The Dirtbag's Guide to Life

Eternal Truth for Hiker Trash, Ski Bums, and Vagabonds

De: Tim Mathis

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

“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. National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, record-setting long distance hiker, and author of Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home.

Forget picket fences. Live your best life. Sleep in the dirt.

Carrying forward the spirit of classics like Henry Thoreau’s Walden and Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding, The Dirtbag’s Guide to Life is an indispensable resource for building your own life of adventure.

Both a cheeky celebration of an under-appreciated subculture and a practical how-to manual, the book explains how to make adventure your lifestyle, drawing on the example of people who center their lives on outdoor pursuits like climbing, thru-hiking, trail running, and surfing—often on the lowest possible budget.

Asserting that a life of adventure should be accessible to everyone, the guide distills the real-world experiences of hundreds of the most dedicated dirtbags to address the key challenges to building the life you want, whether you’re a weekend warrior or a professional athlete:

• How to stretch a small budget to accomplish big adventures through seasonal work, minimalist living, and dirtbag financial strategies.
• How to build a career path that will support your passions rather than working against them.
• How to maintain friendships and make your mother proud in a life punctuated by six month thru-hikes and overseas adventure.
• How to manage grown-up responsibilities like debt, housing, and health insurance without giving up time flexibility.
• How to live intentionally and make your life meaningful through a simple, adventure-centered lifestyle.

Whether you plan 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 consistently entertaining resource.

A note on the 2025 revision:

This book started as advice for a few friends who wanted to work less and go outside more. Somewhere along the way, it connected with thousands of readers. This updated edition is revised, polished, and expanded to keep the dirtbag dream growing.

Loved this, will listen too again!…..!

Fantastic book that captures the spirit and realities of the dirtbag life! Ver inspiring! The author did a great job!…..!

Cool begets Cool

I don’t like robots reading to me. Ironic since this book is all about being in nature and not around technology.

Empowering

Fell upon this book due to a recommendation from a fellow dirtbag. Realistic strategy on how to live the life of your dreams is presented, and I will aim to carry them with me as I pursue a life of adventure

Inspiring!

A book that explores the counter culture of deeply pursuing outdoor sport hobbies, and not being tied to a cubicle or desk. It’s a beautiful book and has really great financial lessons for anybody, but in a way is also a counter culture to consumerism and the pursuit of material things. I love this book and feel very inspired by it as somebody who works a 9 to 5 job and doesn’t have any extreme outdoor hobbies, but would like to spend more time outdoors.

Loved it!

Very well written. So glad to find something like this it’s really something unique. As a climber/biker/hiker and just overall adventure lover and having a girlfriend who really wants to travel abroad, this covers everything! I can’t say how much I appreciate the author for making this! Also The AI voice was actually good better than some real human narrators.

The extremes people go for adventure.

Loved listening to the stories of people living their dreams and giving the world their middle finger. Society is so judgmental about what you have instead of who you are. The people who truly succeed in this moment are the truly rich. #1000trailsandmore

Thorough guide to the dirtbag life

Very cool perspective on an alternate way to live. The virtual voice narration was excellent, I thought it was better than most human narrated novels.

Regurgitated advice

Oof, this was tough. Especially hard with the AI narration constantly mispronouncing words. Couldn’t get through the whole thing.