[pct-l] RE: isn't hiking free?!?

[elee at microsoft.com (Eric Lee (GAMES))]

Bluce wrote:
>
With this in mind, is ultra-light hiking perhaps more
costly? Would a heavier pack offer more luxury thus
keep you away from hotels and diners? Does speed come
at a cost?
>

That might be true, but I think it's more the goal and mindset of the
hiker than the particular style of hiking that determines overall cost.
When your goal is to thru-hike, you do everything necessary to
accomplish that goal.  Using ultralight gear usually helps.  Freely
spending money in certain appropriate ways also helps.  For some people,
long-distance hiking might be about zero-cash-flow living but that's not
what it's about for me (though I do appreciate the simpler living of a
long hike).

Anyway, I suppose it's a matter of perspective.  I go through a shocking
amount of money each year to support myself, my wife, and my four kids
in our standard American middle-class lifestyle.  When people talk about
spending a dollar a mile for a thru-hike ($2600 over ~5 months, a pretty
realistic figure for most people), heck, that sounds pretty darn close
to free to me!

Eric