Our Thru Hike Turned into a Section Hike

Well, Jake and I have come to find out that we are not thru hikers. We hiked 77.8 miles of the Appalachian Trail, through almost all of the Georgia section, and after 12 days on the trail we decided to make it a section hike instead of a thru hike. 

​We have always loved the outdoors, backpacking, hiking, camping, skiing, etc and when we decided to start off our new lifestyle of full-time travel with a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail, we figured we would have a blast. 

We knew it would be hard and physically demanding but what we had not accounted for was that it would be very monotonous. For us, we found the experience rather boring since you did that same thing day, after day, after day. It is not that Georgia wasn't beautiful, when we could actually see a vista, or that the people we met along the way were not nice or friendly, or that we couldn't handle in physically. It was more that we had worked so very hard to make this dream come to fruition and there we were hiking our hearts out, rain or shine, and we just found the reality different than we had envisioned. 

We decided to get off the trail and start traveling rather than continue on. We already had the money in savings and food prepped so we figured we could go buy a camper and start the next leg of our journey. We recorded 2 different podcasts episodes that share a lot more details about our decision if you would like to listen (Episode 17 and Episode 18).

Our final decision to end our thru hike was a hard one that took a few days to process. But what I realized is that sometimes our dreams are not the same in reality once we start achieving them. That doesn't mean the dream was a waste or that it was a disappointment to go after them. It also doesn't diminish the value of that dream. There is value and worth in pursing a dream, working hard, staying focused, and making that dream into a reality. 

We feel so grateful that we had the opportunity to try and accomplish something off our bucket list and now a thru hike is no longer on the list! We do want to complete other sections  of the AT that are known for being gorgeous so we can experience more of the trail.

Now we will be traveling around the US in our camper with our two dogs, still doing our podcast and blog, and we hope you will join us for the next leg of our travels!

Blog post written by Amy and Jacob Karras
Unnamed Adventures