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buff_jeff
10-21-2008, 20:56
How do you guys handle this "problem"? I have no desire to do anything but hike right now. I feel like my hike this summer has "ruined" me, and I know the same thing will happen after my next hike. It's just a totally insatiable desire. I've fallen off on school work. I don't care about pursuing a long-term career. I've just been totally indifferent to everything. What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?

CrumbSnatcher
10-21-2008, 20:58
How do you guys handle this "problem"? I have no desire to do anything but hike right now. I feel like my hike this summer has "ruined" me, and I know the same thing will happen after my next hike. It's just a totally insatiable desire. I've fallen off on school work. I don't care about pursuing a long-term career. I've just been totally indifferent to everything. What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?
welcome to the club. wait til springer fever hits your butt. good luck with that

Mags
10-21-2008, 21:09
welcome to the club. wait til springer fever hits your butt. good luck with that

Indeed.

Here's a quote from a guy who asked the same question...

When I was very young and the urge to be someplace was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever
and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. ... In other words, I don't improve, in further words, once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is incurable.
-- John Steinbeck, TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY

(Good read, BTW)

If you want to read how I have (not) coped with it..point your browser over to here:
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php/Outdoor-Writings/post-trail.html

:)

I gave a slideshow about the Colorado Trail this past weekend. A "short" hike. But just talking about those 3 weeks gave me itchy feet. I am working a very lousy swing shift right now as well (12n-9pm), which does not help.

In March 2009, it will be two years since my CDT (and post ski bum) time has ended.

Time to plan the next journey....


So yeah..if you find a way to recover from the addiction, many of us want to know. ;)

CrumbSnatcher
10-21-2008, 21:20
MAGS,it might suck for you when your not hiking. but your site is a blessing for alot of hikers,thanks for all the great info on the colorado trail. me and the ole' lady need to get our butts out there since we live next door.

Mags
10-21-2008, 21:24
MAGS,it might suck for you when your not hiking. but your site is a blessing for alot of hikers,thanks for all the great info on the colorado trail. me and the ole' lady need to get our butts out there since we live next door.

Thanks for the kind words.

You should come to the Rockies Ruck in March:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rockies_ruck/message/197



Great way to meet fellow hikers!

I take pride in the fact that our hiking weekend is probably the most active hiker weekend, too. Of the ~25 people who go, I'd say about 20 do an outdoor activity. If you want to snowshoe, ski or snowboard in the beautiful Colorado Rockies...it is a great chance.

kyerger
10-21-2008, 21:30
butt...i think about hiken all the time too. im a nurse at a nursing home and bring my stuff in for them to see. i also am planing a fla. thru hike in Jan. that helps. i want to do a thru hike on the AT 2010 that keeps me going. it also helps to get your gear out and play with it all the time too. go out and take walks and smell the air. hiken is truely a disease that we all get, there is no cure,

TheTank
10-21-2008, 21:47
There is no way to handle the "problem," you just have to embrace the addiction and go with it. The only way I have been able to do anything other then hiking is by telling myself I need the money to support future hikes, which is not a very productive outlook, and not always very satisfying in dealing with the craving to hike. Therefore making money to hike should be used sparingly and always combined with some sort of periodic hiking plan, even if it is getting out on weekends between vacation time, in turn between extended periods of not working at all to hike.

Yes, hiking addiction is a common problem, and as was said there is no cure. Just give up all hope now of ever doing anything else, you are a hiker.

River Runner
10-21-2008, 22:11
Sounds like you've joined the 'hiker trash' club. I think that's how they fondly refer to themselves - those addicted hikers who have enough guts (and the right circumstances) to work to hike, hike to live.

Becoming a photographer or author might help. Then if you are lucky, you can use your hikes to make a living.

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 18:17
Thanks for the insight, guys. I guess I'm just going to have to live with this. Best diagnosis I've ever received. :banana

garlic08
10-22-2008, 18:51
And remember, a career is a job that has lasted too long.

TOW
10-22-2008, 18:52
How do you guys handle this "problem"? I have no desire to do anything but hike right now. I feel like my hike this summer has "ruined" me, and I know the same thing will happen after my next hike. It's just a totally insatiable desire. I've fallen off on school work. I don't care about pursuing a long-term career. I've just been totally indifferent to everything. What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?
this too shall pass

Mrs Baggins
10-22-2008, 18:59
Hooked hooked hooked. My husband and I think about it every single day. We didn't accomplish our thru-hike last year but we are ALWAYS planning "the next time." When I clothes shop I find myself looking for things I can hike in when I need to be finding something to attend a real dinner in. In the grocery store I am ALWAYS on the watch for new, lightweight food items that would be easy to cook on the trail. Don't fight it.

