What do attempted thru hikers do too much of prior to their attempt?
And what do they do too little of prior to their attempt?
I’d say most do too much planning and most do too little exercise, that is getting in shape.
So what do you think?
See you out there.
Maintain
most hikers probably do a little bit too much eating before they start 
I know I did to fatten up a bit for those cold nights.
I don’t really think you can plan too much. I think its great to be prepared and to know what to expect. Sure part of the fun of the Trail and backpacking is the adventure of what is ahead, but it was good to not be dissapointed when a place in a handbook was only a gas station or hostel and not a city with every possiblt amenity like a lot of hikers assumed. If I hadn’t named myself before the hike I woulda surely been given the Trail name Data, since I always knew the miles and names of shelters, towns and hiker services before we got to them.
A lot of hikers unfortunately don’t plan enough. They go out without a plan of where to resupply and where to maildrop. They don’t take into consideration terrain, weather and other logistics when making plans. THe more you know the better IMO. I think this is a primary reason for people dropping out. They simply didn’t know what to expect. Better to not be suprised after quitting ur job and buying a grand in gear!
A-Train
I think you are mostly right. However, if the HYOH is adhered to, a good amount of getting in shape can be accomplished on the trail. When I reported in to the Mountain Ranger Camp to be an instructor, I was coming from a Ranger Battalion and was in very good shape. The mountains KICKED MY …again, for the second time. The first time being as a Ranger Student five years before. I had come from the Alps of Germany and they still whupped me. So what I am trying to say is the only way to get in shape for mountains is to train in mountains. If you start the trail out of shape, keep in mind to hike your own hike. You won’t be able to keep up with the pace of people that are in better shape than you. You will cover the same miles as everyone else, it will just take you longer.
Ragnar
Most of the thru’s I hiked with had very limited menus.
They couldn’t believe the variety of food on my menu.
There is no reason to eat Pop Tarts for breakfast every day,
PB&J for every lunch, or Ramen for dinner every night.
In fact I never ate Pop Tarts.
A little planning in this area goes a long way to a more enjoyable hike.
Scamp
Scamp
As a future hiker, not residing in the US, I’ll be thankfull if you advise me on your menu.
I really don’t want to feed on rice, noodles and soaked oats and am ready to carry the weight…
I’ll have to buy food upon arriving in Atlanta (April 12th), can you specify list of products available?
I’m awareof what I must eat but not with the brand names.
zammy
Good question.
In my case, like A-Train, I think I planned and prepared well.
But, judging from some of the questions at appear on forums such as this, it’s obvious that others don’t plan enough, or don’t have a clue. For example, see the questions about how to get to Springer. It’s not that hard to figure out. It’s all in publications like the ALDHA Companion.
Thru-hikers have an 85% drop out rate, so it’s obvious that the majority of hikers must not be doing something right. According to Wingfoot, 60% of the drop outs run out of will; find hiking day of day is not what they thought it would be, or they don’t have the stamina. The reasons are largely mental. So, in general, people are not really prepared mentally for a 5 1/2 month experience.
What to people do too much of? Judging from forums such as this, there is a tendancy of some to sweat the details too much, especially equipment. For example, what brand of T-shirts is best. Who cares. Just get something to wear that is comfortable to you.
Peaks
Last year down in GA I started my hike with “Shep” (class of 01). The first night out, a few thru-hike hopefuls discovered that Shep had completed his hike two years earlier. Looking for some advice, one of the hopefuls handed Shep a schedule of his planned trip and asked, “is there anything you would do to change this?”
Shep’s answer, “Yhea…burn it.”
I always thought that was the best advice. If you can, leave all the schedules at home or work and enjoy not having one for a while. Don’t over-plan the trip!
Space Monkey
Doing too much prior to their hike…I don’t feel you can do enough preperation prior to the hike.If anything…It might be anticipating too much.Prior to my attempt in 2000,I spent hours laying in my bed at night wondering, what my hike was going to be like.I would have to say that lack of planning is what most do too little of.This is based on some of the posts in the forums and,observing on every hike I’ve ever been on.Reading is the key.Learn about trail impact,etiquette and, about the people you’ll be meeting…Just to name a few.One thing about hiking,everytime is a learning experience. :cheers
Bill Harris
Something every Thru-hiker needs to know…NOT!
