Do You Actually Like Thru Hiking, or Do You Just Like the Party Scene?

There is no right or wrong way to thru-hike, whether you are going fast or slow, having a deep spiritual experience or partying with other hikers. Each hiker’s journey will be vastly different. At the end of the day, the common theme is the drive to complete the thru-hike itself.

Yet over the years, I’ve seen a number of hikers completely give up on completing the hike and instead devote themselves to partying as hard as they can for as long as they can. 

Let me be clear: if a hiker wants to party their way up a trail, skip miles, jump around, etc., there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

However, after meeting so many hikers over the years, I have noticed that some thru-hikers genuinely don’t seem to enjoy thru-hiking itself — they may even despise it. Yet they continue, because they really do enjoy the social aspect, the drinking, the frequent town stops and stays, and the overall party scene.

Again, every individual has the right to hike however they want. But if you often find yourself partying hard with friends, zeroing constantly, and dreading the hiking itself, then you might want to ask yourself: Do you actually like thru-hiking? Or do you really just find yourself drawn to the party atmosphere that some trails provide? 

A group of happy hikers celebrating the completion of the Pacific Crest Trail with a little tequila. A fitting drink to end off the trail at the Mexican border. We had such a blast celebrating the end of our 2022 hikes. 

Here are some questions that you might want to ask yourself if you are uncertain whether or not you actually like thru-hiking at all, or if you just like the places that it takes you.

Would you still be out on the trail if you weren’t surrounded by other hikers? 

For me, the social aspect of trail has always played a huge role in my experiences. When I first got into thru-hiking back in 2017, I actually spent my entire time on the PCT hiking with a group of about 3-5 other hikers. Later on in 2022 and 2023 when I went back out onto the PCT (and eventually the AT), I also hiked in smaller trail families for the majority of my experience.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing your experience on trail with other hikers. You do not need to be solo to fully experience the trail.
However, I do believe it is worth asking yourself what would happen if your trail family ended their hike. It is very common for hikers to get injured, tired, or have to go home for a family emergency.

When I was hiking in 2017, a small group of us hiked together for about 1000 miles. Then, within a two-week span, that entire group wound up going home for a variety of different reasons, ranging from injury to the high stress in the Sierra Nevada.

Sitting around and drinking at a Cinco de Mayo trail magic event on the Appalachian Trail. The kind hosts were pushing as much food and drink on us as we could consume.

While I absolutely loved hiking with those people, I was not hiking simply because we were together. The addition of those friends added to my hiking experience and helped to make it even more enjoyable. But without them, my experience was still a great one, just a different one.

Sometimes it is important to ask yourself, “Would I still be doing this if I was alone?” and the answer to that question can be very telling about why you are out there. 

If the idea of enduring a thru-hike primarily alone sounds like it would suck all of the joy out of the experience, you may be more drawn to the social aspect of hiking more than the hiking itself.

I believe it can be very valuable to understand what it is that you enjoy about an experience, and which aspects you simply tolerate. That social experience is undoubtedly one of the primary draws of thru-hiking, and many wouldn’t want to attempt a thru-hike if it weren’t for the robust community on many trails.

That doesn’t mean that those hikers care more about partying than hiking but instead reflects how significant an impact the social experience has on someone’s thru-hiking experience. 

A bunch of hikers sharing a bunch of beers by the river at the NOC on the Appalachian Trail.

Would you enjoy the experience just as much if you were sober? 

For some hikers, drinking and using drugs is a central aspect of the long-distance hiking experience. I don’t believe that that is necessarily right or wrong, and it really just depends on the type of experience that each individual is trying to have.

In 2022 when I was hiking the PCT, I spent a lot of time with other hikers, and we did a little bit of partying here or there. That meant taking an extra day or two off in town every now and then. But we always tried to hike big distances to make up for our extra days off.

Then in 2023 on the Appalachian Trail, I found myself embracing the social and party scene more than I had on any other trail. The AT boasts a vibrant social scene because of the massive numbers who hike the trail each year.

We were getting trail magic constantly, drinking at trail magic, taking our time in towns, and having a whole lot of fun. I’m glad that I got to have that experience on a thru-hike, at least briefly, just to get an idea of the style of hiking that a lot of thru-hikers are committing to.

I certainly can see the appeal to that method of hiking, as it can be incredibly fun and social. You also just wind up meeting a lot of new strangers and it opens many doors for new experiences.

However, in the end I found that the partying was just taking time and energy away from the actual hiking itself.

This one trail magic event on the Appalachian Trail had a self serve bar. I used my cold soaking jar to make myself a drink.

Hiking long distances day in and day out is incredibly tiring, even when you are in the best shape of your life. For me, I have found that drinking and partying just makes a hard experience feel even harder most of the time.

