About every other time you plan on eating at a restaurant, grab a package of hot dogs instead & start chowing. After about 5 or 6, you'll lose the urge.
While I would really like to say, "just go for it", and at one time that's exactly what I would have immediately said because I didn't understand how important proper preperation can be in determining success. This applies to most endeavors in life. Part of the planning and prep that goes into a thru-hike is having enough financial support or, at the very least, understanding how financial needs are going to be accounted for while thru-hiking. Make no mistake about it, resources are needed to complete a thru-hike! I'm in no way saying that folks don't sometimes spontaneously decide to thru-hike with little or no prep and on shoe string budgets and find a way to get it done. Most fail! No where else on a hiking trail in the U.S. is this more apparent than the AT. People get into all sorts of special case scenarios about how they think they can hike. What they actually do is most often very different than what they think.
If you are serious about wanting to thru-hike, and I can see no other way that you would be serious about it unless you truely want to do a thru-hike, that is complete the hike, from Springer to Katahdin, then make sure you understand your needs while on the trail. If you just want to hike for a while and see how far you get and, MAYBE, that will turn into a thru-hike, Fine! Go for it! BUT, if you are going to call yourself a thru-hiker, especially from the start of your hike, with the preconceived intention of actually doing a thru-hike, than understand what that entails and plan for your success.
I've said it before and I will say it again, I've heard a lot of prospective thru-hikers say they were quitting their hikes because they lacked money. I have yet to hear ANY prospective thru-hiker say they were quitting their hike because they had too much money.
Understand this! I'm not saying you will fail. I'm not saying you can't do it. I'm not saying you can't thru-hike on a very limited budget. I have personally witnesssed too many success stories of people that have found ways to complete their thru-hikes. I did this on the AT. DO realize it takes a mindset and lifestyle changes that most find unacceptable, inconvenient, repulsive, painful, harsh, depressing, boring, too much change, etc etc etc. They quit!
While on my AT thru-hike, I met a successful although naive and ill prepared thru-hiking couple who were homeless. They hit Springer with less than $1000(if I recall correctly it was something in the neighborhood of $700-$800) for the two of them. They lacked gear(adequate shoes, packs, etc etc etc), food, and money. I witnessed the man hiking in shoes with holes in their soles. He hiked in wet feet for awhile until he found other used hiking shoes, two sizes too big, in a hiker box. I witnesssed him almost fall down a flight of stone steps on the AT because they didn't fit right. They ate quite often from what was available at hiker boxes. They lost a tremendous amount of wt. Sometimes they went hungry because relying on hiker boxes is a hit or miss situation. Not a very smart way to rely on for eating or for gear while on a thru-hike. In my mind, relying on raiding hiker boxes consistently is no way to thru-hike. Kind of a selfish dirtbag way to hike to me. Yeah, I said it! Other hikers tried helping them as much as they could but their needs were greater than others could supply. They sometimes bummed food and gear from other hikers. Not all hikers appreciated the extra burden. Some hikers felt uncomfortable around them because they would ask for things because they didn't have enough money to provide for these things themselves or they would see how they were suffering because of being unprepared. I would sometimes see them in town. While most other hikers were congregating at a hostel, restaurant, outfitter, etc they very often didn't/coudn't participate because they were on such a strict budget or they didn't have funds. They were almost always filthy with tattered clothing. When I say filthy, I mean beyond what even thru-hikers call filthy. They didn't have rain jackets for a while. I saw the woman, soaked through, shivering uncontrollably at a shelter in the Smokies. Several times, after their money got real low, to their credit, I guess because they also felt it was their yr., they did some part-time work along the trail raising additional hiking funds. They found a way, albeit, by sometimes also altering the hikes of others, but they made it! They summitted Katahdin within a few days of when I did!
If this is your yr to thru-hike than we will see! I wish you well!
Make as much more money as you can before you leave and then just go and don't look back. Stay out of towns. You can heat water over a fire to wash with. Take the occassional day off just to wash clothes in camp. It will be a true "wilderness" life style but if you are already used to it then go as far as you can. If you make it the whole way it will be the trip of your lifetime. If you only get 1/2 way then you have another 6 months to save for the other half. You can eat on $20 / week if you buy and eat cheap along the way...may not be great food but food none the less. 26 weeks x $20 = $520.
Is it possible? Probably. Will you enjoy it? Depends on your lifestyle. If you live frugal normally and this is your only chance...you will probably love it and will always have good memories...to stay home wondering if you had enough money is no memories. GO!!!!
geek
Well, I don't want to be a bum and cause extra hardships on other hikers so I guess I will take all of the money I can and when it's gone it's gone. The only reason I posted this thread is because everything I have read about the cost of the hike would be around $2000-$6000 dollars. You know good and well the original thru-hikers up until 70's or whenever this trail became so trendy didn't spend that kind of money. I mean, I understand the point of inflation, but I'm talking about the fact there weren't any hostels, no where near as many hotels or restaurants as there are today. I'm comfortable with being uncomfortable and can find joy in just about anything. As long as I can eat, I can hike. We'll see how far I get. Ramen and multi-vitamins? $1 double cheeseburgers and reduced fruits and vegetables from grocery stores when I get into towns?
