[pct-l] Post Trail Adjustment - a reply

[elisenme2 at gmail.com (Carl & Judy Rush)]

I had no depression when I finished the At in 2000, I was looking forward to
getting back into my life the last few days, but I retired in 98 at 48 years
old so I didn't have to think about getting a job or finding a place to
live. I also have a really good looking wife I was looking forward to
spending some time with ( she did meet me several times along the trail and
I spent a week at home here in PA ). The only time I was depressed was when
I injured myself on the PCT in 04 and had to go home I was hiking with a
really good group of people at the time. Carl

On 12/28/05, Paul Magnanti <pmags@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Another reply I am going to keep anon. Though this
> person's reply had some interesting replies; too good
> to not share.
>
> > Interesting to quote Lewis & Clark - one of them
> > committed suicide
> > in later years.
>
> Actually,   I quoted Lewis. not Lewis *AND* Clark. :-)
>
> Lewis' family suffered from "depressions". Many
> historians suspect it was a genetic condition.
> Jefferson even made similar comments.
>
> Clark on the other hand (along with Patrick Gass,
> whose journal is less well known..but more blunt!),
> prospered.
>
> >
> > Nothing else he could ever do could recapture that
> > excitement, I guess.
> >
> See above. Modern medicine probably would have cured
> Lewis' family's condition. Don't think it had to do
> with the journey. And, again, Clark did quite well
> afterwards. Gass to a lesser extent. The other men who
> were often quoted int journals are  pretty much lost
> to history.
>
> > common observation of an enormous letdown afterward,
> > both on "recreational"
> > hikes like the national scenic trails, and also on
> > "spiritual" pilgrimages
> > like the Camino de Santiago.      You might think
> > these two activities are
> > vastly different, but they are more alike than
> > different.
> >
>
> Oh, I agree. The so-called "recreational hikes" are
> pilgrimages of a different sort.  My sojurns in the
> wilderness are wilderness pilgrimages. Not so
> different from Camindo de Santiago. When I went to
> Italy, I considered it a pilgrimage as well. I did not
> walk, but I did explore. Exlored my roots, met my
> distant relations, saw where Pop fought in WW2 for the
> American army. Was I depressed when I went to Italy?
>
> Many marathoners also get a letdown as well. Are they
> clinically depressed?
>
> Anytime you do an intense activity with a goal, then
> it ends, you tend to have the same feeling. A goal has
> been achieved..now what? Part of it is indeed
> physiological. Your body is addicted to the
> endorphins. But, as mentioned, a large part is mental.
> Adjusting to the "real world' after such an
> achivement.
>
> "It is always there, of course, when you come back
> from the green world. You have been living by sunrise
> and sunset, by wind and rain, surrounded by the  ebb
> and flow of lives that respond only to such simple,
> rhythmic elements.  But now the tone and tempo of the
> days switch. Instead of harmony, jangle." --Colin
> Fletcher, WINDS OF MARA
>
> > When I get home in a few days I'll write more on
> > this for PCT-L.
> >
>
> I look forward to it! Could make for a great
> discussion.
>
> Anyone else have any comments on this thread besides
> Person X and myself?
>
>
> ************************************************************
> 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
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