[pct-l] long distance hikers and $

[Granola Girl]

Shelley~
My husband is a public school teacher, and I used to be as well.  This left us with the prime season months of June, July, and August free to hike most anywhere.  In fact, it was a major factor in his career choice.  He could have taken over the backpacking store he had worked at for years, or he could become a teacher.  Due to how the payment system works, your paycheck is divided into 12 monthly payments.  You work the traditional school months, but receive less money each month so that you can also get a paycheck over the summer.  We receive the same amount of money every month, even when we are hiking.  It is also a requirement in many schools for that money to be directly deposited. Thus, no picking up the paycheck, just access to the funds on the first of every month.  You also receive medical benefits for your entire family.

I am now a stay at home mom to homeschool our son.  Being homeschooled we are free to hike when ever and where ever we want.  It is even a major part of our curriculum.  As a homeschooled family in Washington state, we are state subsidized through a charter school.  We receive funding for schooling curriculum, materials, lessons, and such so that it is not out of pocket.  We have to meet attendance requirements of checking in each week (phone, email, letter, or in person) and once a year annual testing. The freedom this allows us is quite exceptional when it comes to long distance backpacking.  My son just turned 7 and is planning a PCT through hike with me this coming May.  He wants to attempt to break Mary Chambers record.  His father will complete the school year and then meet up with us in Northern California to finish out the trail.  Due to our ability to go hiking, our son can hike 25 mile days and we backpack for a week at least once a month.  We frequently do school on the trail through observation, journaling, and discussions.

As for the whole mortgage and life expenses, this is where you have to decide if you are all in.  We moved into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in order to make life work.  Not only are we a few miles from the PCT and active recreationalists, but it makes our mortgage under $300 a month.  We have to lease the land yearly and only live in 380 square feet, but it promotes our lifestyle.  We are professional hiker trash and decided that was the way we wanted to live.  We weren't going to make it financially in inner city Portland and we knew that. We also couldn't leave our house for months on end.  Here, we don't even have a legal address so we don't have to worry about that.   Long distance hiking was more important to us.  Currently, we are on a plan to eliminate all debt quickly, as many others have talked about, and that will allow us early retirement (around age 45) so that we can long distance backpack much more.  Right now we are at about one 3-4 month hike a year and my son and I take at least one 1-2 month hike as well.

Staying at home, I can dehydrate all our trail food, make a lot of our gear, and in general find ways that the hiking doesn't need to be expensive.  It also means I can make our food (killing a grocery bill drastically), mend our clothing/gear, be full time childcare (killing a huge bill) and work on our house (a full time job when you live in a fishing shack). By joining The Mazamas, we have received lots of different benefits such as life-flight insurance, access to exceptional libraries and gear, and generally great people for very low annual dues.  By utilizing the America Beautiful Dreamer passes we can get into all National and State Parks, and historical sites for free. We live on a very small budget, but it is worth it for us.

I think if you are going to make long distance backpacking more than a "once-every-few-years" endeavor you have to think about your lifestyle.  It isn't a way that the average person decides to take a vacation and thus, it isn't a lifestyle that the general culture really supports long term.  Most of our family thinks we are completely crazy, but then, they don't like going 10 days without a shower and hiking hundreds of miles at a time either.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Brynn

http://endofordinary.blogspot.com