[pct-l] Fwd: Off Trail

[John Casterline]

Also well said.

On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 5:20 PM, Maxine Weyant <weyantm at msn.com> wrote:

> Mark,
>
> My heart goes out to you.  And writing that was an act of bravery.  I
> recommend you read some of the posts from last year where several people
> wrote about some of their own emotional meltdowns on the trail, or why they
> left the trail.
>
> Seriously, you should consider that if you've already arranged the time
> off for this hike, just rest a bit, reconnect with family/friends, and go
> do some more of the trail without having to thru-hike it.  Do the best of
> the Sierras when the weather is decent, like the John Muir Trail in late
> July or August, or WA in August.   If you go back and try a thru-hike
> another year, the Sierras will look very different in snow so it won't seem
> like a repeat. (and you might have fewer navigational challenges in the
> snow if you've already been there once.)
>
> Being out in the mountains day after day in these stunning places is one
> of the most exhilarating and spiritually-uplifting things you can be doing.
>  If you remove the pressure this year of a thru-hike, you can see more,
> notice more, and take an interest in the ecology, geology, or history of an
> area. It will allow you to feel a more positive type of humility, along
> with a sense of gratitude.  And if you thru-hike it in the future, you can
> buzz on by with a lighter pack and a lighter heart, and with the privilege
> of revisiting an "old friend."
>
> A big lesson here is our tendency to feel like a failure because others
> are achieving more than us.  This is fostered partly by all the attention
> paid to the yo-yo hikers, Triple Crowners, Ultra-Runners, and the stories
> that sell in Outside Magazine or on TV.  On the trail, enough people start
> bragging about doing 35 miles/day or more that it starts to seem like
> that's the norm.  There will always be so many people more fit than you,
> who can hike faster, bag more peaks, tolerate altitudes better, inhale more
> pancakes.  Your negative self-appraisal and the sense of pressure you felt
> to keep up, to the point of not eating well and not listening to your body,
> caused you to reach the limits of your physical and emotional reserves.
> Sometimes all-or-none thinking and other disordered beliefs can lead to our
> undoing.
>
> But the good news is that you can now take stock, re-evaluate your gear,
> your strategies--like when you get up, what food you bring, how often you
> eat, if you need to hike in the evening on hot days, should you take a
> short day and chill out by a lake, etc.  And you can try to learn more
> about your own coping strategies and patterns, what triggers the negative
> thoughts that lead to negative feelings, how you can recognize when that's
> happening and choose a different way to respond.  If you find you can't
> stop feeling bad about how much faster everyone else can hike, don't hike
> with the herd or simply do some sections in the opposite direction.
>
> For those planning a thru-hike in the future, if you haven't done any
> long-distance backpacking, I highly recommend trying a 2-6 week section
> hike, solo if possible.  Figuring out footwear, gear and food choices,
> blisters,  is a lot easier on a test run.  Getting to "Know thyself" is an
> important part of the journey.
>
> Cheers,
> Dys-feng shui-nal
>
>
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-- 
John Caster____

 lungcancerhike.org