Part of the subculture is that there’s a snobby tendency for end-to-enders to dismiss section-hikers, which is odd because if you hike a section for a month every year, by the time you get your trail legs the month is almost over-- so in that sense it’s actually a bit harder to section hike than do the whole thing at once.
I’ve talked with thru-hikers who have this post-hike depression too. Six months of carefree living in the beautiful outdoors, then back to reality. I can’t blame them.
The 100-Mile Wilderness is a treasure, and mostly not hard (you just have bring enough food for the entire trip, which can be heavy.)
(Full disclosure: I’ve never thru-hiked, just random long hikes in the northeast as my schedule permitted. At this point I could start south from NY and do the rest of the A.T. but my other obligations kind of rule it out.)
