For those contemplating a long distance hike. You will hear discouraging statistics like only 20% of those who started will successfully finish their journey.
There’s a good reason for those statistics, but you don’t have to become a statistic if you just prepare yourself properly, mentally and physically.
There are so many factors that determines whether or not you will make it all the way on your thru-hike, and almost all of them are within your control.
Unless you have an injury or an outside emergency there’s no reason why anyone cannot complete a long distance trail.
Here are some of the most common reasons why people don’t finish their thru-hike.
1. Unrealistic Expectations. People get a romantic idea of the trail in their head of majestic views, amazing fellowship and mystical mountain top experiences.
They may not contemplate miserable days of pain, cold, wet days and sometimes nights if everything you own gets soaked.
You can become discouraged or lonely and miss loved ones or let fears of the unknown grow and become problematic.
2. A lack of a compelling reason for your thru-hike. This is probably going to be the hardest thing that you have ever done, and there are going to be times that you are going to want to quit. The mental part is probably the most important aspect of this trip.
A great piece of advice given to thru-hikers is to “NEVER QUIT ON A BAD DAY!”
Find an inspiration or a reason to make it all the way. In 2015 on my AT thru-hike I tore my rotatior cuff muscle in my shoulder and then had $1,500.00 stolen from my pack.
I was at the point of quitting at the festival in Troutville, but I had hikers and the Bionic Woman ( Rellon Niki who was the first woman who thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail with a prosthetic leg) help and inspire me to make it all the way.
I told myself If the bionic woman could do it then I could as well.
Also the Trail Community got behind me with encouragement and support!
In 2016 when I thru-hiked it again I was asked to join a group to do trail maintenance so I volunteered as a member of the Hikertrash Trail Maintenance Program.
It gave me a mission of giving back to the trail and trail community – paying all the help forward – gave me a purpose and drive to finish.
I not only carried a 2lb garden shovel to clean out and rebuild firepits, I packed out probably a couple hundred pounds of trash and taught LNT principles along the way.
Find your driving purpose and reason to complete your thru-hike.
3. Injuries. Many people come out on their hike and attempt way too much too soon. Starting and enjoying the trail with reasonable miles in the beginning helps you to make friends, have fun and be kind to yourself. In time you’ll gain stamina and speed and rack up some impressive miles up the trail.
Pushing too hard too fast leads to shin splints, stress fractures and a host of other injuries and turns a happy hike into the “Bataan Death March” where you are miserably zombie walking and missing the important things like the views and the fellowship of your fellow hikers.
Injuries are one of the main reasons for people failing their thru-hikes.
4. Finances are pretty much the #1 reason that people fail their thru-hikes. Not having enough money, a lack of a budget and the lure of zeroes in towns, parties and beer can drain your funds faster than a hiker trash hiker can shotgun a can of beer!
Figure a prospective budget ahead of time by going to a grocery store and calculating a menu that gives you the proper amount of calories, carbs, healthy fats, protein and fiber. Then multiply that by 6 months to gauge your grocery budget.
You’ll also need to do laundry, replace shoes and other clothing and gear. You’ll need heigene items, bug spray, sunblock and a myriad of little things.
A good rule of thumb is $2.00 per mile, so about $4,400.00 as a base line and $6,000.00 as a budget with some fun and emergency money built in. You can do it for $3,000 like I did on a shoestring budget on my first thru-hike.
You’ll have to be extremely careful with your money on a shoestring budget and raid hiker boxes like Eric The Red for food, footwear and other items along with shopping from grocery store to grocery store for better prices and selection.
Doing work for stays and finding odd jobs along the way helped me a great deal with my budget.
I also limited myself to one town visit per week for resupply to save money as town visits always seem to cost money.
5. Poor diet causes so many people to fail their thru-hikes. Many people think that they can survive on Ramen and Pop Tarts. Some have, but it’s a bad idea.
Your body uses about 4,000 – 5,000 calories per day and bad things happen to your bodies when you don’t get the proper nutrition.
You can even get scurvy like a pirate of old if you don’t get enough vitamins (vitamin c to prevent scurvy) which is why I recommend some supplements like electrolytes, multivitamin/mineral and fish oil.
Eat plenty of healthy foods and supplement them to stay at top hiking form! You will need a healthy diet of protein, healthy fats, carbs, calories and fiber in your diet.
Eat some good food while in towns like all you can eat soup & salad bars. My go to was a footlong sandwich from Subway with extra vegetables which always seemed to fill me up even with my hiker hunger.
If your sweat smells of ammonia, like cat urine, your body may be suffering from a lack of protein and may actually be breaking down your muscles! 勞
6. Boredom can be the doom of many thru-hikes as many of us can only handle so much time in silent soul searching contemplation and communion with nature. I examined my navel and there was nothing but wrinkles and lint! 😉
I need to keep my mind occupied and so I carried a 32gb iPod 5th generation touch and downloaded so much music, audio books and the entire Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra to keep my mind active for several hours a day.
Music motivated me up mountains and encouraged me when I was suffering, discouraged and alone. Audio books were a great way to while away the miles and give my mind something to think about.
You can borrow and download so much for free from your local library and save your money!
7. The wrong clothing and gear can make your hike a living hell. Having too much heavy gear will make you miserable and increase your chances of injuries. On the other hand, not having enough gear to match the weather extremes you will face can put you in danger at worse and make you miserably uncomfortable.
Carry the lightest and most comfortable gear that you can afford – shop around and research looking for bargains on good gear, even good used gear. This is an area you can really blow your budget on as well so plan carefully what you pack.
8. Issues at home. Whether it be unsupportive spouse, friends and family or an emergency like illness, injuries, or death of your family, friends or even your pet can have such an impact on your thru-hike.
Having to leave the trail can be very disheartening to a thru-hiker and returning to the trail can be very difficult. You know that your trail family will be ahead of you and that you may not have the time or energy to catch up after you’ve wrapped up the emergency back home.
This and the lure of home comforts can be very seductive especially when unsupportive friends, family and spouses work to sabotage and try to convince you to end your thru-hike.
If your Tramily is your support team, then by all means, skip ahead to rejoin them and come back and catch up on the missing miles later. Who cares what people may say or think. Its your adventure after all.
9. Becoming overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of your adventure. Almost 2,200 miles can be very daunting, especially when you are tracking your position on those long trail maps. After hiking for weeks you look as I did and see you’ve barely made progress on the wall map!
Setting short and medium range goals is important to help keeping your motivation up. I looked forward to and was stoked to get to the NOC and was looking forward to their famous “Tail of the Dragon” burger and a tall ice cold beer!
Also I was looking forward to the legendary Blackberry shakes, cobblers and ice cream in the Shenandoah National Park. These goals once achieved, fueled me on to the next goal.
Think about your thru-hike in this way. In reality until you finish you are actively a section hiker.
But mentally you have to be a bit of both thru-hiker and section hikers at the same time from the beginning to enable you to remain focused on your goal while still enjoying the miles along the way.
Set bite sized goals like a section hiker and celebrate each and every one while keeping the destination in mind as well. It’s a balancing act to say the least! 😉
These are some things that can end your thru-hike and you should know and prepare for them. I hope that this helps you prepare and succeed in your incredible journey of the untold millions of steps.
Thanks for taking the time to read and consider this.
For more hiking advice, tips and hacks gained from about 9,000 miles on the A.T., check out my hiking Facebook page called “Squarepeg’s Trail Talk.”
Squarepeg