How much it cost me in $$$ to 'thru-hike' the AT in 2012

[evyck da fleet]

Here's my unbudgeted expense summary of my 2012 thru hike to give those in planning an idea of what it may cost to hike the entire trail and what the money is actually spent on. Those on a limited budget can pick apart areas where they can look to save money. I had all my gear purchased beforehand and am not addressing that here.

Gear $400 - I got lucky that I only had to buy one pair of trailrunners on my hike. I got a replacement pair under warranty and thanks to the wonderful people at The Doyle I got a new pair from the hiker box. The rest of the cost went to fuel canisters, Aqua Mira, tent repair kit and small things picked up at outfitters and for the hell of it I replaced two pairs of shorts, socks, underwear and a short sleeved shirt about 2/3rd of the way through.

Lodging $700 - I spent 32 nights in hostels or hotels(five nights total and only two that I didn't split with another hiker). This came out to about one every four days including 13 zero days in town.

Food (resupply) $975 - spent at Wal-Mart, Dollar General, grocery stores etc
Food (restaurants, bars, delis etc) $1,400 - somewhat surprised by this but understandable. A large pizza and a beer or Coke in each town, not missing any chances to hit up a deli or market within a mile of the trail and taking zeros in town adds up quickly. This could have been a lot higher if I was a drinker. Outside of Gatlinburg and zeros at Trail Days and Daleville I'd have a beer at most in towns. Guessing this accounts for about 1/3 of what I ate on the trail.

Travel $250 - Living in Atlanta helped keep this low. A paid for a few shuttles (back from Trail Days, to bus stop in Medway) a few buses to Bangor and a flight home to Atlanta.

Misc(postage and memory sticks) $75 - mailing home winter gear, mapsand memory sticks (which I bought along the way)

and $700 for side trips to NYC(twice) Boston and DC before getting home.

[JAK]

thanks for that
good stuff

[Grand Poobah]

How in the world did you get a that cheap a flight from Bangor? Im from Atlanta and it was almost 650$ one way from ATL to Bangor in July for my SOBO thur this year. So I flew to boston for 80$ and about 80$ for buses to Medway

[SCRUB HIKER]

Thanks for that, it could be really useful to a potential thru to see this sort of thing in one place.

I was keeping meticulous track of my finances until Pearisburg. At that point, it had become a) too depressing and b) too much work to keep up. I still have the ledger somewhere, but I remember off the top of my head that prepared town food was _double_ my resupply expenses--and I ate and drank modestly compared to some people around me. People who don't work town food into their pre-trip budget are asking for trouble, unless they know their self-discipline is monastically strong.

[4Bears]

Or roughly $2/mi for what looks like a great adventure and good time, thanks for sharing.

[Don H]

Good info, thanks, for posting.
I'm still sticking to my recommendation of $5,000 to do a thru.

It cost me over $400 just to get to Springer for air fare and shuttle. About the same to get home from Maine.
Replaced gear including 4 pair of trail runners at $100 each, one pair of poles at $125, and shorts and socks about $50.
New gear to start, not so much since I had most of the gear but I did buy a new tent at $250 and a new pair of shoes at $100.
Total $1,725 and I haven't hiked yet.

I didn't keep track of food, lodging, or restaurant expenditures but guess it was $1,000 each.

Any way you look at it I think the days of a dollar a mile thru-hikes are over

YMMV

[evyck da fleet]

How in the world did you get a that cheap a flight from Bangor? Im from Atlanta and it was almost 650$ one way from ATL to Bangor in July for my SOBO thur this year. So I flew to boston for 80$ and about 80$ for buses to Medway

Good catch. I actually flew out of NYC since the flight cost the same as Portland $108 on Airtrain. This way I didn't have to worry about when I finished the Trail knowing I had a place to crash with a friend from college for a few days before my flight home. It would have cost me $450 to fly out of Bangor on Delta. The bus trip to Boston is included in my travel cost since I'm sure I would have spent whatever getting from Portland to Boston if I had to time my finish to meet my flight.

[evyck da fleet]

I charged most of my expenses and since I have to track my expenses for my job when not on the trail it wasn't too difficult to break out the hiknig expenses. I think I spent $800-900 in cash on the trail at places that were cash only, where my credit card wouldn't work or to other hikers for the cost of a room or whatever.

I started with all new gear, less than a year old, and had a pole and a headlamp break. I got both replaced by Black Diamond under warranty so that helped keep the gear cost down.

