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Business Is Booming on Appalachian Trail

In echoes of Depression-era hobos, hikers subsist on bartered farm labor

By Jane Yager, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 21, 2009 1:00 PM CDT

(Newser) – The Appalachian Trail has been packed this year, as the unemployed wait out the bad economy by hiking almost 2,200 miles between Maine and Georgia—and often pay for the journey by working as they go, the Wall Street Journal reports. The trail offers a subsistence lifestyle—hikers budget $1 a mile and trade short-term labor at farms and businesses along the way for food and shelter—without the stigma of homelessness or unemployment.

"If you do this on the trail, you're a hiker," says one. "If you do this off the trail, you're a bum." As they trade vegetable weeding or hay baling for a place to crash, hikers are reminiscent of Great Depression hobos. But unlike hobos of yore, today's hikers have resumes on their mind—one 22-year-old hopes the farm work she did while hiking will bolster her Peace Corps application.

In this Aug. 7, 2006 file photo, Greg Morath of Cincinnati, Ohio, pauses on Chairback Mountain on the 100-Mile Wilderness section of the Appalachian Trail north of Monson, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Appalachian Trail thru-hikers Phillip Zappone and Brodie Trickey pause near the summit of Mount Katahdin in this Sept. 7, 2001, file photo, in Maine's Baxter State Park. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty/FILE)

This March 2007 photo shows Sue Turner, whose trail name is Hammock Hanger, hiking on the Pinhoti Trail near Piedmont, Ala. The Alabama Pinhoti, running about 130 miles from central Alabama to the Georgia... (AP Photo/Wendi J. Merritt)

This photo taken May 30, 2009, and provided by John Gearan shows an unidentified hiker viewing the valley from an overlook on Skyline Drive near Front Royal, Va. Over 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail... (AP Photo/John Gearan)

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In echoes of Depression-era hobos, hikers subsist on bartered farm labor

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Fed Sees High Unemployment All Next Year

Forecast sees it at 8.6% at end of 2012

Paycheck Data Dismal in 2010

...Unless you were a millionaire

US Incomes Fell More After Recession Than During It

Median household income down 6.7% between June 2009, June 2011

CBO: 'Profound' Challenges Ahead

Deficit should fall, but employment, growth remain low

Only McDonald's Saved Us From Losing Jobs

Depressing: That one-day hiring binge kept us in the black

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Business Is Booming on Appalachian Trail

In echoes of Depression-era hobos, hikers subsist on bartered farm labor

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OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

hiking • recession • unemployment • Appalachian Trail

MOST POPULAR STORIES

[ By Views ]

[ By Comments ]

More Newser Stories

Fed Sees High Unemployment All Next Year

Forecast sees it at 8.6% at end of 2012

Paycheck Data Dismal in 2010

...Unless you were a millionaire

US Incomes Fell More After Recession Than During It

Median household income down 6.7% between June 2009, June 2011

CBO: 'Profound' Challenges Ahead

Deficit should fall, but employment, growth remain low

Only McDonald's Saved Us From Losing Jobs

Depressing: That one-day hiring binge kept us in the black

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Newser By Users

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What is Newser?