what is your PCT 2015 budget?

[HarryHoodHiker]

Dear class of 2015 or past years. What is (was) your PCT thru-hike budget?
I am going to completely re-outfit myself gear wise which i assume will be $2000 right there!
I haven't figured out how to budget for food/towns/ trail expenses yet, although I have come across some great resources online.
5
I wanna know what your 2015 PCT budget is? Do you have to re-outfit yourself gear wise? I am thinking $4,000-$5,000 including getting new gear. Is this way too conservative of a budget? -harry hood

[HarryHoodHiker]

come on peeps

[quasarr]

Hello again, Harry!

First off, I think you can get away with much less than $2,000 on gear - even if you need to buy everything! There is a lot of good advice on WB on how to buy gear for cheap. Many new thru-hikers think that they need stuff that is "for hiking," which is always more expensive! For example, you can hike just as well in a polyester shirt from the thrift store that costs $3 as you can with a Patagonia shirt that cost $60. And don't forget to check the "Selling Used Gear" section of WB for some really good deals! You have plenty of time, so be patient, wait for things to go on sale, check backcountry.com, and ask for advice before you buy something expensive!

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...a-Professional

I say that you need $4,000-5,000 for the hike alone! Many people leave the trail because they ran out of money, wrongly believing they could be disciplined with their spending. Do you know how hard it is to be the only hiker who can't afford a beer or a cheeseburger? After 5 days on the trail, you will probably give in to temptation and buy that burger or that hotel room, etc. It is possible to hike on the cheap. But those people are (usually) either moochers who take free stuff all the time and never pay trail angels, or cavemen who just don't care about showers and other civilized pleasures.

So start saving now, when it is much much easier to turn down a dinner at a restaurant!

And last of all, going lightweight can sometimes be cheaper. For example, look at rain jackets. I always recommend the O2 jacket, which costs $32 and weighs 6oz. I used it myself. (downside is it doesn't have pockets) Another option is the infamous Frogg Toggs rain suit, with jacket and pants together weighing 10 oz and costing only $22. Compare these options to the many rain jackets available at REI, which cost hundreds of dollars and weigh much more. Sure, you won't win any fashion awards with the Frogg Toggs, but you'll stay dry and have a lighter pack!

http://www.froggtoggsraingear.com/DriDucks.shtm

http://o2rainwear.com/2011/03/original-hooded-jacket/

Sorry for the long post, but I hope that cleared some things up for you!

[garlic08]

Unless you buy the most expensive gear during the season, $2000 is way too much for your kit. Mine cost more like $800, including a high-end 15 degree down bag. I agree that going light can save money, contrary to popular myths.

There are various rules of thumb for trail cost, like $1000/month (my most accurate) and $2/mile, per person. That'll put you at about $5000 just for hiking expenses, like quasarr says. There's a wide range among hikers out there. Expenses in town are a huge variable. Are you able to walk into town in the morning, do all your errands, then hike out in the afternoon and camp in the woods? Can you pass up the motels and restaurants and microbrews at $5 each? A lot depends on how old and how social you are (and how much money you have to spend).

My PCT hike, ten years ago, cost nearly $10K for my wife and me, including some gear replacement, travel to and from, and celebrating an anniversary and a few other luxuries.

[RED-DOG]

MY PCT budget is $6000 with $1500 in reserve for emergencies that's everything on trail/off trail.

[HarryHoodHiker]

Thanks for helpful posts.

[10-K]

I just finished the PCT - spent approximately $8500 but I didn't skimp on anything and always stayed at nicer hotels and ate at whatever restaurants appealed to me at the moment. I could have done it for much less but I don't think I would have had as good a time. Enjoying towns is part of the experience for me.

[HarryHoodHiker]

I just finished the PCT - spent approximately $8500 but I didn't skimp on anything and always stayed at nicer hotels and ate at whatever restaurants appealed to me at the moment. I could have done it for much less but I don't think I would have had as good a time. Enjoying towns is part of the experience for me.

if you only spent 5000 clams what would you have missed out on town wise? Does is that $8500 all inclusive... gear. food, shoes?

[10-K]

if you only spent 5000 clams what would you have missed out on town wise? Does is that $8500 all inclusive... gear. food, shoes?

The $8500 is what I spent in towns on food and lodging mostly though I did spend several hundred dollars shipping out food for Oregon and Washington in Ashland - I didn't buy a lot of gear on the trip. I probably spent more on socks than every other gear item put together.

Just an example - I spent almost $300 on 1 nights lodging at Timberline Lodge at the base of Mt. Hood. Everyone else camped but I figured I'd never be there again so I splurged.

Given a choice I prefer to stay in a nicer hotel if one is available. In Chester most hikers stayed at a hotel that was $45 per night I thought was a dump - I opted for the Best Western at $150ish. Big fan of amenities.

Also I didn't flinch on eating out. The best restaurant on the entire trip was "The Morning Glory" in Ashland but I was the only one who would shell out $20 for breakfast. It was *so* worth it though!

[bigcranky]

Harry, I don't know how old you are, but in my experience the older hikers often have more money and spend it on luxuries. My wife and I spent a LOT more than the average hiker on the Long Trail this summer. But like 10-K, we prefer a nicer hotel room and good restaurants over the local hiker hostel and AYCE buffet. It's our vacation and we can afford it (and it's still much cheaper than, say, going to Europe for an equivalent amount of time.)

