An introduction to hiking.

Just looking for something to post on here to get this going. This is a passage from "A walk in the woods" that I like; I think it gives a pretty good idea about how starting out on a hike feels to the relative novice (like he was, and like I still pretty much am).

Seven miles seems so little, but it's not, believe me. With a pack, even for fit people it is not easy. You know what it's like when you're at a zoo or an amusement park with a small child who won't walk another step? You hoist him lightly onto your shoulders and for a while -- for a couple minutes -- it's actually kind of fun to have him up there, pretending like you're going to tip him off or cruising his head towards some low projection before veering off (all being well) at the last instant. But then it starts to get uncomfortable. You feel a twinge in your neck, a tightening between your shoulder blades, and the sensation seeps and spreads until it is decidedly uncomfortable, and you announce to little Jimmy that you're going to have to put him down for awhile.
...
OK, now imagine two little Jimmies in a pack on your back, or, better still, something inert but weighty, something that doesn't want to be lifted, that makes it abundantly clear to you as soon as you pick it up that what it wants is to sit heavily on the ground -- say, a bag of cement or a box of medical textbooks -- in any case, forty pounds of profound heaviness. Imagine the jerk of the pack going on, like the pull of a down elevator. Imagine walking with that weight for hours, for days, and not along level asphalt paths with benches and refreshment stands at thoughtful intervals but over a rough trail, full of sharp rocks and unyielding roots and staggering ascents that transfer enormous amounts of strain to your pale, shaking thighs. Now tilt your head back until your neck is taut, and fix your gaze on a point two miles away. That's your first climb. It's 4,682 steep feet to the top, and there are lots more just like it. Don't tell me that seven miles is not far. Oh, and here's the other thing. You don't have to do this. You're not in the army. You can quit right now. Go home. See your family. Sleep in a bed.

Alternatively, you poor, sad, schmuck. you can walk 2,169 miles through mountain and wilderness to Maine.