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  1. #21

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    I think a thruhike is a life altering event for a lot of people. I did the same thing others have alluded to here...quit a good corporate job, sold, gave away or threw away virtually all of my stuff. I wandered the country with my pack, 3 suitcases and 4 plastic storage boxes in the trunk of my car.

    When I got off the trail I tried to go back to the same type of job I had had before, but it just didn't fit anymore, so I quit after a few months...I spent the next 3 years or so moving around the country doing different kinds of work...mostly working below my ability/skill set. I did things like work nights at a convenience store, deliver pizza.

    What's funny is now that I've settled down a bit and seem to have gotten on track I'm starting to itch to do it again.

  2. #22
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    all these posts are making me want to get up and leave haha

  3. #23
    Registered User Alli's Avatar
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    I've got a similar plan but I'm doing it after I graduate... good luck and enjoy your hikes!

  4. #24
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    Greetings from a drab cubical. This time next year, I plan to walk away from my good-paying, tedious job, and into the woods. I am terrified. But I know I can't go on sitting in this office with such overpowering trailsickness...And having just read the above thread, I'm comforted to know that many of us are in the same boat. Thanks for your original post, TV. I look forward to meeting you on the trail.

  5. #25
    Trail Bum / Homeless Vet
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    When I hike I give up sex with others. I know what my feet look like so being south of the equator on a hiker chick isn't that appealing.

  6. #26
    Registered User Doctari's Avatar
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    Wingfoot always said re mental attitude:

    "To hike the AT from end to end the AT needs to be the most important thing in your life"

    Sounds to me like you are there.

    Like you say "what the ___ are you waiting for?"
    Curse you Perry the Platypus!

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by NashvilleBiscuit View Post
    Somebody else posted this on whiteblaze and I copied it down. Im only 24 but I gave my 2 weeks, sold my car, and plan to head to the trail on Saturday. Anyway, I think this fits your post... "To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea-"cruising," it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
    "I’ve always wanted to sail the South Seas, but I can’t afford it." What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the routine of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
    What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all - in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
    The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
    Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?"
    Does anybody see the irony of us advising someone to discard material things whem this advice is given via a COMPUTER, probably from a HOUSE that probably has a MORTGAGE and sitting outside is a CAR.....

    ....and DON'T ya'll say that you are communicating from a library across the street from a hostel where your pack rests! I know better..
    Enough is OK, too much is just right.

  8. #28
    Nicksaari's Avatar
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    haha, you burned him.

    when my lease is up, i get the great (an not so great) opportunity of moving back in with the rents, live rent free, and take some classes. for this, i have to give up smoking really potent pot and drinking large quantities of microbrew beer. i am excited for the cessation of these activities and the sober life, finishing school,
    BUT what dad doesnt know is that im going to take advantage of no rent, do lots of yard/house work, take a couple of classes, and bite my time until my brother drops me off at the james river so i can hike down to damascus and buy my homeboy lone wolf ONE beer. then ill finish school.

  9. #29
    I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake
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    Not sure I'm giving up anything. I've been on the a collison course with the AT for some time now. Nearly 2 dozen countries across 5 continents, many different types and modes of adventuring over the past 10 years or so.

    I moved the AT from 2008 to 2009 for what I thought would be a great new television hosting gig that would propel my career forward. Turned out to me more of the same.

    You couldn't keep me off the AT at gunpoint or with a suitcase full of money at this juncture.

  10. #30
    Registered User WILLIAM HAYES's Avatar
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    go for it before life passes you by

  11. #31
    Registered User wcgornto's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OutdoorsMan View Post
    Does anybody see the irony of us advising someone to discard material things whem this advice is given via a COMPUTER, probably from a HOUSE that probably has a MORTGAGE and sitting outside is a CAR.....

    ....and DON'T ya'll say that you are communicating from a library across the street from a hostel where your pack rests! I know better..

    You´re right. I am not in a library. In fact, I am in an internet cafe in Bariloche, Argentina just around the corner from the hostel where my pack rests, having just completed a week long hike in Nahuel Huapi National Park.

  12. #32
    Registered User Pootz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TV View Post
    thanks all for your replies so far. very helpful and hopeful.
    i thought you would maybe say i was being completely irresponsible.

    you brought up a good point Slo-go'en when you said:

    "if you can sell your house in todays market and make money instead of loosing any, have little or no debut to get rid of, no significant other or kids to make your life complicated, it could be worth going for and taking care of your wanderlust."

    i am pretty much EXACTLY in that position. i'm only a few years into my house, so no real equity to lose yet, and selling on the present market, i would probably break about even.

    my son is almost 30 with a child of his own. i'm not in a relationship at present either.

    and i do not care much for my employer of 16 years either.

