[pct-l] Low cost Thru

[Steel-Eye]

Good evening, David,

The short answer is, I have no idea what it will cost you, and other
people's answers won't be of much use unless you know exactly what
they did, or did not, include.  The largest single cost increment for most
hikers is the loss of income opportunity, i.e. the probable net income plus
benefits that you will miss by being out of the job market for about half a
year.  If you want to see a small number just tell yourself that you would
probably just sit on your butt anyway if you weren't on the trail.   Since
I'm retired that's my situation, but most younger hikers have to account
for income loss.

Another significant increment is household costs.  If you have to continue
to pay rent or a mortgage while on the trail it is an expense.  If you won't
continue to pay rent, you may have to pay for storage for household stuff.
A similar cost could be the debt service on loans.  Either continue
to service the debt or push it out for 6 months and suffer the additional
interest.

Food is another big increment but since you have to eat anyway it could
actually be less expensive to eat on the trail than at home.  That all
depends upon how often you would eat out if you were at home.

An expense you won't know about until you have many trail miles under your
sneakers is the cost for hotels and restaurants in trail towns, and the
number of trail-town days you take.  Food and lodging in town can easily
cost as much as $100 per day, particularly the way hikers eat.

Most serious long-distance hikers will take a look at the expense column,
but usually in terms of assuring they have sufficient funds to bridge the
work gap, or have some line-of-sight to a job when they return so they can
work down the debt.  I doubt if any serious hiker would think, "I only want
to spend $1.00 per mile but since it looks like it may be $1.10 per mile I
won't go."

Steel-Eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Thibault" <dthibaul07 at gmail.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 7:23 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Low cost Thru


>I was discussing the cost of a thru hike a while ago and this question
> arose, how cheaply can a thru hike be done?  I'm aware of the estimates of
> $1/mi, etc.  What I am interested in is how low cost has someone actually
> done a thru in the last couple of years?  Anyone want to brag as to how
> little it costs for say '06 - '08 thru hikes.    I'm looking for the amunt
> of cash needed from leaving your house until you return 4-5 months later.
> I'm interested in traditional thru hikes - not record breaking attempts,
> as
> I suspect they might not be representative of the typical hikers expenses.
> Note: I'll be attempting a thru in '09 and do NOT plan a doing it for
> minimum cost.
> Day-late ('09 thru wannabe)
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