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Comment by setgree | Hacker News Reader

I quit in May, and since then have hiked the Appalachian Trail and just landed in New Orleans. I'll do a little part-time research work but my main goal is to write a lot and play music.

Before I left, I was depressed, and now I'm not. IMO everything else is totally second order to not feeling so darn bad all the time.

My plans extend to about the end of this current month, and then, we shall see.

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Wow, hiking the AT is currently my quitting plan as well, but for 2022. Excited to see that you aren't experiencing extreme post-trail depression - I know it can hit hard for some people :). I hope to be in a very similar place/state of mind as you next year.

Do you have any advice for an AT hopeful for next year? I have done a fair amount of planning and have completed a ~250 mile thru-hike this past summer, but would still love some advice from a veteran (i.e. tent vs. hammock, how many sets of each type of clothing you ended up using, etc.)

Happy to talk at length about this — my email is my HN username at gmail and my name is Seth — but I would say that a base weight or 12 pounds or less is a good predictor of who actually finishes.

I live in the area, go with the hammock. You can struggle to find places to put a tent down in the deep forest.

Also quit and hiked the AT back in 2018. Plan was to take a whole year – hike the first half and travel the second, but a month after finishing the trail a unique opportunity came my way through a former colleague and I jumped back in to the working world.

Fellow '09 thruhiker here just chiming in.

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