Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Struggling to create the life you want? Do you long for excitement and adventure? This 5-part guide will help you understand the appeal of the dirtbag life and get you started on your own path to an adventurous lifestyle immediately.
Concerned that focusing your life on adventure could damage your career? Worried you may be left in financial ruin? Wondering how to maintain your close relationships? Asking yourself if pursuing an adventurous lifestyle makes you irresponsible? Prevents you from contributing meaningfully to the world? Self professed dirtbag and founder of the Boldly Went movement, Tim Mathis, is a thru-hiker, kayaker, ultrarunner, climber, skier, and around-the-world backpacker. He has taken what he's learned from thousands of encounters with dirtbags and adventure lifestylers and put it into this one book to help you get on the path to making adventure your lifestyle and creating the life you want.
The Dirtbag's Guide to Life: Eternal Truth for Hiker Trash, Ski Bums, and Vagabonds is partly a celebration of an under-appreciated outdoor subculture, and partly a "how to" guide for adventure on the cheap.
If you know someone who lives a weird, dirty, traveling lifestyle, you'll laugh as you read Mathis' first solid attempt to define an outdoor community that has taken root in backpacker hostels, long trails, ski fields, waterways, and climbing crags around the world. If you are wondering how to center your own life on adventure, then Mathis's humorous book contains all the tools you need.
In
The Dirtbag's Guide to Life, you'll discover:
- How to effectively manage your money to support your current aspirations and avoid future financial detriment
- Strategies to make your career work for you
- Ways to incorporate important relationships into your journey
- What to do with all those responsibilities you've accumulated
- How to live intentionally and make your life meaningful and much, much more
The Dirtbag's Guide to Life is a hilarious and inspiring review of budget travel and outdoor culture. This book gives you the support you need as you pursue your own adventurous journey. If you like working toward creating a life full of meaning and adventure, learning practical tips from experts about how to do that, and surrounding yourself by a like-minded supportive community, then you'll love Tim Mathis' humorous book chock full of resources.
Buy
The Dirtbag's Guide to Life to stoke the fire of your adventures today
Reviews "I see the "how on Earth do you make this happen?" question in various groups all the time. I'd love to just get this guide out there in response " - Heather "Anish" Anderson. 2019 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and author of Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home
"Have you read Rolf Potts' Vagabonding? It feels a bit like the American Vagabonding." - Six2 - Pacific Crest and Appalachian Trail Alum.
"Gosh I love your book It resonates so much." - Kathy Vaughan, Team UltraPedestrian and co-author of 98 Days of Wind: The Greatest Fail of Our Life
"I learned a lot from this guide. I wish I had it when I first started traveling and before Darwin and I hiked the Appalachian Trail. There are so many aspects of the dirtbag life that Mathis touches on that would otherwise be something you kinda just have to learn on your own. I highlighted so much of this book for its awesome quotes, topics and for subjects I wanted to look further into, it's basically yellow and I've lived this dirtbag style life In a perfect world when someone sends an email or in person slams me with questions about my lifestyle, questions about money, or even pops in some criticism, I'll send over a copy of The Dirtbag's Guide to Life, smile and walk away." - Snuggles of Darwin on the Trail and The Snuggle Diaries
Synopsis
Witty, useful, and inspiring, The Dirtbag's Guide to Life is your blueprint for an adventurous life, whatever your financial situation.
In the spirit of classics like Rolf Potts' Vagabonding and Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel, The Dirtbag's Guide to Life offers indispensable advice for building your own life of adventure, and life wisdom for anyone who finds inspiration in the outdoors.
Both a celebration of an under-appreciated outdoor subculture and a how-to guide for adventure on the cheap, the book explains how to make adventure your lifestyle, drawing on dozens of real-life examples of "dirtbags" - people who've organized their lives around outdoor pursuits like climbing, thru-hiking, trail running and surfing on the lowest possible budget. Tim Mathis offers the first detailed attempt to define this community, while distilling the lessons they can teach for the average reader.
The book is honest about the costs associated with a life centered on adventure and exploration, and Mathis keeps a sense of humor about the subject matter. But his approach is consistently realistic, heartfelt and inspiring, and will leave you feeling like the dream of pursuing your passion is attainable.