[HarryHoodHiker]

Yeah I am a 27 year old Portland OR transplant looking do the PCT on about $5,000 not including pre hike gear purchases

[Sasquatch!]

$10,000 is a good figure. Hiking is expensive, even without the ocassional hotel, and party favors.

California is super expensive. Food is the primary expense, and consider you will need 3-4x that which you normally eat daily. Hiker boxes and trail angels help, but shouldnt be relied upon often.

[HarryHoodHiker]

$10,000 seems like an insane figure... but I have heard people drop that. What am I giving up if my budget is just 5,000?

[CarlZ993]

What ever you set as your budget, I'd set aside some more as an emergency cushion. If you think you could do the hike for $5K, set aside an additional thousand or so. Things can happen that you don't plan or budget for. I met a hiker on the AT that had to make an emergency trip to the dentist that set him back quite a bit. He got a temporary crown, had to yellow-blaze up the trail, and hike back to the dentist to time the arrival of the permanent crown.

[10-K]

$10,000 seems like an insane figure... but I have heard people drop that. What am I giving up if my budget is just 5,000?

Well... a lot of the difference is intangibles.

You can share a hotel room that costs $100 with 3 other hikers and pay $25 each or you can have the room for yourself for $100. What did you give up for $75? Privacy, personal space, compromises that have to be made when there are 3 extra people, etc. Do that 10 times and you've saved yourself $750 but only you can judge whether it's worth it or not.

You can limit your meals to less expensive restaurants and/or avoid eating out often and save money. What intangible did you give up? The morale boost you get from treating yourself for all the hard work you're doing and often missing out on some regional places that are excellent that you'll likely never get to visit again.

Big Cranky hit the nail on the head I think.... As you get older you (hopefully) have accumulated more assets than someone in their 20's and can afford to spend more. When I was 21 I didn't have $8500 to blow on a thru but I could have probably come up with $5,000 so I get it.

[garlic08]

$10,000 seems like an insane figure... but I have heard people drop that. What am I giving up if my budget is just 5,000?

What 10K said (maybe we should rename him 8.5K?).

Are you under 30? Single? Any low budget travel experience (read "Vagabonding")? Can you leave town without downing four brews? If the answer to all of these is "yes", you'll have no problem on $5K. We older married guys with credit cards will leave you in our spending dust.

When I hiked the AT, it cost me $3.5K (five years ago at age 52). My partner (aged 64) with whom I shared lodging spent will over $5K. The difference was mainly in food. I shopped for bulk, he bought packaged goods. My typical grocery bill for four days on the trail was about $25, his was over $50. He also chose higher priced menu items when we ate out. It all adds up over months.

Another budget-eater is trips home. And failed equipment.

To save money, master the art of the "near-o" (near zero day). Camp a few miles out of town, walk in in the morning, do your errands, rest and eat and spend time in the library on a computer, socialize a bit on the porch of the hostel, pick up a pizza or deli sandwich to eat on the trail, then in early evening hike a few miles to camp. You'll save a ton.

[HarryHoodHiker]

Garlic your words and advice have been most helpful and encouraging. Love the "near-0".

[kevperro]

Save up plenty of money and enjoy it. You don't get to do a trip like this many times in your life. Who wants to pass up a good night drinking on the town and telling lies to your thru-hiking friends?

[Coffee]

My PCT budget is kind of ballooning a little because I have a lot of off-trail expenses associated with travel to and from the trail plus a visit back home in the middle of my trip, and associated costs. But like most other hikers, my on trail budget is around $1,000/month and I feel like that's a comfortable amount. It is about what I spent on-trail over a month in Colorado last summer and I didn't feel like I was lacking anything. I can afford to stay in the nicer hotels but I kind of like staying at hostels, assuming they are reasonably clean, since I can interact with other hikers. I hike mostly solo (and like it that way) but some interaction with others who are also hiking is nice from time to time. If I get sick of the hostel lifestyle, then I can always opt for a private room somewhere else.

I'm a big fan of the "nero day" as garlic suggests above. Not only is it cheaper but I find that I am agitated on a full day in town since I'm not making any progress. For me the only reason to take a full zero would be if I'm injured or just worn out and really need the time off, or if there are non-hiking things to do in the town in question that justify the time and money spent. I don't really see that being the case for most of the towns along the PCT. On the other hand, I'm thinking about the Camino in 2016 and I'd be more likely to do full zeros there given how many cultural things there are to do in some of the towns.

To flesh out the $1K/month on trail budget a bit more, mine works out like this:

$90/week for on-trail food.
$50/week for in-town food.
$75/week on average for in-town lodging
$15/week for misc. in-town expenses (laundry, postage, etc)

$230/week x 4.33 weeks/month on avg = $1,000.

The $75/week, or $325 per month month for lodging will probably work out to 2 hostel stays at ~$30 each plus 2 (nicer) private motel/hotel stays at ~$130 each.

Obviously a real budget hike could be done for a lot less.

[crweidert]

I have about a $6k limit and I'm hoping to keep it closer to $4k. I figure our normal spending habits probably translate to the trail, and I'm pretty cheap.