[pct-l] Contemporary Thru Hiking

[Sara Dyehouse]

Ned asked:  "What I want to know is why is it that people desire to thru hike these days, has it changed any over the years, and does the drop-out rate reflect a lack of realistic preparation and desire?  If I can be that one voice crying out in the wilderness encouraging aspiring thru hikers to be thoroughly prepared and motivated for the realities of such a trip, then, perhaps, more will come home in one happy, confident, satisfied piece, even if they drop off the trail, they will have found what they sought."
 
Well, here I am aspiring to thru-hike the PCT.  I have been for 12 years now.  Why?  I ask myself all the time.  Why this?  Of all the things one can do in the world (especially in five months' time), why this?  I don't really have an answer, other than:  It's been calling me above and beyond anything else.  I first caught the PCT bug in 1997.  I've seriously geared up on two occasions, but never made it out of the gate.  Why?  Truth be told: fear.  I'm afraid that I'm biting off more than I can chew.  I'm afraid that I'm not being realistic, that I'm glamorizing what in reality will chew me up and spit me out.  I've read books and journals and blogs.  I've watched videos.  I know about the heat, cold, snow, drought, bears, snakes, spiders, blisters, stress injuries, hunger, thirst, dirt, elevations gains and losses, and isolation, to name a few.  All of them scare the bejesus out of me.  And yet, I feel compelled to go.  Every year I
 feel the pull, and the let-down when April turns to May, and I'm still here, slogging away at a job and a life I'm fairly miserable with.
 
I see a thru-hike as a vision quest or walkabout of sorts.  It is an opportunity to leave all that I know behind and step into a world relatively foreign to me, stripped down to the bare essentials.  I will walk and think.  I will assess who I am, where I am, and where I want to go from here.  I'm half way through my life and have recently experienced some significant losses and disappointments.  What's next?  I relish the solitude and peace to figure it out.  Meanwhile, I will be testing my physical and mental mettle.
 
Am I prepared?  I don't know.  I doubt it.  I don't normally hike 20 miles per day in the desert, dodging rattlesnakes and fantasizing about a water source, or climbing 12k foot peaks in the snow.  I know I'm not in the best physical condition, so I know I will suffer, at least for awhile, until I acclimate.  Perhaps my relative lack of conditioning will ultimately be my downfall.  Perhaps it will drive me off the trail and back home in short order.
 
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.  Why don't I just stay home and continue to live vicariously through the journals of those with the courage and fortitude to try?  That's what I've been doing.  I'm tired of that.  I want to go.  I want to experience the highs and lows for myself.  I want to experience the "trail life" that so many people talk about.  I want to see just how mentally strong I am.  Ultimately, I may make it only a week or a month.  Sure, I will be disappointed if I don't make it to Canada, but I hope that I will be more proud that I did all that it takes to go and that I succeeded as long as I did.  Somebody on this list said something to the effect that the real failures are the ones who don't go at all.  I agree.
 
I hope this will be my year to go.  So many things need to fall into place.  I guess if I'm meant to go, they will.  Wish me luck, as I do to you in whatever you seek to accomplish.
 
Sara