Because?! – The walk


Why do I hike the Appalachian Trail? (Or, as I was asked, «Why the hell would you want to hike 2,200 miles?» or «What the hell is wrong with you?») In my first post, I talked about my journey from competitive runner to Camino hiker and listed some of the reasons I’m hiking the Appalachian Trail, but I wanted to dig a little deeper into the reasons and address two other questions Zach asks potential AT hikers. Appalachian Trials.

Completing my walk along the French Way at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

I’m hiking the Appalachian Trail because… . .

  • The main reason I am raising the AT is because it is the next step in becoming the best version of myself. I want to challenge myself physically and mentally. By walking the AT, I am taking the next step in my physical journey (literally!), but this journey also includes mental, spiritual, and social components.
  • I enjoy finding and completing new adventures. (Added images from some previous adventures! Featured image is from my Grand Canyon rim-to-rim hike, with a stay at Phantom Ranch.)
  • It will force me to learn new things (like blogging!) and get out of my comfort zone.
  • I am goal oriented. . . and stubborn.
  • the world is different at 3 miles per hour (and I REALLY like that world and the people in it! Well, MOST of the people in it…)
  • I’m really tired of driving I-95 from Florida to New York and I’ve never been to Maine or New Hampshire. (Unfortunately, my plan involves me first driving from Florida to New York, dropping off my car with my family, and then flying back to Atlanta.)
  • It will take me out of some home renovation projects for about 5 months (but they will still be there when I get back).

The benefits of knowing why

Knowing the reasons you’re hiking the AT can be used as motivation when you’re having a tough day on the trail, when it’s been raining for days and everything you own is wet, when you hear the call of your warm bed and comfortable home life, when you smell a bad odor and realize it’s you.

But Zach Davis also asks you to answer two other questions that may be motivating while you’re on the trail; 1) When I successfully hike the Appalachian Trail, I ______ (I will fill in the blank, or blanks, and 2) If I give up on the Appalachian Trail, I _______. These are great examples of positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement motivates us because we WANT to experience the results of our actions, and negative reinforcement motivates us because we do NOT want to experience the results of THAT action. Here are my answers to those questions:

When I successfully hike the Appalachian Trail, I will. . .

  • Being very proud of an important achievement and having achieved my goal.
  • I confirm my belief that even though I’m getting older (YET!), I’m not dead yet and that there are new things to learn, places to go, people to meet, and goals to pursue.
  • Take some time off and then start looking for my next adventure (OK, I already have a few things on my radar). New adventures await you!

Running on the Olympic track at the Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, Greece.

If I give up the Appalachian Trail, I will. . .

  • obviously being sick, injured, or both (It will depend on the severity of the illness and/or injury. It will have to be something that takes me off track for weeks. Sick of getting up every day and walking for 8 hours doesn’t count!)
  • Be disappointed, but not deterred (Arnold Schwarzenegger voice: “I’ll be back”). While I am stubborn and goal-oriented, marathon training and racing has taught me that sometimes it is better to live to fight another day rather than aggravate an injury by doggedly pushing forward. Completing the AT will still be a goal.
  • I will have to evaluate my preparation, planning and decisions to discover where I went wrong and the reasons why I ended my hike attempt.
  • I will be a little embarrassed because I am telling this to a LOT of people and “quitting.” (Yes, I know, I just said that sometimes it’s better to live to fight another day, blah blah blah. Even though I finished 13 of the 16 marathons I started, I still feel bad that I didn’t finish 3.)

So, will the answers to these questions keep me motivated and moving forward on the AT? Who knows? But we’ll see. Is it worth going through this process if you are considering a hike? Definitely.

What do you think about this process and the effect of understanding your motivations on the ability to achieve goals?

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