Very well put! I've been section-hiking the AT for over 10 years and found that the thru-hikers in Maine were starting to think about what they would do after they finished Katahdin. When I hiked down from Katahdin, there was a thru-hiker back at the hostel in Millinocket just sitting outside looking depressed. He told me that if his family hadn't come up to Maine to see him finish, he was very tempted to turn around and start hiking the trail southbound to Springer. It's like he was describing the same feelings you had after you got home from the trail.
You're a green encouragement. While I've not yet thru hiked, I have just completed an intensive2nd year of a screen writing program with a small knit group I now consider like family. What now, is a thing for me too. The blahs, the mental and in some ways physical exhaustion are relatable. Setting goals and enjoying the next season with the plan to do things together regularly are All part of the healing, if you will, for me . I relish your wisdom and that of others. We got this! Thanks so much for sharing.
Very well put. I arrived in the U.S. on Feb 22nd and started at springer on the 24th, convinced (even at 66) I could get to Maine!!! 200 miles in with a recurring back problem and right Achilles damage I’ve had to return to the U.K. I was suffering home sickness more than I expected and struggled with claustrophobia in my tent!!! Didn’t expect that!!! My feelings on return range from disappointment, guilt mixed with euphoria being back with my family. No regrets tho, it was an extreme challenge and I feel I coped well, I will continue to travel, but with a gentler approach, I salute anyone who gets out there and gives it go x
Two years, two intense years of reading every book I could find about the AT, reviewing UL gear, watching u-tube videos, learning skills I may need for being on trail and multiple backpacking trips to be ready for this amazing adventure. Blue mountain Georgia, at approximately 65 mile marker, it was raining and I slipped on wet rock, hitting my left hip. Initially I was hopeful that a steroid injection would have me back on trail in no time. Unfortunately it was not enough and I was forced to quit the trail at mile 75. Since arriving home I have not worked out or hiked or felt like doing much of anything. I could not even bring myself to watch other hikers until seeing your post. It’s the first time in my life that I failed at something that I worked so damn hard to make happen. I had a plan for everything (staying dry in pouring rain, staying warm in freezing weather, how to resupply, filtering water, etc…) except failure. Home for 10 days now and plan to begin hiking again this week, hoping that helps get me out of the funk…..
Wow! Thank you for sharing this! I’ve made a plan to hike this coming week too. Hoping it ignites something. Lol. Best of luck to you! We’ll get through this and be stronger for it!!👊🏻🙏🏻✌🏼
Thanks for sharing. I went through the “blas” after my MST ‘21 hike. I felt like I didn’t have any goals to work towards and was a little lost. I reached out to a friend who wanted to start backpacking and asked if she wanted to plan a trip. I think shifting the focus from a goal for myself to a shared goal helped me. I put energy towards helping someone else and that has brought me joy and satisfaction.
i didnt see this when you posted it, been dealing with my own blahs but for different reasons/ no reason, i understand how you feel even though i havent hiked as far at one time as you have. i hope your feeling better. i dont have another nobo hiker im following yet this year, yours were the only ones that clicked with me.
Keep your good positive state of mind. Don’t know if you are a runner, but if you are or can, it is a great way to stay healthy and it will absolutely help with the “post trail blahs”. You are very intelligent and will be just fine. Wishing you the best!
Throttle, a very good video on a difficult topic. I must say I do miss the daily check-in following your progress on the AT. However if I have learned anything over the years it is that timing is everything. The show is not over. Take time to digest the experience, you will come back stronger! Stay safe.
Thanks for sharing. I recently had to bail on a LASH due to a pinched nerve. I see people I was hiking with now reaching the Shenandoahs and Harpers Ferry and find myself feeling sad and upset with myself for not being there, too. I can only imagine what it’s like to discontinue a thru attempt.
Keep your spirits up and don't let those post thru hike blues get you down too much. The hiking community is out here strong and in numbers supporting you from afar. Hang in there and take one day at a time. Once you process all your inner feelings there will be plenty of time to plan future hikes both short and long.
Indeed, always good to know others have dealt with the same things and come out the other side even stronger. The Uphill Athlete podcasts have episodes that talk about the same things and have helped me over the last year or so. Especially when something doesn’t go as planned. Now instead of getting down on myself for making a mistake training, not finishing the whole hike or run originally planned, or fall climbing they’re learning experiences that ultimately end up helping.
