WILLIAMS5232 wrote:was there ever a time when you thought, "wtf! this is so stupid! why am i doing this?"
also, when did you honestly believe you would make it to the end?
that's what i'm most afraid of, i'll get halfway through it and lose interest.
as far as the trail name goes, i've thought about that a bit too, and i don't care if they call me shitstain. i'm not making a trail name because i think that's dumb.
Six months of getting called shitstain will wear on you.
Anyway, no, I never thought about giving up. I commit to my actions. It would have required my being disabled to get me off that trail. No way. No no no nope no. Of course it hurt. Of course I suffered. Reaching the summits never would have been so sweet if I didn't. Sure I cursed plenty (I mean I
am from Jersey). Sure I blew off steam. But there was only one exit from the trail in my mind, and that was in Maine. And that's not the part you remember so vividly. You remember the trail songs. You remember the satisfaction. You remember looking out at our beautiful countryside and feeling a connection to your ancestors, who crossed these same mountains in the same way. Think on the summit, not the getting there. Quitters focus on the getting there part, and complain, and aren't real men. Usually day hikers anyway. Leave that to the women. Oh! If you do it with a girl, be sensitive to the fact that she can't carry as much and is thus mostly useless in back country hiking, and she'll undoubtedly complain more than everyone else and try to get you to lighten her load. She'll only fatigue you if she can't take care of herself, and most can't. They just can't carry the weight (calm down ladies, there are always exceptions, but please prove yourself before demanding I take on faith you can cut it -- there's a reason no woman has completed training to be a Marine -- and there's plenty of men in no shape to do it either). If you bring a dog get those saddle bags they sell, trust me, the few pounds your pooch carries makes a huge difference.
You'll need food drops along the way. Learn how to dry your own food, you'll save a fortune. Do some serious hiking before you start, do like a one week trip, so you know exactly how your body will adjust to burning 10,000 calories a day. You're probably already in shape, hell I'd hope so if you're thinking of the AT, but it has shocked some athletes just how much they end up burning daily. Figure out whether you prefer trail shoes with ankle support or not (absolutely personal preference, no study can objectively determine which is superior). Get used to your pack. Oh man get used to your pack. Go to REI and try them out. Make sure the thing isn't poorly designed or manufactured. Your hips, knees and back will thank you later.
Get a small book of old songs. Cumberland Gap is a really good one, really any that follow that call back style popular with the military. (Me and my wife and my wife's pap, live on down in the Cumberland Gap! Settle down boys gonna take a little nap, it's 15 miles to the Cumberland Gap! Daniel Boone of Pinnacle Rock, killed Injuns with his old flintlock!) Learn old songs of the sea, there's tons. (What would you do with a drunken sailor?) This tip is gold, the people on the trail will love you (in my experience, teaching a man a song is a great way to bond) and nothing helps a tough slog more than singing to yourself.
Other than that, read a couple books about how to do it. And then do it. Commit to your actions, embrace what our ancestors did, and whip that trail. Join the very, very few of us that have completed the whole thing. Only 2% of people who hike any part of the AT will finish the whole thing. I've never felt closer to nature than along that trail.