Don't you mean someone else pays your way?Originally Posted by fiddlehead
Actually, adjusted for inflation, a lot of thru-hikers spent more money in towns, because there weren't hostels & other services that provided discounted rates for hikers.
Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by that. Food discarded in a hiker box is just that -- discarded food. Someone else did pay for it, yeah, but they pretty obviously didn't want it.
Dumpster diving? Also discarded food. Technically the grocery store or whatever paid for it at one point. But I don't think I would consider that having someone else "pay your way."
Work for stay at hostels and such? If the work needs to be done, and isn't just charity, I think that's actually just working.
So yeah, it can be done for free, insofar as anything is "free." Depends on what strategies you adopt, and what you're willing to put up with.
In some ways, yes.
It's still possible, though, if someone is willing to be "that guy." Which is the point, basically.
I'm not a thru-hiker (yet), but I'm interested in the group's psychology. If you had to choose between helping a hiker having a temporary problem but otherwise prepared and one who hopes to thru without enough preparation including their own resources, which one would you help?
The point may be hikers spent less time in towns. In 1980 many if not most of the places referred to as hostels or other subsidized lodgings were provided by churches.
Early A.T. hikers sometimes were invited by locals into their homes, slept in outbuildings or enjoyed other opportunities no longer available due to route changes and increasing user levels.
The A.T. and those value it will benefit more when its users know more about its resources it serves to protect including but not limited to its history and culture and when they come by their experiences primarily through their own efforts.
My concern with some of the posts I see is we could be encouraging use of the A.T. which is not consistent with its best interests and in the longer term will change it if not despoil it.
To be more direct, people unable or unwilling to provide for themselves shouldn't expect others on the A.T. to provide for them. It's one thing to assist someone, but it's another thing altogether to fund hikes for individuals unwilling to defer gratification and perfectly capable of providing for themselves.
Those who start with less financial resources than what's required to complete their objective need to recognize when they're no longer able to provide for their own support and should not expect others to carry them.
Enabling such individuals may be a disservice to them, one's fellow hikers, the A.T. and those who provide the experience.
Neither. I carry enough for me. The only help I could offer is to inform in which direction and how far it would be to reach a town where one could possibly get a job or seek out social services. I planned and saved for years for MY thru hike. Not room in my pack or budget to support someone else. I'm not about to let someone die out there, but I have no problem sharing a little tough love either.
For me it would matter.
Someone who brings a water filter, but it breaks I would let them use mine until we get to the next town. Someone who doesn't bring a water filter can drink dirty water.
Someone makes a mistake in the way they hang their food bag and it gets raided by animals and I have some extra I would help. Someone doesn't budget for enough food or doesn't do what they are suppose to to keep animals away can starve.
Someone doesn't pack a tent, I am not making room for them in the shelter. Someone packs a tent that rips but doesn't pack any duct tape, I will give them tape to make a repair.
Love people and use things; never the reverse.
Mt. Katahdin would be a lot quicker to climb if its darn access trail didn't start all the way down in Georgia.
Unfortunately, and not to be disrespectful, but that was then and this is now. $100 in the 70's bought one bags and bags of groceries. Today you are lucky to leave the store with a few. You can have a decent wilderness experience on your $500 for as far as it will go (and understand I have never thru-hiked), but from what I have learned, that amount will be very hard to finance a trip like this. Your talking like $3 a day. I mean I guess depending upon who you are, if you receive help, etc...it is possible, but eating good, replacing gear when needed, getting off the trail for real shelter and recuperation when necessary are important things one needs to consider being able to afford and do if one wants to really have a chance of being able to complete an entire thru-hike.
I had a thread I had posted awhile back in the "Thru-Hikers Specific Topics" catagory entitled "Under-Funded Thru-Hikers" in which a lot of this was discussed if anybody is interested in reading other's comments about this.
Aside from the obvious things like avoiding towns as much as possible, an extreme low budget trip requires carrying more food than most modern hikers manage to do. Stop only at towns with large supermarkets, and avoid all convenience foods. To the extent possible buy only big packages of rice, powdered milk, oatmeal, and pasta, and a few spices, sweeteners, like basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Check the labels carefully. Look for the most calories per buck. You can cut your food costs in half or more. The draw back. This stuff takes longer to cook. So plan on doing a lot of cooking over a wood stove. Carry a simple hobo stove and plan to spend an extra half hour or more a day finding wood, and cooking.
