[pct-l] New Wanna-be Thru-hiker- Cost

[Jackie McDonnell]

A reasonable amount for the cost of a thru-hike is $5000.   4-5 pairs of
shoes, $80-ish each.  Figure every town stop costs about $100, and you'll
see about 25 towns. Restaurant food gets REAL expensive after you've been
on the trail for 4 weeks or so.  Your appetite REALLY kicks in, and you'll
eat 3 restaurant meals in every town.  Figure $15-ish per meal.  How many
$5 beers will you drink?  Several.  I rarely drink at home, but there's
something special about rolling into a trail town, sitting at the local bar
for a beer and a burger.  Sharing a motel room will average to about
$30/person/night, much more if you don't share.  Trail food -- I spend $10
per DAY on trail food.  A snickers bar in a C-store is around $1.  You
better factor in a budget to replace gear that isn't working the way you
want.  Sometimes you have to pay for a ride to/from the trail.  And don't
forget about travel expenses to/from the start/finish of the trail.

$2-$3 day is completely unreasonable.  That's for the rare hiker who eats
the powdered food left in hiker boxes, and who begs to sleep on the floor
of a motel room which someone else has paid for.  Don't be a mooch.  Nobody
likes that guy.

Work hard during the off-season, save your money, then hike the hike that
you earned.  You'll enjoy it much more.

Yogi
www.pcthandbook.com


On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 10:05 AM, Doug Carlson <doug-sue at centurylink.net>wrote:

> I have seen cost estimates of what it actually costs to thru hike as low as
> $2- $3 dollars a day factoring in costs of guides, gear, food, etc.  But I
> have never seen that cost down to zero.  Living takes money whether at home
> or on the trail.  That is all there is too that.
>
> I am retired.  I don't have a lot of income, but now it's like an allowance
> and it just comes in regardless of what I do.  In that way, retirement is
> probably the easiest time of one's life to afford and manage long distance
> hiking- if one can wait that long.
>
> Or, plan carefully and retire a bit early and hike your feet off!!
>
> -Trew (retired!)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
> On Behalf Of Diane Soini
> Sent: Monday, September 23, 2013 6:07 AM
> To: rogerrobinson at madasafish.com
> Cc: Pct-L at backcountry.net
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] New Wanna-be Thru-hiker
>
> On Sep 23, 2013, at 2:02 AM, rogerrobinson at madasafish.com wrote:
>
> > I'm hoping to do  it with no money  and  no savings
>
> I think you have mentioned this twice now. Are you planning to dumpster
> dive
> your way through? It seems it would be a lot easier to just walk and
> hitchhike across America on roads and through cities on no money than to
> walk in the wilderness.
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