I am going back to the A.T. this year for another L.A.S.H (Long Ass Section Hike), which has got me reflecting some.

What can I learn from my failed thru-hike attempt last year?

So yeah, my thru-hike last year petered out at just over 200 miles. Why for? Well, the biggest mistake I made, as far as I can see (feel free to chime in on the comments below) was that my bucket was nearly full before I even started. Bucket? I hear you say, of course that was a mistake dude, why on earth would you carry a bucket on the trail? Ha ha so, yeah, obviously I don’t mean a literal bucket, what I mean is a representation of…of…stuff. Things.

What pray tell am I talking about? Well I’m sure someone else has put it better, but for me the bucket represents how much capacity you have to get through a thing before something gives. We have buckets for everything, for school, for work, for life.

So what goes in the thru-hike (or LASH) bucket? Well fitness is a huge one, equipment, food, weather, then for a long distance hike you pour a nice generous serving of mental fortitude over everything. On reflection my bucket was very close to full before I even set foot on the A.T.

Fitness

On a long distance trek you often hear people saying ‘how can you train for this?’ The prevailing thought is that you can only get your trail legs by walking the trail, and so training for a long distance hike was kind of pointless as, well, you would get all your training on the trail. This is kind of true, but also…kind of not.

Zach “Badger” Davis, thru-hiker and author of ‘Appalachian Trials’ suggests if you are not in good shape to limit your first three weeks to 6 to 10 miles per day then steadily increase the miles after those first few weeks. If you are in good shape then 10 to 15 miles would be more achievable. Once the trail legs come in, you can then up the miles. That’s good solid advice…which I did not take.

What most folks forget about , I think (and I definitely did last year), is baseline fitness. The fitter you are means the quicker you get your trail legs. The quicker you get your trail legs, the more fun the trail feels. If your fitness level is pretty low then the trail is going to be a huge challenge and it will take up a significant part of your bucket, at least in the first month on the trail.

Chris Cage, author of ‘How to Hike the Appalachian Trail’ suggests working on being able to jog a mile (1.61 km’s) before you get on the trail. That’s good solid advice…which I did not take.

To be fair I may be putting too much emphasis on fitness. There were quite a few hikers who bailed out before me who I would have considered in a lot better shape. A lot of them start too fast and hike themselves into injuries. Nearly every book or blog about long distancing hiking mentions easing into the hike instead of jumping right into the big miles. But I know I would have had a bit more fun if I had just been a wee bit fitter.

This hike: My baseline fitness is pretty damn low at the moment. I am hitting the gym, bike and rowing machine to build it up before the hike. Also going to try and fit in a decent day hike every two weeks.

Equipment

The amount of…stuff people take with them on a hike is staggering. When I started the trail I was disappointed that my pack weighed about 15 kg (33 pounds) with food and water. I had spent a lot of time researching equipment and getting the lightest things I could afford. I did my best to learn from the mistakes of those that went before me, but I still considered my pack to be a little too heavy. On the shuttle to the trail-head there were a couple of guys whose packs were pushing 25-30 kg (55-66 pounds). And on the trail there were plenty of folks with heavy, heavy packs. Considering the terrain on the AT having a heavy pack would definitely fill a large section of their bucket.

If you can, have a few hikes with your gear on your back before you head out for long time. That usually gets folks pretty focused on going lighter.

This hike: I think my gear was pretty good for a first attempt. I’ll be using pretty much the same gear, with a few cuts here and there. Gear list coming soon.

Food

Food is fuel. You gotta eat.

Apparently the average male hiker burns 689 calories per hour, the average female is 591 calories. So if you walk for 8 hours that’s 5,512 calories on top of your normal basal metabolic rate. And keep in mind if you are unfit you are probably likely to burn MORE calories. So yeah, if you are hiking for the love of god eat something.

To be fair, this is easier said than done. When I hike I am generally not hungry during the day and I need to force myself to eat something. I wonder how many days I struggled on the trail due to not eating enough. More than a few I would imagine. More than a few.

It’s not even super obvious when its happening. You would think if your body needed more fuel then you would feel hungry right? But I didn’t and most days I only ate a decent meal at the end of the day. My best day hiking was the day I tackled Jacob’s Ladder. This is a horrible, steep section of the trail, but I felt absolutely brilliant. It wasn’t until I was off the trail that the reason why occurred to me. That morning I had a really huge breakfast of french toast, bacon, juice and coffee, so of course I had energy to burn.

This hike: I think this is were I can make the most improvement. I am going to have to force myself to eat. Snickers are pretty much the perfect trail food so I’ll have to man up and eat the American versions until I get used to them again. I’m also going to pack plenty more food I can eat on the go, lots of bars etc. and make sure I am eating something at least every couple of hours, but every hour would be best.

Weather

The main thing is making sure you have the correct equipment to keep you safe. But don’t use it as an excuse not to hike. Even though I was only on the trail for 3 weeks I still came across a few hikers who took an extra zero, or delayed leaving the shelter. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes the forecast says rain, and it doesn’t rain. Or it does rain, but not until the next day.

I mean the weather kicked my ass last year. But I hiked through it and you know the best thing? You get to complain about it or you get cool stories like hiking in a blizzard on the first day of spring.

This hike:

Some simple rules

• If it’s raining, hike
• If it’s freezing, hike
• If it’s snowing, hike
• If it’s hot, hike
• If it’s a perfect day for hiking, hike
• If it’s a less than perfect day for hiking, hike
• If there is a hurricane coming? Don’t be crazy dude, get off the trail

Mental

This is probably the hardest thing to prepare for, and my god did I underestimate this. It’s a nebulous thing and it affects everyone differently, some more so than others. Most folks, like myself, don’t really consider it all that much and we focus on the gear and other things that are under our control. I took the Australian “She’ll be right!” approach, which did not work out so well…because…she wasn’t right.

I think it’s all about having a really good, solid reason as to why you are out there. Being as stubborn as a mule will only get you so far, and I mean, you want to enjoy it right? For my hike in 2018, if I had everything listed above dialed in a little more (especially the food thing) I still don’t think I would have finished. I would have gotten farther along the trail, no doubt, but I would not have made it to Katahdin. Simply put, I missed my kids terribly and I am not sure I would have been able to get past that no matter how fit I was. That aspect pretty much filled my bucket all on its own.

This hike: Well, it’s only for four weeks so even though I will miss ’em I think I can deal with 4 weeks. Last time around, after a week on the trail, just the thought of not seeing the kids for 5 to 6 months was almost unbearable.

So, in conclusion, keep that bucket as empty as you can. If your bucket is nearly full, or already overflowing, before you even take your first step then you, my friend, are going to have a bad time.

NB: I ALSO MISSED MY WIFE, WHO IS MY SUN AND STARS. THERE IS ONLY DARKNESS WITHOUT HER.

SHE IN NO WAY MADE ME WRITE THIS.

Edit (April 2019): Ha! So it turns out I had a little more going on that I thought, at least on the physical side of things. My bucket was filled by a heart tumour. Check out this post for the story of my surprise open heart surgery. In saying that, I reckon all the points above are still valid.