Thank you so much, I miss your videos this really helped and you hit the target dead center. Knowing others are going through this or have gone through this is sort of an asset to know you will get through it as well. Figuring out what’s next in life with having such a large goal quickly abruptly ends, it’s almost like lost of a loved one. I drove right back into work luckily I had that opportunity. Need to get another good focus going maybe just general life improvement. Thank you again so much for your honesty and your authenticness I know that’s not a word :-) do you know what I mean you help so many people by putting something like this out there, thank you again. 360
Aww.. I miss you! Thank you for this! Yes, you know all too well. Hope you are doing well and finding your groove again. I love the word!! Maybe you should make a post too! 👊🏻🥰
@@KNAOutdoors2022 yes I should probably post something soon, I had to post blues also I dove right back into work full steam. Was able to stay focused that way and yes disliked answering questions. Yeah they were nice enough to ask and nice enough to follow, they deserve a good answer and a respectful one. Some amazing work team members and friends lotta good support and it was only positive comments that I received. From like, you’re among the very few people I’ve ever known to actually do something about your dreams. Too, you are so brave to have even tried I’ve never gotten up off my couch. On another note, the weather wow, we have some cameras on our property which is at mile marker 362 on the Appalachian Trail and right now it’s covered with snow past couple of days hi was in the low 20s that is just amazing.
Many times in life we are forced to react to the changes life throws at us and don't take time to think about our loss or change. On occasion, we have a long term goal that we focus all our efforts on. When those goals either come to fruition or a dead end we can't figure out how to get around, depression and anxiety can be very real! We just don't know what to do now. I think you are right. The post depression after a long thru-hike is "what do I do now?" We can experience that with many things in life, so we wish you the best in finding your next goal and getting back your mojo!
thank you for sharing your story. it's important to share how things are going on the trail it definitely helps other hikers out there and future thu hikers. as a section hiker my dad and I first step on the Appalachian trail in 2019 I was an amazing experience. It was hard to leave I really enjoyed my time and looking forward to being back out there in June for another section of the Appalachian trail
Thanks for sharing this. I started March 3 and had to go home for severe IT band syndrome for injections. I also experienced both the lost feeling and the insane exhaustion. I am headed back out April 20, so if you decide you want to hike another section, I'd welcome another fellow introvert :) Hope you're healing and resting up. Take your time. Don't you feel like the trail exposes EVERY vulnerability we each have? And then you get home and I found I was SO raw and exposed. It's tiring!! Emotional!
Omg! Yes! You are so right. Things you didn’t even know about yourself. Im glad you’re getting to head back out. I feel like I’ve jerked my family around too much so I’m having to wait and give it time. Thanks so much and best of luck to you!👊🏻🥾🥾
Hey Keena! This is so hard to do but one of the things that works for me is to have no structured plans when it comes to hiking when the blahs are there! Sometimes when I throw myself into another project that project ends up being a big mess because my brain is still a big mess from the hiking blahs. There is a great sense of freedom when you let yourself be ok right where you are. And of course as I am typing this letting yourself be free of plans, schedules, etc. is VERY HARD to do. Maybe I'll see ya out again soon!
Yeah and my plans keep falling through. We tried to plan a section on the AT, a section on the MST… between weather and other family things it’s not worked out.. yet. 👊🏻
I love your honestly about your feelings. As a section hiker I can’t relate as to how you feel but I love being on the trail. Have you thought about doing section backpacking trips?
So, I am on the plane headed home. Heartbroken but happy at the same time. It wasn't my time for a few reasons. Haven't decided if I'll do a vid on it but I might a little later. This helps. Thanks throttle!
@@KNAOutdoors2022 I will definitely try again next year but for now I will just enjoy the summer at home then train for another attempt. I have amazing support but it just wasn't my time.
Yeah I’m kinda in the same boat. I thought about doing another section in April but my family wasn’t ready to lose me again. So, I’m thinking maybe September and then maybe again in the spring. Who knows. Best of luck to you! Hope it works out when you’re ready!👊🏻🥾🥾
@@KNAOutdoors2022 Like "What do you do AFTER you win the championship, the title or whatever?' Even healthy, happy mothers can suffer postpartum depression. Sometimes I think setting goals gets you to the goal you set for yourself. To promise yourself more is risky. Seems actors, artists or others in areas like that may be most at risk. Made a 30-day mostly silent retreat years ago, and the question people most often ask is what was life like afterwards. Like a kid with ice cream, you always want another scoop. at least for a while.