There were a couple of reasons my town food expenses were high. One, I'm not a good cook and got tired of eating oatmeal for breakfast, ramen and pepperoni for lunch and a rice side for dinner every day with Lance crackers, peanut butter M&Ms and Starburst for snacks. I got sick of trail mix and didn't eat any from about mile 700-2000. I also stopped eating bagels with peanut butter once it got hot because I wanted my meals to have liquids in them to stay hydrated. Two, I have very little fat on me and was doing high mileage days so I had to eat a lot in town to make up for the daily calorie deficit from hiking. Three, I got a nice mental lift from eating something different and rewarding myself for little accomplishments. Four, every now and then if you're hiknig with people you like it's nice to head to town or a restaurant and let off some steam or have some fun.

[max patch]

Any way you look at it I think the days of a dollar a mile thru-hikes are over

I thru'd on a dollar a mile.

25 years ago.

[NLaeger]

Thanks for the break down!!! It helps to see what others have done when trying to figure out if it is financially going to be possible for my thru!!!

[garlic08]

Nice breakdown. My costs in '08 were amazingly similar, except my town food expenses were way lower--about $800. And I thought I lived it up, especially in the "deli-a-day" stretch in the mid-Atlantic.

How many days were you out there? My hike cost about $1000 per month.

[The Cleaner]

I hope that guy that says he's gonna hike the trail with 1000$ in the bank sees this.......

[Lost and Confused]

So, If you just hike, eat, resupply and avoid the tourist traps you could probably do this on $1500.00. I've been looking at a lot of videoes and the "hike to get away from it all" mostly winds up in town. Would it be possible to thru hike with only resupply and laundry stops? That would be hardcore!

[Don H]

Of course it's possible, but can you stick to it?

max, $2,100 in 1987 is equal to $4,288 today, adjusted for inflation.

[SOBO_Pace]

I thru hiked with a couple this year that thru'd on 4k. I also met a guy in Maine "lorax" who told me he would finish with spending under 1500.

[jj2044]

is it possible to make it to maine with 1500 ? YES, 1000? YES. im sure its even possible to do it for LESS!. but how likely is it ? how many people REALLY have the discipline to stay every night in the woods ?? 99% of the people i met on the trail went into town every chance they got, or damn close to it. it cracks me up every year you get these threads "1,000 hike". and everyone is going to stay in the woods and never go to town. i have noticed you never see these people come back and tell us how their trips went..
i met 4 (one couple) people this year that started with 1k or less, as far as i know none of them finished.... the couple had no money and were tryin to work for a week at uncle jonneys never saw them after that, there was a guy trying to make necklaces out of rocks and selling them, they were cool looking, but by damacus he was broke and was begging for food, like begging people outside of Quinceys for their left overs.

[Datto]

You can't convince people who don't believe in gravity that it's going to hurt when they jump off the cliff. Some people simply want to jump regardless of the consequences.


Datto

[evyck da fleet]

Link to my trailjournal www.trailjournals.com/Pacecar

I do think it's possible to thru hike on much less. However, the people I saw that were able to hike frugally were experienced hikers who done several long overnight hikes in the past. I hadn't going camping since Cub Scouts 30 years ago so I would have been fooling myself to think I wouldn't stop in town nearly every chance I got. The young kids trying to hike on $1500 quickly realized they were ill prepared whether they admitted it or not and lived it up until about Damascus until they ran out of money. To be honest if that's how they have to learn what they'll need to do to complete a thru hike at least they enjoyed their hike while they were out there as opposed to stretching what they ahve as far as they can go and not enjoying themselves.

I met an young aspiring SOBO thru hiker in Maine who asked me if $2k was enough to thru hike on and I told him that if he neroed in and out of town and avoided the bars it was possible. He responded that he planned to hit the bars in the next town. I told him to enjoy his section hike and that I wasn't trying to be rude but was trying to give him realistic expectations.

[JAK]

Which begs the question, if you had one beer from every place that served or sold beer along the trail, how much would that add to a budget of $2 per mile?

[Mr Breeze]

I spent a total of $2500 on my thru hike last year. So it just depends whether or not you choose or plan to spend money while in town. I stayed in no hotels, and did not eat in any restaurants until i completed my hike. I spent a total of 3 nights in hostels, and only stayed in town long enough to resupply and shower. So because everyone has a different way they choose to hike, the opinion of total money needed to complete a thru hike will vary.