WhiteBlaze Pages 2024
A Complete Appalachian Trail Guidebook.
AVAILABLE NOW. $4 for interactive PDF(smartphone version)
Read more here WhiteBlaze Pages Store

Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 1 2 3
Results 41 to 51 of 51
  1. #41
    Registered User NY HIKER 50's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-09-2013
    Location
    Brooklyn, NY
    Posts
    323
    Journal Entries
    1

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by LShuman024 View Post
    Yes, we do want to finish our thru hike. We have thought about section hiking, but as several family members and friends have told us, continuously leaving jobs to hike the trail is irresponsible.
    Go ahead and call me a snowflake, lazy, or whatever else. Maybe I am trying to squeeze blood from a stone. Maybe I was foolish in asking a community of hikers where we clearly don’t seem to belong.
    I had to wait a few years since I was looking for a job myself. However< if you finally work you get a vacation and I took 3 weeks on the trail at a time. The real problem is you have to be in a certain place at a certain time. Of course, storms and other items thrown in may change that a bit. The trail will be there when you finally go It's best to put off quick gratification for a while.

  2. #42

    Default

    "Add thread to ignore list*
    Trail Miles: 4,927.6
    AT Map 1: Complete 2013-2021
    Sheltowee Trace: Complete 2020-2023
    Pinhoti Trail: Complete 2023-2024
    Foothills Trail: 0.0
    AT Map 2: 279.4
    BMT: 52.7
    CDT: 85.4

  3. #43
    Registered User
    Join Date
    01-23-2016
    Location
    Virginia
    Age
    30
    Posts
    203

    Default

    Not sure this a generational thing-- the GoFundMe may be a young person's medium for begging their way up and down the trail, but it's the same thing I've seen older hikers do with cardboard signs.

    To OP, I understand the desire to get back out there, but if you only made it a third of the way in 4+ months, I don't see you finishing the remaining (more difficult) portion in the 2-3 months that remain before winter sets in, regardless of finances! The math just doesn't add up. So I'd definitely recommend saving up through the fall and winter and hopping back on again next year-- a "thru in two" if you will.

    Re: the advice you were given that it's a bad career move to take time off multiple times, I think that only applies to certain fields. Contract work, seasonal work, hourly work-- these kinds of jobs don't look twice at a gap in your resume. Plus, if you include an Appalachian Trail thru-hike in the timeline to explain the period of unemployment, it can even help! I list my hike in my resume, and throughout a somewhat varied employment history since my 2018 hike (#thanksCovid), it has landed me a few different jobs, both in outdoor-related fields and my "real" job of teaching. You don't mention your career path, but in general, it has become increasingly common to change jobs more frequently than in decades past, so saving up for a few months off between jobs is much more "acceptable" than it might have been 30 years ago.
    A.T. 2018 Thru-hiker
    Follow along at www.tefltrekker.com

  4. #44
    Registered User
    Join Date
    10-17-2007
    Location
    Michigan
    Age
    64
    Posts
    5,126

    Default

    FWIW, I met a guy in central VA who was hiking the AT with no money. His gear was all from junk stores. His "shelter" was a blue tarp he used as a blanket when it rained, not very effectively it would seem as I met him when he had all his gear layed out in the sun to dry after getting soaked in the previous night's rain. He cooked over wood fired so his only expense was food. For that he would write a friend and tell them he was hiking the AT and ran out of money, and asked them if they would mail a food drop to the next PO up the trail. He figured that he had enough friends to make it to HF without asking the same person twice.

  5. #45
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
    Join Date
    01-23-2019
    Location
    Harpers ferry wv.
    Age
    60
    Posts
    2,087

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Odd Man Out View Post
    FWIW, I met a guy in central VA who was hiking the AT with no money. His gear was all from junk stores. His "shelter" was a blue tarp he used as a blanket when it rained, not very effectively it would seem as I met him when he had all his gear layed out in the sun to dry after getting soaked in the previous night's rain. He cooked over wood fired so his only expense was food. For that he would write a friend and tell them he was hiking the AT and ran out of money, and asked them if they would mail a food drop to the next PO up the trail. He figured that he had enough friends to make it to HF without asking the same person twice.
    This sounds like a great idea. I think you should go for it!

