What the heck am I doing?!

[aka.cyberman]

Put one foot in front of the other and don't look back.

[mml373]

I don't feel that taking my retirement is irresponsible at all, nor does my wife. I did not mention in my first post but I have a health condition that will probably not allow me to get to the age to retire. It should not affect my hiking right now but might in the future. I also don't think of this as a mid life crisis or anything like that. I'm pretty happy in my life other than my job. I have a great family, get to go on great adventures fairly frequently, although they are much shorter trips, and am overall pretty content with things. The first time I saw the trail I was 13 years old and have had a strong interest in it ever since. I have been training for the last couple of years on the SHT in Minnesota. I am only taking off the time between quitting my job and heading for the trail to finish up my retirement paperwork and get that all finalized and spend time out of state with family. They say 4-6 weeks for the retirement stuff. I'm ready to hit the trail today but just have to finish up some loose ends on the home front.

You only live once, and good on ya for doing this while you still can. The finances will settle themselves out, in time.

Me: competitive runner coming off an awesome racing season last year. Fell out of a tree in September (rescuing my daughter, successfully for her) and not sure I'll run again any time soon...not to mention thru hike...due to deep muscle injuries to a hamstring/piriformis and back. These will take 6 months to a year to heal.

We must enjoy the time we have, and take advantage of opportunities while we can. You will learn to resolve issues while on the trail, and I can tell there are many resources available near the trail to help you in that regard. If you want to see some great videos from an experienced through hiker, check out entitypub's 2015 hike videos on YouTube (search entitypub 2015 AT hike or something similar.) These will help build confidence.

You are about to embark on a great adventure! Can't wait for my first opportunity to go...a few years away yet.

[firesign]

[QUOTE=susiegear;2035458]So I have 8 days of work left and less than 2 months and I will be on Springer Mountain and it is all getting very real. Deep down I am confident in my decisions to end up in this situation but it is starting to freak me out a bit. I have a fair job with great benefits and retirement. 6 years with the company. I am cashing out my retirement to fund this trip. My wife is being supportive overall and my kids are out of the house and into college. My wife's job will cover my health insurance and my job told me I would be welcomed back in the future (not that I really want to go back, its a huge company with far too much politics) but its nice to know I can go back. I'm 39 and never expect to have a "career" so I'm OK with having a gap in my employment.
So I feel like I'm in the perfect situation, wife is OK with it, job welcomes me back, I have the money.....why is there almost a panic in my brain? I am hoping that once work is finished I can just focus on getting all of the last minute stuff together and getting to the trail.
Anyone else going thru this? I expected a bit of nervousness but not to this extreme. I have left before for weeks at a time for different trips, backpacking, canoeing, and bicycle touring but it did not feel like this. I was always on "vacation" and had a set date to return to work. I have no definitive time to be back. Anyone have any advice? Thanks![/training

A thru hike is a massive sacrifice in more ways than one. Stack the odds in your favour for success from the outset and use the two months to start training for reality; conditioning your mind and body for 4-6 months of hiking every day. Achieve this training/conditioning and there is no fear because you will have gone through the unknown and will know your capabilities. Fear is just the unknown. I wish you the best of luck on your adventure.

[bemental]

I'll be stepping off from Springer on the first of March.

I'm a medically retired Marine who's seen combat firsthand.

Even I have butterflies. And this is my second attempt!


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[Han Sobo]

Good voyages to you as I hope you see this through.

One of the first comments pointed out that society is in conflict to such a journey as you are setting off on and while that is mostly true I also must disagree to a smaller degree on this. (not his / her exact words)

There once was a right of passage called in English a 'Walk about' in which a young man would be cast out of his tribe to live by their own means for a year before they rejoined their tribe as a functional and accepted adult. Now this practice would of course have child protective services up your bung hole faster then... well very fast!

In our modern society we tend to look at sending our kids off to college as this new stage of growing from the child to the adult. Not a very comparable transition. We as humans tend to fear the unknown and this trip for you must surely have many factors that would qualify as the unknown. I wont ask for any specifics but these factors are what I think is creating the 'stress' - 'anxiety' I am not sure if even these words fit your situation exactly.

I must say that if you have not had the chance to spend a month sleeping under the stars and experiencing the freedom of wandering a trail on a journey of this magnitude. That unhurried pace of life in which the basics become the only deciding factors on what your priorities are. Then you really need to do this while your health is in good order. I am sure the other worries and or concerns will melt away with in the first few days. It is highly unlikely that you will get such a chance again.

We may not have had as the Aborigines of Australia a right of passage so clearly defined as their 'Walk About' but.. I do believe you can find much of the same meaning in taking a vacation of this proportion away from everything that has been your life up until now. The beauty is that you will go back to it, your home, your family, maybe even your job.. Changed, I doubt for the worse.

I hope you do follow through for as far as you can. I can understand the whole view of asking yourself "What the hell am I doing?" Seems my life's mantra at times.

In another culture they had a symbol to represent the unknown and it was represented by the meaning: (sorta a rectangular circle)

"The true warrior steps empty handed into the void" - rough translation

I am hoping you wont be 'empty handed' unless you can stomach boiled tree bark. Maybe I will see you in passing.

[dedwarmo]

I quit my over-the-road trucking job on February 25th. I have no wife or kids. I have no retirement account. I'm 47 years old. I'm having a friend drop me off near Bland, VA which is 124 miles from where I'm staying. I have no rent, no mortgage. I put all my stuff in a storage unit. I've never hiked more than 8 miles in a day. I've never carried more than four days' worth of food in my backpack. I will hike northbound to my first re-supply. That's as far into the future as I can look.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Maybe too late for the OP to consider this, but as his mortgage is almost paid off, it would seem to be a better plan to take out a HELOC (home equity line of credit) and draw on that money as needed to fund the hike. Interest rates on HELOCS are as low as 3.25%, there's no tax penalty on early distribution of retirement account, it's not taxed as income, interest on the HELOC is possibly tax deductible, he'd only take what he needed when he needed it (let's be realistic 80% don't finish). Cashing out a retirement account at age 39, even with a life expectancy of 15 to 20 more years, just isn't the most cost effective way of funding a hike.