I'm thru-hiking Feb 1 2023. Gear set. Training since Nov 2021. If your ready to roll it to completion, let me know. Watched your videos. Don't let this trail define you.
Thanks for sharing. Not being a thru hiker I've never experienced those feelings but I think I can understand after having bike crash end my ability to do all the road riding/events I was passionate about. The body healed, the spirit never recovered. Go from doing 75 - 100 mile rides every weekend and daily training to nothing was really tough!
Wow! That is hard. My husband hurt his back mountain biking. He switched over to hiking. I hope you can find another passion to fulfill that need too. Best of luck to you and thanks for sharing!👊🏻
@@KNAOutdoors2022 Sorry to hear about your husband, back injuries are no joke. For me, it's all good. I switched to running. Did that for 10 years until arthritis took up residence in one knee. It's slowed me down but not stopped me.
Feel good about what you did and how well you did it. Introverts are goal and list oriented. I know I am. You will start looking ahead to your next trail trip, perhaps in shorter segments. You inspired many.
Totally relate, on my third PCT thru I fractured my foot at mile 67. To say I was bummed was an understatement. Didn't really figure out a way to deal with it. Took me out for the season and didn't really feel right until i was back at Campo for another run, thanks for sharing.
Dixie, aka Homemade Wanderlust, has a video titled Post Trail Blues if I remember correctly. Seems we all move through what you are describing in one form or another in whatever our endeavors have been. It's wonderful to have people in our lives who understand this. Be well everyone ... be well.
Hi Keena I think that happens to all people who are involved with a journey in life. My daughter was active for years in theatre and each and every time a show would end and she would be lost! Really lost. ☹️. Even now she’s a busy mom with triplets and she still feels the loss of the theater! Hang in there. Soon warm weather will come and you will pick yourself up dust yourself off and start all over again. Either hiking or a beautiful flower garden. Hang in there! 🌸🌻😊🙏❤️
I became diabetic back in March of 2017. I am tired of dealing with diabetes. My goal over next couple of years is to lose from 340 lbs back down to 260 lbs. I am hoping to atleast be able to hike from springer mountain,ga back up to shady Valley tn or Damascus,va. I grew up in kingsport,tn and my parents were from johnson city/ jonesborough,tn areas not far from erwin,tn. I have to get back doqn to a good healthy body weight of around 250 to 260 so I can enjoy doing things with my grandchildren.
You need to go to a bluegrass festival. something different than hiking, just think, you have all the requisite skills for camping on-site for 3-4-5 day events and you do a lot of walking on larger sites, should be easy-peasy. Would have suggested Floydfest but they're pretty sold out now (added bonus, FF is located on the pre 1954 track of the AT) OK, I understand you may not like Bluegrass but don't punish yourself with goals, or rather like New Years resolutions, make some of those fun goals. Sometimes you just need to take a "right turn" do something you haven't done before, friends help, check out a baseball game, take up swing dancing, buy a cool pair of sunglasses or again, go to a music festival. I always think it's wise to have several things in the pot at any one time cuz interest in things do come and go. I just got through a spate of day hiking and although those have been 6-7--8 miles (with no pack) I feel very attached to the AT, even did a few minutes of trail maintenance (long story...) Now I'm kinda off into other things. Anyway, you're right about the body, you relax for a few days and it will go into "repair mode" and you might as well just get a stack of old movies to watch when that happens.
I truly think you should have started later, I think you would have done better if you could have found a trail family. I know you have the strength and mindset to complete the trail. You definitely can throw down the miles. I hate that you didn’t finish I truly thought you’d be one of the first to finish this year.
I am just in the dreaming stage, but I'm about to do a big long bike ride and it's such a mixed bag - it's good to have a goal, but it's hard to make sense of endings - any of them. We get just one life, but it sure does seem like we spend a lot of time in the "now what" phase and then ponder what is the point of living anyway? I'm sure I'll be in a funk when I'm done with the ride, but then I know I just need to plan the next thing. ALWAYS the next thing.
