A Word on Learning

I've noticed the traffic on my blog has spiked a bit (from 1 visit a week to 2) and I imagine some of this is from my journal link in the Whiteblaze 2013 thru-hiker database list.  I was contemplating removing my name from the list since I have decided to postpone my hike.

I've decided to keep it in, mainly to allow anyone who is interested to see the machinations of a thru-hike that didn't work out.  There are so many stories on successes and near successes, but little on how a planned hike never gets to start.  Who really wants to admit they failed?

I do, if only to help others work out in a realistic fashion whether they should even consider such an endeavor.

Do not misunderstand, I am not saying you should not consider taking it on.  Just look upon what I've done here as a lesson learned.  If it applies to you, great.  If you are cut from a different cloth than I or have things that drive you that I do not, fantastic.

Do what is right for you, above all else.  As many famous folk have quoted, follow your bliss.

Good luck.

Plan B - Optimized Failure

I should have been doing my final preps this week, packing, and stressing over the last details of a well planned thru hike.  I've diverged from the plan in the fact I am off the plan, and will not be back on it for I think many years to come.  Somehow I planned myself out of going.

So goes another failure to launch in a long string of failures.  I've spent a lot of money, educated and prepared myself as best able.  Yet when the critical moments of execution come I have discovered the inherent flaws of my ambitions, making it pointless to continue at this time.  I so wish I could be like some people who ignore things like that and just blindly push on...