When planning for a thru-hike it’s easy to get hung up on what gear to use. Or get stuck researching every mile on trail. But no piece of gear or information can replace the mental toughness it takes to hike day in and day out for months at a time.

With less than a day to spend before flying out to the US for my next thru-hike, I find myself mentally numb to the fact that I’m only a few days away from hiking 2,200 miles. Even though I parked my van early for planning and preparation, life got in the way. Most of my time was claimed by work. But truth to be told, my priorities have also been elsewhere.

But one advantage I have this time around is the fact that I have already done this twice. And I’m hoping that my previous mental preparation will make itself useful once again for the Appalachian trail.

Below is how I have mentally prepared for my previous hikes.

Know what to expect

In order to be prepared, you need to know what to expect. For a thru-hike, this means knowing the environment that you will be hiking in. Watching Youtube-videos or taking a trip to where you will be hiking will give you an idea of what the hike will be like.

Once you know what the environment looks like, you can visualize yourself hiking through it. You will also minimize the risk of false expectations.

Expose yourself to monotonous activities

When you do a thru-hike, there’s a lot going on. But mostly – you hike. From morning until late evening. Doing the same thing over and over for about twelve hours a day is not something most of us are used to.

Before my first thru-hike I therefore wanted to expose myself to solitude and monotony. I decided to participate in a 10-day Vipassana meditation course.

Every morning I’d wake up at 4 am by the sound of the gong. I then started meditating at 5 am and kept going until bedtime at 9 pm with a few breaks in between. During these ten days I was not allowed to speak, read, write, listen to music or even look at another participant. I had no choice but to resort to my own mind.

This might seem a bit excessive (and it probably was). And you don’t have to sign up for a 10-day meditation course in the middle of nowhere.

Instead, find one activity where you do the same thing over and over. Then try and do it for a long consecutive period of time.

When you know how you react to it, you can find ways to stay motivated to keep going.

Write yourself a letter

Another exercise that I did before my first thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail was to write a letter to myself. And while it might seem a bit out there, formulating your thoughts, fears and expectations before this kind of undertaking can be effective.

Because if you can name it, you can tame it.

Write the letter in whatever way you want to. It can be written like an email, like a diary or a blog post. But it should mention:

• Why you want to do this.
• What you fears and worries are.
• What your hopes and expectations are.
• How you plan to handle the disappointment if things don’t work out.
• How you gonna celebrate when you reach the finish line.

Writing down your worries and fears will help clear space in your head. More often than not, our fears are reduced when they don’t run around wild in our head. You realize that many thoughts comes from the same fear.

Writing down your motivations and celebration goals will in turn help you to stay connected to them.

Practice discipline

Hiking for hours on end, for months on end, takes discipline. To make those miles you need to put in the time and effort. 

To practice and build your discipline, find a small thing to do. Then decide that you will do it no matter how tired or busy you are.

For me, this is washing my make-up off every single evening. It doesn’t matter how late it is or if I’m already dozing off in the couch. I always get up and drag myself to the bathroom to wash my face.

It might sound trivial, but small habits leads to big changes.

Still – like all things in life – change is the only constant. When you prepare for every possible scenario, make sure to prepare yourself for the fact that your plans will change. And find a way to be mentally okay with that.

At least that’s what I’ll tell myself when I board my flight in a few hours.

That – and to remember to have fun.