Many people hike and some have hiking thrust upon them. Hiking the AT takes planning but it also takes time - especially if one of your goals is completing a through-hike. The responsibilities of job and family often times make this goal out of reach unless you are fortunate enough for early retirement or have kept yourself in the kind of shape to make the trip later in life.

For some people, the down job market we're in now has certainly made the time issue less of an obstacle. Tackling a trail like the AT has become more doable for some people willing to include it as part of reinventing themselves for the future, clearing their mind of the baggage of their last job, or simply taking advantage of the time on their hands to move up their AT experience from what they thought would be a later-in-life activity.

An AT experience would certainly give one a sense of accomplishment and reward that could propel them into the next phase of their life. There's no time like the present!