  6. #46
    Registered User
    Join Date
    03-13-2011
    Location
    Fairhaven, MA
    Posts
    94

    Default

    Has anyone ever been faced with such a unique problem? We are trying anything at this point. All we know is that our trail friends/angels have all told us to get back out as soon as we can or else we may never get back there. We know this was a one time adventure for us before we start building a life and the lack of support back home has been hard.
    Advice, if any?

    I was in a similar situation when I first started doing long trips. I screwed up the financing on my first thru hike and my money didn't last as long as I thought it would. I made it through, but had to change my spending and hiking habits - here's what I did.

    I sold my car and used the money to hike. ( I had to ride a bike for a few months when I got back before I could get a car on the road again.)
    I used mail drops (food in bulk was cheaper and better than what I could buy.) And I spaced them out.
    I carried 7 to 10 days worth of food at a time and limited my town interactions.
    I hit up all hike boxes for possible food and other needs.
    I included an allowance in each mail drop in stead of having access to all my money at once.
    No more town stays unless I could do a work for stay.
    I couldn't hang with people anymore when they went to town. It wasn't fair to be a mooch.
    Town visits became "Neros". Sleep a couple of miles outside of town and hike in when the PO opened. Pack up and head out in the same day.
    Sleeping and eating in the woods is cheap. It's the town visits and travel to and from the trail that will get you!

    I say - get as much money together as you can and get back out there!

    Maybe you'll be able to finish - maybe you won't. Only one way to find out!


    Go Fund Me accounts set up for funding a hike are NOT popular around here and will get heavily criticized.

    general refrain - "why should we pay for your vacation?!"

  7. #47

    Default

    Life lesson dudes...

    Plan the run, and then run the plan.

  8. #48
    Registered User
    Join Date
    12-01-2014
    Location
    bronx
    Age
    61
    Posts
    512

    Default

    A few advices:
    Work for stay where available (you already know it)
    Many hostels gives you the option of paying only for shower and/or laundry, the usual price is 5.00 dollars each
    I you have to stay, camp instead of paying for a bunk
    some hikers finance their hike by creating a YouTube channel and documenting their hike
    The trail will always be there. what's important is to learn from your mistakes and what's went wrong so you won't repeat the next time
    Good luck.

  9. #49
    ME => GA 19AT3 rickb's Avatar
    Join Date
    12-12-2002
    Location
    Marlboro, MA
    Posts
    7,145
    Journal Entries
    1
    Images
    1

    Default

    Credit card or loan.

    Unlike the purchase of a car (for which society says debt is totally acceptable even though I would disagree) finishing a thru hike with a potential life partner is not a depreciating asset.

  10. #50

    Default

    No! That is not irresponsible. I took almost 10 years. I took vacation and section hiked. Sometimes, I ran into another section hiker and made arrangements to meet at another place next year. I found many wonderful shuttle folks who I paid to shuttle me from my car back to the last place I got off of the trail. It is doable. A very novel approach I ran into for slack packing was a senior adult couple who slackpacked with 1 car. One would let the other off at the last exit and drive to a trailhead parking within a day's walk then walk back toward the other. When they met in the middle, they had lunch together and went their way. When the one let out first got to the car, he or she drove back to where the other was waiting. Then they either camped in the woods close to the next place for the next day or went to town and got a motel or a hostel and often went to campgrounds.

    You may not make it as a thru hiker this year, but if you keep at it you can finish. Irresponsible Absolutely not. Go for it when you can and eventually you will finish.

    RevDrDan

    RevDrDan

  11. #51
    Registered User
    Join Date
    04-28-2008
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Age
    63
    Posts
    187

    Default

    8/13/21 update posted elsewhere:

    Great news! We finally got a reservation to camp in Baxter State Park and summit Mt Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and the highest peak in Maine.

Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 1 2 3
++ New Posts ++

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •