[pct-l] Hiker Trash Lifestyle VS Job Security

[marmot marmot]

Those of you who have hiked the CDT recently have maybe missed the chance to see Columbus,NM.  When I finished in '94 that was one of the finishing points--Palomas,Mex just south of there if you followed Ray&Jenny's route. There was cheap land there and a whole community of people who built strange and wonderful houses out in the desert.  The town also supported a musical theater. The players were from both sides of the border.  Who knows if all of that is still there but would not hurt to look. Marmot

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 22, 2013, at 8:32 PM, "Iceaxehikes" <iceaxehikes at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Should you desire to leave this world of secondary aims behind to EMBRACE a primary existance...
> Be prepared to clean dogsh#t out of carpets for a living.. for over a year before you get your old job back.
> 
> I did it three times.
> 
> Left a plumbing job twice to go a-hiking (a viking..? google it)
> And the third time my boss demanded a "pound of flesh" by denying me a return, at least for a year.
> 
> I can't blame him.
> 
> The need to demonstrate my "sanity" to family keeps me working for seconary aims these days.
> 
> Personally I have no problem living with goats. 
> 
> Uh..
> 
> Truthfully, it is only a matter of time until I retake my true form and become an upstanding dirty piece of hiker trash again.
> 
> This crap happening now.. this saving during my "best years" towards "bliss" in retirement is crap.
> 
> I live in The Peoples Republik of Kawlifornia.
> In the most expensive place in my state, which rates right behind Manhatten in New York.
> 
> Yea, I pull down good money as a plumber.
> Yea, every dam thing here costs 10 times more than Wyoming, for example.
> 
> I will never be able to afford a home here.
> My parents live in Santa Clara.
> A neigbors home sold two weeks ago: A 1500 sq ft house on an 1/8 acre lot for $800,000.
> 
> My chances of owning anything in Cali are zero.
> 
> My life's ambition is to own my land.
> I want to breathe my last breath and collapse in a place like Stehekin WA, or Pie Town NM, or Damascus VA...
> 
> (Don't get spooked by my words.
> While being 44 now I expect to live as long as Billy Goat.)
> 
> Doesn't matter where, really.
> Just, my own land, even if its 10 acres of dust.
> 
> Hiking did that to me.
> Giving up everything made me see how much of that stuff is unimportant to my life's mission.
> 
> 
> It will have been 3 full years this spring that I have pretended to want a home, new truck, 1.6 children, and a new television (actually haven't had tv for 9 years).
> 
> Anyhow, I hear all of you.
> 
> Give me trail or give me death.
> 
> You can make more money but you can't make (or buy)  more time
> 
> -Matthew Edwards who was once upon a time in another world called "iceaxe" by the kindest people I have ever met.
> 
> For your amusement:
> 
> The Three Rules of Plumbing:
> 
> 1. Sh#t flows downhill
> 2. Payday is on Friday
> 3. DON'T chew your fingernails
> 
> Hey, at least two of those rules apply to hiking as well!
> 
> 
> Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT&T
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