stand still-so they break the heart of kith and kin and roam the world at will. Right on Ginny- Let’s talk about “The Trail Before The Trail”-where you utter out loud i’m going to walk the Appalachain Trail-and a shutter goes up your spine and you know that you know that you know you will never be the same again. Re-entry- wow! As a three and a half time repeat offender I’ve avoided it by hiking every year xcept one- during that time and as always everything that is a problem begins with Dis- disorder,distraction,disrespect,disease,ect. ect. Yes noises-vaccume cleaners,hair dryers, sirens,tv, make me want to hug my nearest set of trees.Keeping in touch with those that “get it” is essential-I read everything i can find on the trail and watch trail videos, review pictures of hikes and i’m lucky i have hikers around me. I know after my first hike i felt as tho no one got it-this is a dark place to be there are plenty of people who get it seek them out. Turn your experience into an instrument of peace and teach others from your experience-give back -this circle don’t go round without your help. the beauty is you will recieve when you give. Bottom line-Live your passion, on or off. Peace

rambunny

#32

from a person who has never hiked prior to my end-to-end hike in 2004…wow, re-entry is HARD. the pollution, the plastic people, the way of life (money driven) is CRAZY. I just don’t agree with what anyone prioritizes in their lives…tv, celebrities, kissing ass, etc. It’s all bullshit to me…I am trying to find a way with my career/life where I can be myself and be around people who have the same simple values as me and want to be around nature…I am not finding that in Chicago…time to go out west and see what’s there…

I have learned so much from my end-to-end hike this year…life is not about making money and making other people happy and forming to the “norm” of what we are supposed to live. It’s about finding what makes YOU truely happy and doing whatever possible to make that happen every day. I am fortunate enough to have Aswah to make that happen…together we will make our dream come true…it’s a hard transition with everyone around you wanting to conform to what society says is right…all the billboards selling you nonsense…I just want simplicity…will we ever live in a world in harmony with peace and love???

Day Tripper :O)

Day Tripper

#33

GA (start), 217 lbs
VA (moving along), 189 lbs
NH (almost there), 176 lbs
ME (finish), 187 lbs
Now (5 months after trail), 207 lbs

the solemates

#34

bushwack, do you still warm your brie on your cook stove or just microwave it?? :slight_smile:

Bloody Cactus