I’ve been training for this all my life

Day 8

Starting location: Unicoi Gap
Start time: 8:30 am
Initial mileage: 52.7
Final Location: Tray Mtn Shelter
End time: 2:30 pm
Final mileage: 58.4

Great warm day. Temperatures in the 50s. Two tough climbs into the Rocky Mountains and Tray Mountain. The trail was mostly clear except for the snowy/icy section down the north side of Tray Mountain. Tray Mountain Shelter is fine, there are several good places to camp. The water is 200 meters down the hill behind the shelter, and at the moment it is a fairly small fountain. Enough, but a splash. Nighttime temperatures in the 40s with rain arriving after midnight

*****************************************

Let me start by reminding everyone that I am a newbie. Make no mistake about it. I’m flexing muscles I’ve never flexed before. (And strain muscles I didn’t even know I had!) I’m still learning. And I’m not very good at this long distance hiking thing.

But today I had an epiphany. A laugh-out-loud epiphany: I’ve been training for this my entire life!

Plans, systems and routines

To prepare, I watched dozens of AT hikes via YouTube. And many of these hikers made over 100 videos for their channel. I watched and learned. Notes made. He learned from his mistakes and took note of their advice.

I read every book you can read on the Appalachian Trail. AWOL on the AT, A Walk in the Sun, Appalachian Trials, White Fever, Walking on the AT, Walking, Where’s the Next Shelter?, Becoming Odyssa, The AT: Step by Step, As Far as the Eye Can See, Rethinking Life on the AT, Beauty Beneath the Earth, A Walk in the Woods, Leaving Only Footprints, Whistler’s Walk, Only When I Step On It, Returning to Katahdin.

I bought equipment. I changed gears. I updated the equipment. I gave my family a wish list for “any birthday or holiday.” And I walked and tried it.

What came out of all this learning, testing and rehearsals? Plans. Systems. Routines. And that’s what I’ve done my whole life. As a business person, and especially as an entrepreneur, starting with a vision and a plan is what I have done hundreds of times. Then systems that can be run and repeated. But then there is flexibility and innovation when things don’t go well (which they never do!).

As philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Well, the Appalachian Trail has a reputation for punching you in the mouth!

On the one hand, I benefit from well thought out systems for packing, cooking, planning each day, and keeping track of each day. Lihat juga bvhfgg9. On the other hand, it benefits me to be agile, flexible, and innovative when a piece of equipment doesn’t work, or the weather doesn’t cooperate, or a part of my body starts to hurt, or I go down a mountain the wrong way (see my YouTube channel, Episode 6).

Teaching

Along the way, most conversations involve teaching and learning. Sometimes you are the teacher. Sometimes you are the student.

While I write for the blog or post videos on my YouTube vlog, I share information for others. Sometimes for friends and family who want to learn about what I’m doing. Sometimes for future hikers who will come after me.

As I’ve been doing it for the past 17 years in the college classroom, sharing information feels quite familiar to me.

All of this is not to say that hiking the Appalachian Trail is like starting a business or teaching a class. Which is not. They are very different. I can attest to this simply by how much I am struggling with this new skill.

But today I laughed a lot when I realized that there are similarities. And I’ve been training for this my whole life.

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any products or services you purchase using links in articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price they would otherwise pay, and their purchase helps support The Trek’s ongoing goal of bringing you quality backpacking information and advice. Thank you for your support!

For more information, visit the About page of this site.