I am now at mile 1295 or so. The longer I hike the AT the more I am convinced this is not about the trail. The trail itself is nothing to write home about. Here in Pennsylvania it’s absurd. You visit every single rock field, if there is a kind of bigger rocks, you can be sure to walk over them. Entire PA should be redesigned, rerouted and regraded. Like it is now, for most people it is just dangerous but also extremely boring. For us faster hikers there is just nothing exiting here. The AT is about the people you met along the way. As a faster hiker, I usually see people just for one night in a shelter or a hostel. Can not wait to be done with this trail and then move west, where there is a trail that is actually beautiful.
Thanks for watching my video in your down time! Yes, I agree. I think this trail experience is more about the people and we had very few out there. And, it is hard to find someone with the same pace. I commend you for finishing anyway! Best of luck to you out west!! 👊🏻
Why don't you quit now and head west then? I'm not being mean or facetious, but it might just be more courageous to disengage then completing some "work" that you feel like you have to do. I actually admire those shoes thrown into the tree at Neal's gap of hikers that have quit after three or four day. They've reached an epiphany "This is not for me" and now can move on. maybe not the one expected, but Katahdin wasn't going to answer that.
Do you think you started too early? You were always alone instead of with the usual groups that start out at Springer in Mar/Apr? Even though you're an introvert, at least there would have been others around.
Very well put! I've been section-hiking the AT for over 10 years and found that the thru-hikers in Maine were starting to think about what they would do after they finished Katahdin. When I hiked down from Katahdin, there was a thru-hiker back at the hostel in Millinocket just sitting outside looking depressed. He told me that if his family hadn't come up to Maine to see him finish, he was very tempted to turn around and start hiking the trail southbound to Springer. It's like he was describing the same feelings you had after you got home from the trail.
You're a green encouragement. While I've not yet thru hiked, I have just completed an intensive2nd year of a screen writing program with a small knit group I now consider like family. What now, is a thing for me too. The blahs, the mental and in some ways physical exhaustion are relatable. Setting goals and enjoying the next season with the plan to do things together regularly are All part of the healing, if you will, for me . I relish your wisdom and that of others. We got this! Thanks so much for sharing.
*great encouragement😂
Very well put.
I arrived in the U.S. on Feb 22nd and started at springer on the 24th, convinced (even at 66) I could get to Maine!!! 200 miles in with a recurring back problem and right Achilles damage I’ve had to return to the U.K.
I was suffering home sickness more than I expected and struggled with claustrophobia in my tent!!! Didn’t expect that!!!
My feelings on return range from disappointment, guilt mixed with euphoria being back with my family.
No regrets tho, it was an extreme challenge and I feel I coped well, I will continue to travel, but with a gentler approach, I salute anyone who gets out there and gives it go x
Two years, two intense years of reading every book I could find about the AT, reviewing UL gear, watching u-tube videos, learning skills I may need for being on trail and multiple backpacking trips to be ready for this amazing adventure. Blue mountain Georgia, at approximately 65 mile marker, it was raining and I slipped on wet rock, hitting my left hip. Initially I was hopeful that a steroid injection would have me back on trail in no time. Unfortunately it was not enough and I was forced to quit the trail at mile 75. Since arriving home I have not worked out or hiked or felt like doing much of anything. I could not even bring myself to watch other hikers until seeing your post. It’s the first time in my life that I failed at something that I worked so damn hard to make happen. I had a plan for everything (staying dry in pouring rain, staying warm in freezing weather, how to resupply, filtering water, etc…) except failure. Home for 10 days now and plan to begin hiking again this week, hoping that helps get me out of the funk…..
Wow! Thank you for sharing this! I’ve made a plan to hike this coming week too. Hoping it ignites something. Lol. Best of luck to you! We’ll get through this and be stronger for it!!👊🏻🙏🏻✌🏼
Thanks for sharing not only what you do but for sharing who you are and what you are feeling. We all feel the same joys and sorrows in life.
Thanks for sharing. I went through the “blas” after my MST ‘21 hike. I felt like I didn’t have any goals to work towards and was a little lost. I reached out to a friend who wanted to start backpacking and asked if she wanted to plan a trip. I think shifting the focus from a goal for myself to a shared goal helped me. I put energy towards helping someone else and that has brought me joy and satisfaction.
i didnt see this when you posted it, been dealing with my own blahs but for different reasons/ no reason, i understand how you feel even though i havent hiked as far at one time as you have. i hope your feeling better. i dont have another nobo hiker im following yet this year, yours were the only ones that clicked with me.
