‘They think it’s going to be fun. It’s not fun.’
Backingpacking takes a physical toll, but the mental hurdles may be more difficult to clear
Victoria Traxler
5/2/2019 8:00 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Sophie Faxon
As 16 year-old Sophie Faxon counted the blisters on her feet, her misery urged her to get off the trail. Pushing on would later prove to be one of the most influential decisions she made, turning her on to backpacking for the rest of her life. Now 22, Faxon has gone on numerous backpacking trips, with no intention of stopping.
Faxon’s experience with the with the strange dichotomy between pain and satisfaction isn’t uncommon. The number of backpackers in the United States has grown significantly over the last 20 years.
Over 10,000 thru-hikers-people who hike specific long-distance trails from end-to-end at one time-registered completions of various trek’s such as the Pacific Crest Trail or Appalachian Trail. While thru-hiking is infamous for the physical toll it takes on the body, its mental tolls and benefits have been less discussed.
Numerous articles, books, and videos or vlogs depict the physical hardships of backpacking and how to persevere. Now, a new movement has spurred to prepare hikers for the emotional and psychological aspects of removing themselves from traditional society for months.
Between 2010 and 2018 the Appalachian Trail saw a 400-percent increase in thru-hikers, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. This does not include the number of section hikers, who conquer trails pieces at a time over a period of months or years until it’s finished.
All long-distance trails in the United States from Backpacker.com
The Pacific Crest Trail, spanning 3,000 miles on the west coast, saw a 289-percent increase in thru-hiker permits issued between 2013 and 2018, according to the Pacific Crest Trail Association.
Other trails such as the John Muir Trail, a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, a 3,100-mile trail from Mexico to Canada, and the North Country Trail, which runs 4,600 miles from New York to North Dakota, have also seen a rise in hikers.
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While the growth represents a new attention to the trails, seasoned hikers such as Warren Doyle have been thru-hiking since long before the popularity spike. Doyle has hiked the Appalachian Trail a total of 18 times, more than anyone else, organized 10 other thru-hike groups and run the Appalachian Trail Institute since 1989.
Doyle believes some hikers do not approach the trail with the right intention.
“It's obvious people are coming with unrealistic reasons to walk the trail,” Doyle said. “They think it's going to be fun. It's not fun. They think it's going to be enjoyable. It's not enjoyable. Now, it's fun and enjoyable only if you accept the inherent difficulty of it. So once you accept and humble yourself to how difficult it is, that's what you could start having fun and enjoyment.”
What’s the Appeal?
Warren Doyle, founder of the Appalachian Trail Institute
Many hikers come to understand Doyle’s caution quickly. Faxon, a former employee at the High Mountain Institute, said her first experience backpacking was miserable.
After getting arrested her sophomore year of high school, her parents sent her on a two-week mountaineering-based backpacking trip with Wilderness Adventures in the Pacific Northwest.
“I absolutely hated it. Every single second of the trip, I hated it,” Faxon said. “I had 32 blisters on my feet, I just was absolutely miserable.”
But after summiting one particularly difficult peak- Mount Baker in Washington- Faxon felt changed by the experience, leading her to continue a life of backpacking both as a career and as a hobby.
“I think going into it I was really unsure of myself,” Faxon said. “I was pretty angry with the world, but also pretty depressed. Coming out of it I felt just a lot more confident with one who I was and the way that I could carry myself.”
Faxon said she felt more capable physically, mentally and emotionally, and that the overall experience was empowering for her during her youth.
Sophie Faxon, 22, on High Mountain Institute backpacking trip / Photo courtesy of Faxon
Experts agree that spending extended amounts of time outdoors has immense mental benefits. Mark Harvey, a psychology professor at University of North Carolina-Asheville, specializes in the relationship between humans and the natural environment.
“Just to get away from the everyday pressures of life seems to be an important motivating factor for people who spend time in wilderness areas,” Harvey said.
Additionally, Harvey argued a potential reason for the rise in backpackers is tied to a growing desire people may have to disconnect from technology, as it expands further into people’s everyday lives.
“I strongly agree with that assertion that people do have an even greater need now and feel that pressure from our hyper connected society to get away from it all to put the phone down to turn it off,” Harvey said.
Trim the ‘Emotional Fat’
Mental preparation for backpacking varies on an individual level for most hikers. But there are methods of psychological training and groundwork used by many prior to going on the trail.
In his 13 statements of wisdom, Doyle discusses a concept he describes as “emotional fat,” or defense mechanisms people build to live their day-to-day lives. He encourages hikers to leave their those responses behind, and let themselves be vulnerable.
Doyle believes emotional fat prevents hikers from being able to fully experience the difficulty of the trails, and allow little room for personal growth and contemplation, Doyle said.
Faxon follows a process that mirrors Doyle’s advice. Her preparation before leaving includes saying goodbye to those closest to her, and confronting her own emotions about what she expects to face mentally on the trail.
By asking herself difficult questions, she’s able to gauge her mental state and what she can expect from her thoughts while on the trail.
“I have to take the time to think about what do I want to get out of this trip?” Faxon said. “What conversations do I want to have with myself? What do I want to leave the field having accomplished or thought about?”