Drinking causes inflammation in the body, which can worsen a pre-existing injury or increase the risk of getting a new one.

It also makes me tired and dehydrated. When I go out drinking in town, I’m much less likely to get up and have an early day the next day.

Over time, I found that I just enjoyed hiking more when I wasn’t partying as much. If, in contrast, you find that you really don’t enjoy the hiking experience when you aren’t drinking or partying, then you might want to ask yourself what you are actually out there for. What is it about thru-hiking that appeals to you more than, say, the festival scene or some version of vanlife?

For some hikers, it seems like thru-hiking culture checks a lot of boxes in terms of being able to meet new friends quickly, socialize, jam out, drink, and do drugs. But if you genuinely do not enjoy the hiking and backpacking aspect of thru-hiking, then it might be easier to find a hobby that brings all of those enjoyable things together but doesn’t require you to walk across the entire country.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying trail magic or a party on trail.

Is your idea of a good time compatible with the setting you’re in?

Of most thru-hikers are out there for their own experience and journey. That is kind of the whole point. However, most of those hikers are not having their own experience at the cost of anyone else’s experience. Enjoying the amenities of trail towns or the kindness of trail angels does not take away from anyone else being able to enjoy those things.

Issues arise when there are hikers whose behaviors are negatively impacting those around them, making people uncomfortable, and simply interfering with the ability of other hikers to be able to fully enjoy their own thru-hiking experience. There are a lot of ways that a hiker can disrespect the trail and its community, but I think a lot of thru-hikers don’t consider the way in which partying on the trail could potentially have the same effect.

Hordes of hikers can be hard to manage even when all of those hikers are incredibly courteous and respectful. Trail towns and trail angels become overrun when hiker bubbles come through during peak season.

Hikers are all tired, hungry, and needy. And that’s completely fine! But when you take into account the hikers who are drinking too much, getting loud or causing fights, doing drugs in public spaces where hikers of all ages should feel safe, or are being rude to trail angels or shop owners in trail towns, it can cause problems. Popular trail angel locations and hostels sometimes permanently shop because those owners do not want to deal with entitled and inconsiderate hikers anymore. 

Hikers sharing a bottle at the end of a long walk across the country.

There is nothing inherently wrong with drinking or partying along a long trail. The only problem is that some hikers are partying in a way which is not only impacting themselves, but also the hikers around them and the trail community they are immersed in. On the Pacific Crest Trail on 2017 there were numerous popular trail angel rest stops available to hikers, such as Hiker Heaven and Casa de Luna. But by the time I hiked the trail again in 2022 those locations had closed permanently.

There are a lot of reasons why trail hostels close down. It is actually quite hard for hostels to survive longer than 10 years under continuous ownership. But having spoken to a lot of hostel owners over the years, I can safely say that a lot of those hard-working people simply grow tired of dealing with those out of control, rude, and entitled hikers. 

On or off the trail, partying in a way that disrupts local businesses and significantly disturbs the people around you is not cool. In the more close-knit setting of the thru-hiking community, it sticks out like a sore thumb. If your idea of a good time means other hikers can’t enjoy their time in camp or trail town residents can’t run their businesses, I ask again: do you really love thru-hiking?

What is it that you love about thru-hiking?

Over the last 5 years and 22,000+ miles of thru-hiking, I have met and hiked with such a wide variety of people. I have shared miles with hikers who have literally said that they hate the hiking part of thru-hiking but love everything else about it. Which to me, just goes to show how many incredible things there are about thru-hiking.

At its core, the hiking is the most critical component. Yet time and time again individuals are coming out onto these trails to experience all of what that thru-hike entails and simply tolerate the hiking as a necessary and unavoidable aspect.

You don’t need to love the tedious suffering of backpacking in order to truly love thru-hiking, but it certainly does help. Everyone loves thru-hiking in their own way; whether that is because of the suffering, the places it takes you, the people you meet along the way, or even just the structure and consistency that it provides you.

Identify what you love about thru-hiking, then go out and enjoy it. But if you really can’t figure out what draws you to the trail, maybe there is another hobby or passion that you would actually prefer.

I don’t believe that the party scene and social aspect of hiking is enough on its own to outweigh all of the struggle, suffering, and hard times that one will inevitably experience on a thru-hike. There has to be something else motivating you. Suffering is hard, but it is quite easy to suffer through dark days when you truly love what you are doing.

I don’t think I have ever drank more on trail and socially as I did on the Appalachian Trail in 2023. Party life to some extent is sewn into the fabric of the trail.

Featured image: Photo via Peg Leg. Graphic design by Mackenzie Fischer.