Become A Thru-Hiking Whiz And Enjoy More Long Trails

By Chris Kassar

The sun isn’t up, but you can’t sleep thanks to a massive case of the jitters. You revel in your final shower, don the same clothes you’ll be wearing every day for the next few months, and put the finishing touches on your loaded pack. Shortly after stepping out into the warm, Mexican spring air, a soon-to-be-friend pulls over and offers a ride. When you reach the trailhead, you say thanks, grab your pack, and slam the door on your old life. Over the course of the next five months, you wander the Mexican desert, traverse Sierran ridges, and cruise through the Cascades to complete a challenging and transformational 2,650-mile journey. Sounds incredible, right? If this idea speaks to you, don’t wait any longer. Start scheming now and, this time next year, your dream will be reality.

BEFORE

Deciding To Go

Most folks don’t need to go through an intense decision process before heading into the wild. “A thru-hike is a calling—an irresistible one that won’t be denied. If you feel that call deep in your being, the hike will be a physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual deconstruction of the self,” says Gail Storey, author of I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail and former Women’s Adventure thru-hiking blogger.

Answering the call can require you to push uncertainty aside and take the plunge. “Long distance hiking is something that you either love so much that it will change your entire life or it’s not for you. If you feel inspired to do it, go for it,” says Kristin Gates, the first woman to complete a solo traverse of Alaska’s Brooks Range.

Planning and Practicing: Keys to Successful Thru-Hike Preparation

Plan: Levels of planning vary based on the trail you’ve chosen and your personality but, at a minimum, you’ve got to get the right gear and maps, familiarize yourself with the route, plan resupplies, and settle things in your off-trail life so you can remain in the moment. Planning for the costs is also crucial to success: “The big costs of thru-hiking are gear, food, and hotel stays, and they can add up if you are eating at a restaurant and staying in a hotel at every town you pass through,” Kristin says. “Other than that, it’s not a terribly expensive way to spend half a year.”

Practice: Anyone can become a thru-hiker; some need practice while others can just jump right in. “On my first thru-hike on Vermont’s Long Trail, I had never been camping before and figured everything out by making mistakes and learning from them,” says Kristin, who suggests that most people start out on easier trails where civilization is never too far off. “Other trails are less forgiving and you’ll want to have your act together because mistakes can be a big deal.” Going on shorter hikes can help you learn skills, test your gear, and establish your emotional and physical fitness.

Have Realistic Expectations

Spending months in the woods will be spiritual and life changing, but it will also be full of challenging and difficult moments. “A lot of people either romanticize thru-hiking or think that hikers are completely miserable and being eaten by bears. You’ll have some perfect days of great weather and nights sitting around campfires by still lakes and other days will be hell, but most of the time the experience falls somewhere in between,” says Kristin.

“You’d think your mind would settle into the peace of being outdoors every day, simply walking, but it has the potential to make you crazy playing old tapes from past conditioning and anxiety about the future. Instead of giving in to the mental conditioning, embrace the opportunity to truly watch and investigate how the mind works, without analyzing or judging.”—Gail Storey

Three Key Things to Consider

1. Pick a direction. Your schedule and what the weather window allows will often dictate this, but take into account that the direction you choose to hike the trail will give you a very different social experience. If you want solitude on popular trails, you’ll get more if you hike against the grain.

2. Choose partners wisely. “Be cautious about committing to a big trip with someone whom you have not spent a lot of time hiking with,” says Kristin. “Thru-hiking is a lot of fun, and, with the right person, you can be laughing and having a ball the entire time. With the wrong person, it can be a pretty miserable experience. It can also be stressful and you can find yourself in perilous situations where you want to be with someone who has a good head on his or her shoulders and is going to make good decisions.”

3. Train ahead of time. “Start training one to two years in advance, so you’re in excellent shape to hike for several hours a day over varying terrain in all kinds of weather,” advises Gail.

