[pct-l] 10 top Winners

[Erik The Black]

Hi Ellen,

Great topic! 

Here are my Top-10 suggestions for thru-hikers:

1) Pack as light as possible, and be willing to chuck your old gear and buy
new stuff mid-trip if it's not working out for you (especially shoes).

2) Remove the word "comfort" from your vocabulary. It doesn't exist on a
thru-hike. Pain and hunger will be your constant companion, but you'll get
used to it. 

3) Be friendly and enjoy the social aspect of hiking. Long after you've
gotten bored of beautiful sunsets and mountain vistas having some people to
talk to will give you a reason to keep you going.

4) Take however much money you expect to spend, and make sure you have at
least 30% more than that available. Somehow everything ends up costing much
more than expected.

5) Don't become too attached to any specific person or group of people,
because the time will come when you have to compromise your hike to stay
with them. Maintain a flexible, informal relationship with people you meet
on the trail, and always be willing to part ways when necessary.

6) Pace yourself. You don't have to do 20+ miles a day right out of the
gate. In fact, it will be tough to do that if you aren't used to desert
hiking. It's perfectly OK to do 13-17 miles a day, or take a couple zeros
each week for the first month or so. There will be plenty of time to catch
up and crank out miles in Northern California and Oregon, after you've
gotten into the best shape of your life.

7) Don't get married to schedules, itineraries or plans. Stay flexible and
when faced with a choice between having fun and staying on schedule, always
choose having fun.

8) Do at least one shakedown hike of 50 miles or more to test out your gear
before you start (and to make sure you really enjoy hiking if you haven't
done a lot of it before). Thru-hiking is a romantic fantasy, but in reality
it's more like a job (sleep, eat, walk, sleep, eat, walk, sleep, eat, walk)

9) Make sure you eat enough. 4,000 - 6,000 calories per day. If you find
yourself feeling lethargic, light-headed, or nauseous try bumping up your
food intake. Food is one area where packing extra weight is worth it. You
can also load up on food in towns so you don't have to pack as much.

10) Whenever you feel like quitting, give yourself three days to think about
it. Chances are that within three days, you will discover a new reason to
keep going. If not, take some time off and do some non-hiking activities for
a week or so, and then come back to the trail. But don't rush home just
because you had a bad week. You will regret it almost instantly.


Happy trails!
Erik The Black


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