Apparently I’m not very well versed in trail gossip as I have no idea which hostel is in question. But the solution, for all those involved in the controversy, is obvious – get off the internet and go hiking. Increases their lifetime total mileage AND puts an end to silly arguments. Now if I may be excused, it’s 8am on a beautiful Saturday and I have some mileage-enhancement to do 🙂 Great post again Mags.

This post was in response to an on-line d*** measuring contest about a well-known hostel owner’s mileage figures. Seemed apropos. 🙂

If I had to guess, I’d say that the my AT hike comprises about half of my lifetime total backpacking, mileage-wise. But in terms of experience and skills-building, it’s just a small minority. On the AT, I learned perseverance, town-stop logistics, pacing one’s self and trail nutrition. But even after hiking 2k miles, I still wasn’t a very good navigator. I didn’t know the first thing about campsite selection. I had no experience with managing long water carries. These are all basic backpacking skills that all of my 2,000 miles hadn’t taught me.

I can point to several trips, some as short as a couple days, that taught me just as much about backpacking as the AT did. And a couple afternoons of trail work taught me more about trail work than walking 2,000 miles of trail on the AT.

Thru hikes are amazing and I wouldn’t trade mine for the world. But if I had never thru-hiked, I’d probably be about where I am now, in terms of skills, knowledge, and expertise. And frankly, I’m a lot more proud of some of those shorter trips than I am of the longer, splashier trips.