“I love walking all day, opening to the ever-shifting landscape of mountain, desert, sky, wind, and water, deeply resonant with our inner landscape.”—GS

DURING

Get the Most Out of Your Thru-Hiking Experience

Be Flexible: How far you’ll hike each day depends on your ability, the terrain, the distance to water or your next resupply, and the weather window for the entire thru-hike. You may have to pull longer days in the desert just to reach water, while you may cover less ground in the mountains if you are kicking steps into icy, steep hillsides for miles and miles.

Eat Well: “Our motto could be: ‘I eat, therefore I am,’” says Gail, who believes a variety of tasty food is extremely important for keeping energy and morale high. “My husband, Porter, got out his spice kit at the end of each day and cooked us a gourmet dinner in a three-ounce pot. We dined on pan-Asian fusion, ratatouille au rehydrated tofu, and cheese-bread with raisins. I cook at home and he cooks in the wilderness—fair enough!”

Develop Mental Coping Strategies: “Most thru-hikers are out there because they LOVE thru-hiking and it’s all that they want to be doing,” says Kristin. But, even though she’s usually happy to be out there, sometimes she does get lonely or burned out. Kristin gets through by listening to a comedy podcast while Gail suggests “developing inner resources—before and on the trail—to manage your thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness meditation is a useful practice.”

Check Out, But Stay in Touch: “You’ll get infinitely more out of the wilderness experience if you take a break from your regular life, the Internet, and social media,” says Gail. “A long distance hike is a rare opportunity to delve into your own being without work, social, and cultural pressures.” However, recognizing that family members will worry, it’s probably a good idea to follow Gail’s example and stay in touch with family by calling one family member from each resupply town just to reassure them.

Keys to Success

Kristin Gates:
• Have fun and enjoy every second (even the rainy, buggy, cold ones). Attitude is everything.
• Be mindful of what you wanted to get out of the hike and make it happen.

Gail Storey:
• Perseverance, resilience, flexibility, a can-do attitude, and chocolate.
• Preparation, training, and taking good care of yourself while on your hike.

Pitfalls to Avoid

• Carrying too much or too little: too much of the wrong things, and not enough of what you really need
• Lacking the fitness, time, and money to successfully complete the hike
• Getting injured, dehydrated, mentally and emotionally exhausted
• Losing too much weight and muscle mass
• Spending too much time in towns, except for resupply and needed rest

Beyond Map & Compass: Surprising Skills You Need

Mastering how not to look like a criminal when you hitchhike into town so that people will pick you up
Step 1: Carry a little extra water from the most recent water source so that you can wash your face and your hands when you reach the road.

Step 2: Put a hat on so that the people driving by won’t catch a glimpse of your crazy hiker hair.

Step 3: Wear your cleanest looking clothing. For me, this was my bright blue down jacket and black rain pants. Don’t wear sunglasses.

Step 4: Make sure your backpack is in view so it is more obvious that you are a hiker.

Step 5: Smile and wave no matter how many cars pass you by. Sometimes a car that passes you will turn around and come back to give you a ride.

AFTER

Be Kind to Yourself

“Reaching the end of a trail can be a really difficult thing,” says Kristin. “You have to say goodbye to friends whom you have traveled with and bonded with through crazy situations and to a lifestyle that you have learned to love.” You may experience great internal changes, so it’s important to take your time and ease back into the world gently if you can. “Be soft with yourself and other people while your body, mind, and spirit find their new way in the world,” says Gail. “You’ll walk lighter on the Earth.”

Cope with the Letdown

It’s normal to feel a bit of a letdown after any great achievement, especially one like a thru-hike where you’ve spent a couple years getting ready and half a year enjoying an adventure. Gail suggests doing three things: “Pause to let the mystery of nature soak into your being. Give in to immense gratitude. Knock back some killer champagne.”

After the high has worn off, Kristin has another great way to deal—one which many of us can attest to as fool-proof for combating any post-adventure blues: “Start planning your next adventure!”

“Seeing the world on foot is a great way to travel and really see places and meet people as you are passing through. As a thru-hiker you get to see all the places in between that most people will never get to see.”—Kristin Gates

 

This article was originally published in Women’s Adventure magazine‘s Spring 2014 issue.

Category: Hiking & Backpacking