How did you do it?

[Graywolf]

Im not just talking about the AT here. I'm talking about taking the time off to walk the triple crown back to back, or even redoing the AT again the following year. So how did you do it without a steady income?

Im not rich, but I am in a very good position to just leave it all and go walk. Indifinitely.. Except for the money.

No car payments, no house payments, nothing. I am working, saving up the money to do a thru in 2012, but very much considering on continueing on and just HIke afterwards..

So for those who have done it, how did you do it??

[Gipsy]

I think my work situation allows me the ability to take extended hikes. I work as a travel nurse which means I work all over the country, coast to coast, on contract to hospitals. My contracts range from 3 months to 6 months. When one contract ends, I chose when I would like to start my next one. If I decide to take a week or 6 months off is strictly up to me. I feel very fortunate to have a job that allows me so much freedom.
Other than that, I save my pennies to cover hiking expenses and monthly bills like everyone else.

I too have wondered how hard it would be to hike if I had a normal hospital position.

Working coast to coast and everywhere in between is how I got the nam "Gipsy."

[maybe clem]

I did it between jobs and had savings to cover expenses back home.

[Pommes]

I work on a kind of feast/famine routine. I get a job. I work there for a year maybe two. I save like crazy. I quit. I explore and adventure till money is close to running out. Rinse and repeat. Remember every $2500 is six months on the trail. So if you can save $10,000 you can easily be without a job for a year or more if you stay on the trail.

[fredmugs]

I get 5 weeks of vacation a year and I get paid every other week so there are 2 months out of the year that I get paid 3 times. I use those to pay for my hiking trips.

I don't think I'll ever thru hike anything but I do want to eventually retire young enough to do several 2 week or so hikes for as long as I can. I plan to have my house paid off in about 4 years but I really can't retire until my child support obligations are met.

[Wise Old Owl]

Its not a career decision.

[garlic08]

It took me a couple of decades of hard work. When I was 18 I looked ahead and decided I would work hard for a while then take off in my forties, hopefully for the rest of my life. So I made a plan. I worked hard in school and got a good degree. I got a good job and worked hard for a couple of decades. I didn't have kids, never financed a car, watched my expenses (never had a cell phone, wifi or cable bill), never carried consumer credit, paid off a house by the time I was in my early thirties, invested carefully and conservatively with a goal, and when I turned 40 I quit my job and haven't been back to work. My self-funded pension plan has worked out fine. I've heard radio personality Dave Ramsey talk about the same plan, so I guess others must be doing it.

It's not easy and it's un-American, I know. I spent my career being a producer, not a consumer. I don't know where this country would be if everyone did that.

[Land_Shark]

Land shark on the move. The when is .... there comes come a time in ones life that regret is not an option. If the time is not now then when so we can put the date on it. This is purely a decision of faith and lifestyle and so happens for a great many of us they go hand in hand.

[sbhikes]

I had an entire year's salary saved up in easily-access funds (I'm not talking about my 401k here.) My year's salary was enough to live on for at least 4 years. Since I worked between hikes part-time, it was enough to live on for more than 4 years. Freedom is not being a slave to your things or your job.

[Sickmont]

I'm going to start a thru hike because i feel i have to now. I've been procrastinating and talking about it for far too long. As long as my arms and legs and brain work i can always find a job somewhere and somehow. However, i am willing to do crap work for little money. Frugality is indeed the key. When i was younger i had to have a ton of "stuff". The biggest, the shiniest, the fastest, whatever. Now i just want a couple of things to last a bit. Couldnt care less about the rest of it. In fact, everytime i long around my apartment i get pissed about all the crap i still own.

[SmokeEater]

Its easy for me to take off to do 2 week section hikes or more. I would rather work till retirement and draw my money at age 48 then work my entire life. My goal is to section hike untill i retire then finish whatever I have left or just hike the whole thing. Garlic you had the perfect plan.