Keep your good positive state of mind. Don’t know if you are a runner, but if you are or can, it is a great way to stay healthy and it will absolutely help with the “post trail blahs”.
You are very intelligent and will be just fine. Wishing you the best!
Throttle, a very good video on a difficult topic. I must say I do miss the daily check-in following your progress on the AT. However if I have learned anything over the years it is that timing is everything. The show is not over. Take time to digest the experience, you will come back stronger! Stay safe.
Thanks for sharing. I recently had to bail on a LASH due to a pinched nerve. I see people I was hiking with now reaching the Shenandoahs and Harpers Ferry and find myself feeling sad and upset with myself for not being there, too. I can only imagine what it’s like to discontinue a thru attempt.
Keep your spirits up and don't let those post thru hike blues get you down too much. The hiking community is out here strong and in numbers supporting you from afar. Hang in there and take one day at a time. Once you process all your inner feelings there will be plenty of time to plan future hikes both short and long.
Nice to hear the rest of the story and how it played out.
Indeed, always good to know others have dealt with the same things and come out the other side even stronger. The Uphill Athlete podcasts have episodes that talk about the same things and have helped me over the last year or so. Especially when something doesn’t go as planned. Now instead of getting down on myself for making a mistake training, not finishing the whole hike or run originally planned, or fall climbing they’re learning experiences that ultimately end up helping.
Hugs. Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you so much, I miss your videos this really helped and you hit the target dead center. Knowing others are going through this or have gone through this is sort of an asset to know you will get through it as well. Figuring out what’s next in life with having such a large goal quickly abruptly ends, it’s almost like lost of a loved one. I drove right back into work luckily I had that opportunity. Need to get another good focus going maybe just general life improvement. Thank you again so much for your honesty and your authenticness I know that’s not a word :-) do you know what I mean you help so many people by putting something like this out there, thank you again. 360
Aww.. I miss you! Thank you for this! Yes, you know all too well. Hope you are doing well and finding your groove again. I love the word!! Maybe you should make a post too! 👊🏻🥰
@@KNAOutdoors2022 yes I should probably post something soon, I had to post blues also I dove right back into work full steam. Was able to stay focused that way and yes disliked answering questions. Yeah they were nice enough to ask and nice enough to follow, they deserve a good answer and a respectful one. Some amazing work team members and friends lotta good support and it was only positive comments that I received. From like, you’re among the very few people I’ve ever known to actually do something about your dreams. Too, you are so brave to have even tried I’ve never gotten up off my couch. On another note, the weather wow, we have some cameras on our property which is at mile marker 362 on the Appalachian Trail and right now it’s covered with snow past couple of days hi was in the low 20s that is just amazing.
Many times in life we are forced to react to the changes life throws at us and don't take time to think about our loss or change. On occasion, we have a long term goal that we focus all our efforts on. When those goals either come to fruition or a dead end we can't figure out how to get around, depression and anxiety can be very real! We just don't know what to do now. I think you are right. The post depression after a long thru-hike is "what do I do now?" We can experience that with many things in life, so we wish you the best in finding your next goal and getting back your mojo!
thank you for sharing your story. it's important to share how things are going on the trail it definitely helps other hikers out there and future thu hikers. as a section hiker my dad and I first step on the Appalachian trail in 2019 I was an amazing experience. It was hard to leave I really enjoyed my time and looking forward to being back out there in June for another section of the Appalachian trail
Thanks for sharing this. I started March 3 and had to go home for severe IT band syndrome for injections. I also experienced both the lost feeling and the insane exhaustion. I am headed back out April 20, so if you decide you want to hike another section, I'd welcome another fellow introvert :) Hope you're healing and resting up. Take your time. Don't you feel like the trail exposes EVERY vulnerability we each have? And then you get home and I found I was SO raw and exposed. It's tiring!! Emotional!
Omg! Yes! You are so right. Things you didn’t even know about yourself. Im glad you’re getting to head back out. I feel like I’ve jerked my family around too much so I’m having to wait and give it time. Thanks so much and best of luck to you!👊🏻🥾🥾
Thank you for sharing. Hopefully it helps you as well.
