How to not quit a hike 

“Cool wears off really fast” - truth!

Great advice...thanks!

Thanks for the video on this topic. A couple of your points hit home on a trip that I was on last year and which I ended up quitting. 1) Your WHY is your super power. I have always been attracted to day hikes and back packing trips and even vacations where I could experience awesome views. This was true even before online repositories like RU-vid or Instagram. So I know it is not just the "cool" factor. 2) Think about others too. My trip last year was planned mostly by me with a somewhat new hiking partner and their teenage son. I'm a parent as well so I had to watch how everyone was doing, not just "were they OK", but "am I leading them down a memorable experience." While I may easily be able to gut it out because I've done that so many, many times - it might not be what all the other people in my party would enjoy. One thing you didn't voice exactly was one of my mottos, "Backpacking is my favorite chosen past time and I WILL return." So whether one chooses to push on or chooses to turn back, it is indeed the aggregate that builds my joy in total, not just one particular dream trip. My turn-back story was on the Three Sisters Loop in Oregon last year. Around 50 miles, we were doing it in 4 days with slightly truncated days 1 and 4. Not a real tough challenge for me personally. First day was great, but then around midnight in camp I smelled smoke. I could walk about 10 minutes to get slight mobile reception and, indeed found that a wildfire had broken out. While we were not in real danger of meeting the fire, it was the smoke that was getting stronger and thicker. Our loop was going to turn south that day and move away from the fire so we probably could have continued safely. So at 7 AM we are wondering what to do. We ended up turning around. Basically it was my call in the end. The other two were, as you'd expect, supportive of either decision - go on or turn around. Little help there. I thought, "If I'm going to hike the Three Sisters wilderness, I want to experience it in all its glory." I was especially looking forward to seeing the vast lava flows which were difficult to even make out in the smoke. And I'd be pulling two hikers who were much younger in their backpacking careers. The kicker was, "I will be back." This was not the most ideal ending to the trip, but it definitely was not close to any ending of my backpacking career. Hopefully not theirs either. I'm planning to do that loop again this year and those two are signing up to accompany me again.

Love this!

Thanks David.. really needed this video today.. just walked off the Ouachita Trail after 7 days… 70 miles in.. i got injured and was hurting pretty but felling there after i walked. Like i could have kept going or maybe if i just took an extra day or maybe slowed down .. so many what if’s. So much planning went into this hike .. all is done for awhile. But after i heal i’m already starting to plan to go back Next year. Be even more prepared.

Thanks, David. I needed this talk at the moment. Much appreciated.

Good thoughts to keep in mind when on the trail or any other of life's pursuits. I've always dreaded that "last mile" doing different things like backpacking, flying or a trip to the beach, because that's when enjoyment of doing that thing ends. It's like the last day of vacation before having to go back to work. There's probably a psch term for that but I'm too lazy to look it up 😉.

Here's a suggestion I gave a friend of mine just the other day. If you think in terms of distance or landmarks along the way to complete a hike, it can really be discouraging because it makes the end of the hike seem so far away. Rather than that, what I do is I estimate what time I'll finish the hike and then check my progress against my watch. For instance, if I think I need top walk another 45 minutes, I'll just daydream for a while and then when I check my watch it may be 20 minutes later and I'll know I only have 25 more minutes to go. It's a lot less stressful that way and it's even fun to see how close I come to my estimated arrival time. This approach works really well on car trips, as well.