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

[Nathan Miller]

> As for the whole mental thing, I think it would help everyone if they stopped thinking of quitting a thru-hike as a failure. The trail is still there. You can always pick up where you left off, start over and give it another try, choose to section hike instead or whatever suits you. The all-or-nothing attitude of thru-hiking causes a lot more emotional pain to people than almost anything else about the experience in my opinion.

I think that says something interesting about human psychology.  Specifically, we tend to cause a lot of collateral damage when we become over-focused on something.  We only have so many resources, be they money, time, energy, attention.  The more we spend on one thing--hiking, Olympic training, career--the less we have to spend on other things--family, friends, etc.  When we pour it all into one thing and that one thing doesn't develop as hoped, not only does it have an emotional/psychological impact, we suddenly remember all the other things we ignored along the way and the loss of THOSE things just make things worse.

-Nate the Trail Zombie
Newberg, OR