Thanks to the Governor of South Carolina, whenever I hear that someone is “hiking the Appalachian Trial,” I wonder if it’s a snarky euphemism for flying to South America to have an extramarital affair. “He’s having a mid-life crisis, and he wanted some adventure, and he needed an ego boast, so he decided to hike the Appalachian Trail.” It works on both levels.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the unemployment rate has spurred 100s of more people to hike the Appalachian Trail this year (here). And when I say “hike the Appalachian Trail,” I mean, um, hike the actual Appalachian Trail. The WSJ speculates that the rise is due to all of the disemployed bohemians who are too lazy to find a job, but not too lazy to hike 2,200 miles.
The WSJ article says that AT hikers budget $1/mile, although the AMC says $1.50/mile, and I’ve certainly heard of hikers spending more than $10,000 on their gear, food, the occasional hotel room, and travel expenses. Still, all in all, it’s probably cheaper to hike the Appalachian Trail than carry on an extramarital affair with a woman in South America (i.e., “hiking the Appalachian Trail.”) Because divorce can get expensive.
To finance their trek, some hikers venture off of the AT to do odd jobs and farm work for a few extra bucks. I’m sure the Wall Street Journal‘s readers were outraged to read about these hippies receiving under-the-table pay. All that tax revenue, lost to these evading long hairs. And they’re going to raise the capital gains tax to 20%!
As Jon Stewart would say, here is your moment of Zen:
“We thought there was a correlation between people who would hike the 2,200 miles and an incredible work ethic,” says the 40-year-old entrepreneur, a former Wall Street trader who, besides farming, also operates an asset-management firm. “Turns out those people tend to be athletic hippies, just looking to have fun forever.”
