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[pct-l] RE: How you do it...



snip

> on the trail 1-3 times a week and try to get into areas that may
resemble
> mountain trails but I'm a flat-lander. How do you folks do it? I mean
take off

> work or whatever and do what you love? I'm jealous. I did sign up for
> BackCountry Horsemen to get a start. I guess I'll go back to lurking
and
being

> envious. Have fun!

snip

Well, my wife (who is currently hiking the upper 2/3's of the PCT with
weathercarrot after doing 650 miles on the AT this spring) was able to
get a 'leave of absence' for the extended summer.  She will still have
to work really hard to get caught back up.  As for myself, when we
leave to do our thruhike on the AT in '99 it will cost me my job.  I
am however young enough not to care too much about starting over and
we have no children (other than ourselves) to be responsible for. 
This is also built into a planned career change for me, so that helps.
 Based on having talked to a lot of the distance hikers on the AT this
year, most people who do it just decide that it is worth the 'career
upheaval' and go.  Planning however, is EVERYTHING.  If you are in a
job that doesn't need you everyday, you can often arrange extended
leave situations by dealing 'reasonably' with your boss.  Put in extra
hours ahead of time, make sure your leaving for a few months will not
cause the company to fold (read 'do as much of your stuff ahead of
time as possible') and lastly, if you are going to do this stuff:  do
your work as well as you possibly can.  If they don't think that they
can find a replacement who can do the job as well as you; you stand a
better chance of having a job to return to.

In short, if you really want to take that extended hike, plan well,
save your money (so you have some to come back to society with) and
{cliche alert} JUST DO IT!

Darin
AT 99



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