My two favorites go hand in hand: magic actually exists and small luxuries bring on big emotions.
I've done the AT and the PCT. Thru hiking absolutely restores my faith in humanity. When I was on the AT in Shenandoah, a huge family had a 4th of July party at a shelter and cooked me and my dog a steak and gathered firewood for me before they left that night. A woman in PA took me and my dog home for three days so we could avoid the heat, and we took a field trip to the Asa Packer mansion in Jim Thorpe, PA. She packed me a lunch and we both cried when she dropped me off back on trail. A complete stranger gave me the keys to his car and entrusted me to drive it to a certain trailhead outside of Woodstock so he could slack pack himself over the section I had just come through.
On the PCT, I met a couple at Sonora Pass with an extra pack horse, and they let me stay with them and ride horses the next day to an off-trail reservoir in the Sierra. When Camp 4 at Yosemite Valley was full and no one would pick me up as a hitch out, and the rangers told me they couldn't help me, I found a campsite full of strangers that invited me to camp with them and had an entire meal planned of burgers and corn on the cob. I love Snickers, and had packed in plenty, so I contributed Snickers as the desert that night.
One of the fun parts of receiving the magic is giving it back, though: I geocached a bottle of wine at a road crossing and sent one of the members of my tramily (trail family) the GPS coordinates. 🙂
But thru hiking teaches you to enjoy and very much appreciate the small things in life. You realize that all you need to survive, you have on your back, and everything else just makes your life easier. When I got Norovirus in Cali, my life was made easier by the fact that I got it in town and could stay in a hotel for three days. Air condition becomes a luxury. I even came to appreciate ice. I eventually began making a stop at a gas station on the way out of town and buying a bag of ice and filling my reservoir with it so I could have cold water for a few hours for the uphill out of town.
I love the simple life of thru hiking. I miss it every day it's not raining. 😉
At REI, we believe time outside is fundamental to a life well lived.
