It depends on the circumstances. I know folks who work all winter and hike all summer - they live minimally or with parents and have jobs that are easy to get and easy to quit. For others, a long hike is a major disruption that takes years of saving and planning. For all my past hikes, I was renting an apartment or house, and so I just put my stuff in storage for 7 months; prepaid the bill, had someone at home to take care of mail, etc. and took off pretty easily. Now that we own a home, we have to save enough to pay the mortgage too and find someone to take care of the house while we’re gone - a housesitter or yard service or something so that it doesn’t look abandoned. Or maybe we’ll sell it. We work long enough to save money and get decent job references so it is easier to find work when we come back. If you are a carpenter, bartender, retail sales person, etc. that is easier than if you are a lawyer or engineer - -but it is still feasible, if you are willing to accept that it will have long term consequences beyond the hike. Like maybe you don’t get over the insanity, and want to keep on doing long hikes. Or you get injured and have to deal with bad knees or worse for several years. Or you find that you don’t want to go back to the job you were doing before – or they won’t hire you because you’re ‘different’. Or your relationships change because the people you thought were close to you just don’t get it, and never will. Everyone’s consequences are different - but I think most of us find our lives different after we hike, one way or another.
Spirit Walker
