08/24/2026
A little something I wrote to the new hikers finishing up their thru hikes
Lets talk about Post Trail Depression shall we,
I’ve been seeing some posts about new hikers finishing their first thru and really feeling that depression hit them like a freight train.
PTD is definitely not avoidable completely, I mean with the amount of exercise you get and we are talking about olympic athletics with a diet of skittles and ramen. With this much effort it creates a lot of dopamine, serotonin and a bunch of those feel good chemicals our body is not used to producing on any average day to day in our real lives. Losing the extra brain cocktails that are not only scientifically responsible but are also directly responsible for literal happiness; losing these are a thing most folks do not consider when they are taking their first step onto the trail.
So, unless you plan on hiking forever or doing some other activity that is as intense as the workout a thru hike brings to the table, then PTD is absolutely unavoidable.
Lets be honest, maybe a few folks have a life style that they can do this stuff everyday but for the majority of us, our hike is special because we are on borrowed time and the real world looms when we are finished.
Many hikers I meet often say,
“The trail is the real world and that the society we actually live in outside the trail is sick and fake.”
It’s a very interesting observation and one that I honestly believe has a lot of truth to it.
I mean, how can one experience the trail without falling in love with nature everyday?
Getting to live by the solar clock instead of the time on our phones. Waking to a sunrise and watching the sun set. Becoming familiar with terms like “Hiker midnight”.
Meeting the most beautiful community of trail angels, helpers, hostels, trail towns and shuttle drivers who are all complete strangers whom feel more like family. There is no way to experience this kind of stimulation in your real lives. Every single day is new people, places and things.
This brings me to the hidden part of the depression. The part that’s not as scientific but more connected to a hikers heart. This is something we only gain by change and we who have hiked these long and beautiful miles can certainly understand change.
We all chose to do something that is as epic as it gets. Our reasons are all sacred and personal but nevertheless we all chose to thru hike a long trail.
This experience could do nothing else but profoundly change us at our deepest levels. No one could have taught you these lessons. You had to pay for the ticket and take the ride. How can we believe we would ever come back as the same person we started as.
This change is often undiscovered during our journey. Or we notice pieces of it emerge along the way. The weight of it hits after the journeys end. It’s the pain of realizing that we can never go back to the person we were before the trail. We mourn the person we once were, back when we were blissfully ignorant of the lessons the trail had to offer.
My biggest piece of advice for coping with this short but painfully strong depression that will most certainly hit you hard is a simple one.
Be gentle with yourself. ❤️
Understand that this too shall pass and your life is definitely not over. Instead, try to remember the most important lesson the trail offers.
If this beautiful trail had all these amazing life lessons that will continue to change and shape the rest of your life, then surely there are other things out there, just like the trail was, hiding in plain sight for anyone to find it. All you need to do is look and be opened to try something different.
Comfort zones are vacuums that suck the joy from life, change will always happen outside of comfort.
Life has always just begun for those who are willing to step out of the darkness and move slowly one step at a time into change which is alway hidden in uncertainty.
Much love all
Moon
Class of 21
