Radar said it well.
He is not alone.
There were great times when alone during the day, and great
times at shelters or in town/hostels with other hikers.
I met a few hard-core loners on the trail. They hiked ALOT,
only stopped to sleep. Some regretted not slowing down to smell
the roses and socialize even a little.
Hike your own hike. If you want solitude you can have it,
ALOT or A LITTLE.
Scamp
Scamp
My daughter is hiking the trail -currently in VT - so almost finished. Since getting her master’s this hike is a giant step for her independence. Instead of relying on family, she is self-reliant or forced to rely on the help/comraderie of strangers. These strangers have become her friends…some for a few hours, or maybe a day or maybe weeks or months. I am sure some, perhaps only a few, may become life long buddies.
I do know that she has enjoyed the thrills, the beauty, the travails, the whole enchilada…and I envy her experience. I have lived the AT through her phone calls and through the books she loaned me before she left.
However you do your hike, it will be a personal experience; one shared with other thru hikers but an experience unique to what you got from it.
jeghead
Great comment Blue Jay!! I always heard it said, “Those that can’t do, teach!” It appears to me that E-psi got caught by his own pet dragon. He was the one pulled back into the pit by his own desires. Some of us did finish the dream!! Hostels and all. Who then can say they finished the fantacy? A world with out Capitalism, let’s see… academia has failed at that excercise of the mind also. If I’m not mistaken, civilizations without capitalism have no universities!!! Pies are square. Ha, everybody knows, pies are round!! Academia, HA!! HA!!!
Papa Smurf
“I myself used to subscribe to the “hike your own hike” school of thought. Unitl I saw too many people, with the help of backpacker magazine, doing it wrong”
Doing it wrong? E psi, how is it that the 90%+ of people that stop in hostels are “wrong” and you are right? How was it determined that you were the arbitor of right and wrong.
State your sentiments in the context of what worked for you and what you wanted to get out of the trail and noone would complain. Diasgree, perhaps, but not complain. But when you begin dictating to others how and why they should hike, you are just asking for abuse.
steamboat
It seems to me that E-PSI’s comments really seem to rub some folks the wrong way. It’s almost as if some of the hikers who stayed at hostels or slackpacked along the way feel their “way” of hiking the AT is being criticized. It’s not. Re-read the first post. There was no dictating, preaching, or anything else that E-PSI is accused of. What he said was offered as “pointers”. One person’s opinion.
Is there a wrong way to hike the trail? Sure! Ignoring Leave-No-Trace principles, expecting people to treat you “special” because you’re a “thru-hiker”, being rude to local folks, getting wasted and acting like a jerk on the trail and in towns, failing to follow rules in hostels and with other service providers along the trail.
Like it or not, our behavior will affect those that hike behind us. Each year there is a handful of knuckleheads that can’t think beyond the tip of their own nose. Unfortunately, sometimes all it takes is one person to screw it up for everyone. There are a bunch of great hostels that are now closed because of this trend.
Little Bear
The Forum has a benefit for each of us planning to hike the AT in the future. Advice is helpful and can be taken or refused. The opinion offered may convey some ideas to make the experience super or it can deprive someone of an experience that would make the Thru-Hike even better.
The statement of advice by one person usually brings out other points of view and some of those add greatly to the possibility of making the AT a memorable event in a life journey.
It is possible that a solitary hike in the woods without companionship and comeraderie could benefit someone. Imagine if a hiker was familiar with Euell Gibbons and learned to eat those weeds and flowers and eschewed all commmercial food (perhaps even trapping furry animals and roasting them on an open fire or legitimate campstove) what an experience that would make. But that would not be what most who attempt the AT from end to end are looking for.
There are some who want to be a part of an exciting adventure. To test their bodies on an arduous path with respite stops where companionship, communication with loved ones, information about the world and national condition, food in abundance, a soft bed, clean clothes and a clean body can be found. Some enjoy the sharing of the experience with likeminded souls. Some enjoy going into the towns and villages of regions never before explored and seeing the USA from eyes which have known the trail.
The Appalachian Trail is mostly a walk in the woods but it includes rural towns and villages as well.
If someone desires to forego the comforts provided by Hostel, Inn, Hotel, or B&B then that is easy. But if one of those will provide sustenance, healing, rest, and renewal for another day on the AT then that is why they are there.
But making a declarative statement regarding the AT is useful to us who plan a future attempt because it beckons us to accede or rebel, to agree or disagree, to acquiesce or stand up for the type of trail we choose to hike.
Now if one has hiked the AT several times and wants to make it more challenging or different or strenuous beyond previous experiences then by all means he or she can impose limitations on oneself. But let each make their own choice.
What do you think?
Skylander Jack
Jack
take the mans information for waht it is …some displaced anger at himself for quitting! How can you lecture about a thru hike you were not able to complete? Try again with a more open mind and you may discover that you can reach Katahdin! 
Yo-YO