[pct-l] PCT-L - Most Common Causes of Thru-Dropout

[Scott Williams]

Good advice all.  For me the most important thing was hiking, hiking and
more hiking long before hitting trail.  I'm in the older age group and don't
have the bounce back day after day, as Tim mentions, but I love just
walking.  Many folks love the planning and gear geeking, and all of it is
good, but loving walking should be paramount as the mental and physical
reality of it will hit at some point, and if you've given yourself well
broken in feet and mind, you just keep putting one foot in front of the
other and inexorably, (if you remain injury free) Manning Park will be on
the horizon.

In 2010, I saw most of the fall off occurring during hiker's first several
weeks.  It was quick for many.  They just didn't like the day in day out
walking.  It hurt, and wasn't fun.  There was a lot of this during that
early stage.  After that others left due to injuries and simply not having
the mental chutzpah the desire to keep going.  But some of the people
crossing the border at Manning with me, or within a day or so of me, were
people who had never hiked before in there lives, but had the will to keep
going.  They all had found a new love of the activity.

I trained at 15 to 20 mpd several times per week on steep terrain and
several smaller hikes as well.  When I started at Mexico, I backed off to 10
miles per day for the first week, then 15 for the second and 20+ thereafter.
 I met a number of folks both young and old that took the first adrenalin
rush of enthusiasm and hit the trail at 20s the first week, and had to spend
the 2nd or 3rd weeks rehabbing an overuse injury.  Take it slow and allow
yourself to build up to speed naturally.  It will come.  By Oregon we were
hitting daily mileages of 28 to 35, week after week.

At trails end, I had not gotten a blister, (good shoes and lots of miles to
toughen the feet before hitting trail) but did have some plantar fasciitis
in the deserts which went away over the snow of the High Sierra.  It came
back within the last 3 weeks in WA, and I was several months getting over it
last fall.  I'm glad to report no recurrence during my recent rehike of WA,
White Pass to Manning.

For me it was all about just the love of putting one foot in front of the
other, and not having had a catastrophic accident or physical breakdown of
the old geezer bod.

Shroomer