Re: [pct-l] What about the tedium and boredom?

[Owen <jrowen@ibm.net>]

Joanne Lennox wrote:
> 
>Well, folks I have been ticking off my training miles about 10 miles at a
>time, 3 times a week, and one thing is for sure: ya don't need a lot smarts
>to truck on down the trail.

<snip>

>What do the people on the list do to cope with the tedium and boredom of so
>many hours of walking?

<snip>

> Occaisionally, I resort to various meditation techniques (breath counting,
>body scaning, chakra, and energy awareness, tonglen, etc.),thinking up
>journal entrys, reciting poety, singing songs, or pondering certain
>connumdrums of time and space (Would time exist without periodicity, can I
>perceive the sun as a star during the day).  I often start the day reading
>a particular philosophical system, and then go back all day in my thoughts,
>and in my journal to what I read in the morning.  There have been periods
>where I would memorize pieces of a particular book, that zerox page would
>be in my pocket or hand all day. The interesting thing about the memorizing
>is that I can remember exactly where I was for each piece.  Very much like
>I can remember pretty much every nights campsite that I have used climbing
>or hiking.  I don't use any of these things for very long at a time, but
>return to them now and then to bring myself back to the present moment or
>get out of the mental fog.

<snip>

>Sometimes, I wonder whether or not I will emerge from a thruhike in a
>permanent state of mind - numbness, akin to what I saw in my mother who
>died of Alzheimers.  If this is true it appears that at least some of the
>people on the list have recovered<G>, and I only have to worry about that
>one if I am on a bad genetic or physiologic timeline. What was your mind
>like at the end of a thruhike of the PCT anyway?


Joanne -
I think you may be starting to figure out why a thruhike is 95% mental
and
5% gear.  It doesn't take a genius to thruhike - but if you're gonna
finish you have to like yourself and like to spend lots of time with
yourself.  That's why more than 70% of those who finish are introverts. 
I was a complete introvert (Meyers-Briggs INTP) when I started the
trail, but I changed to an ENFP by the time I was finished.  No
Alzheimers - at least not then.  Now I'm not so sure - maybe it's just
amnesia? :-)

I can't answer your question because 1/ I haven't hiked the PCT yet and
2/
I didn't have the problem on the AT and don't expect to have it this
summer. But I had already learned to "silence the internal dialogue"
years
before.  It took me some time to remember how to do it and apply it to
the
trail - and even then it didn't always work, but I've never had the need
to
keep my mind constantly entertained anyway.   I can sympathize with you
because I've seen a lot of people go through it, but I can't say I know
how
you feel.

Good luck,
Jim
* From the Pacific Crest Trail Email List |  http://www.backcountry.net   *

==============================================================================