Just as my partner and I stepped onto the AT at Springer in 2000,he mentioned something his school teacher daughter had told him.He said,did you know that the AT is 20 miles longer than the diameter of the moon? I replied ,at that particular time, I didn’t need to know it.:boy
Bill Harris
In 2000, I worried about every little detail too much. Should of listened to my inner Rasta (no worries every little thing gonna be IRIE)…
In 2001, I didn’t worry about a thing… I did listen to my inner Rasta
In 2004, I am eating like a champion (oh those first 100 miles are gonna kill me). I have absolutely no worries, I quit my life, sold my crap and am finally free of the babylonian numeric world… and ready to once again live in the NOW.
Aswah
I did plan quite a bit. In fact I knew I had planned enough when I went to a seminar at REI. Two employees gave a talk on there thru hiking experience. One nobo, one sobo. When I started answering questions from the audience they couldn’t, I knew I was ready. By nature of the fact that I did not work for about a month before I left, I did gain a few pounds extra.
Chef
Space Monkey you are exactly correct. I have a theory that thru completion is inversly proportional to pretrip planning. People that can go with the flow have a huge advantage. They also have more fun.
Blue Jay
is important.
No one keeps exactly to a pre-hike plan, no matter how well
you know yourself, your abilities and the AT.
I was always behind schedule for some reason or another, but
you learn that mileage isn’t everything, and alot of the trip
is what you learn about yourself and others, along the way.
If you can’t get a ride out of town, you’re down 1/2 day right
there! Your hike and plan must adjust.
Overcoming obstacles, reacting but not overreacting to
adversity, the freedom to stay extra time in a nice spot,
meeting fellow hikers, etc. and so much more is what the
hike is about. Getting from one end to the other sometimes
seems less important than how you enjoy the experiences
along the way.
I didn’t finish my thru, due to Lyme disease, but I didn’t miss
out on many great trek experiences during the months on
the trail.
Plan, but be flexible.
Scamp
Scamp
I think there is a fine line between planning based on information that you learn and what you expect the journey to be. It’s kind of hard not to let expectations creep in during the process. I’ve found that by letting the expectations go, I have a lot more clarity about the current moment, partly because I’m not in shock comparing the preconceived with the now. The now is so much better than I’d ever thought it would be!
When planning, it’s very normal to go through stress when looking ahead to a trip so foreign. Some of if it is instinctual, but I believe most of it is learned worrying. But if, like Aswah, we are able to shut those voices out and listen to our inner Rasta (hehe), we might in fact hear “eva ting gon be irie”. In other words, it might be more important to stay in the moment even when planning, because it reduces stress. And clinical studies have shown that low stress levels are associated with high “alpha wave” activity. These alpha waves are associated with mental clarity, relaxation, creative impulses, and even “extra-sensory” perception.
It could be argued that many hikers train themselves to worry for the hike. I’ve come to think of the preparation process as part of the adventure: “There is a lot to learn, if I can just quiet my mind and notice the lessons around me.” With that in mind, making a conscious effort to stay relaxed, focused, and attune to the moment is an important skill that enables hikers to get more out of their experience. This sort of mindset is not overly-encouraged in the so-called “real world”, but on and off the trail, it is a wonderful asset to life.
So to answer the question posed above, I would say that many hikers come physically prepared, but spend a lot less time in mental preparation. When the expectations fall away, one can see the moment all around them.
Tha Wookie
I find the discussions of ‘expectations’ to be a bit humorous sometimes. I remember reading a post by one '04 hiker who had been studying eastern philosophy. He said that he was trying to learn to let go of all expectations, and that he was hoping the hike would help him in that endeavor. In other words, he was expecting the hike to make him a more enlightened person. No pressure there.
I think it’s impossible not to have a few expectations about something you will spend perhaps a year planning for and six months doing. If you didn’t have any expectations at all, would you even bother to do the hike? It is important to know ahead of time that your expectations could be blown out of the water, but I don’t see any reason to build it up into a huge defense mechanism against disappointment.
