[pct-l] The cost of hiking

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

A surprisingly hefty expense was post office business. If you can  
minimize that, you'll save.

A huge and avoidable expense for me was a rental car I got to go from  
Bishop to Santa Barbara. If you feel like quitting the trail, don't  
do it in Bishop. You can't get anywhere from there. Well, not easily,  
cheaply and southward at the same time.

And as nice as it sounds from the comfort of your home to avoid  
staying in motels, I don't know that I could have avoided it. It was  
the siren song of a hot shower and the promise of a few hours  
completely supine in front of the TV that got me to shell out the  
bucks. Plus I needed a safe place to store and spread out all my  
stuff while I resupplied. As time went on, however, I did get into  
the groove of the trail and being a vagabond so I think if I had  
continued longer on the trail, that expense would have diminished.

On the plus side, train travel home was surprisingly inexpensive and  
comfortable. I recommend it to anyone looking for a way home who can  
do that by train.