Gray Blazer
10-22-2008, 19:02
I get on White Blaze and look at the photo galleries.

A-Train
10-22-2008, 19:05
How do you guys handle this "problem"? I have no desire to do anything but hike right now. I feel like my hike this summer has "ruined" me, and I know the same thing will happen after my next hike. It's just a totally insatiable desire. I've fallen off on school work. I don't care about pursuing a long-term career. I've just been totally indifferent to everything. What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?

I dealt with very similar issues for years. After the AT I wasn't cured and still wanted to hike, hike, hike. Finished college, and worked to save up for the PCT. Did that and I still wanna hike, hike, hike.

A couple years ago I was seriously comtemplating a long-term thru-hiker life style, that is hike for 5-6 months a yr, work for 6-7 months, wash and repeat. However, as much as I thought I could pull this off, it didn't seem sustainable. I worried: what will happen if I break a bone, get very sick, something happens to family, etc. and I can no longer hike. What happens when I get sick of this lifestlye and decide in 5-10 years I wanna plunge into a career but have gaping holes in my resume and limited working experience.

For me, I'm working to craft a lifestyle that includes both a full-time career and free summers for hiking. Seems like a good combination.

You've gotta do what's best for you. If hiking is the most important thing to you NOW, well that's what you should do, assuming you can afford to. Just have a back-up plan :)

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 19:11
I dealt with very similar issues for years. After the AT I wasn't cured and still wanted to hike, hike, hike. Finished college, and worked to save up for the PCT. Did that and I still wanna hike, hike, hike.

A couple years ago I was seriously comtemplating a long-term thru-hiker life style, that is hike for 5-6 months a yr, work for 6-7 months, wash and repeat. However, as much as I thought I could pull this off, it didn't seem sustainable. I worried: what will happen if I break a bone, get very sick, something happens to family, etc. and I can no longer hike. What happens when I get sick of this lifestlye and decide in 5-10 years I wanna plunge into a career but have gaping holes in my resume and limited working experience.

For me, I'm working to craft a lifestyle that includes both a full-time career and free summers for hiking. Seems like a good combination.

You've gotta do what's best for you. If hiking is the most important thing to you NOW, well that's what you should do, assuming you can afford to. Just have a back-up plan :)

I've been leaning towards inner-city teaching. I think it would be relatively fulfilling to do something that a lot of people want no part of, and money isn't the biggest issue to me. The biggest hook is that I'd have summers off, though. I think that's the balance that I need to be looking for.

A-Train
10-22-2008, 19:15
Tis a very noble profession, but don't get into teaching for the summers off, because the other 10 months will still be brutal if you don't love it. Working with children is a demanding, difficult and at times frustrating, tedious job!

If you are serious, you should look into programs like Teach for America and the Teaching Fellows programs once you've finished college.

Good luck!

Tipi Walter
10-22-2008, 19:31
This has been discussed off and on for years and here's my tired response: If you have a deck or porch, lay out your pad and bag and sleep out every night. If you have a yard, set up a permament tent and go to it every night, rain-snow-drought-wind-whatever.

Move out of the city and find a town close to some mountains(there's hundreds of small towns to pick from), find some people that own a few acres of rural land(or a hundred acres), ask their permission to explore and live on their land and find a spot on the most remote part to set up a permanent tent or tipi or hogan or wickiup or wall tent or igloo and cut a trail to it and have at it. Ideally, there will be no rent involved and no running water or electricity, so your bills will disappear overnight, practically.

Find a place to park your old car or truck or moped and hump in everything you need over time along that wonderful trail you cut and switchbacked up to your shelter-lodge. Let the adventure begin and pray for snow. Or buy an acre in the middle of nowhere and begin, just make sure you can't drive and park right at your tent/shelter/tipi, otherwise you won't be hiking in everyday with a pack on your back.

OR: Find a national forest and set up for two weeks(sell your car)and then move for another two weeks and keep doing this until you completely run out of money. Or find a one-day-a-week job and hitch from your camp to work and back out again.

It's all about your intent, and I don't mean you being in your tent. What's your motivation? If it's to hobnob with the hiker scene along some long trail, or to scope out the opposite gender wearing similar gear, well, find out now and save yourself some grief. If you intent is to experience the four seasons up close and personal, and to be smote by a mean midnight blizzard at 5000 feet, well, Miss Nature has a full arsenal of tricks in her bag and she might give you a big shot if you give her half a chance and place yourself as a good target in a pristine environment.

She's a hard case but can be worn down over time with persistent returns and effort. Eventually, she'll say, "Where the heck is buff_jeff? I set this whole place up just for him and he's not here to enjoy it!" She becomes your "wife" and you'll be a deadbeat Dad if you don't go back to live with her children: The wind, the cold, the snow, the toads, the shoats, the rain and the trees.

