[pct-l] Trail addiction

[pmags at yahoo.com (Paul Magnanti)]

Long distance hiking can most certainly be addicting.
On  physical, mental and emotional levels.


I am sure we all heard of a runners' high. You
know..your body is pushing out massive amounts of
endorphins. You feel blissful and good. Similar thing
happens when hiking. Except try having that high for
five months or more! 

Part of the challenge post hike is coming down from
the endorphin high. Your body is quitting cold turkey
from a massive amount of daily exercise (and all those
nice endorphins). The body is getting withdrawal
symptoms! I think on some level many of us go one
these hikes to get that high again. Seriously. The
endorphin high is intertwined with the metal
addiction.

The mental addiction is of course (why I think anyway)
why many of us go out again. A simple lifestyle. The
rhythm of the day sets the town. At dawn you rise.
When you are thirsty, you drink. When hungry, you eat.
At sunset, you sleep.

Paying bills, inter office relations, traffic, noise,
daily commute..it is gone.  Your rhythm is similar to
what our ancestors did. A simple existence where
everyday there is a new sunset to view. Where everyday
you are immersed in the natural world.

Then there is the emotional/spiritual addiction. Some
how these long hikes fill a need that can't be met in
the "real" world. A sense of fulfillment that only be
met on the trail. For some of us, we only meet and
know people who "get us" in the hiking community. It
is why we drive or fly many miles to be with people
who "get us". To at least be with people who get us
for a few days. Wrote an essay about this that was
published in ALDHA-East's newsletter a while back.
Some of you may find it interesting (or not):
http://www.magnanti.com/miscwritings/return_home.htm


Some of us adjust better than others. We somehow
manage to appear normal. Working full time jobs, being
active in our community, having relationships, taking
up/continuing  other hobbies or getting the outdoor
fix on weekends. 

But just under the surface we are still addicted. The
smell of decaying leaves reminds us of hiking New
England in fall on the AT. We hear the elks bugling in
Rocky Mtn National Park and we long to be in the
Rockies for weeks at a time. We see snow capped
mountains and think of hiking in the High Sierra when
hardly anyone was there but a few members of our
tribe. 

Many of us on this list are addicted. The addiction
just vary for everyone. I'd like to think I'll
eventually get it out of my system. But I know better.


I recently told a former girlfriend that I am about to
finally hike again next year for an extended time.
Will probably make it my last hike for a while. She
looked at me, smiled and said "You'll still be saying
that when you are 70". Ah..how true... to quote
Steinbeck in TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY "Once a bum, always
a bum". :) [1]

Just my thoughts..nothing else expressed or implied. 

Mags 
(LT 97 and 99,  AT 98, PCT 2002,  Colorado Trail
2004..guess I am addicted)



[1] The full quote below:

When I was very young and the urge to be someplace was
on me, I was assured by mature
 people that maturity would cure this itch. When years
described me as mature, the remedy 
 prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was
assured that greater age would calm my fever  and now
that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the
job. Nothing has worked. ... 

In other words, I don't improve, in further words,
once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is
incurable.

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY is a great book. Strongly
suggested for anyone with a bit of wanderlust in them.


************************************************************
The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust 
caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
--Thoreau
http://www.magnanti.com