{"id":1,"date":"2023-02-17T17:45:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T17:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/?p=1"},"modified":"2023-02-17T13:22:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T21:22:50","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The first post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230;of a thru-hike can be the hardest because I often have little to say and no pictures to share before the hike begins. However this time around I&#8217;m feeling a bit more verbose, so here are a couple of thoughts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In turning 60 this year it may not seem all that surprising that I&#8217;ve spent time reflecting back on the past years. I had just turned 50 when I set out on my original thru-hike, which coincidentally was also the Appalachian Trail. With a successful <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Triple_Crown_of_Hiking\" target=\"_blank\">triple-crown<\/a> now in the rear-view mirror, I&#8217;m filled with both gratitude and wonder at all the hiking I&#8217;ve gotten to enjoy during the past 10 years and the great people I&#8217;ve had a chance to meet along the way. The hike this year reflects my first return to the AT, my first attempt at repeating a long distance trail and my first northbound thru-hike. For those and lots of other reasons, I&#8217;m excited about this year&#8217;s hike and eager to get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/001_before-1024x576-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/001_before-1024x576-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/001_before-1024x576-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/001_before-1024x576-1-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">2014: just before my first AT thru-hike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently one of my adult children asked me whether I see thru-hiking as a kind of <em>escapism<\/em>. I thought about this for a while and discussed it with Wendy, my amazing wife of 33 years (and ticking) because I can always count on her for thoughtful insights. Her observation was spot on: yes, I was probably engaged in escapism during my first thru-hike, since I was experiencing that middle-aged, work-life burn-out that so many do. My only real priority during that hike was to embrace a quieter life in the woods that I hoped would be the antidote to the lethargy I was feeling about work and the direction of my life. I had never heard of the thru-hiking &#8216;triple crown&#8217; and didn&#8217;t think I had any interest in other trails or really even in the act of hiking itself. At the time, the hike mostly represented a chance to spend five or six months away from work that I no longer found motivating, and a chance to shake off the cobwebs of decades of sedentary desk life. I recall being asked during that first hike whether I&#8217;d ever consider trying another long trail or repeating the AT and at the time I was confident I would do neither- both ideas just seemed ludicrous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/20220830_115428-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-34\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">2022: near the completion of my triple crown on the PCT with hiking brother and great friend, Mav<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But something took ahold of me during the intervening years and I now find myself seeing no end in sight, so long as health and circumstance allow. And while it&#8217;s probably accurate to categorize that first thru-hike as <em>escapist<\/em>, my subsequent deep-dive into thru-hiking has not been a matter of getting away from anything as much as an effort to more fully embrace something. It turns out that thru-hiking has become the therapy I never knew I needed, a way for me to make sense of the chapters of my life and the means by which I&#8217;ve learned and accepted who I really am. There is something in my soul that responds favorably to the challenge of a long term, arduous hiking project and while I&#8217;ve had a number of other passions in life, thru-hiking has thus far been the one that has consistently delivered positive, tangible results in improved mental health and physical well-being. At some point there will come a time when I&#8217;m no longer confident that I can meet this challenge, but until then, as the song says, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I sure don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m goin&#8217; for, but I&#8217;m gonna go for it for sure!&#8221;<\/p>\n<cite><a href=\"http:\/\/artsites.ucsc.edu\/gdead\/agdl\/sain.html\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"http:\/\/artsites.ucsc.edu\/gdead\/agdl\/sain.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Perry Barlow<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;of a thru-hike can be the hardest because I often have little to say and no pictures to share before the hike begins. However this time around I&#8217;m feeling a bit more verbose, so here are a couple of thoughts. In turning 60 this year it may not seem all that surprising that I&#8217;ve spent<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/hello-world\/\">+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-hike"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The first post - 2023 AT Nobo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/maxheap.net\/at2023\/hello-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The first post - 2023 AT Nobo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8230;of a thru-hike can be the hardest because I often have little to say and no pictures to share before the hike begins. 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