Subject says it all.
I’ll be starting around then too, milo. Hope to see you there.
:cheers
Whoa
Foolish - Appalachian Trail
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#22
I quit my job four years ago (or was it five?) and haven’t had one since, unless you coonsider washing clothes, doing dishes, taking care of two children, and homeschooling one child through preschool, kindergarten, first grade and half of second grade a job.
You have to do the thing that’s going to make you happy, but you also have to support yourself (or find a wife who will do it for you). That’s why work was invented, to produce the things you need to live. It’s not a capitalist plot.
So the only question is whether you can do the hike without ending up living in the street. You’re the only one who can make that assessment. You know how much money you’ll have in reserve, what other resources you have and roughly what your job prospects will be when you get back. You’re also the one who knows what the hike means to you vs. what other personal goals you might be giving up to go do it. Make the decision that’s in your best long-term interests.
And never worry about whether other people will think you’re foolish. 
Ardsgaine
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#24
if you’ve got the cash and don’t want to go- you could always send your savings my way and i’ll do some hiking.
grizzly adam
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#25
What’s really surprising to me is that so many people with stable, well-paying, full-time jobs for many years don’t bother to take real vacations with their hard-earned time off. I’ve known a lot of folks who use their 2-3 weeks a year to do nothing but chores around the house. This totally baffles me. I haven’t hiked but a few miles of the AT (while on vacation!), but I always make sure I take some very satisfying time off when I can. The memories last forever.
And I’ve been reading on the Internet and in books about long distance hikes for years now. I know I will be out among you at some future date. I might be retired, or I might be on a sabbatical of my own choosing. It helps to be pretty happy with your job, but life is what happens while you are making other plans. The time is not right now, but I know what I’ll likely be doing if I get laid off…
Corporate_but_Happy
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#27
Corporate_but_Happy wrote:
“I know I will be out among you at some future date. I might be retired, or I might be on a sabbatical of my own choosing.”
… Or you might be DEAD. Tell that corporation to stick its quarterly report up its corporeal arse and hit the trale NOW WHILE YOU CAN.
steve hiker
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#28
Some people say that you should live each day as if it’s your last. I take the opposite view: Always assume that you will be alive tomorrow to suffer the consequences of your actions today. You will nearly always be right, and you’ll only be wrong once.
In contrast, the person who lives like there’s no tomorrow is wrong every morning he wakes up. Each day he has to deal with the consequences of all the stupid crap he did yesterday on the assumption that he wouldn’t be around today.
Ardsgaine
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#29
Well it also depends if you have other people depending on you. Sometimes your obligations to others MUST come first. Wife and especially kids. (You don’t say - it sounds like you are young and unattached.)
And a little of this at a certain time of your life is fine. The question is whether you intend keep it up your whole life and never become economically productive. When you’re (I mean all the other posters - not BB) too old to do this any more, and that day WILL come, I expect to hear plenty of griping from the anti-corporate anti-capitalist types about why social security is bankrupt and the money for medicare has run out. Where do you think all that money comes from?
The only reason that anyone can afford to go on the trail for 6 months is because there are other people in the “real world” holding down the fort keeping the businesses open so that you can be assured of “earning it back” later. No one should pass judgment on you if you want to just squeak by economically for a while, but no one should be passing judgment on those of us who do the really hard work of pulling the economy along by showing up at the same job day after day, week after week, year after year. That’s a whole lot harder than 6 months LD hiking.
So… hike now, no gripe later, no problem.
Arthur
system
#30
Great entries Arthur & Ardsgaine. Believe me, I don’t begrudge anyone dropping out of the “work world” to “hike their dream.” I worked 31 years which gave me the $ to enjoy all the comforts of the trail towns during my hike. I just don’t understand why there are those that think our capitalist society is wrong…that all corporations are crooks. Sure some are, but we still have the best life style of any place I know of in the world. Anyone who is willing to work to their potential can do it. Tell me a better place to live.
My gripe is that everyone thinks they’re owed something. The big thing now is everyone should get free health care. Guess what…nothing is free…someone will pay for it and it may be your children or grand children. Arthur you’re right on and Ardsgaine I think I’ll live like their is a tomorrow (until maybe I’m too old and lazy.)
Take care & Hike On!
Skeemer
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#31
My two cents is to balance your life by living like you will die in about five/ten years: living like you’ll die tomorrow is too extreme, but rocking along like you’ve got fifty years is misguided as well. Live with some sense of proportion. And if hiking the AT brings proportion, then hike on.
Carey
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#33
Authur said: “When you’re (I mean all the other posters - not BB) too old to do this any more, and that day WILL come, I expect to hear plenty of griping from the anti-corporate anti-capitalist types about why social security is bankrupt and the money for medicare has run out. Where do you think all that money comes from?”