Hey Keena! This is so hard to do but one of the things that works for me is to have no structured plans when it comes to hiking when the blahs are there! Sometimes when I throw myself into another project that project ends up being a big mess because my brain is still a big mess from the hiking blahs. There is a great sense of freedom when you let yourself be ok right where you are. And of course as I am typing this letting yourself be free of plans, schedules, etc. is VERY HARD to do. Maybe I'll see ya out again soon!
Yeah and my plans keep falling through. We tried to plan a section on the AT, a section on the MST… between weather and other family things it’s not worked out.. yet. 👊🏻
I love your honestly about your feelings. As a section hiker I can’t relate as to how you feel but I love being on the trail. Have you thought about doing section backpacking trips?
So, I am on the plane headed home. Heartbroken but happy at the same time. It wasn't my time for a few reasons. Haven't decided if I'll do a vid on it but I might a little later. This helps. Thanks throttle!
Awww I’m so sorry you’re going through it too. Yeah just allow yourself the space to process and heal. Warn your family hahaha you might be in a funk.
@@KNAOutdoors2022 I will definitely try again next year but for now I will just enjoy the summer at home then train for another attempt. I have amazing support but it just wasn't my time.
Yeah I’m kinda in the same boat. I thought about doing another section in April but my family wasn’t ready to lose me again. So, I’m thinking maybe September and then maybe again in the spring. Who knows. Best of luck to you! Hope it works out when you’re ready!👊🏻🥾🥾
@@KNAOutdoors2022 Like "What do you do AFTER you win the championship, the title or whatever?' Even healthy, happy mothers can suffer postpartum depression. Sometimes I think setting goals gets you to the goal you set for yourself. To promise yourself more is risky. Seems actors, artists or others in areas like that may be most at risk. Made a 30-day mostly silent retreat years ago, and the question people most often ask is what was life like afterwards. Like a kid with ice cream, you always want another scoop. at least for a while.
I'm thru-hiking Feb 1 2023. Gear set. Training since Nov 2021. If your ready to roll it to completion, let me know. Watched your videos. Don't let this trail define you.
Best of luck to you! I’m hoping to get back out there.. just not sure what that’s going to look like yet.
Thanks for sharing. Not being a thru hiker I've never experienced those feelings but I think I can understand after having bike crash end my ability to do all the road riding/events I was passionate about. The body healed, the spirit never recovered. Go from doing 75 - 100 mile rides every weekend and daily training to nothing was really tough!
Wow! That is hard. My husband hurt his back mountain biking. He switched over to hiking. I hope you can find another passion to fulfill that need too. Best of luck to you and thanks for sharing!👊🏻
@@KNAOutdoors2022 Sorry to hear about your husband, back injuries are no joke. For me, it's all good. I switched to running. Did that for 10 years until arthritis took up residence in one knee. It's slowed me down but not stopped me.
Feel good about what you did and how well you did it. Introverts are goal and list oriented. I know I am. You will start looking ahead to your next trail trip, perhaps in shorter segments. You inspired many.
Thank you so much! And you’re right. I’m creating new things! 👊🏻
Totally relate, on my third PCT thru I fractured my foot at mile 67. To say I was bummed was an understatement. Didn't really figure out a way to deal with it. Took me out for the season and didn't really feel right until i was back at Campo for another run, thanks for sharing.
I forget the author but the book titled “Appalachian Trials” is on the psychology of post trail life
Author is Zach Davis, a really good book.
Dixie, aka Homemade Wanderlust, has a video titled Post Trail Blues if I remember correctly. Seems we all move through what you are describing in one form or another in whatever our endeavors have been. It's wonderful to have people in our lives who understand this. Be well everyone ... be well.
Saw Dixie's vid on this subject. Worth a look (and applies to other areas of life)
Hi Keena I think that happens to all people who are involved with a journey in life. My daughter was active for years in theatre and each and every time a show would end and she would be lost! Really lost. ☹️. Even now she’s a busy mom with triplets and she still feels the loss of the theater! Hang in there. Soon warm weather will come and you will pick yourself up dust yourself off and start all over again. Either hiking or a beautiful flower garden. Hang in there! 🌸🌻😊🙏❤️
Ahhh.. thank you for this! Yeah, I hope she can find something to fulfill her need too! 👊🏻🙏🏻
Wishing you a positive rebound. "The way out is In..." ...and B R E A T H E...........🙏
I became diabetic back in March of 2017. I am tired of dealing with diabetes. My goal over next couple of years is to lose from 340 lbs back down to 260 lbs. I am hoping to atleast be able to hike from springer mountain,ga back up to shady Valley tn or Damascus,va. I grew up in kingsport,tn and my parents were from johnson city/ jonesborough,tn areas not far from erwin,tn.