Finally graze the hiker boxes. They often hold a wealth of goodies. And if worse comes to worse, just head north, stopping from time to time to do a few odd jobs for pay. A thru hike is ideal. But a few hundred miles, or a thousand mile walk is better than nothing -- and far more than most people, even many thru hiker wanna be's, ever achieve.
Weary
better hit the hiker boxes for food. Forget eating in any restaurant. Try to get close to 2,000$ and you can get all the food you want and some drink/hostels, but still stay out of any hotel.
I don't presume to think I know what's best for the AT, or which changes make it better or worse.
But I think the majority of posters on whiteblaze who have hiked the trail, including myself, would tell people that a severely underfunded thru-hike attempt is a bad idea, and I think the majority of posts on this thread have been consistent with that. Those who do say to go ahead and hike almost always point out that the person will most likely not hike the entire trail, but that the person might have a good experience anyway.
If answering a question is enabling, well then I might just be guilty of that.
The original poster asked what the cheapest anyone has hiked the trail on. The answer is zero, and I knew one person who did it. That person didn't beg from fellow hikers or use their gear, and in fact had to essentially be tricked by Bob Peoples into accepting a backpack (he had previously been carrying his stuff in a 5 gallon paint bucket).
He didn't expect anyone on the AT to help him, and in fact the only thing he would accept from me other than my company was a cup of coffee when I saw him in town.
I didn't see him despoiling the trail in any particular way.
Personally, I'll help someone on the trail if their gear is faulty, or if they forgot something, and I'll help them until we reach the next town. But I'm not going to bankroll someone else's hike, and I'm not a sherpa.
But neither am I going to tell someone what they are or are not capable of. I'll tell them what the negatives are, and try to make them realize how hard it would be to do such a hike, particularly for their first thru-hike. And I'm going to discourage them from being the guy who's the mooch on the trail. But I'm not going to presume to tell them they can't do it, or even that they shouldn't try.
And I'm not going to automatically think that hiking the trail on no funds necessarily means having other people pay for your hike. 'Cause I've seen it done without resorting to that.
weathercarrot's article is interesting. He was doing it in 2003 for $1000. That seems to include a bit of staying at hostels. With inflation? $1250 to $1500?? With $500, just go as far as you can. Save as much as you can before you leave and try to pick up short term work along the way.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...2959#post22959
Nutrition and Food: Try to eat a reasonably nutritious diet. Read up on nutrition. Rice and beans (lentils cook reasonably fast) is good and cheap. Explore your local supermarkets/Walmarts, etc. See what's available in bulk. Start eating/cooking cheap at home to learn what you like, what cooks quick enough and is filling. Don't buy any more junk food till you start your hike. You can probably save a fair amount of money on food at home and still eat in a healthier manner than you do now. Once you're on the trail you'll be shopping for a combination of nutrition and calories.
Check craig's list for a cheap food dehydrator. Read Sarbar's web site http://www.trailcooking.com/trail-co...ag-cooking-101 and the Cooking and Food forum on WB.
Just get out there and see how far you can make it. Have fun on the trail.
2003 i hike around honduras from Mar. till sept. other then gear and plane ticket thats all the money i spent.
Save more .... enjoy yourself more.
Order your copy of the Appalachian Trail Passport at www.ATPassport.com
Green Mountain House Hostel
Manchester Center, VT
http://www.greenmountainhouse.net
I just added up the figures. My wife and I spent just 429.38 in the ;ast month at the supermarket where i do 90%plus of our shopping. That's since Jan. 20 for those who may be counting. We do not skimp. Nor does anyone think we do not eat well. We've had guests over for dinner a couple of times. Kids and grandkids show up regularly for family dinners and seem to think we eat better than they do. Two are expected in a few minutes for some pizzas I'm making from scratch.
Admittedly, we do not have the calorie needs of a thru hiker, though I manage to walk 5 miles most days with a 15 pound pack.
But my wife and I consume a bottle of wine a day -- an $180 cost that an under budget thru hiker should forego. And included in the $429.38 is $32 for the Sunday and Tuesday New York Times, my wife's passion for doritos, and the Sam Adams I consume occasionally, but mostly buy for the friend my daughter lives with, who would be a son in law should they get married. He's willing, but Brenda isn't.
The secret: Don't buy anything -- or very little that isn't on sale. Don't buy brand names unless a sale makes them more attractive than the generic version. It happens quite often really.
Translating this to the trail. If you want to hike cheaply you need to shop wisely, and be willing to carry more weight, because cheap buys don't come as often as you might like. You'll often need to carry a 10 day supply of things that are extra cheap.
No, you can't do the trail on just $500. But you can come close if you really want to do the trail, and are able to forego the fun of the continuing series of parties that keep many hikers happy through the long green tunnel.
Tip. Learn to apprciate the many wonders of the tunnel and you will experience a better hike than even the most avid party hiker.
Weary
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