Reasons You Might Quit Your Thru-Hike

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** Stuff I Mention in this Video **

Training for a Long Distance Hike - https://youtu.be/ekP92ksyIP0

Snuggle's AT Mental Prep List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2017/05/27/snuggles-mental-at-prep-list/

How to Save $ During a Thru-Hike - https://youtu.be/6ZEi3p2d_Ww

FootCare on the Trail - https://youtu.be/O0Vwi1tK9BU

AT Gear List - https://darwinonthetrail.com/2016/05/03/darwins-2016-at-gear-list/

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Tags: AT Thru Hike,PCT Thru Hike,CDT Thru Hike,Thru-Hike,Appalachian Trail,Pacific Crest Trail,AT,PCT,CDT,AZT,Hiker Trash,Backpacking,Hiking,Camping,Adventure,Thru-Hiking,Long Distance Hiking,Thru-Hiking Gear,UL Backpacking Gear,UL Backpacking

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Darwin so today I wanted to talk about a topic that we've never really covered here on the channel and a topic that I have some first-hand experience at and that's reasons why people quit a thru-hike and how you can prevent it from happening to you [Music]

[Applause]

all right so like I said we talk all the time about how a thru-hike can change your life how amazing it is to finish a thru-hike the gear that you need for a thru-hike but we've never touched on that topic that a lot of people don't talk about

and that's failure rate on a long distance hike so on the Appalachian Trail in specific only 20% of hikers that start the 80 finish a 4 through hike in one go and only 40% of the hikers that start the PCT finish in that year so much higher than the 80 but still a pretty low percentage now as most of you might know in 2015 my wife snuggles and I set out to hike the Appalachian Trail to do a full through hike from Georgia to Maine we got about 1,600 miles in so a giant chunk of the trail and I contracted Aliki OSIS which is sort of a form of Lyme disease and in two weeks after healing it from that I cracked a tooth that needed to be surgically removed so because we had these two big medical blunders that happened to us we were forced to in our thru-hike in 2015 so believe it or not I am part of that 80% of hikers that don't finish their trail and one go and the things that happened to me to take me off the trail were sort of freak accidents and things that I didn't really have a control over now there are those types of freak accidents and things that are going to happen to people out on the trail and there's nothing you can really do about it so what are some of the other reasons that this massive chunk of through hikers don't finish the trail every year number one is finances there are a lot of people I think that have this image of hiking something like the Appalachian Trail and think I'm going to be hiking through the woods for four to six months I won't be paying rent I won't be paying for gas in my car I won't be going out to all these fancy restaurants that I usually go out to so it's going to be super cheap to hike from one end of a trail to another and that's just not true now is it cheaper than your typical everyday nine-to-five job absolutely absolutely it is but a thru-hike is still quite inexpensive things to undertake a typical through hike for one person is going to cost anywhere from four thousand

