Great accounting. With smokes and alcohol, add $1000-$1500.
Originally Posted by HikerMomKD
Hopefully they mean, never slackpack (which is fun sometimes but I feel naked without my pack), because otherwise they'd be expecting someone else to pick up expenses incurred.
I agree, he paid the suggested donation. He shouldn't be expected to cover those that stiff the hostels. If hostels need more they should ask for more.
Nicely done on the accounting of your hiking costs. It really helps us understand the costs of a hike at your chosen comfort level. Not to frugal, yet missing some nice hostel and hotel stays. (ie Mountain Harbor B&B, Dutch Haus B&B, etc)
I hit the Dutch Haus too early to stay for a night, but I did hike down and eat lunch with them. Very nice place. There were a few other hostels I would have liked to stay at, but they were to close in proximity to the last hostel. (Front Royal Hostel is like 30 miles from Bears Den)
Wish I had known about this...it was a steep climb out of there in the dark and I pitched my tent at the first flat spot I could find.
Useful for budgeting, but should not be counted as part of the cost of a thru hike, if you would have spent that much on smokes/alcohol if you'd stayed at home. Same can be said for food.
I also agree that you shouldn't ever pay for slack packing. Wise choice.
Cause slack packing is lame.
Thanks for a great post and congrats on the hike.
As someone who doesn't have too much of an issue with budget "tightness" I expect that I will spend a fair bit more and donate more to help the balance.
As far your donations are concerned you've been honest and whether big or small donators hikers should be honest about them.
You paid what you felt you should/could.
If we could stop the no payers, there are enough who pay more to make the balance better.
Your comments about two "neroes" instead of a zero is excellent advice for the budget conscious. I intend to do a lot of this anyway to prevent being sucked into losing to many days.
All in all an excellent post to direct all the "how much?" queries to. The kind of post that makes WB such a great resource!
Completely disagree. ANY and ALL money spent while hiking is the cost of the thru-hike. If your not counting those costs you are only deceiving yourself.
QUOTE=Sly;1334723]Hopefully they mean, never slackpack (which is fun sometimes but I feel naked without my pack), because otherwise they'd be expecting someone else to pick up expenses incurred.[/QUOTE]
Hey Sly,Jeff and Jesse ... just now seeing this post. Ok.. you're not prob. not going to like/agree with my reasoning for the comment. Luckily, I've read about how you might feel about slackpacking so I'm informed... yay!I don't have a prob. with slackpacking hiking, myself, or offering to slackpack my hiker friends. So to further explain my response then, I would say that slackpacking is a luxury while on the trail. The OP seemed like he was trying to keep those expenses down. It was not an expense that he would have incurred but like any other trail magic offered- yes, someone has to pay for the luxury of slackpacking etc.... I thought that he was making a wise choice in not paying for slackpacking, himself. I think he could have had slackpacking offered to him as trail magic without too much trouble and if not, it seems like he didn't want to spend the money, for the service. Very wise in IMHO.
When i offer it, myself, I try to combine the slackpacking with another piece of trail magic, like a ride ,at the end of the section, to the Homeplace for a great, all you can eat, southern meal. It's really easy to slackpack hikers from Daleville to RT. 311. It's a nice 20 mile stretch.
Having said all that though, I don't have a problem with you not liking to slackpack yourself or not approving of others enjoying it, for some really great reasons, that you have thought long and hard about. That's fine. No problem, if you don't get in anyone's face about your feelings/opinions. I'm not trying to say that you would do that... just sayin... Live and let live....
Excellent write-up and thank you for doing it, too bad some folks had to chime and critique your donations. They are like people who ask your opinion and get upset if your opinion is not what they wanted to hear. They keep using that word opinion (donation), and I don't think they understand it.
Nice hotels are my $$ curse on long hikes. I prefer them for the cleanness, the quiet (less chance of the "beer on the trail" cliques) and the usually included breakfasts.
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