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Re: [pct-l] Effects of a thruhike



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> From: Reynolds, WT <reynolds@ilan.com>
> To: goforth@cio.net; pct-mailing list <PCT-L@backcountry.net>
> Subject: RE: [pct-l] Effects of a thruhike
> Date: Friday, April 21, 2000 5:21 PM
> 
> Joanne-
> Aeren't you glad that you jumped back on the trail -- and finished!! All
> those problems--the ticks, the snow, the ticks, the blizzards, the snow
> fields, that night hiking....and did I mention the ticks...look pretty
small
> now, eh?
> 

I have talked relatively little about that last month that I was on the
trail; It was very difficult, and very removed from my other experiences
and it seems so from others experiences as well, but it may be relevant now
to those that come up against the same feelings in 3-5 months from now.

I wrote to another list member several months back:

You echo my thoughts pretty closely and say it very well.

there is something that happened however after I got really tired and
stopped and then went back again.  And I can't quite put my finger on it. 
It was kind of like the whole experience went beyond liking or disliking
and I became detached, everything became irelevant.  The questions went
away again, and this produced a deep inner quiet. It was different than
that sense of peace that had arrived in about 3 other layers earlier during
the hike.  I did not want to keep this sense of peacefulness, or care if it
stayed or went.  I cared very little about anything, I felt like I was hung
in space.  This spaciousness had a life of its own and seemed closely
aligned with the natural world that was surrounding me - beyond beliefs,
opinions and intellectualism. There was a perception of everything with a
little less "concreteness". The world shifted slightly, and in some ways it
has never shifted back.  It was precisely the lack of enjoyment that
produced this shift. I think I like the spaciousness more than the
enjoyment.  The aridity of those last months may have produced what I most
like about the hike, but also something that is almost impossible to
describe exactly.

Goforth  

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