I have to get back doqn to a good healthy body weight of around 250 to 260 so I can enjoy doing things with my grandchildren.
You need to go to a bluegrass festival. something different than hiking, just think, you have all the requisite skills for camping on-site for 3-4-5 day events and you do a lot of walking on larger sites, should be easy-peasy. Would have suggested Floydfest but they're pretty sold out now (added bonus, FF is located on the pre 1954 track of the AT) OK, I understand you may not like Bluegrass but don't punish yourself with goals, or rather like New Years resolutions, make some of those fun goals. Sometimes you just need to take a "right turn" do something you haven't done before, friends help, check out a baseball game, take up swing dancing, buy a cool pair of sunglasses or again, go to a music festival. I always think it's wise to have several things in the pot at any one time cuz interest in things do come and go. I just got through a spate of day hiking and although those have been 6-7--8 miles (with no pack) I feel very attached to the AT, even did a few minutes of trail maintenance (long story...) Now I'm kinda off into other things. Anyway, you're right about the body, you relax for a few days and it will go into "repair mode" and you might as well just get a stack of old movies to watch when that happens.
You know it's not too late to get back on trail. It might be a bit more social now. A bigger bubble of people.
I truly think you should have started later, I think you would have done better if you could have found a trail family. I know you have the strength and mindset to complete the trail. You definitely can throw down the miles. I hate that you didn’t finish I truly thought you’d be one of the first to finish this year.
I am just in the dreaming stage, but I'm about to do a big long bike ride and it's such a mixed bag - it's good to have a goal, but it's hard to make sense of endings - any of them. We get just one life, but it sure does seem like we spend a lot of time in the "now what" phase and then ponder what is the point of living anyway?
I'm sure I'll be in a funk when I'm done with the ride, but then I know I just need to plan the next thing. ALWAYS the next thing.
Yes! Between the “not anymore” and the “not yet”. 👊🏻
👍 thank you
Yes, form some new, maybe short term goals…yard work as you mentioned…and do some physical activity even when you don’t feel like it…just an idea🙂🙏
Good luck
Only way to cope is like all thruhikers stuck back in the matrix....planning the next one. 👍
Did you think about maybe going trail magic and speaking to hikers about what you went through?
GBU!!
❤🙏🏻
I am now at mile 1295 or so. The longer I hike the AT the more I am convinced this is not about the trail. The trail itself is nothing to write home about. Here in Pennsylvania it’s absurd. You visit every single rock field, if there is a kind of bigger rocks, you can be sure to walk over them. Entire PA should be redesigned, rerouted and regraded. Like it is now, for most people it is just dangerous but also extremely boring. For us faster hikers there is just nothing exiting here.
The AT is about the people you met along the way. As a faster hiker, I usually see people just for one night in a shelter or a hostel. Can not wait to be done with this trail and then move west, where there is a trail that is actually beautiful.
Thanks for watching my video in your down time! Yes, I agree. I think this trail experience is more about the people and we had very few out there. And, it is hard to find someone with the same pace. I commend you for finishing anyway! Best of luck to you out west!! 👊🏻
Why don't you quit now and head west then? I'm not being mean or facetious, but it might just be more courageous to disengage then completing some "work" that you feel like you have to do. I actually admire those shoes thrown into the tree at Neal's gap of hikers that have quit after three or four day. They've reached an epiphany "This is not for me" and now can move on. maybe not the one expected, but Katahdin wasn't going to answer that.
🙏🏻
Do you think you started too early? You were always alone instead of with the usual groups that start out at Springer in Mar/Apr? Even though you're an introvert, at least there would have been others around.
Yeah maybe.. I wanted to be through by summer but a few people would’ve been nice lol.
What took you off the trail?
Just wasn’t enjoying it. Very lonely. Missing family.
👋