[newsoundwave]

Me personally: I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexico-California border to the Washington-Canada border in 2022. While I missed work on trail, it definitely made me realize that once I'm financially independent, I'm mostly going to be living a life outdoors, with occasional indoor time to play music.

Your situation is a bit different from my goals, but honestly if I had that opportunity, I'd be doing my best to explore the woods/mountains nearby in whatever way I can.

I also kind of agree with the "Learn German" comment - learning a non engineering skill that's also either practical or brings you joy is a great way to eat up time. I'm speak a few languages, but as I only regularly use English in my day-to-day life, just maintaining the other ones at a high skill level is a time consumer, though one I enjoy doing.

[ar_lan]

I've always wanted to do this trail! How was it - honestly? I delved deep into one bagging a few years ago which brought me to ultralight groups/blogs, and this is the one trail that always just seems so... hard, but freaking cool.

[newsoundwave]

I'm not going to say everything was perfect - sometimes it was miserable (mosquitoes, wildfires, close encounters with irresponsible hunters, etc). With that said, it's been more than 3 months since I've finished and not a day goes by when I don't think about it.

The people you meet out there are fantastic too. I'm fortunate enough to live in Colorado, where a bunch of us came from, and we hang out fairly frequently. We actually went for a hike yesterday that I wouldn't feel comfortable inviting just anybody on.

[afr0ck]

I feel like you are describing me. I speak four languages. I love engineering and building stuff, but I have a limitless love to nature and the outdoors, hiking, biking, swimming in the wilds, hunting, and I love Deserts and mountains.

[trvrsalom]

Hiking the PCT is absolutely a bucket list item. Sadly, the on-call part means I have to remain local. I'm definitely planing to explore though.

[newsoundwave]

Yeah, I'm extremely lucky to work at a company where I could take an unpaid leave of absence and also I work with a great team that was happy to make sure my oncall shifts were covered until I got back.