Writing for the weekend warrior as much as the record-breaking athlete, The Dirtbag's Guide to Life is full of stories and resources, and distills essential lessons from decades of personal experience and thousands of encounters with some of the world's most interesting adventurers. Organized to be as accessible as possible, the book addresses the key challenges to building the type of life you want:
- How to effectively manage your money to support your current aspirations while also planning for the future
- How to make your career something that supports your passion rather than a barrier to doing what you want
- Ways to incorporate important relationships into your journey
- What to do with all those responsibilities you've accumulated
- How to live intentionally and make your life meaningful through the process
- ...and much more
Whether you aspire to quit your job to travel the world, hope to someday hike the Appalachian Trail, or just want to fit in a bit more mountain biking on the weekends, The Dirtbag's Guide to Life is an essential, inspiring, and hilarious resource.
Praise for The Dirtbag's Guide to Life
"I see the "how on Earth do you make this happen?" question in various groups all the time. I'd love to just get this guide out there in response " - Heather "Anish" Anderson. 2019 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and author of Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home
"Gosh I love your book It resonates so much." - Kathy Vaughan, Team UltraPedestrian and co-author of 98 Days of Wind: The Greatest Fail of Our Life
"If you're not a full-on dirtbag this book is for you. If you're interested in what it means to be a dirtbag, this book is for you. If you know someone that lives a weird dirty traveling lifestyle, but don't understand why, this book is for you. If you already are living like a dirtbag, this book is for you.
If you have any sense of travel or adventure, you're going to get something out of this guide. It's definitely not one of those books you're going to read and be done with, you're going to find yourself referring back to it for information. I'm still going back and taking more notes Mine will be close at hand and for you, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT."
- Snuggles of
Darwin on the Trail and
The Snuggle DiariesSynopsis
Forget picket fences. Live your best life. Sleep in the dirt.
In the spirit of classics like Rolf Potts' Vagabonding and Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel, The Dirtbag's Guide to Life is an indispensable resource for building your own life of adventure.
Both a celebration of an under-appreciated subculture and a practical how-to guide, the book explains how to make adventure your lifestyle, drawing on the example of "dirtbags" - people who've organized their lives around outdoor pursuits like climbing, thru-hiking, trail running and surfing on the lowest possible budget. Mathis himself came from humble beginnings to put together a life full of outdoor adventure and international travel, and his book distills wisdom from conversations with hundreds of the world's most interesting adventurers collected while he and his wife were producing the Boldly Went podcast. He keeps you laughing about the subject matter, but his approach is consistently grounded, heartfelt and inspiring, and will leave you feeling like the dream of pursuing your own passion is attainable.
Asserting that a life of adventure should be accessible to everyone, The Dirtbag's Guide to Life draws on this real world experience to identify and address the key challenges to building the type of life you want, whether you're a weekend warrior or a professional explorer:
- How to effectively manage your money to support your current aspirations while also planning for the future
- How to make your career something that supports your passion rather than a barrier to doing what you want
- Ways to incorporate important relationships into your journey
- What to do with the responsibilities you've accumulated
- How to live intentionally and make your life meaningful through the process
...and much more.
Whether you aspire to quit your job to travel the world, plan to someday hike the Appalachian Trail, or just want to fit in a bit more mountain biking on the weekends, The Dirtbag's Guide to Life is an essential, inspiring, and consistently entertaining resource.
Praise for The Dirtbag's Guide to Life
"I see the "how on Earth do you make this happen?" question in various groups all the time. I'd love to just get this guide out there in response " - Heather "Anish" Anderson. 2019 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and author of Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home
"Gosh I love your book It resonates so much." - Kathy Vaughan, Team UltraPedestrian and co-author of 98 Days of Wind: The Greatest Fail of Our Life
"If you're not a full-on dirtbag this book is for you. If you're interested in what it means to be a dirtbag, this book is for you. If you know someone that lives a weird dirty traveling lifestyle, but don't understand why, this book is for you. If you already are living like a dirtbag, this book is for you.
If you have any sense of travel or adventure, you're going to get something out of this guide.
- Snuggles of
Darwin on the Trail and
The Snuggle DiariesAbout the Author
Tim Mathis was raised by working class parents in small-town Ohio, and has since spent years traveling extensively in North and South America, Oceania, Europe and Australia. He's thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and El Camino de Santiago, and with his wife Angel, he co-founded Boldly Went, a podcast and event series that collected stories from hundreds of outdoor adventurers and athletes. He's written for Trail Runner Magazine, Grit City Magazine, The Oru Kayak Blog, The Race to Alaska Podcast, and has been featured on The Art of Manliness Podcast. He and his wife fund their adventures on nursing salaries.