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 19:32
Tis a very noble profession, but don't get into teaching for the summers off, because the other 10 months will still be brutal if you don't love it. Working with children is a demanding, difficult and at times frustrating, tedious job!

If you are serious, you should look into programs like Teach for America and the Teaching Fellows programs once you've finished college.

Good luck!
I absolutely will. Both of my parents are teachers and I've love to get into the profession. Summers off are only part of the allure. I owe the Army 4 years after college so I do have a secure job immediately following graduation. It's really just a question of what to do after that.

superman
10-22-2008, 19:43
You'll know when your addicted to hiking when they make you stand up in a group of hikers and you say "Hi, My names is buff jeff and I'm a hike-aholic." :D

Mrs Baggins
10-22-2008, 19:57
I've been leaning towards inner-city teaching. I think it would be relatively fulfilling to do something that a lot of people want no part of, and money isn't the biggest issue to me. The biggest hook is that I'd have summers off, though. I think that's the balance that I need to be looking for.

I was watching a new Food Network show, "The Chef Jeff Project". Chef Jeff was in prison for drugs, learned to cook, became a very successful pro chef and now takes kids who had similar backgrounds and are interested in cooking for a living and shows them what it's like. I was thinking how rewarding that would be - to get kids who have never been out in the woods but are willing to try it (I'm not interested in dragging hoodlums into the woods against their will) and teach them how to backpack - the confidence it can instill, self-sufficiency, being out of "the city" for awhile.

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 20:03
I was watching a new Food Network show, "The Chef Jeff Project". Chef Jeff was in prison for drugs, learned to cook, became a very successful pro chef and now takes kids who had similar backgrounds and are interested in cooking for a living and shows them what it's like. I was thinking how rewarding that would be - to get kids who have never been out in the woods but are willing to try it (I'm not interested in dragging hoodlums into the woods against their will) and teach them how to backpack - the confidence it can instill, self-sufficiency, being out of "the city" for awhile.

I totally agree. I think there's something out there for all of us. It's just a matter of finding it. I don't know what my calling is yet, but hiking is going to be a huge part of it.

Mrs Baggins
10-22-2008, 20:13
So.....if I want to do this, does anyone in the metro DC area know who'd I'd have to contact to find the kids who'd be interested? Especially young, truly interested women but guys who are sincerely interested would be heartily and warmly welcomed. I have two kids that I've taken on the trail and had very positive responses from. They're 27 and 22 now and they hike when the have the chance and get their friends out there as well. My son once told me that I was a huge influence on a girl friend of his to get out there and give it a try. He said I inspired her. I was very humbled by that.

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 20:28
So.....if I want to do this, does anyone in the metro DC area know who'd I'd have to contact to find the kids who'd be interested? Especially young, truly interested women but guys who are sincerely interested would be heartily and warmly welcomed. I have two kids that I've taken on the trail and had very positive responses from. They're 27 and 22 now and they hike when the have the chance and get their friends out there as well. My son once told me that I was a huge influence on a girl friend of his to get out there and give it a try. He said I inspired her. I was very humbled by that.

Maybe you could liaison with a school district that doesn't have an outdoors club and get one started?

Lyle
10-22-2008, 21:27
And remember, a career is a job that has lasted too long.


Da*@!!! Guess I've got a career now. Been avoiding that most of my life. Few more years and I'll have to do something about it. Can't wait!!!!

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 21:28
Da*@!!! Guess I've got a career now. Been avoiding that most of my life. Few more years and I'll have to do something about it. Can't wait!!!!

Do you have any plans in the works for future long-distance hikes?

Lyle
10-22-2008, 21:37
Nothing definite. Continue sectioning the AT for now. Eventually will be hiking the Colorado Trail and PCT, but that will probably be waiting a few years - 'til after retirement. Might be able to work out the Colorado sooner, will have to start working on that. :)

When are you going back to the AT? I had planned on picking up the Smokies to Erwin starting this coming Sat, but that plan kinda fell apart. Will try to get down to do some this winter.

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 21:43
Nothing definite. Continue sectioning the AT for now. Eventually will be hiking the Colorado Trail and PCT, but that will probably be waiting a few years - 'til after retirement. Might be able to work out the Colorado sooner, will have to start working on that. :)

When are you going back to the AT? I had planned on picking up the Smokies to Erwin starting this coming Sat, but that plan kinda fell apart. Will try to get down to do some this winter.

Awesome. I'm hoping I have enough time off between commissioning and reporting to my first post, to thru the PCT. I hope you get to do them soon enough!