[sbhikes]

P.S. I have never bought a car, but I own one (was a gift after college.) I have never bought a television but I have one. I haven't bought a stereo system since the mid 1980s. I have never bought furniture except for one chair at the thrift store. My kitchen was furnished by my grandmother's death. I buy clothes at the thrift store, even interview clothes. Someone gave me an iPod. I carry no balance on my credit cards. Etcetera... This is how you get free.

[BOATS]

I get paid monthly by the VA (what a Great Government we have)! Wife is not so happy for Me thru hiking and then yo-yo'n back...see you on the trail... Boats

[Graywolf]

:-?...I guess Im doing it right then..:sun..Lots of good replys here. My friends are always telling me to "Get with the times." Get a car, house..ect.. I live in a house, provided my my father, so no worries there.. I just figured its time to get out and walk.. Ive walked almost my whole life and never regreted it. When I see how out of shape my friends are when they tell me to stop walking and get a car, I look at them and say.." Uhh...No!!"..

Im doing it.. 2012 begins a new journey in my life, if I have to, I will just stop and get a job for awhile before moving on..

Thanks everyone..

[sbhikes]

Graywolf (you can't be all that gray if you are only 41...) what I have discovered is that when you walk through a door in life, you find things on the other side you didn't know were there. Thing just have a way of working out. No matter how awful my decisions have been over my life, I've always woken up the next day.

Hiking the trail led to not really a new life so much as a new outlook. Maybe someday I'll wake up but rather than be in a comfy bed in a nice house I'll be under a bridge with no money and a shopping cart. At least the trail taught me how to stealth camp, where to find a community, how to do homelessness right. (So I guess I wouldn't be under a bridge with a shopping cart, maybe under a tree with a sleeping bag.) Someone said to me here (Blue Jay?) that I found the hole in the fence and now I know where it is and how to go through it. So many people out there don't even know there's a hole in the fence, like your friends who tell you that you need to get a car.

[Speakeasy TN]

FWIW The saving up for the trip is the first accomplishment that you can be proud of. Everyone has to answer the "How can you do it?" question. If the Trail doesn't change me in any other way, I hope I never forget how to eliminate wasteful spending. That will change your life for the better.

[fiddlehead]

I liked hiking so much that i started a business that would be seasonal.
I work from Oct 1 to March sometime.
19 years later, i have thru-hiked most all the trails i set out to do, and now have a family here in Thailand.
I do miss thru-hiking though.
THinking about a bike trip to Hong Kong this April. (don't want to be away from them for too long)
Travelling gets in your blood after a while.

[10-K]

You an plan the plan but you can't plan the results.

[Billy Bill]

Graywolf - I have been thinking about the same thing. I am starting my thru on the AT this March. Great thread - I will be paying more attention to this as it gets more replies...Thanks...

[Trailbender]

I'm going to start a thru hike because i feel i have to now. I've been procrastinating and talking about it for far too long. As long as my arms and legs and brain work i can always find a job somewhere and somehow. However, i am willing to do crap work for little money. Frugality is indeed the key. When i was younger i had to have a ton of "stuff". The biggest, the shiniest, the fastest, whatever. Now i just want a couple of things to last a bit. Couldnt care less about the rest of it. In fact, everytime i long around my apartment i get pissed about all the crap i still own.

Get rid of it. I literally own some hiking gear, a mid range PC, some clothes, a car, and a couple of guns. That is it. I have always been cheap, and have reaped the rewards from that. As I told a friend, "My money represents me spending time doing things I do not want to do, so why would I waste it?". I am in college and have a lot of loans, which is why I haven't just dropped everything and started living on the AT. The calling is getting stronger, though. I feel like most everything I do that doesn't involve hiking is a waste of time.

[sbhikes]

I really want to get rid of more stuff. I recently was really super ruthless putting clothing into bags to send to goodwill. I put it in bags and a couple times realized that some of the things in the bag I really want to keep wearing. And a few of the things in my dresser I really should put in the bags. I have a hard time with sentimentality. I haven't hiked the AT but I have an AT T-shirt from Neel Gap, the store there. I never wear it but I don't want to throw it out. That kind of sentimentality.

