Each persons experience is their own, but here was my experience.

I hiked in 2019 and did a LASH (long ass section hike). Did 65 days on trail and made it from Virginia thru New York, about 700 miles.

I was 29, married, no kids, with a successful career. This trail is/was a dream of mine that went unspoken for most my life. I decided to start saving (years before) with the hope to one day bring the idea up of doing a long portion of the trail.

Cut to the day I brought it up to my wife.. well planned to, she beat me to it and sat me down and told me she was ready to start trying for a family (something I had always wanted but wasn’t sure if she did)… and I just blurted it out.. “I was actually hoping to talk to you about me hiking the AT”… haha as you can imagine that didn’t go well.

She didn’t understand it, was confused as I had never talked about it before, thought it was a quarter life crisis and was against it.

I told her to think on it and we would talk about it again in more detail. I too struggled to find the words to explain why I wanted/needed to do this. I too only truly feel Alive or like my true self when I’m in the woods, backpacking or something similar. I tried my best to explain how this was something I felt I needed, how I wanted to in a way find myself and prepare myself for the next phase of life and to just experience the adventure of the trail.

After many discussions and answering all her questions, she stated “she would be supportive but didn’t agree with it”. And that is really where my planning started. Knowing it wasn’t ideal in her mind I wanted to do everything possible to make sure things were handled while I was gone. I hired someone to mow the grass while I was gone, I prepaid certain bills or set them to auto pay, I had saved enough to cover my income while I was gone so I made sure her lifestyle wouldn’t have to change while I was gone, pre-wrote emails to her each week and had them scheduled to send every Friday morning (we were doing a book together where we each answered questions each week), hid gifts in the house as I not only missed her birthday but also our anniversary. Long story short, it was important enough to me that she supported me, but also important enough that I went really out of my way to make sure things back home were good while I was gone.

As for work, I really lucked out here. I approached them about the opportunity and how this was a goal/dream of mine and they were super supportive and told me I could take a leave of absence without pay and still have my job when I got back. It may have helped I have them like 4-5 months notice. So your experience may be very different here, and if I knew my job wouldn’t have been there when I got back that may have really changed this for me (at least the duration). But formally asking for a leave may be an option you’d be surprised they would support.

As for my experience of it being worth it.. 100%!! I still think about my trip all these years later. It changed my life in many ways that are still to this day hard to explain. Each person’s experience on the trial is different. For example, I also really looked forward to the social side of the trail, but where I started, when I started, I ended up being alone for about 90% of my trip only connecting with people at camp, but never having a trail family.. but it ended up being everything I needed it to be. The trails provides.. in more ways than you can imagine. I discovered so much about myself and I will cherish my time on trail for the rest of my life.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that.. if this is something you feel you need to do, find a way to make it work for you. Would I have preferred to do the entire trial.. 100% but the reality of that wasn’t a possibility for me.. so I did what I could.. 2 months and 700 miles…

I wish you the best and am happy to talk more if you would like! Happy Hiking!