Back packing / Tramping / Vagabond

Yes, I do mean exactly what he does in Into The Wild. Yes, I realize its just a movie. Yes, I was a vagabond for more than 6 months and loved every minute of it.

Has anyone else back packed their way across country? Were you bare minimum or did you still have a cell phone, bank card, etc.? Share stories, ask questions about tramping!

I was bare minimum. I packed a hiking backpack with two shirts and two shorts. The rest was a couple loaves of bread, pb&j, some romin noodles, and a pan/pot thing that folded up to fit in my backpack. I tied my gallon jug of water to the pack, also. And the backside had straps for my sleeping back. My tent was able to fit inside (barely) and I just used my pack for my pillow. I walked and hitchhiked from Indianapolis, Indiana to the state line of Ohio and West Virginia.

Best decision ever.

EDIT
i forgot that I had my ukulele and harmonica with me too! In case anybody was wondering how did I make money after I initially left, I played music outside of walmarts and truck stops. Typically made enough money in one day to buy enough bread and romin for a couple weeks. Sometimes I bought eggs by six and would eat them cooked in my pan. And a few times I treated myself out to a burger or something nice.

Why would you choose to do this? And if you didn't choose, what happened?

I mean, I'm not gonna judge people's choices like this, but it seems like you'd be putting yourself at risk to all kinds of things.

I guess people do these things just to see if they can do it mostly, though I dunno, there may be other reasons. It sounds like a thing to do when you want adventure. Normal life can be insanely boring. Doing the same thing every day in your life? Yes there may be risk, but there is risk in a lot of things, many of them normal everyday things like driving and cooking. Point is it seems like the type of thing you'd do for adventure or to do something different in life. I don't think I'd nesessarily do it unless I had to. It does sound interesting though.

Scarf said:

Why would you choose to do this? And if you didn't choose, what happened?

Click to expand...

Oh, I chose. There were a lot of reasons. I guess for starters that I wanted an adventure. I hate how boring and repetitive life gets with going to work 5 days a week so you can pay the gas to get to work for the next 5 days so you can pay your bills at the end of the month and hope you can send your kids to college so they can get a job where they do the exact same thing.

And it was totally awesome.. lol. Hitchhiking was dangerous. But the rest was so peaceful. Nothing like taking a break from walking and laying down ina random field of grass to watch the clouds just because you can. Theres no such thing as time. You wake up when you wake up, you enjoy life for a full day doing whatever you want, then you go to sleep next to a camp fire at night and watch the stars. It's like living in a whole different world. You don't worry about being on time, who's the predisent, if your girlfriend is cheating on you. The only thing you really worry about is eating.

I saw lots of cool things and met interesting people. Its sad I didn't go further than I did, really. Who knows what adventures I could have had!

It sounds like one those fantasy things you do with your girlfriend or something.

It sounds amazing on paper but I'm not solitary enough to do it on my own.

I'm much too lazy to go gallivanting around the planet, but I have several cousins who have done it. One backpacked through Peru and the other across the states (though she also hitchhiked a lot).

I value my posh materialism too much to completely free myself from it. I do enjoy camping and outdoor treks though.

I'm not an outdoors person, and just going to a place with no AC or internet is roughing it for me. When the power goes out even for just one night, I'm absolutely miserable. I guess I'm spoiled in that regard, but I could never see myself living with the bare minimum and roughing it outside like that, especially for months.

I am in such horrible shape that I honestly don't believe I could get far doing this. Maybe someday, as an adventure. I'm trying to be more of an outdoor person. I don't want to be cooped up at my computer forever, though I'd still bring it with me so I could blog about it. Keep people posted so they'd know I'm alive. Unless I went to libraries and such to do that, which could be part of the adventure.

First things first, I need to lose some weight and gain some stamina so I can be in decent shape for this. I'd probably bring one change of clothes (with a hat), sunglasses, a few rations, $500 at least for food money, personal grooming equipment (toothbrush, nail clippers), possibly my DS so I can have something to do when my phone is out of battery (which it would be a lot) and probably a gun. Just in case.

I know I am forgetting some things but this could be an enjoyable experience... if it didn't kill me.

I'd absolutely love to do this. I yearn to be that free.

I know all the feelings you've described and have felt them before, but as quickly as they'd emerged I had to go back to reality. My experiences are only from little camping holidays lasting at most a week though, to do that fox six months must be absolutely incredible.

My worry is though that I don't know what I'd do when/if I went back to a normal life in terms of a job and accommodation. Could you give me some insight on what your situation was like in those regards?

^ I could see re-integrating back into a material, consumerism driven society to be a bit of a challenge after living that kind of life style for so long. Not easy i'm sure.