I'm going to finish the AT this summer. I just have to work it around a month of training out at Fort Lewis, so it's going to get kind of goofy.

Something made me remember that "58" hiker this weekend during training. Gave me a few chuckles. Good times haha.

Tipi Walter
10-22-2008, 21:48
I absolutely will. Both of my parents are teachers and I've love to get into the profession. Summers off are only part of the allure. I owe the Army 4 years after college so I do have a secure job immediately following graduation. It's really just a question of what to do after that.

Which is it, hiking or teaching? Can't let a career get in the way of living out. But the biggest impediment? Marriage and kids.

buff_jeff
10-22-2008, 21:51
Which is it, hiking or teaching? Can't let a career get in the way of living out. But the biggest impediment? Marriage and kids.

I have absolutely no intention of getting married and having kids right now, and settling down for a potential career in teaching wouldn't be for many years, hopefully after finishing the AT and thru-hikes of the PCT and CDT. Besides, 2 weeks off for winter break, and up to 2 months of for summer break is pretty enticing, especially when I'd have sufficient funds to go where I want to.

Lyle
10-22-2008, 21:54
Something Made Me Remember That "58" Hiker This Weekend During Training. Gave Me A Few Chuckles. Good Times Haha.


Quite the Character. :D

Tinker
10-22-2008, 22:16
How do you guys handle this "problem"? I have no desire to do anything but hike right now. I feel like my hike this summer has "ruined" me, and I know the same thing will happen after my next hike. It's just a totally insatiable desire. I've fallen off on school work. I don't care about pursuing a long-term career. I've just been totally indifferent to everything. What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?

What helps me get through the day?

BILLS!

Maybe if I'd stayed in college and pursued a career, I'd have more money and more time to go hiking now.
Take a year off, do a thruhike and be done with it.
Then, get back to school.
Or be a broke old fool like me. ;)

Reid
10-23-2008, 00:49
I have a skin disease that doesnt allow my too hike for more than a week. You don't want to know what it's like having this addiction and too be me.

Chaco Taco
10-23-2008, 08:20
You pick up your life and move closer to the trail so you can go out on a moments notice.:banana

Mrs Baggins
10-23-2008, 08:30
You pick up your life and move closer to the trail so you can go out on a moments notice.:banana

You got that right! :D Virginia, here we come!!!!!!!!:sun

Frau
10-23-2008, 08:46
Summers off, two weeks off at Christmas, almost a week at T'giving, a week spring break, off early enough in the afternoon to get in 4-5 miles---I got it made. If I am not hiking I am whining about not hiking.

A-train, you have given this careful thought. I was just contemplating Nessmuk's dilemma, when I read your comment about 'what happens if I break a bone'? Nessmuk worked in a wilderness program for incarcerated youth. He is a life long inveterate hiker, camper, paddler, caver, climber. What a dream job---getting paid to teach kids about what he loves! Then, after 2 years he is horsing around with the kids indoors, jumps over a couch and breaks his ankle in 3 places. Then the ankle surgery lead to hip replacement. Gone were the 20 mile hikes. He is fortunate to be able to hike 8 miles a day, and has to load up on ibuprofen.

He dove into primitive skills---fire making, foraging, cordage, hand-made tools, debris shelters, flint-knapping. He considers these hiking-related survival skills, and it does assuage the itch somewhat, altho not completely.

Good luck with the itch Jeff, and I hope you are as happy teaching, as I am.

Frau

Roots
10-23-2008, 10:11
You pick up your life and move closer to the trail so you can go out on a moments notice.:banana

Hence my living in Brevard. Of which I am fixing to go hit a trail in about...ooo... 30 minutes. Am I addicted to hiking? You better believe it. The best part is I live in an outdoor mecca. Hitting a trail is an everyday reality, if I can. AHHH...the life. :D

Gumbi
10-23-2008, 10:28
How do you guys handle this "problem"? I have no desire to do anything but hike right now. I feel like my hike this summer has "ruined" me, and I know the same thing will happen after my next hike. It's just a totally insatiable desire. I've fallen off on school work. I don't care about pursuing a long-term career. I've just been totally indifferent to everything. What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?

MYOG projects! One of the best time-passing things you can do between hikes! I have made several alcohol stoves and am currently working on a backpack and crampons. I plan to make a hammock and tarp really soon as well.:D

Lion King
10-23-2008, 10:52
Even before hiking I never worked a job I liked more then a year, most way less then that because I find really uptight people to be a nuisance overall.

I enjoy life experience and meeting new people seeing things in a new way, travel and pushing myself through a variety of challenges that sitting behind a desk or asking “Any appetizers?” Just can’t do. Military won’t do it either since I’m too much of an independent thinker and don’t like being yelled at.

