Date: 2017-11-13
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Hike Your Own Hike is a motto I try to live by. But HYOH is not the only aphorism that guides me, and another is about not reinventing the wheel. On the AT and on all my previous trails, I hiked my own hike but I also made a point of listening to the advice from those who had gone before, adopting the bits that worked for me and discarding the bits that didn¢t. In that sense, I¢ve hiked a bunch of different people¢s hikes.It's in this spirit that I've compiled the following tips for those thinking about a sobo AT hike. It's certainly possible to yell "F... you, RT!", ignore every one of these and successfully hike the AT, but I think for most mortals -- and particularly those on their first thru-hike -- some of these will help make trail life a little more enjoyable. Or at least lessen the fear factor ahead of time.Accept that going sobo is tough! The single toughest day on the entire AT for sobos is the very first one, and apart from a few cruisy days at the start of the 100 mile wilderness (which don't feel all that cruisy because you're still getting your trail legs), it doesn't really start getting easier until after Moosilauke at the end of the Whites. I found the AT more physically arduous overall than either the PCT or the CDT. Combine that with the classic beginner thru-hiker mistake of going out too hard, too fast and you have the number one reason why people get off the trail through being injured or disheartened in the first six weeks. While it's important to keep the miles ticking over -- say, at least one shelter per day -- the primary goals for the first 500 miles are to keep your feet, knees and the rest of your body in good shape and to make sure you're enjoying the trail. Once you're past the Whites, you can start cranking the miles. You have time! This seques to the next point:Sobo on the AT is the only direction in the triple crown that doesn't get stopped by winter: Katahdin closes in late October, if you're lucky, and blizzards in both directions on the PCT and CDT can force hikers to abandon their thru-hikes, which is a powerful incentive to put in the miles. But AT sobo? It gets pretty cold from mid-November on but every year, early nobos meet late-running sobos finishing their hikes in February or even later. You have time, which allows you the luxury of making sure you keep enjoying the hike. I deliberately slowed down after Monson because the trail was so tough and I wasn't enjoying it as much as I wanted to. Enjoying yourself is one of the biggest predictors of a successful thru-hike, which in turn seques into...Have fun! Never forget this. So often we¢d see people -- particularly the frontrunning nobos, who were hitting the toughest terrain and corresponding lowered mileages just as they really wanted to be done with the trail -- who were treating the hike as if it was a hair shirt, to be endured rather than enjoyed. If it gets really bad, slow down. If it's still bad, take some time off. The trail will still be there in a week¢s time. Your job is to make sure you are too.Don't believe all the hype about the Whites: As I came out at Rangely after the toughest bit of the AT yet -- for the first time on the trail, the nobos even gave us fleeting respect for completing it -- I met a guy who was clearly an experienced thru-hiker with a tiny pack. He turned out to be a PCT alumni so I figured he'd have a realistic view on the Whites compared to the apocalyptic warnings we'd been hearing. "I've done some hiking, man, but the Whites?" he told us, pausing for dramatic effect before adding simply: "F...!" After the Mahoosucs, I was concerned about the Whites -- and of course it was not nearly as bad as claimed, mostly because the quality of the trails was way better than the bog/cliff duopoly of the Mahoosucs. Of course there are good reasons to treat the Whites with respect and caution -- and it's why it's the site of two of only three places on the AT where I was prepared to wait for good weather: Katahdin, the Presidential range and Franconia Ridge -- but it's not as bad as the fearmongerers say.South of the Whites, nobos are wrong about everything... The first nobos we met were pulling 30s in the 100 mile wilderness and seemed like some kind of superspecies who bore little relation to us mortals. But after the Whites, we'd hear nobos complaining genuinely about the trail they'd just done and then we'd find it was easy compared to what we'd come through. "Vermud" -- the nobo nickname for Vermont -- exemplified this, in which one nobo earnestly told us about how the mud had come over the top of his shoe, seemingly unaware that one of those he was telling this to was a sobo hiker who'd gone up to her waist in a bog in the Mahoosucs. We started taking any well-intentioned trail tips they gave us with a large grain of salt (although they were kinda right about "Rocksylvania")....except about food and hostels: Nobos were great for this. They always had the most up to date info about the great restaurants and places to stay, including new places that had opened and places that sucked. *COUGH*TopOfGeorgiaHostel*COUGH* A good test is how many states in advance somewhere is recommended. For example, we'd been hearing glowing reports about the Home Place in Virginia from nobos all the way back in Maine, 10 states earlier, and it lived up to the hype.The Long Green Tunnel stereotype is real: Especially once you're out of New England, long sections of the AT are a green tunnel without views and often following long, flat, forested ridges that go on and on and on and on. And on. Just accept that some days will suck, particularly in the mid-Atlantics. Sometimes it¢s what¢s going on inside that makes the miles drag by. Take it easy on yourself, crank up your music/podcast and accept that sometimes the miles just have to be done rather than savoured or even enjoyed. Take zero-days ¢ and especially on-trail zeroes ¢ and make sure they¢re real zero days: It took about half of my first thru-hike before we realised how important it was for zero days to be real zero days to be beneficial. Often we¢d do all the town chores and ended up feeling like we needed to get back on the trail to have a break. On the second half, we¢d rush around like mad on the first evening to do all the chores and then schedule nothing for the next day other than watching bad TV, eating town food and drinking beer. And an on-trail zero day ¢ as we did in a shelter when a severe storm blew through in North Carolina ¢ was worth its weight in pizza vouchers.Be patient about getting a trail name: One of the mottos of thru-hiking is "the trail will provide", and that also applies to trail names. About a third of people I met had named themselves, which isn't in the spirit of the trail, while others had jumped on the first trail name that was suggested, only to regret it later when the perfect trail name emerged. I understand the concerns about doing something stupid that gets you a trail name you regret, but a trail name has to be accepted and only really sticks when you reply to it. The best trail names are clever and involve an awesome story, which kinda rules out names like "Not Yet" and "Just [Real first name]". Be patient and let the trail provide. You will be rewarded.Accept that re-entry may be tough: Give yourself time and space to get back to normal life again. One theme that came up again and again for most hikers is that the hike was a point of transition in their lives, either due to events of their making or due to things that happen to them. And often when you finish the hike and head back home, the things that were in action before are still there. Cut yourself some slack and allow yourself time to ease back in. Struggling with re-entry is the norm. Fortunately you can overcome this with a 12 million step programme, otherwise known as the triple crown.Or you can ignore all of these suggestions. You'll work it out and find your own path.Always remember that life is good. RT out. *drops mic*