I say that the shirt’s message is ambiguous. Are we to hike faster toward or away from the banjo music? I think that the authors of the line meant to slam banjos and banjo players, but there are some of us who might quicken our step toward a bluegrass jam.
I’m sure it was a banjo joke (I suppose wandering into some old still is kinda like wandering into a California pot farm), but I’m with ya on wanting to go toward it.
(shudder)… Deliverance … (shiver)
Thorlos Socks. 
Also, repellent. All kinds.
How long do you think it will take you to hike from the southern border to the northern border? Hiking the whole Appalachian trail usually runs 4-5 months of steady pounding. Start in Ga in March and end up in Maine in July or August. Cold at both ends. Hot in the middle. Sort of like a microwave-cooked hot dog.
much of the PCT is above the tree line!
ya only get one midlife crisis, go for it!
And perhaps you won’t pick up Mary Ellen as a tag-along.
Actually I’m not so sure I want to do Oregon and Washington. I would be quite happy to do all of California.
That said, the entire trip can be done in as little as 4 months if you hike about 21 miles each day. I don’t think you’d want to take longer than 5.5 months. They used to take 6 months but that’s really much too slow. The PCT is gentler compared to the AT, as I hear.
I did a section of the PCT a few years ago. I allotted myself 5 days to do it. I finished in 4 days. I was bored most days because I got to camp way too early and had to wait a long time until bedtime.
20 miles is a big challenge to me. 16 has always been my personal limit before it gets painful. I can do 20 or more (and I had planned to do 17.5 tomorrow but the weather turned nasty), but it does get painful.
I think this is a big snow year, so it might take longer. I really don’t like snow, and I like swollen stream crossings even less. I’m probably insane but I really want to hike in the desert.
So, if I left in May I might be ok by the time I reach the Sierras. With any luck, since we’ve had so much rain, there will be wildflowers in the desert. Another dream of mine is to see wildflowers in the desert. Nothing makes my heart sing more than flowers. I would probably not even make it out of the desert I’d be in too much rapture.
Oh, please, I was looking forward to your Big Foot sightings, hopefully with some pictures!
What Lamby said. Though I tend to prefer Smartwool socks. A good, light, strong pair of waterproof hiking boots (they say one pound on the feet is equal to five on the back).
And a stick. There’s nothing quite like a good walking stick.
But it sounds like you know all that. The whole backpacking lifestyle tends to get romanticized a bit–mosquitoes and leaky rain gear and sore feet and sleeping on roots don’t tend to make it into those nifty books. 
But it is so worth it!
I am happy for you. (and, like Weeks, slightly envious) Any idea when you plan on leaving?
It looks like it’s typical to begin in May. But if this is a high snow year, I will take my time getting to the high sections. I don’t like snow.
da nerve!
bug net…it gets nasty for a while in the summer
Not bad in Washington toward the end of July.
I have no idea about any of the seasonal aspects much south of hwy 2…
Oh, Diane,
I just came upon this thread today, but found it very encouraging.
I have spent the last couple of weeks planning my own walk in the woods. Surely it’s only coincidental that I too am 43 and just now realising that the last 10 years in my profession is all I can take.
I don’t think we’ll meet anywhere along the trail though because I’m heading out to the east coast and back to school for a fourth university degree. I figure that if I keep trying one of these days I’m bound to pick the right program!
I’m half scare to death about the whole thing. I worry greatly about dropping out of my pension plan and keeping my house without an income for 2 years; but at the same time I am absolutely enervated by the idea of correcting this mistake from my past and doing something positive for myself. The pension thing isn’t really a big deal. The change might mean that I can no longer retire early, but instead of going into work every day only dreaming of my escape 17 years down the road, I’d rather a job that I enjoy doing even if it means working a few more years. The house causes me more concern, but there must be a dozen ways to work around that problem too. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually.
Please keep us posted. I need the encouragement to keep my own spirits buoyed.
Regards,
Geoffrey
Last Wednesday, just before 10:00 a.m., I received a phone call from my boss, a guy ten years my junior and whom I have met once for approx 30 minutes. He was calling to congratulate me on having worked for this large company for 30 years. I was totally caught off guard, as such anniversaries have little or no value to me. I mumbled appropriate thank yous and he rang off. About an hour later, my boss’s boss, a man also younger than me and whom I have never met, called to congratulate me on the same milestone. He made chit-chat while I counted down the 60 seconds exactly till he had finished and hung up.
All this makes me realize that for thirty years I have survived, never liked any of it nor felt I have accomplished anything in any way. I have not had a career, but rather a series of sh!t jobs that I managed to suffer through, and at the end of it I still haven’t enough to retire on or have any idea what I want to do with myself when I grow up.
I would say go for it, if only because you do have some idea of what you want to do. It seems to me that you don’t necessarily need to “accomplish” anything, but rather just do what it seems right for you to be doing. If that activity is hiking through the desert, and that seems to you to be your life’s passion, I would say go for it. You may not be able to ever come back to your existing life or lifestyle, but that means that whatever comes afterwards will also be a new adventure for you. I have never had any goals, but they sound like something worth having if you can find one.
I hope you find joy, whatever your final choice is.
djm
I disagree. I have successfully managed to have a number of them.
hush fool! (need to get her started on the first one)
Ooops. 
I’ve noticed lately a lot of news of pension plans being discontinued or drastically cut back, people getting their health insurance cancelled while in the middle of chemo and all kinds of stuff like that. In the US some politicians are trying to discontinue Social Security, the last resort for many of us. Not only that, but they don’t even sell us safe food or safe toys anymore.
All these things we depend upon to provide “security” could very well be lacking in anything of the sort. It seems to me the social contract has been broken for the American worker. So if they’re not going to hold up their end of the bargain, why the heck should I?
And djm? I kept thinking that after those congrats you got for your 30 years of service that they were going to sign off with “Oh, and here’s your pink slip. We’re sorry but we have to let you go.”
I’ve never been able to tolerate anything I didn’t like for very long. 30 years? I could never put up with something that didn’t spark my enthusiasm for that long. I used to dread the weekends and look forward to Monday when I first started doing this work (Web Development). I also have enjoyed selling flowers (spent nearly a decade doing that), working with mentally ill people (half a decade), being a college student (I won’t even tell you how long I did that). I like to move on after a while I guess.
I think it sort of cheapens things to pull the “mid-life crisis” card. I agonized just as badly when I left college, when I left the flower selling, when I left the mentally ill. I don’t even feel that I qualify for mid-life despite my age because I never had children, am not married, don’t own a house, never have even bought a car (although I do own one), and have only been part of the full-time work force for the 13 years.
I’m a weirdo basically. Or an adventurer. Or something.
Anyway, I’m glad my post sparks some ideas in other people. Nothing makes me happier than hearing about other people following dreams and passions. You should see my book shelf. That’s the kind of books I read most.
Aside from twisting an ankle, my biggest concern would be black bears gettin’ into my stuff, despite all the precautions. You carry so little and you are so remote. On the one hand, you intersect with national and state park trails periodically, but there are long stretches where you are on your own.
But press on. As Dan Rather used to say, “Courage.”
It would be infinitely harder to do the East Coast trail for a Calaforny type. It’s the weather. The heat, the humidity, the bugs. Our air is much thinner, the weather much nicer here.
And as for the buzzkill about English farmers. I’m sure there must be some who resent the intrusion, but I spent five weeks in England and never had a problem. It blew my mind, being so used to Private Property signs here. Damn, I had some fine walks, in Devon, in Cumbria and York.
The mice, squirrels, etc. are more likely than the bears.