I want to do this with all my stuff. Get it down to nearly nothing. It's really hard to do when you are as disorganized and cluttery as me.

[Trailbender]

I really want to get rid of more stuff. I recently was really super ruthless putting clothing into bags to send to goodwill. I put it in bags and a couple times realized that some of the things in the bag I really want to keep wearing. And a few of the things in my dresser I really should put in the bags. I have a hard time with sentimentality. I haven't hiked the AT but I have an AT T-shirt from Neel Gap, the store there. I never wear it but I don't want to throw it out. That kind of sentimentality.

I want to do this with all my stuff. Get it down to nearly nothing. It's really hard to do when you are as disorganized and cluttery as me.

I am ruthlessly efficient with getting rid of stuff. For me, the sentimentality is in memories. I also normally wear the same clothes for a week, unless I get really dirty. I shower every day after I work out, but people really do not need to wash clothes as often as they think. I do keep a separate set of clothing to hike in, obviously. I also hand wash my underwear and socks every couple of days so I have to own less. Let skills replace gear, I let my hiking philosophy apply to my everyday life. I sleep on my groundpad and use my down jacket as a pillow, the same as when I hike. I haven't slept on a bed in years. I do use blankets at home, and I drink out of my waterjug all the time. I don't see the point in having more than one thing of the same type unless it is absolutely needed.

You only have a limited amount of time to live. Why would I want to spend this time taking care of things? Everything you own takes more time, you gotta wash it, repair it, or whatever else. My car is a beat up station wagon that I have never washed. It is dented and the paint is peeling. I only fix mechanical safety issues, like brakes, and regular maintenance stuff. I see no point in wasting time or money washing it. So, I keep as few things as possible, because things cost me time. I can also be more mobile, when I want to move, I just toss my crap in the back of my car and drive off. I don't have to worry about a Uhaul or anything else.

All my clothing is "hiking" clothing, fast drying synthetics, and layers in the winter. I don't wear jeans, and the only cotton tshirt I have is for working out in. I can throw my clothes in the washer, and then hang everything from a cord in my room and it is dry in hours.

I have incorporated the efficiency and simplicity I learned on my thru into every aspect of my life. I have always been an efficient minimalist before, but I took it to a whole new level after my thru.

Sorry for the long post, but I kind of got carried away thinking of all the things. The truth is, most people don't have the self discipline to be a minimalist in today's world, and that is ok. Everyone is different. I choose to spend my time doing what I want instead of working to buy stuff. Right now, I am in college with a part time job, living off loans and GI Bill.

[sbhikes]

I go back and forth. I get a bug to go minimalist. I should pare down my belongings. And then I ask myself why? This stuff is just sitting there. It doesn't cost any money to just sit there doing nothing. And then I answer myself, to have a cleaner house! And then I think of how much money this stuff is worth. I should sell it. What a pain. So I do nothing. Then one day I don't care if I could make money from this stuff and into the bags it goes. And so only a few items get removed, not everything. Maybe someday.

[WisconsinHiker2011]

I know of a guy who inherited a huge trust fund and now plans to walk for the next 10 years on the various trails.

Lucky SOB. lol :D

[Pommes]

I go back and forth. I get a bug to go minimalist. I should pare down my belongings. And then I ask myself why? This stuff is just sitting there. It doesn't cost any money to just sit there doing nothing. And then I answer myself, to have a cleaner house! And then I think of how much money this stuff is worth. I should sell it. What a pain. So I do nothing. Then one day I don't care if I could make money from this stuff and into the bags it goes. And so only a few items get removed, not everything. Maybe someday.

I'm with you girl. I felt the same way. Then ebay came around. I then sold everything i could. My goal is to be able to carry all my worldly belongings on my back. Its hard to do and im definitely not there yet. You should try.