No offense to you Authur, but this cynical picture painted here is the echo off the walls of Babylon. This implies that a five or six month-hike will make someone irresponsible and detatched from their friends and family. It is also implying that one who hikes, even if they do it every single year, doesn’t make a paycheck and can’t be a good father. Not only is this all false, but it can be easily recognized as the mantra of the chained.
Yes, our great country makes it easy for us (more some than others) to take recreational hikes. But does this mean that someone can’t contribute to taxes and society at large? I’ve met people on the trail who are creative and brave enough to hike nearly every year, who have families (sometimes they’re all together on the trail) or who make a very comfortable living on the off-season (and pay plenty of taxes).
Clearly, we the long-distance hiking community still has to band together and fight for the very basic rights (like the health care systems modelled by every other industrialized nation) and respect that we ought to receive to protect our lifestyles. This country isn’t just about assimilating into the business monopolies for pragmatic security. It’s about having the collective power to DEFINE (by voting, social action) what we, as Americans, are entitled to and what kind of lifestyle we want to live under the US Constitution.
The notion that living in the moment is synonomous with irresponsibilty is a cry from behind bars. Or maybe they’re selling insurance.
As Nimblewill Nomad once wrote, “Here’s to those who never came back”! :cheers
Go for it, Bearbait!
Tha Wookie
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#34
Saw a movie years ago, very low budget, but very impacting philosophical statement. It’s called “The God’s must be Crazy”. They presented the world we know of as if from another planet. They first visited a tribe in Africa, where the people all lived communally. They hunted together, ate together, helped each other, and generally had little problems (according to the movie). There were no days of the week, just another day together. The movie then panned over to “civilization” where people were “governed” by a device that hung on their walls, and even on their wrists. And when this device read a certain “time” they had to get up, and go to “work” and look busy until that device read a different “time” when they could go back home again, only to have to clean and pay bills, etc. until they were too tired to keep their eyes open, and they would then go to sleep and start all over again the next day. What really hit me was that they said that civilization had invented so many different things designed to make their life easier, that in order for them to enjoy these new ideas they not only had to work 40+ hours per week to afford them, but they also had to go to school for at least 13 years or more, in order to learn how to live in this society that they developed (all to make their lives easier).
All this to say, that I too am in the work force and thoroughly enjoy what I do. Life is hard, but I enjoy dealing with these issues. I understand that I am "caught up in “civilization”, but am compelled to continue in it.
I have 7 people who depend on me to make sure that work continues so that they also can “enjoy” all these things that make their life easier. I have family to support and take joy in that. I also love to read all your entries about taking off and hiking the trail.
Eventually, I will be able to develop my job to work without me, and then I’ll be able to write my own journal. If I knew about the trail before I got married and had responsibilities, I would have done what I could to hike the trail then. Now I must wait and be satisfied with my job, which I do enjoy, even if it is necessary in order to just survive for now. I can live the trail through your experiences and it gives me a goal to achieve when possible.
If I die before I go, it would not be a huge loss. My family and friends and my job all give me great satisfaction. But the trail is in my bones, though it’s not my whole life. For those who feel the trail should be your whole life, then great for you, but it’s not for everyone!
In the meantime, I’ve got to “get back to work”! But keep on writing, as this is one thing I do during my breaks!
Jim
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#35
This thread reminds me of a song I once heard on a long and forgotten television show. It goes something like this:
You have no hope for the life your leading anymore,
Get away, Get away, the path is open,
Leave the burdens of the world you never knew behind,
Wear the sun in your,
Hey, Stormy weather, which way your traveling today,
Hey, Let me know, I’ll go the other way,
Cause you know I left my troubles far behind,
Now I am free.
Now that sung, here is my two cents. I am not trying to step on anyones toes but it really beguiles me when some people put others down who want ot be free. mostly it is because they don’t understand it or are jealous of us who have found a way to be free. I know I am happy in my heart but if my surrondings are sad or puts out negative vibes, hey , I gotta get out of here. I mean, I know the sun still shines when it is cloudy, but hell, all the world is gray. So I say if you can do it, do it. Don’t let life hold you down. We never know when we are tied down we are the ones holding the key. Let your heart soar. Chase the rain, feel the sun. Live free. Like others said, We only live once, so live it. :boy
Spacewalker
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#36
After reading all the other posts, I now feel better about my own station in life. After 20 years in Uncle Sam’s service I find myself without. Without wife, kids, pets or bills. After much study and thought, it has become apparent that I can now live pretty much any way, where or how, within the confines of my retirement check that is, that I wish to. And I also fit the other worlds idea of normal. I have a steady income and pay taxes.
I fully understand that I am very fortunate to have this freedom. However, I did put in the time to have it and have made sacrifices in other areas as well.
As to Bearbaits dilemma, I would only hope that the idea of leaving a safety net for the end of the trail remains uppermost in her mind. It won’t hurt as much at the end if you have a little buffer between the trail and the real world.
I can most wholeheartedly agree with “do it while you can.” After 20 years of service, I am still what some would call young, but have very high mileage. I know that the day will come when I can only sit on the porch and watch. So I choose to do as much as I can, while I can.