Being raised by a Southern Methodist/armed forces Sergeant for a Dad was plenty of all that.

So after a few very emotional tragedies I decided to hike the AT. It healed me in a way that I can’t describe, and in all honesty none of my hikes after that have had the same level of effect.

The stimulus and growth and understanding and rejuvenation of mind body and spirit I received from being out there the first go round were immeasurable and I think part of my ‘hiking addiction’ is that I want to have that exact feeling every time.

And to a point I do.

My muscles miss the fitness when I get fat and lazy. I’m relatively hyper as it is, or manic or whatever and I go nuts if I sit around too long doing the same things over and over and over, so to me, part of the draw is the change of scenery of a daily basis, the new faces, the new places the interactions and the emotional high of seeing someone you connect with on a primal level after not seeing them for a few weeks.

I like the struggles, I like being forced into solitude and having to deal with problems I forgot existed until I can exercise (or exorcise) them out of my body and soul.

It’s different for anyone but for me, its something bigger then this long winded entry can say.

But I do love it.

and for the answer...hiking is the only thing that gets me through it.

or really good lovin'.

Many Walks
10-23-2008, 10:59
It's no problem...just be thankful to have found hiking. Work hard when you have to, hike when you can and continue to plan your trips and gear improvements between hikes. After our thru we moved to Northern CA and have hiked in Yosemite, Muir Woods, PCT sections, summited Lassen, upcoming Sutter Buttes summit, and planning a PCT thru in 2010. We're out hiking somewhere most weekends and it's all good. Don't dwell on missing hiking, just get out there when you can and think about it the rest of the time. Thousands of trails are just waiting to be hiked. Best wishes and have fun!

The Solemates
10-23-2008, 12:07
What helps me get through the day?

BILLS!

Maybe if I'd stayed in college and pursued a career, I'd have more money and more time to go hiking now.
Take a year off, do a thruhike and be done with it.
Then, get back to school.
Or be a broke old fool like me. ;)

this is the best advice i've seen on here.

i understand and realize the obsession, because I have it.

but a good education and doing something I enjoy allows me the resources to tame my hiking obsession quite often, rather than hopping from one dead-end job I hate to the other. granted, longer hikes more than a week are not really feasible, but I have learned that a weekend to 4 day hike appeases my appetite for several weeks until the next hike.

Tipi Walter
10-23-2008, 13:10
Gone were the 20 mile hikes. He is fortunate to be able to hike 8 miles a day, and has to load up on ibuprofen.

He dove into primitive skills---fire making, foraging, cordage, hand-made tools, debris shelters, flint-knapping. He considers these hiking-related survival skills, and it does assuage the itch somewhat, altho not completely.

Frau

What a minute, what am I missing? Even a guy who can only walk 8 miles a day can live under a tarp behind his house, or set up a wall-tent with a woodstove on an acre somewhere. I knew of some primitive skill types in Kansas who mastered the whole works: foraging, debris shelters, edibles, etc etc, and yet they lived in a house with electricity and hot water!! Just can't figure it. You'd think a survival skills type would want to spurn the old standard home-style and live under a tarp or in a hogan for 10 or 15 years.


this is the best advice i've seen on here.

i understand and realize the obsession, because I have it.

but a good education and doing something I enjoy allows me the resources to tame my hiking obsession quite often, rather than hopping from one dead-end job I hate to the other. granted, longer hikes more than a week are not really feasible, but I have learned that a weekend to 4 day hike appeases my appetite for several weeks until the next hike.

College is over-rated, and usually prepares someone for a full blown resume-fed career. Can't let school get in the way of your education, etc. Beyond this, full-time careers/forty hour workweeks are the death knell to backpacking near constantly, living out, and feeding the hiking addiction.

Lion King brings up my memories of the military but all I thought about for four years was a new Kelty pack for $29(1972 prices)and a pair of boots, the only stuff I thought I'd need when I got out. With a volunteer force you don't have to worry about a 3 or 4 year enforced induction and the possible 3 or 4 year self-induced coma to get thru it all. Well, maybe YOU have to worry about it, but most others can opt out.

Serial 07
10-23-2008, 13:13
there's a cure for this? i come to WB just to get my fix so that this city life doesn't drown out my love for the trail...i'm so thankful to be able to read about other people's passion for the white blaze, it makes my sentiments feel much more managable and connected...there is nothing like the trail or the people or the solitude or the comraderie between hikers...my name is Serial, and i'm addicted to hiking...

Tipi Walter
10-23-2008, 13:40
there's a cure for this? i come to WB just to get my fix so that this city life doesn't drown out my love for the trail...i'm so thankful to be able to read about other people's passion for the white blaze, it makes my sentiments feel much more managable and connected...there is nothing like the trail or the people or the solitude or the comraderie between hikers...my name is Serial, and i'm addicted to hiking...

Bag-nights are the cure for the hiking addiction.

Serial 07
10-23-2008, 14:05
maybe i will start sleeping outside on my balcony...i just got a place in chicago...my roommates will love that i'm sleeping out there...it's cold too...it'll kinda be like the smokies...kinda, sorta...

Spirit Walker
10-23-2008, 20:05
So.....if I want to do this, does anyone in the metro DC area know who'd I'd have to contact to find the kids who'd be interested? Especially young, truly interested women but guys who are sincerely interested would be heartily and warmly welcomed. I have two kids that I've taken on the trail and had very positive responses from. They're 27 and 22 now and they hike when the have the chance and get their friends out there as well. My son once told me that I was a huge influence on a girl friend of his to get out there and give it a try. He said I inspired her. I was very humbled by that.

The Washington DC Sierra Club has an Inner City Outings Club that is aimed at introducting kids to the outdoors. See http://www.dc.sierraclub.org/outings.asp

Spirit Walker
10-23-2008, 20:23
As to the subject - I'm a fellow addict. Believe me, I understand the problem.

However, you are still in a position to make choices that will allow you to create a career that would allow you to live the kind of life you want. Figure out what it is about thruhiking that attracts you and see if you can get it all the time, not just for five months at a time.

If you are in college, you can study biology, botany, photography, outdoor education, outdoor recreation, writing, archaeology etc. or some other field that would allow you to get a job that will take you outdoors. Or you can get a job that allows you to travel or take time off - i.e. teaching, nursing, construction.

If you want the comaradery you knew on the AT, find a career that allows you to work with other people toward a common goal. If it's the challenge you enjoyed most - find a way to challenge yourself physically, mentally or emotionally. Become a marathon or ultra runner. Study something you thought beyond you. Stretch your limits.

Of course, if it's the freedom you enjoyed most - then you may be doomed to a life as hiker trash - like me.

Tipi Walter
10-23-2008, 22:55
maybe i will start sleeping outside on my balcony...i just got a place in chicago...my roommates will love that i'm sleeping out there...it's cold too...it'll kinda be like the smokies...kinda, sorta...

I don't know how many nights I slept out on people's balconies and decks, it keeps your edge sharp and increases the all-important bag nights. One time long ago my parents rented a motel room and wanted me to sleep indoors but I grabbed my bedroll and thermarest and plopped down behind the place on a dark sidewalk.

Another time in '89 I hitchhiked with a recently discharged Green Beret from NC to California and he offered to take me the whole way to the Sierras. We stopped at Ft Campbell and he introduced me to his Army buddies and I slept outside on their condo deck. I remember the cold but had to get my bag nights.

Later he drove me up to Milwaukee and stopped at his sister's house on Lake Michigan and I put up my North Face Westwind in her backyard and it never did get above zero degrees. Danged cold.

Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that every night there's the opportunity to sleep outdoors. Just grab the pad and bag and walk out the door. Real simple.

The Solemates
10-24-2008, 09:18
What a minute, what am I missing? Even a guy who can only walk 8 miles a day can live under a tarp behind his house, or set up a wall-tent with a woodstove on an acre somewhere. I knew of some primitive skill types in Kansas who mastered the whole works: foraging, debris shelters, edibles, etc etc, and yet they lived in a house with electricity and hot water!! Just can't figure it. You'd think a survival skills type would want to spurn the old standard home-style and live under a tarp or in a hogan for 10 or 15 years.



College is over-rated, and usually prepares someone for a full blown resume-fed career. Can't let school get in the way of your education, etc. Beyond this, full-time careers/forty hour workweeks are the death knell to backpacking near constantly, living out, and feeding the hiking addiction.

Lion King brings up my memories of the military but all I thought about for four years was a new Kelty pack for $29(1972 prices)and a pair of boots, the only stuff I thought I'd need when I got out. With a volunteer force you don't have to worry about a 3 or 4 year enforced induction and the possible 3 or 4 year self-induced coma to get thru it all. Well, maybe YOU have to worry about it, but most others can opt out.

I agree college is over-rated, but it helps, and it has helped me. i have no problem working 40 hours a week. in fact, i usually work 60 hours a week. but its a job i love, and since i work so hard I have the ability to take more time off than 80-90% of the people with "40-hour/week" jobs. thankfully, with my education, it has allowed me the money and time to go do things that I could not afford if I was a hiking bum. fly to Utah for a 5 day trip?...ok, no problem. next weekend, lets go skiing in CO. :)

JAK
10-24-2008, 09:45
College is a fine undertaking, as long as it doesn't leave you broke, or interfere with your education.

JAK
10-24-2008, 09:54
I gotta get out more and live more like Tipi. It's been too long since I did the backyard thing, and we have great weather for it too, rain and sleet and snow and all kinds of stuff. I shouldn't spend another freakin' night indoors really. Really I shouldn't.
That's it then. Tonight its the backyard. For sure. Time to start living.

The Solemates
10-24-2008, 10:19
I gotta get out more and live more like Tipi. It's been too long since I did the backyard thing, and we have great weather for it too, rain and sleet and snow and all kinds of stuff. I shouldn't spend another freakin' night indoors really. Really I shouldn't.
That's it then. Tonight its the backyard. For sure. Time to start living.

yesterday i did chainsaw work in the pouring rain for 3 hours.

i was determined not to let the weather stop me :)

i was soaked head to foot in 45 degree weather in the pouring rain. it was great.

JAK
10-24-2008, 10:35
I love the feel of cold rain on my face when my skin is warm and greasy with sweat and tears.

kauffee
10-24-2008, 12:08
I'd never been the outdoors type my whole life and in reflection grew up fat. I got in shape however and got a girlfriend who works summers for Grand Teton National Park. I spent the summer up there and was left to my own devices while she was at work during the days. I caught the bug and now I go hiking at every opportunity. I'm planning on moving to Colorado or Wyoming or Montana after I get my degree in geology (another change from this summer, thanks Yellowstone!).

I don't view it as a problem and I don't think I have a problem making enough money to fund hiking trips then starting again after the trip is done.

buff_jeff
10-24-2008, 13:16
I dig the sleeping outdoors idea, Tipi. I'm going to start sleeping on our little porch for now on. When I get my tent out here I might set up shop in a secluded corner of the city park that's only a quarter to half mile walk away.

stacy324
10-24-2008, 14:32
What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?

I deal with it by planning a hike. Everything from the logistics of getting there to the daily mileage and camping spots. I hate following a schedule, so I don’t take the plan with me when I hike, but the planning process does help me get through the day.

Phreak
10-24-2008, 14:48
I hike as often as I get the itch. Keeps it under control for me. :D

buff_jeff
10-24-2008, 14:51
I deal with it by planning a hike. Everything from the logistics of getting there to the daily mileage and camping spots. I hate following a schedule, so I don’t take the plan with me when I hike, but the planning process does help me get through the day.

Yeah, that's helped me a good bit. I've looked at my maps for Hawaii too much already, though!

JAK
10-25-2008, 09:33
I gotta get out more and live more like Tipi. It's been too long since I did the backyard thing, and we have great weather for it too, rain and sleet and snow and all kinds of stuff. I shouldn't spend another freakin' night indoors really. Really I shouldn't.
That's it then. Tonight its the backyard. For sure. Time to start living.
Hey I slept in the back yard last night. Clear night down to about 35F. Slept in my sleeping bag on the lounge chair with 3 blue foam pads. Woke up starting into the face of this cute little racoon 6 inches away nose to nose. He popped his head up just as I opened my eyes. I said 'hi little guy', and he went on about his business not disturbed in the slightest.

Tipi Walter
10-25-2008, 09:43
I dig the sleeping outdoors idea, Tipi. I'm going to start sleeping on our little porch for now on. When I get my tent out here I might set up shop in a secluded corner of the city park that's only a quarter to half mile walk away.


Hey I slept in the back yard last night. Clear night down to about 35F. Slept in my sleeping bag on the lounge chair with 3 blue foam pads. Woke up starting into the face of this cute little racoon 6 inches away nose to nose. He popped his head up just as I opened my eyes. I said 'hi little guy', and he went on about his business not disturbed in the slightest.

If elected President of Pumping Nylon and Bag Night Commander in Chief, I'll eventually get EVERYONE in their yards or on their decks in bedrolls or tents. This message has been approved by the Bag Night Queen, Momma Nature.

middle to middle
10-25-2008, 10:48
Sex, drugs, rock and roll, everything in moderation. The person who said that was a wise old hiker in a cave with worn out shoes.

kayak karl
10-25-2008, 11:12
i was left on the job to wait for a inspector in a church hall where we built new bathrooms. while i was waiting i found a box of Lincoln Logs. as i was building SHELTERS the inspector walked in (he knows me). he said "we're going to find you in Riverview Park camping n' cooking the ducks some day. aren't we?" i just smiled:D

JAK
10-25-2008, 11:46
My Momma always said, 'everything in moderation, including moderation'.

