jobs and thru hiking

[sailorman50]

i am 21 right now and love hiking and am planning a thru hike of my own after college. i have a specific question for everyone who has a full time job and does thru hikes. in certain threads i have read about people who have hiked the AT and PCT or CDT. i dont know the exact average time length of each trail but i know the AT is around 6 months so i am assuming the other trails take around the same time if not longer. my question is how do you people with full time jobs set aside 6 months or more to hike? i have thought about hiking the PCT and CDT but i dont understand where everyone gets the time and still holds a job

[4eyedbuzzard]

Some get leaves of absences, some are self-employed, most probably just quit and worry about finding a job when they're done. That's why you will find two predominant groups thru-hiking: those in-between school and career, and retirees.

[TOMP]

you got to prioritize, is your career more important? In my case no, so its time to hike, and 6 months on the AT I hope not thats about 12 miles per day.

[sailorman50]

i agree, im hoping to do 20 miles a day after the first 2 weeks. i guess i will need to figure out what is more important when i get to that point in my life

[Slo-go'en]

Indeed, people who do mulitpule thru-hikes don't have real, full time jobs. How they can afford to do this is a good question. Being self-employed and able to make buckets of money in the off season is one way. Having relatives in the 1% is another.

[dink]

In my case I did seasonal jobs and hiked inbetween winter and summer jobs. Still haven't gotten to do my thru hike, that will have to wait 5 1/2 more years until I retire from my current non-seasonal, full time, racking up benefits job.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Or get a really good job, like one with a lifetime appointment - William O. Douglas thru-hiked at age 60 while a sitting Supreme Court Justice.

[Alpha Wolf]

I know of a doctor here in town getting ready for a thru hike. He is simply closing down his practice for 5 months.

[Todd Tarbox]

Im just quitting my job that I have had for three years as a pharmacy tech. I hope that I have left a good enough impression on everyone I've worked with that they will want to hire me back. If not I'll just go for another hike.

[Sierra Echo]

I have the worlds best job. Wouldn't risk losing it for the world. Not to mention they most likely wouldn't give me a 6 month leave of absence.

[boyinasuitcase]

i'm quitting my job of 6 years in march to thru hike in april. it's a good job, but i can't let it prevent me from doing something awesome. i have no idea what i'll do after the AT, i've always landed on my feet.

[Mountain Mike]

Many get seasonal jobs. Say a ski resort. Waiter/waitress, bus tables etc & live really cheap. Others are retired. For the most part. I got a leave for my AT hike & PCT attempt. Had to quit to finished up what I missed of PCT due to bad snow year.

[blackbird04217]

My career has a longest job of 18 months, second longest of 11 months... Not something I am particularly happy with, but it was during a break between jobs that I hiked the AT in 2009, and since I've been infected with the desire to do more. Unfortunately my student loans are keeping me from more adventuring until I pay them off, the daily interest is more than I paid per day on the AT, no lie.

On the note about 20 miles per day after the first 2 weeks, don't rush yourself. Set aside the time and enjoy it. The pressure for more miles will be inevitable, but in the end the experience is less rewarding, at least for me it was more rewarding, and comfortable, when I slowed down.

[TOMP]

When I was a kid I always thought of a career in terms of how much you make and how that job is preceived in society. I think this was a mistake, but now that I have a decent amount of job experience I realize that money is not a long term motivator for me. Id rather have job satisfaction and live humbly. The majority of AT hikers seem to fall into groups: the college age and younger, retirees, people going through transition periods, and career hikers. I am going through a transition so I think it is a perfect time for a thru-hike. When I finish I am going to look into Teach for America, or just become a student teacher. I dont think thru-hiking means you cant have a traditional career but most jobs arent set up to allow you to leave for months at a time (just doesnt make buisness sense). If being promoted and working are important to you then the AT isnt going to help you. I just dont think that when I am old and gray I will look back and wish I made more money or worked more hours.

[Jim Adams]

I am so fortunate to have the career that I do because it was just started on a whim. I have been a paramedic for 35 years. The pay sucks but gets me by...the self rewards of the job are wonderful but the best thing is that i am in major demand due to poor wages and a lack of interest of this field. I took my first leave of absence @ age 37 for 13 months and did a huge trip. I took my second major leave of absence @ 49 y/o and hiked the AT again for 6 months. I have taken shorter 2 week to 2 month trips in those other years and have always kept my same jobs due to demand. I have gone as far as turning in resignations but they simply wouldn't accept them and gave me leaves and told me to walk fast.
I will never be wealthy...but I am the richest man that I know!

geek

[Papa D]

Assuming you're not just running on a trust-fund (and some are), good jobs to support Appalachian Trail hiking mostly take place in winter. The key is to make enough money to live during the duration of work and save enough for a thru-hike - here are a few:

Hotel / Restaurant work in Ski towns
Retail Christmas Trees (you'd be shocked how much money is in this)
Ski Lift Operator, Ski Patrol, Instructor (depending on your skills)
Winter work on a Cruise Ship (lots of people "cruise" in the winter)
Another career to consider is becoming an EMT or a Paramedic - while you can't necessarily take off half the year, most states have reciprocity and you can move around (assuming you are honest with your employers and don't just leave them high and dry every spring.
Another responsible and excellent idea is work for a school (especially a private high school of K-12) - these schools usually still have a pretty generous summer break. While it isn't possible to do a thru hike in just 2 1/2 to 3 months (at least very rare), you could do half the trail one Summer and Half the trail the next summer - you can get some big miles on a lot of trails done in 2 months - you can also complete trails like the CT,LT, and JMT in a summer vacation.