to $6,000 but if you're a hiker that likes having a little bit more of a luxury hike it can definitely cost a lot more and I personally know some hikers and in 2015 spent quite a lot of money on their hike because they like staying in hostels every time they got to town they loved drinking a lot of beer they loved going to all the restaurants but even on a normal through hike there's a lot of expenses that a lot of people just don't think about like replacing broken gear sending your stuff home so paying for postage everytime you come into a town you resupply and that can get pretty expensive staying in hostels or hotels every once in a while treating yourself to a restaurant or maybe stopping in a local bar and having a beer because you haven't had one in weeks buying certain permits for certain sections of the trail hang for shuttles into town when you can't get a hitch and then most people still have to pay for a cell phone bill and some sort of insurance while they're out on the trail so doing it through hiked from for six months is definitely cheaper than your typical nine-to-five everyday job but it's still an expensive thing what happens to a lot of hikers that get off the trail because of financial reasons is they simply just run out of money so they think oh it'll only cost me two thousand three thousand dollars to do this entire trail and in that first few hundred miles they spend a ton of money and go out hard because they're having this awesome time and then they run out of money and have to get off the trail so first off figure out what type of hiker you are are you a thrifty or hiker can you do it on less money or do you like those luxuries do you want to stay in a hotel in the hostel every time you come to town so create a budget based around what you think that you need and then add like another thousand or two thousand dollars just so you have a safety net now in 2015 when snuggles and I went out on the 80 we planned for eight thousand dollars as a couple but we put back ten thousand dollars that way we had a two thousand dollar buffer just in case we got a little too crazy and spent a little bit too much money while we were out on the trail now aside from saving enough money before you get out there there's also things that you can do to be a thrifty hiker and save money while you're on your through hike and not too long ago I did a video about how to save money during a thru-hike and I'll put a link up here if you guys want to check that video out but just remember to budget smart and make sure that running out of money is not what's going to take you off the trail alright so the number two reason I think a lot of hikers don't finish their thru-hike is because of false expectations and this is one that I think happens to a lot of hikers so what I mean by false expectations is everyone kind of has this idea of I'm going to go out and get lost in the woods for four to six months and I'm going to have this magical experience I'm going to connect with nature get out of society and find myself and is amazing as that sounds it's not the reality of a thru-hike but thru-hike is an insanely hard and challenging thing not only physically hard because you're beating the hell out of yourself every single day for six months but also insanely mentally hard because you're cold you're wet you're hungry you're hot you're sticky tons of things that mentally beat you down on the trail so a thru-hike is a total challenge it's not just some sort of a walk in the park or walk in the woods so to speak unfortunately there's been tons of movies made and and books written that romanticized the idea of a long-distance hype or the idea of being lost in nature for months on end and again it's a great idea and most of us that's why we got into it but I'm here to tell you that's not reality so don't go out on the trail with those false expectations that a thru-hike is going to be this magical thing know that it's going to be a challenge know that you're going to have awful days out there know that you're going to have tons of reasons why you want to quit that trail every single day and also know that if you had the determination and you really want to succeed at that goal of finishing the hike that you won't let those false expectations take you off the trail and to be fair I think thru-hikers are sort of guilty of that because when we tell stories and show videos of our hikes we like to focus on those great amazing times that we had and we don't really talk a whole lot about the awful horrible times that we had where we were freezing to death or that we were starving or that we were just absolutely beat to shit and we still had ten more miles to go so just remember that a thru-hike is romanticized a lot and know what you're getting yourself into don't have false expectations and don't let that make you a part of that 80% number three is be unprepared now obviously not being financially smart and not knowing what you're getting yourself into our forms of being unprepared absolutely and that's not exactly what I'm talking about here what I'm talking about more in specific is being unprepared mentally being unprepared physically and being unprepared with your gear and your know-how so a thru-hike is definitely a super physical thing it's always good to have some sort of a physical background and be in some sort of shape whenever you get out there now there are exceptions to every rule and there are people that go out on the trail that have no physical background at all and complete it and do amazing things but obviously it's always good to have a physical base have some sort of a hiking and backpacking background and know what you're getting yourself into know that you can physically carry a backpack on your back hike up and down mountains every single day for four to six months because that's all you're going to be doing and make sure you're mentally prepared to be able to take that abuse make sure that you're okay with being cold make sure that you're okay with being hungry being lonely all the things that come with the mental stress of it through height and also being prepared with gear there's tons of people that just buy up gear don't know anything about it haven't really spent time with it get out there and have no idea what they're doing so know how to throw your bear bag know how to set your tin up know how to cook on your stove be prepared to use your gear and live off of it for four to six months also be prepared and make sure that you can handle certain situations so say you're hiking and all of a sudden the temperature drops it gets insanely cold make sure that you're prepared with your clothes you know that you can keep warm and you're not going to get hypothermia while you're out on the trail be prepared to know how to use first aid in case something goes wrong with you or another hiker so not only can being unprepared take you off the trail and injure hike but it can also put you in some dangerous situations if you don't know what you're doing the amazing thing is there's tons of great resources so you can learn and know and be prepared before you hit a thru-hike so anywhere from hiker forms like white blaze got net to through hiking and trail Facebook groups where you can connect with people and learn more stuff and tons of hiker YouTube channels like mine and that's why I make videos to help people get prepared for doing something like a long-distance hype now not too long ago I made a particular video called training for a long-distance trail and I'll put the link up here if you want to check that out and I essentially just talked about getting ready for a hike and how to train yourself for doing something like a long-distance hype and then snuggles has actually put together a mental prep with over on our website at Darwin on the trail comm so go check that out too if you want another great resource but do your research and be prepared be mentally prepared be physically prepared and be prepared with your gear to do it through hike because if you start it chances are you want to finish it alright guys so number four and I think it's probably the number one reason why people don't finish their through hike is injury there are tons of ways to get injured while you're out doing something like a long distance hike unfortunately you're beating the hell out of every orifice of your body for months on end so chances are you're going to get injured in some way or another but there are certain precautions that you can take to help you avoid injury on the trail so know your limits don't go insanely hard if you don't know that you can go insanely hard I think there's a lot of through hikers that get themselves in trouble because they get out on the trail they're feeling really good the first day they're there and then for the next week they just decide to go balls to the wall and do 20 miles every single day and they develop something like an overuse injury because they just beat the hell out of themselves every day 20 miles a day and their body can't handle it so listen to your body and don't push it any harder than what you think that you can physically handle another way a lot of hikers get certain injuries out on the trail is not making the right gear choices so get your pack dial down before we get out on the trail is if you're carrying too much gear and you're putting more stress on your body than what it actually needs then you're going to injure yourself whether it's your neck whether it's your shoulders whether it's your knee you're overloaded with gear that you don't need and you didn't get dialed down you're definitely going to get an injury which is why you'll hear a lot of through hikers talk about their base weight and trying get their base weight low because we know that if you have less weight on your back you're going to have a more comfortable height again you're already beating the hell out of your body so why would you want to carry more weight to beat down on your body with get your gear down in and make sure you're making the right choices and that also goes with a big one which is Footwear a lot of hikers make the wrong Footwear decision they'll go out with these big leather hiking boots because they saw in the movie wild that Reese Witherspoon was was wearing these leather Danner boots and they'll get out there and they'll injure their feet because their feet aren't used to because they didn't break them in because they're too heavy and they don't breathe right so you can sustain a lot of foot injuries by just simply making the wrong Footwear choice so do your research and spend some time with the shoes that you're going to be wearing every day make sure that you're comfortable in them and that you're ok with putting in 15 to 20 miles for four to six months everyday now there's a lot of people that have had to in their hikes because of awful foot injuries it's probably the number one injury that people get out on the trail because you're just beating the hell out of them every day so obviously it's an easy place to get injured now again not too long ago I made a video on how to prevent certain foot injuries out on the trail and I'll put the link up here if you guys want to go check that out so you can make sure that you're prepared for any of those types of injuries if you make the right gear choices it will help you prevent injuries which in return will help you finish your thru-hike all right guys so again there's tons of different reasons why people don't finish it through hike this is just a list of some of the most common things that I've heard of why people have had to get off the trail and I can tell you that ending a thru-hike because of an injury or because of being unprepared or simply just being bitten by a tick and breaking a tooth is an awful feeling to invest all that time all that passion that blood and sweat to get off and in something that you really want to complete and that you're passionate about so hopefully this video will help you from getting that feeling that I had in 2015 so what are some reasons that I didn't mention in this video of why people don't finish a thru-hike leave your comments down below and let me know your thoughts you haven't got to change it go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a lot of new photos lately at some of the things it's not when I have going on throughout the week plus some pictures from some past hikes you found any value in this video go ahead and hit that like button subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching [Music]

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