Someone asked me yesterday how I was getting back to GA once the hike was over. I replied. “Coming home? What? Who said anything about coming home? You mean I have to come back to all this sh*t?”
I hadn’t really put much thought into that part yet. And I suppose I should entertain the idea, despite the melancholy. So, what ways are people using to get back to their homes and their old lives?
Dawg
My thumb, a smidge of luck, a pinch of greyhound then four helpings of plane.
Dawg, what’s your email address? I’ll scan the “Getting home from K” page from my 2003 ALDHA Companion and email it to you.
Ross
Ross
We didn’t have a way home when we left. We figured something would happen and it did. Most of the hikers we knew didn’t have a clue how, when they started. And I don’t believe we left anyone up there. Did we? Just get there!! Have a great hike.
Papa Smurf
I agree, don’t worry about it now. On my first hike, we hitched from Katahdin to Millenocket for the night, then down to Bangor or August, where we were picked up by the parents of my partner, who drove me to my grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. On the second hike I got a ride from a fellow hiker to a town in Massachusetts where I could get a train west. Usually there will be other hikers finishing the same day you do, and at least one is likely to have transportation out - at least as far as the nearest bus station, and maybe all the way home.
Funny story - on my first AT hike, one of the hikers decided to quit at Troutdale. (He missed his girlfriend.) He had no idea how to get home from there. We stopped at Country Cookin’ for lunch and left our packs outside (not recommended). A passing car saw the packs and decided to come in to meet us, since he had hiked the AT the year before. Turned out he was heading for the same area that my friend lived in, about 300 miles away. A ride was offered and accepted. Now that’s trail magic.
Spirit Walker
i’ve got a ride home from katahdin to niagara falls NY. people who finish with me can come my way; sightsee; go casino-ing and then i’ll take em home if they split gas.
Big Boy
What about the IAT? Who says you have to stop walking.
Yo-yo…I might send you cookies. Turn left and do the America Trail. Go back down the Long Trail from the north end.
Bushwhack
Just have fun… everything works out in the trailworld… i went on an adventure after and mentally I still haven’t come home…
no worries… and now I am off to go hiking in Yellowstone whopee!
ASWAH the Man with the GOLDEN PIMP BOOTS…
Aswah
Agree with Burn.
Also don’t plan out your entire life and hike in advance. Leave some stuff to be figured out/worked out when you get there.
Too many people plan way too much to cross that bridge several thousand miles down the road-----and unfortunately many of them never make it to the bridge.
If they would do less planning and more doing----then most likely a few more of them would make it.
Seems right to me.
See you out there. :cheers
Maintain