    HEY! what the ____ am I waiting for!?!
    Go for it. If things do not work out you can always move in with your son. He owes you 18+ years of shelter.

    Why wait to live your dreams
    Pootz 07

  13. #33
    Registered User traildust's Avatar
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    Quit my government job in DC, sold house, had grandmother take care of kids (her's) gave mine some money to get by and headed out. Harper's to Mt Greylock. But as so often happens, the trail kicked back and forced us off when the wife got a knee injury and she wasn't cool with me hiking alone. Same thing happened the next year just 14 miles from NOC.

    Bottom line - no guarantees in this deal but no guarantees in life. Now we sit on a small fruit and vegetable farm with a small country store living life a little easier but making little money. Still we can get up each day and dig in the dirt or take a hike like we will this weekend on the Sheltowee Trace, nearby, and enjoy life.

    But the truth is, if we could sell it all tomorrow or part of it, we both would be back to hiking in a moment. IN the blood until we get it done which we will sooner or later.
    traildust

  14. #34

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    Well I am quite a bit younger, but I have pretty much the same plan, I live in Ga Im going north to maine next march and I figure since I live in Ga I might as well walk back when I get there. I have no kids no wife no mortage, I just have a really good job but material possesions are crap so im going for it. and when Im done with that im think I will go for the CDT and then the PCT and then what ever happens next!!

  15. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by OutdoorsMan View Post
    Does anybody see the irony of us advising someone to discard material things whem this advice is given via a COMPUTER, probably from a HOUSE that probably has a MORTGAGE and sitting outside is a CAR.....

    ....and DON'T ya'll say that you are communicating from a library across the street from a hostel where your pack rests! I know better..
    Wrong, Mortgage Breath, are we supposed to mail it to them. Many of us are sitting behind prison bars of our own minds telling other people to escape. The fact that we escape then are recaptured over and over is slightly ironic, however enjoying the escape of others is not.

  16. #36
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    I "gave up" everything back in the 70's and moved to a log cabin in northern Minnesota when that was a chic thing to do. That's when I fell in love with the woods. Stayed several years but then moved back to Chi-town and took on all the usual consumer-based accoutrements of civilization. Gave it all up again in the 80's and moved onto a sailboat in Miami. I sold everything I owned except for one duffel bag of clothes. Getting rid of all my material possessions was an epiphany. I felt like a 1,000 pounds (of responsibility) was taken off my back. Eventually made it back to civilization, bought a condo and a Cadillac but said no to cable. Give it all up again to go hike the AT? In a heartbeat! I'll be at Springer in Feb. 2010.

  17. #37
    Registered User Bad Co's Avatar
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    My life is an example of "The more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you".
    Sounds like you are in a perfect situaton and at the right age to go for it
    Security is a state of mind
    During this latest recession I would bet plenty of folks would like to be in your position
    Head for the hills and enjoy

  18. #38

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    If all goes well with my finances, I'll be quitting my job. I've sold nearly everything I own, and have moved in with a roommate. Assuming the car loan, school loans, and credit cards get paid off in time, I'll be making an attempt to do a NOBO thru sometime in April 2010.

  19. #39
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    Its Nice 2 Know There R People Like U Out There. Not Scared 2 Break The Chains That Hold Us All Down. The Quotes On This Site Have Inspired Me To Have Hope. I Am Slowly Starting 2 Realize That No One Is Truely Happy, Except The People That Drop Everything And Shoot For The Stars. I Love Free Spirits.......

  20. #40
    Registered User SteveJ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PUNKINPUSS11 View Post
    <clip>I Am Slowly Starting 2 Realize That No One Is Truely Happy, Except The People That Drop Everything And Shoot For The Stars. I Love Free Spirits.......
    hmmm....

    What I am NOT giving up to do a thru-hike:
    * committment to filling my role as father / provider. My wife and I decided to have children, a decision I have NEVER regretted. I now have 2 in college, and one who is 13. They all need me in one way or another
    * a decent job that allows me to fill the role above....
    * a hope that one day, maybe when my youngest finishes high school, he and I can do a LONG section and finish what we haven't done as section hikers at that point....

    I don't mean to put a damper on the thread - it's great that some are in the position that they can take off for 4 - 6 months and do a hike. Do I dream of taking off and leaving all responsibility, hike back into shape, and enjoy being a "free spirit?" Sure, but that's not my idea of "shooting for the stars," nor is it the example I want to set for my sons. I also know that my wife would lose complete respect for me if I did so at this point in our lives....

    All the more reason for those who are young or are in a life transition where they can "take a hike" to do so as the opportunity arises!
    Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.

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