Dogwood
10-25-2008, 22:38
How do you guys handle this "problem"? I have no desire to do anything but hike right now. I feel like my hike this summer has "ruined" me, and I know the same thing will happen after my next hike. It's just a totally insatiable desire. I've fallen off on school work. I don't care about pursuing a long-term career. I've just been totally indifferent to everything. What helps you guys get through the day when hiking isn't an option at the moment?

Maybe, hiking isn't the problem. Maybe, it's that U have not found a way to organize your life to include more hiking. No matter what situation U R currently in, U can find a way to live your dreams with passion and joy. And, if hiking is your passion, joy, and dream it's your life to live. BUT, if U think hiking is somehow going to keep U from avoiding responsibility, commitment, and work in the long term U R fooling yourself. Life is short. ENJOY IT! Find a way!

JAK
10-26-2008, 09:40
Slept out again last night. Windy but not as cold. I used the bivy sac but it didn't rain after all. Put out two apples but nothing came for them in the night. Lower back still killing me. Tonight I will use the ground and see if I can find a spot that fits my butt.

Tipi Walter
10-26-2008, 11:03
Slept out again last night. Windy but not as cold. I used the bivy sac but it didn't rain after all. Put out two apples but nothing came for them in the night. Lower back still killing me. Tonight I will use the ground and see if I can find a spot that fits my butt.

Good to hear of your attempts. I like you setting out two apples to lure in the wildlife. I set out a sierra cup of partially eaten lentils one night next to my face and woke up with a skunk slurping up a bit and taking a few seconds to gaze into my eyes before continuing. Gotta love the wildlife. I know, the fear-mongers will chime in with Rabies!! Keep Away!! Wild animals are not Pets!!! Etc . . . . But what do they know? They haven't slept out in years.

Instead of throwing a bedroll on the ground every night, I have a basecamp tent permanently set up on 2 acres behind my GF's "Cherokee Longhouse"(doublewide trailer), and it serves as my bag-night college and outdoor university. Love it, need it, etc.

JAK
10-26-2008, 11:52
Nice setup. Git me thinking some more.

While I continue my experiment to fine tune my backpacking camp setups for the coming season (I am still looking for a little more comfort without resorting to inflatables or hammocks) I think I will also build something like a wigwam for the backyard. Just a small one, just big enough for me and my daughter and my Kelly Kettle when sleeping but perhaps a few more of her friends when sitting. If I do it right they will all get together and throw me out and I will have to build another one just for myself. :)

I think it will be more or less traditional except for the birch bark. Plenty of saplings around for bent poles and sleeping cots, and I think I'll use jute instead of spruce root, but we don't have a lot of big pieces of birch bark and I wouldn't want to use it if we did. Tyvek maybe, but cut into birch bark sized pieces. Be nice to get that stuff without the logos. Maybe a little white paint over that. Maybe a little more paint and it might even look like birch bark. Maybe do some tests with linseed oil and white pigments and burlap to see if I can make my own bark. Make sure it isn't too flammable, or smelly.

Tipi Walter
10-26-2008, 13:56
Nice setup. Git me thinking some more.

While I continue my experiment to fine tune my backpacking camp setups for the coming season (I am still looking for a little more comfort without resorting to inflatables or hammocks) I think I will also build something like a wigwam for the backyard. Just a small one, just big enough for me and my daughter and my Kelly Kettle when sleeping but perhaps a few more of her friends when sitting. If I do it right they will all get together and throw me out and I will have to build another one just for myself. :)

I think it will be more or less traditional except for the birch bark. Plenty of saplings around for bent poles and sleeping cots, and I think I'll use jute instead of spruce root, but we don't have a lot of big pieces of birch bark and I wouldn't want to use it if we did. Tyvek maybe, but cut into birch bark sized pieces. Be nice to get that stuff without the logos. Maybe a little white paint over that. Maybe a little more paint and it might even look like birch bark. Maybe do some tests with linseed oil and white pigments and burlap to see if I can make my own bark. Make sure it isn't too flammable, or smelly.

Before I put up my Cabelas 12x12 basecamp tent in 2005, at the same spot I had a Witu lodge, shaped like a huge sweatlodge with a 14 foot diameter. Check out the fotogs. I had a little woodstove for the winter and covered it in a huge piece of buckskin colored canvas.

JAK
10-26-2008, 14:09
Nice. Real nice. Now I see why that beautiful mutt puts up with that ugly mug of yours.

Did the stove pipe work ok like that? Bet it got pretty toasty.

johnnybgood
10-26-2008, 21:06
I too find myself thinking about hiking all the time. The people I work with make subtle references about my "mountain man" personna as if I have NOTHING better to do. Wish I could make a decent living hiking and talking to folks who understand the passion that we all have to explore the many different terrains in every corner of this country by simply putting one foot in front of the other.Hiking is the only addiction which keeps me outta trouble bruttha.