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View Full Version : Alibis and the Recession



Fiddleback
09-21-2009, 08:48
It's bright and early and I haven't seen the Wall Street Journal yet but... apparently the AT is enjoying growing popularity from more than absent governors.

"Finally, the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125348373308426061.html#mod=todays_us_nonsub_pag e_one) reports that more unemployed Americans are hiking the Appalachian Trail. While usually about 1,000 hikers leave Georgia each spring in hopes of completing the entire trail at once, This year, trail monitors say, close to 1,400 hikers were in the first wave, and many more followed. The paper says, “Depending on one's level of optimism, an Appalachian Trail through-hiker is either a symbol of a jobless recovery or of a still-deepening recession.” "
http://www.thebigmoney.com/features/todays-business-press

FB

datadog314
09-21-2009, 09:21
Although hiking the trail has been a dream of mine for almost 40 years, it is this economy that has finally driven me to do it. I'm a landscaper/gardener, and though work has not completely dried up, it has calmed down to the point that I feel it's time for a break......to allow the influx of "new" landscapers to realize landscaping is not as easy as it appears.

Everybody with a truck and a mower is suddenly a landscaper, they'll low-ball each other until the price is barely worth the effort. I'm taking a year off to hike while they fight it out.......soon the economy will recover and all the newbies will go back to whence they came.

I refuse to engage the clowns that now rule the three ringed circus.

sbhikes
09-21-2009, 16:05
So do you think that hiking a long trail serves as a worthy alibi for a long period of unemployment?

robmurphy
09-22-2009, 02:04
The article said that 1400 thru hikers started this year, vs. 1000 in a non-recession year. I wonder if those numbers came from the rangers at Amicolola SP?

In any case, check out this article if you can - it's all positive on the AT experience.

weary
09-22-2009, 07:49
The article said that 1400 thru hikers started this year, vs. 1000 in a non-recession year. I wonder if those numbers came from the rangers at Amicolola SP?

In any case, check out this article if you can - it's all positive on the AT experience.
I found the article at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125348373308426061.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Jeff
09-22-2009, 08:02
Boy, that article paints a completely different perspective of hiking the Appalachian Trail.:-?