[pct-l] Hiking and the real world

[Sasha Leidman]

Hi,
I'm a college student who, in the past few years, has gotten very interested
in long distance backpacking. I've been on the list for a while and have
heard from a lot of very experienced backpackers. Reading their posts, I was
wondering, how you have implemented the backpacking world into "real life".
Is it more common for people to take the Yogi path and sort of haphazardly
get into backpacking while maintaining an unrelated job back at home or do
most take the Ned path and get into backpacking by falling in love with it
through their job? Working for my school's outdoor organization, I've guided
a number of backpacking trips. As man of our school's guides graduate
though, they move on to careers in different areas. How can long distance
backpacking be sustainable as a career path? What ways do people mix their
passion with profession?

-- 
Sasha Leidman
sleidman at gmail.com