I will not say could’ve, would’ve, should’ve later.
Ragnar
Ragnar
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#37
She’s got her ticket
I think she gonna use it
I thing she going to fly away
No one should try and stop her
Persuade her with their power
She says that her mind is made
Up
Tracy C.
system
#38
Your education that is (by school I assume you’re talking about college). I was a professor at State U for 14 years (I’ve now been in the private sector for about 3 years). I watched as kids struggled and sweated and strained to finish their degrees. Most did. Some did not. I never ran across a former student who regretted finishing a degree but every one who did not finish regretted it. As you said, the trail will always be there but the longer you stay out of school the harder it will be to get back. I’ve seen it again and again. The “I’ll finish later students” rarely finish once they’ve been out of school for too long. If you choose to not finish, make it an explict choice, and acknowledge that you are limiting your future opportunities in so many ways.
Like it or not, that educational credential opens the door to more interesting jobs when you go looking. That’s aside from the fact that an education has merit on its own even without the other job opportunities it brings. If you do it right maybe you can find a job that you really like, that you’re good at, and that pays well enough for you to be happy at whatever lifestyle you choose. That way “work” won’t really be work. I like what I’m doing, I’m good at it, and it pays well enough for me to do what I want to do outside work. Even though I work in a “cube”, I don’t consider myself “chained” at all – it isn’t work if it’s fun!
By hiking now you’re only reducing the chances that you will finish. Promise yourself an AT thru-hike as a graduation present.
I’m not sure how to interpret Wookie’s remarks about family obligations. I’m sorry to hear that he can consider a family a “prison”. I’m the sole breadwinner for a wife and two teenagers. Sure it limits my options. It would be completely irresponsible for me to go home and announce that I’m quitting my job so I can go hiking. (Sorry kids, I’m spending your college fund on a six-month vacation.) I gave my wife a vow and I helped bring these kids into the world. They’re entitled to the best I can give them. Even if I were independently wealthy and could afford to hike year-round, my kids are still entitled to my full-time attention until they are ready to go solo. My decisions impact other people. Family obligations do, in fact, come first for me. If you consider that a “prison” then you’re right to not start. You’ll never know the fun you’re missing.
As far as the rest of it, I do not say that you’re not a valuable member of society just because you don’t make a lot of money and pay a lot of tax. My daughter wants to be a cellist. She’ll never make squat. I don’t care because she loves it and I’m glad that there are symphony orchestras for people to listen to. BTW cello lessons are expensive. If she’s ever to do what she loves I have to pay for it now. Every time you turn on the radio and hear Bach you need to think about the unselfish sacrifice that some parent made for every member of that orchestra while that parent was NOT out LD hiking. My daughter’s cello teacher’s parents sacrificed for him. I’m glad they did. I’m glad to pay him because he can earn a living at something valuable that he too loves. The same can be said of anyone who works in economically unprofitable jobs that allow us all our outdoor activities.
I DO say that the overall cost-benefit budget must eventually balance. LD hiking is a luxury that this country can afford (among many other programs like Social Security and Medicare, etc., etc.). NONE of these are "Constitutional Rights”. The only reason that the country can afford it is because the vast majority of people keep the economic machine running and do NOT hit the trail every spring for 6 months (you think Springer is crowded now?). Some minority can choose to not participate in the economic machine for some period of time or even permanently. They are often doing worthwhile things (e.g. playing the cello). I just wish some of you would stop sneering at the people and organizations who are providing the economic horsepower to make it all possible.
Spacewalker wants to be “free”. Good for you pal. Please make yourself truly “free”. Free to the taxpayers that is by forgoing all current and future benefits. Lotsa luck.
Hey Wookie, how’s that new business going? You capitalist you. Did you finish your own taypayer subsidized degree yet? :happy
Arthur
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#39
Thanks for asking… It’s going very well, but we have not started with this year’s classes yet. You can learn more about it at www.thawookie.com/abcsite First, I’m finishing that taxpayer and Wookie subsidized degree-required thesis. Then, Island Mama and I will guide the backpacking courses. And then- it’s off for another irresponsible romp across America.
A “prison” is not inherent in the family unit -you misrepresented my comments. In fact, I’ve seen many families on trails for the long haul, and many fathers who found a way to balance money/family/long hikes. Creating a family is a free choice -so is making a thru-hike happen. They both can occur for many people at the same time. I’d rather you not paint me as someone against families -I’m still laughing about it!
PS we still have some openings if you’re interested. Families are welcome, of course.
:cheers
Tha Wookie
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#40
based on some of your earlier forum postings I suspect I’m way too reactionary for us to be compatible hikers.
BTW, my remarks about families hiking applies only to LD hiking. My son and I do plenty of things outside but there’s no way I’d drag a youngster on a LD hike even if he and I could both get away for that long. That’ll be a decision for him to make when he’s older but I won’t push him either way. It’s not for everyone.
Arthur