Ardsgaine
I understand your point, but there is a level of expectation that becomes a distration to the moment. I am certainly not “enlightened”, and have only on occasion let go of every single slight expectation (like the expectation that the meditation is going to end). It is not impossible. What we call “eastern philosophy”, doesn’t just not go by our possibilities -it defies them outright. But enough about that.
To avoid expectation is like avoiding being hit by a car. You don’t need to lay a brick wall strong enough to repel the oncoming wreck, you just need to step aside. Our minds are capable of controlling our thoughts entirely. We can choose to expect some important patterns of weather, for instance, to ensure that the hike doesn’t become just a survival mission, but also choose to avoid the expectation that comes with a glance at a topographic profile map. In other words, we can limit the threshold of distraction.
I like the example of the guy who was expecting to drop expectations. Maybe he in fact did. But dropping or avoiding expectations is an action, not a precursor to action. It’s not something to try… it’s something when it is done. That’s my whole point: Preparing hikers don’t need to prepare to start living peacefully and free when they hit the trail. They can learn to do it beforehand. Planning shouldn’t have to produce a lot of stress.
Tha Wookie
I think the problems that arise with expectations come mostly from having unrealistic expectations, or trying to force reality to conform to our expectations, or allowing life to become nothing but expectations. The key is to focus on what is, and act accordingly. That’s what a person is doing when he makes his plans based on the best information that he can find. It’s also what he’s doing when he find out that some piece of information he had turned out to be wrong, and then makes an adjustment to take that into account. He doesn’t fight against reality or waste time wishing that it were otherwise, he just makes the adjustment and keep going. I think that’s similar to what you’re saying, although I’m obviously coming at it from a different direction.
So I don’t think it’s the expectations per se that are the problem. I think it’s either the lack of rational thought that people put into creating their expectations, or the emotional attachment to their expectations that they often develop. I think that the notion of letting go of all expectations appeals most to people who are emotionally devastated when reality falls short of their expecations.
I just had a sudden thought: Siddhartha was raised to have completely unrealistic expectations of life. He was protected from any knowledge of death, disease, poverty, old age, etc, until he was a young man. The emotional devastation when he discovered that those things existed in the world must have been intense. He had to work through that earthshaking emotional disturbance, and the result was Buddhism; hence my notion that eastern philosophy is a massive defense mechanism against disappointment. Wow.
Ardsgaine
Definitely an interesting thought there at the end. In a way, enlightenment is a self-defense mechanism. Enlightenment is letting go of one’s self and ending suffering. Expectations could be descibed as a form of suffering, because they impose a projection of self. Buddism is indeed founded on suffering -everyone suffers. But that is what made Siddhartha special- he let go of is expectations, of suffering, and of his self. He attained enlightenment. There is a great lesson there.
You don’t have to be a thru-hiker or even on the trail to start to “get” what quieting the self is all about. But in this world where everyone wants to define you or what you are for their own gain, the trail sure does a good job in making it easier.
Tha Wookie
You understand what is meant by letting go of the self, right? It is not just “getting over one’s self”. That just means letting go of the petty anxieties and neuroses that we may have–not letting go of the Self itself. Letting go of the Self is a much deeper thing. It means being able to look inside and see only a blank, a nothingness, within. No fears and no expectations because there are absolutely no desires and no attachment to this life whatsoever. To a person who achieved such self-abnegation, the trail and city life would all be one.
In fact, to prefer life on the trail over life in the city is a sign of imperfection. It is a desire, and it implies a dissatisfaction with what is and a hope for something better. As such, it is a source of disappointment. From the Buddhist viewpoint, all the people on this forum who are sitting in town wishing they were on the trail are suffering for an unfulfilled desire. To be truly enlightened they would have to see that the trail and the city are both an illusion, neither one better than the other and both just snares for the desires of the Self.
What you call ‘quieting the self’ in your last paragraph sounds more like what I would call finding it by quieting all the distractions from it. It sounds as though, like me, you’re going to the woods to silence the clamoring voices that demand conformity to their wishes, and to remember who you are. Or did I misunderstand?
Ardsgaine