Date: 2010-02-01
To: When to know your thru-hike MAY be in jeopardy.
Miles today: 0.0

How one goes about their hike is a personal decision. Whether it¢s to carry three days of food and do big mileage days or carry five days and keep the mileage in the low teens is as individual as the decision to hike itself. Some of you will walk in and out of every shelter the same way to not miss a single foot of the AT while some will turn to slack-packing to address the burden of gear weight or injuries. There¢s a lot of free time to think about it. Your choices throughout the journey can keep you either mentally powerful or weaken your resolve, and one crack in your armor is often followed by others. Before you know it your emotional strength can come under constant attack ¢ its mental pollution that increases your vulnerability. Once again, Hike Your Own Hike, it¢s your hike and your adventure. Since leaving all you know to go on an adventure in the woods requires more than a fair share of passion in your blood, discussions on how to hike quickly become controversial. Even with the best of intentions, there¢s no guarantee in being christened a Thru-hiker.Georgia to Maine is an enormous distance. So much has to go right. First you need to avoid a hike ending injury (foot or leg) or other health issues. In ¢06, the day after crossing the Maine Stateline and 1800 miles, I slipped on black ice (in August!?#!) and took a tumble that resulted in a broken wrist. Luckily for me, I was able to continue 30 days later with double splints the final three weeks after forcing the doctor to cut off the cast. So some injuries aren¢t denials but just delays.Second, family and friends need to stay well ¢ matters on the homefront need to march forward without consequence. So, whether through the avoidance of injury or everything remaining copasetic at home, to actually become a ¢Thru-hiker,¢ instead of thru-hiking, one needs a bit of luck.Having a desire to thru-hike doesn¢t necessarily mean you¢ll have the resolve. Plenty have stopped in that first 30 miles on the way to the Walasi-Yi Center. Heck, some have stopped on The Approach Trail. For me personally, I feel if you¢re not having a joyful time then you should by all means get into town and rethink your plan ¢ life¢s to precious to trudge rather than hike.Slack-packing is an attractive enticement, especially when it¢s promoted by a number of shuttle services to bring in revenue. Slack-packing can be a refreshing change, however, it can in some cases serve as a red flag to your resolve. Taking a few days off to walk without pack weight can be refreshing, but many shuttle services will promote how they can drive you to the top of a mountain and let you walk down, then the next day take you back to the top again and let you walk down the other way, it¢s a brilliant strategy. They get two days of shuttle fees plus an overnight fee or two, and you think you¢ve beaten the trail and its difficulty by ingenuity. If that was your goal then I¢d say, ¢Good show, jolly good.¢ However, I¢m not sure that finding ways not to hike the Appalachian Trail is truly in the spirit of a thru-hike. You rob yourself of how splendidly addictive the toil of an end-to-end journey can be, yet alone diluting the intensity of pride you¢ll feel in doing so. Becoming preoccupied with finding short cuts should be a red flag, I feel it also shows that the adventure isn¢t completely what you hoped it would be. Ask yourself as I did once climbing a bear of an ascent, Three Ridges Mt. in Virginia, when I came to a trail sign announcing a 3 mile short cut to the shelter avoiding the summit by going left or continue up the AT¢s longer, 6 mile climbing section by going straight ¢ an enticement that seemed all the more appealing since that huge climb came at the end of a long, hot day. It totally caught me off guard, testing me greatly ¢ I had to pause and ponder the choice. Then, with razor sharp clarity came the simple answer that empowered my moment of weakness. What occurred to me was the tiny fact that I came to hike the Appalachian Trail not the Mar-Har Trail (short cut). I walked on straight, sweat pouring out of me to a summit that had no vista overlook. These are the moments, if not careful, can make us waiver or inversely help strengthen our mettle.This whole subject matter is quite controversial as earlier stated. Where some feel slack packing is ¢Going over to the dark side,¢ I feel you just may need to be on guard a bit if it turns into an avoidance practice ¢ it may be actually saying something else, that maybe your gear is too heavy and you should take serious action to rectify it. I once witnessed a self-proclaimed ¢Cheapskate¢ plop down a thousand dollars for entirely new gear one town stop. New tent, pack, sleeping bag, stuff sacks, everything, which cut her gear weight by over twenty pounds hoping to help with her tendonitis ¢ it was the grandest display of retail therapy. But alas, the injury would still win in the end. Things happen, and that may be why the phrase, ¢I¢m coming off the trail¢ rather than ¢I¢m quitting¢ has become a better expression? These are the things that just happen every season to hikers and why another phrase, ¢Going too far, too fast, with too much, too soon¢ is the way some hikers take themselves out of the journey. Slack packing is not a short cut, a short cut is a short cut, and slacking is just another way to make miles with more relaxed shoulders. Slacking is a way to make the AT easier; the AT will never be easy. Summit slacking makes certain parts of the AT a whole lot easier, but it also keeps you from preparing for the other adversities. There¢s a lot to be said for the purity of joy from a well-earned climb and hike memories you¢ll never know, which is what I thought it is all about? The example of summit slacking may speak volumes of growing issues inside you, only you can say. There are some colossal AT mountains that can be summit slacked if you have the predisposition, the biggest of these being the monstrous Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. Summit slacking may be easier on the muscles but I don¢t believe it¢s as beneficial to your emotional strength, which is the main reason someone leaves the trail. In what may be a grand plan of routing, the AT seems to help each of us teach ourselves different trail mastery in each State ¢ Steep ascents in Georgia, long climbing endurance in North Carolina and Virginia, rock walking and boulder hopping in Pennsylvania and all things boggy in New Jersey and Vermont. We master these, building our abilities just in time for New Hampshire and Maine where the climbs become steep, long, rocky and wet and you¢re looking for a helicopter. Everything gets ratcheted up to a level of 10 and everything you¢ve learned is utilized. In regards to mileage short cuts, if I were to guesstimate that every day on the AT you¢ll walk an extra mile and a half when you factor in blue blaze trails to shelters, water sources, walks to the grocery store, Post Office and such in town, and using a five-month hike duration with its 150 days, plus or minus, that¢s roughly 225 MILES of additional walking. Seems sort of silly compromising the spirit of an AT thru-hike by skipping sections to avoid walking more miles, doesn¢t it? Once again it comes down to your mindset and maybe your joyfulness. Maybe the root of taking short cuts or summit slacking is our lingering cityness where impatience runs amuck. Clearly an AT thru-hike takes physical stamina and mental/emotional resolve, but maybe our multi-tasking addictions is what makes adjusting to the slower pace difficult? And that has nothing to do with slacking or short cuts. My 2 cents.