Another reality is that the folks that do take 6 months to hike usually have money from another source - between high school and college, college to grad school and right out of college, many hikers have family support. Early retirees usually have saved enough bucks to do the trail in style. The full-time hiker set often holds down jobs like I have listed above. I also know a bunch of part time roofers, tree surgeons, etc. that work for themselves and go to the trail when they want. I own my own business and just make hiking long distances a priority - I have the money for another thru-hike but have to get to a place with family and the proper break in business to get 4-5 months - right now, the best I can do is 4-5 weeks - which is still a luxury to most.

[MuddyWaters]

Some people make their work, their life. Its all they do, its all they ever aspire to. This is a product of brainwashing by our educational and political system. You are supposed to be a good little worker bee.

Stop and think about it. What is important in life. A nice car? A big house? money? Or is it people and experiences? Experiences are what life is composed of, a great many people never live, they only exist. The "crap" they buy and surround themselves with is a surrogate for experiences. Their only experiences are a couple of weeks of vacation they took where they actually went somewhere.

$4000 to thru hike. Peanuts. Dirt cheap living. Where else could you live for $8000/yr? Talk about sub-poverty level.

The problem, is in saving the $4000 for many. Most persons in this country dont have that on hand. But, they drive decent cars, and have iphones w/bluetooth headsets, live in houses they cant really afford, have 200 cable channels and high speed internet. Their choices.

A friend of my daughters family went to disney world last yr for christmas. the deal was to have the money, they had to cancel cable TV for a year. So, they did. They never got the TV back. They discovered that all TV did was waste their time anyway, it wasnt needed. And they had been paying ~$150/mo for it.

[Papa D]

Some people make their work, their life. Its all they do, its all they ever aspire to. This is a product of brainwashing by our educational and political system. You are supposed to be a good little worker bee.

Stop and think about it. What is important in life. A nice car? A big house? money? Or is it people and experiences? Experiences are what life is composed of, a great many people never live, they only exist. The "crap" they buy and surround themselves with is a surrogate for experiences. Their only experiences are a couple of weeks of vacation they took where they actually went somewhere.

$4000 to thru hike. Peanuts. Dirt cheap living. Where else could you live for $8000/yr? Talk about sub-poverty level.

The problem, is in saving the $4000 for many. Most persons in this country dont have that on hand. But, they drive decent cars, and have iphones w/bluetooth headsets, live in houses they cant really afford, have 200 cable channels and high speed internet. Their choices.

A friend of my daughters family went to disney world last yr for christmas. the deal was to have the money, they had to cancel cable TV for a year. So, they did. They never got the TV back. They discovered that all TV did was waste their time anyway, it wasnt needed. And they had been paying ~$150/mo for it.

I used to think just like this (sometimes, I still do) and I don't have cable TV and my daughter is about the smartest kid in her class - maybe because we read and spend so much family time playing games and so forth and stay away from the tube. I also agree that you can do a thru-hike on $4000 and that you might be able to live all year on the trail (holed up somewhere in the winter) for maybe under $10K a year and make a life of working odd-jobs to pay for perpetual trail life BUT, honestly, perpetual trail life doesn't complete the picture for me. I do like to live modestly but I DO like my house, my family, my dog, the ability to have a car (which I own for cash, thanks). I like to travel, I like to do cool things and the thing that I realize is that while I can easily go into the $4000 thru-hike just eating oatmeal and potatoes mode, I really think that for the long term, having a job, being productive in something you like and yes, having a few bucks makes for a longer and happier existence -- it's the proper balance -- whatever that means to you.

[Sassafras Lass]

You don't. Generally. At least, not the job/field you had before your hike.

Your hike will (at least should) change you in ways you can't foresee - and you won't feel the same way about a lot of things after you're done. And subsequently, you won't want the same kind of job/career (if a career at all) when you're done.

At least, that's been my experience, and what I've seen from others.

You save up money, go hiking, and worry about a job afterwards. If it really came down to it, you could make do waiting tables or something else "disposable" when you're done, while you're figuring out where you want to go from there. Of course, that's assuming you don't have deep roots somewhere already (kids, mortgage, etc.)

[4eyedbuzzard]

Another area to explore is contract / temp work / road tech. If you have a skilled trade like electrician, pipefitter, instrument tech, etc, there are always jobs during construction and maintenance shutdowns at power plants, refineries, mines, ports, pipelines, etc. The pay is generally excellent with lots of OT and they pay pretty good per diem living expenses. You often can make $30-35/hr, $2000 - 3000/wk based on the pay and hours available. 60 hours is very usual and I've worked a lot of 72 and 84 hour weeks when I did it. But, you have to generally get some combination of licensing, third party skill certification, nuclear certification / security clearance for nuke work, etc, and build a track record doing it as references from your last few jobs are very important and are always checked. All of this means putting a number of years in a trade (minimum 5) before you are honestly able to consider doing such work. There are less skilled laborer positions as well, but they are very competitive and of course don't pay as well ($20-25/hr).

The upside is that you can often make a comparable year's pay in 6 months or less and you don't have to work when you don't want to. You could work for 6 months and hike for six months one year if you can find a gig that matches up somewhat with a reasonable hiking schedule. The downside is that you travel to and live where the job is in anything from a motel to apt to trailer/RV, are away from family and friends, there is no job security or benefits, and there is a major burnout factor. Also, you have to do it frequently enough to be seen as a real pro. Working 6 months every 3 years will likely put your resume at the bottom of the pile as employers want guys whose skills are current and want to work.

Just another path to consider.