Backpacking is suffering, but in a good way
Backpacking is not comfortable. The average weight of a backpack for Appalachian Trail hikers in 2016 was 22lbs, according to REI. This, in addition to harsh elevation gains, inclement weather and the need to hike a distance of at least 15 miles per day to stay on schedule, can take a toll on the body and mind.
“There's something about sitting with that pain and pushing through it that I think is so essential to what backpacking is,” Faxon said.
To many, the most difficult thing may be the ability to complete the hike at all. Only one in four hikers finish thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
Harvey’s research with environmental psychology connects directly with backpacking and the various trying human experiences people endure while on these trips. One formal theory for the benefits mentally backpacking can have is known as the Attention Restoration Theory.
The Attention Restoration Theory attempts to explain why natural environments are so beneficial to humans as a result of two primary factors: a complete sense of being away from everyday life and civilization and having “soft fascinations,”,or the sense of fascination from natural stimuli.
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These soft fascinations, combined with the physical separation from civilization, are what make wilderness experiences restorative.
“It could be from the sunrise, it could be from the natural sounds, it could be from the feeling of the sun on your skin, but when all of those are present... then we can say the person is going to feel better after having spent some time in that environment,” Harvey said. “There's going to be actual measurable physiological changes as a result of that time.”
Faxon’s past experiences confirm this theory. The most memorable and humbling feeling she has had on a backpacking trip came from the mere sound of wind in the desert.
“The wind just feels like and creates this feeling of like something old and something that's ancient and powerful in a way that is really captivating to listen to and to be able to be surrounded by,” Faxon said
Faxon on Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park leading a trip for Camp Wayfarer / Photo courtesy of Faxon
Sophie Faxon, 22
Mindfulness comes up often when discussing the mental impacts of backpacking. Many hikers find a sense of meditation in the repetitiveness and simplicity of their day-to-days on the trail.
“It's somewhere after like the first 45 minutes of a hike or of the day that I get into this place where everything else kind of just disappears and I'm able to settle in,” Faxon said.“I think it's almost the methodical aspect of it, if it's just one foot in front of another time and time again.”
Doyle experienced his own personal growth during his first and only solo hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1973. Doyle learned not to be ashamed to cry, a difficult stigma for men to break, he said.
“Learning how to not be afraid to show your vulnerability, you know, that's a strength basically,” Doyle said. “And to not make anyone feel ashamed for expressing their true emotions and not to feel weak or not to let anybody ostracize you or ridicule you or cheapen your feelings.”
Doyle’s methodology is strict and direct. His experience hiking the AT has led him to definitive beliefs that thru hiking is not just a walk in the woods. It’s a commitment, a job and an educational experience .
“Our culture is a culture of comfort and convenience,” Doyle said. “Everything we spent money on is to reduce our discomfort and to make things quicker and convenient. But walking the Appalachian Trail is not comfortable and it's not convenient.”
Uncomfortability can quickly turn to suffering on the trail however. A day of rain can turn into a week of rain. Wet clothes, injuries, blisters, sprained ankles and torn muscles can become overbearing for many hikers at one point or another during their journey. However, it is this suffering that all hikers seem to experience that encourages them to push forward.
“What we know from reports of people who have gone through these experiences is that any kind of of social contact is uplifting for them,” Harvey said. “So they'd grit through, they make it, and when they encounter other people on the trail or in, you know, going through the similar situation, uh, being able to share those experiences with each other makes a big difference.”
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The Return
Almost as hard as mentally preparing for the difficulties of the trail is mentally preparing for the transition off of the trail. Many hikers have a difficult time transitioning back from backpacking to a high-paced society.
“There are difficulties when people transition back, especially after such a long time in an isolated situation,” Harvey said. “It might be as simple as when they come back in to a hyper connected world where there are so many words being exchanged and they're used to long periods of silence, uh, that could be a little bit unsettling for people.”
Post-hike depression is a common response to the end of a backpacking or thru-hiking trip. It afflicts “nearly all” hikers, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and it’s caused by either missing life on the trail or experiencing disappointment by the end of a journey, according to REI.
In the “backcountry,” as Faxon called it, hikers are faced with few, but high-consequence, decisions. Returning from a trip with the National Outdoor Leadership Society, Faxon struggled with the immense number of mundane decisions she needed to make every day.
“It's kind of this transformative experience you have that changes everything that you know about yourself and transforms you into this new person, and you aren't sure whether that's going to exist outside of the environment of a backpacking trip,” Faxon said. “All of a sudden everything is more complex and there are so many more things to think about and aspects of your identity that you have to bring back, as well.”
Faxon and friends in the Sawatch Mountain Range, CO / Photo courtesy of Faxon
For some hikers, the transition is not as stark. Thru-hikers who continue to hike often, as Doyle has, seem to be able to connect better the trail version of themselves to their regular selves.
Doyle said he believes backpacking can change people, but they are coming back into a world that they cannot change.
“To me the trail life and my real life are one of the same,” Doyle said. “One in the same because it's a way of thinking.”