Cost Per Mile CDT??!?!???

[SunnyWalker]

OK, How about some estimates of what it might cost to hike CDT, per mile. This would be an aveage cost not counting equipment. Thanks.

[Mags]

Since the CDT miles range from an est of 2500 to 3100..kinda hard to say.

Call it $3500 +/- to do the CDT for the "average" (whatever the hell that means) CDT thru-hike.

[Sly]

I wouldn't leave home without $4,000 and $5k would be better.

[garlic08]

Mags can hike a little cheaper than I can. I ditto what Sly says. I like my town stops with motels and good meals, and playing tourist a little. Four grand with a grand contingency fund.

[Mags]

Looking back... ~$4000 is probably more accurate if I factor in the shoes I had to replace.

(Part of the reason of my fuzzy memory is that I did not budget for the CDT strictly. My budget also consisted of post-trail funds that aren't included in the figure. )

I also spend less time in town when I can. (Though I never pass up a burger and beer! )

[Dogwood]

I'm currently in the planning phase for a 2010 CDT thru. With virtually all my main gear pre-purchased and financially accounted for except all my shoes(got some already) and not accounting for USPS postage for my mailed resupply boxes(that's the way I'm mainly resupplying, but taking a hybrid approach in some areas, not even close to having purchased all my supplies yet) and not counting transportation to the CDT, I'm alloting $3000 with an additional back up of $1500. I'm figuring staying at hotels/motels maybe once in every 5 town stops.

Thanks to all those with your advice.

Lately, I've been pouring over Mags CDT info at his www.Pmags website. It has been extremely helpful by having all that CDT info and links organized in a way that makes it easier to digest. If you are planning a CDT hike I strongly suggest you check it out.

[NotYet]

Hey Dogwood,

Are you planning to go southbound or northbound? My husband, Macon Tracks, and I are planning to go southbound in 2010 and we're trying to find out who might be out there with us! Anyone else out there planning on doing the CDT in 2010? Any Sobo?

[Dogwood]

Not Yet, the simple answer is I do NOT YET know. I prefer to go NOBO all the way since I can start earlier, but I will not make my final decision until I see the spring snowfall levels in the north and south. I'm also considereing going NOBO through New Mexico and then flipping to go SOBO from the northern terminus.

[ARambler]

At one of the AT workshops at the Gathering, it was estimated that the average cost is about $2.00/mile. For me, and many others, the CDT is more expensive than the AT. I did a flip flop and spent extra days in town, due to heavy snow.

I think it would be easy to keep costs below $6000, but you should be asking about budgets, not total costs.

Rambler

[SunnyWalker]

OK. I will think in terms of budgets. Budget each "Item" e.g., food, lodging, transportation, equipment, communciations, postage, non-consumables (e.g., white gas or alcohol, equipment replacement), yard maintenance (I plan on paying someone to maintain my yard and place). I plan on a balance between ultra light and light. I too thought the $2.00 a mile was for AT, and would not work for CDT. I have followed the costs of a couple of fellows who hiked the CDT and they had meals of up to and over $100.00 I don't see myself doing anything like that. What do you thnk?

[Dogwood]

NotYet, hope to see you and Macon Tracks on the trail. Wish you the best. When we meet up I've budgeted $20 to buy you and yours a drink or two!!!

Leave me a contact ph # or Email address so we can bounce trail descriptions and upcoming concerns off each other.

[SunnyWalker]

So it seems that CDT might be more expensive then ATor PCT. Is this due to its isolation and thus when you do come to "civilization" it is a resort, where things are more expensive?

[Spirit Walker]

You basically have it right. Since many towns are a long way off the trail, it is more difficult to just run in and out in a few hours. You may be tired and want to spend a couple of days recuperating (e.g. one day for errands and one day to rest). Many of the towns have cheap or free camping - but given some of the weather extremes (cold, heat or bugs) that may not appeal as much as a nice enclosed motel. There are a few nice hostels - but not many - and there are few trail angels that are available every year. (Which isn't to say there isn't trail magic, there is, it just can't be predicted.)

Also, a lot of the towns are tourist towns with a very short (100 days or so) season in which to make enough money to survive the year. Thus prices can be high.

In Wyoming it is worsened by a gas/oil drilling boom that means all the hotels are full of gas workers - prices can be ridiculous for what you are getting. (i.e. the Jade motel in Rawlins was barely worth the $19 we paid when we hiked in 1999, same motel, probably not cleaned in the interim, was $39 in 2006. A year later people said it cast $89. Better to go across town to the good motels and pay $95 for a nice room near the supermarket.)

[Dogwood]

SpiritWalker, like Mags suggested and I agree, your CDT trail journal is a virtual must read for someone contemplating a CDT thru-hike. TU for posting it. Much gained by your trail journal.

[Spirit Walker]

Thank you.

[Mags]

Here's the link for The THRU-HIKING PAPERS.

Not only good reading for the CDT..but for any trail. Goes over a lot of head stuff that is often ignored.

Too many discussions on what baffle type fluffs up best for down feathers while using CO gas emissions on the perfect cell phone headlamp crap...not enough on the really important part of the hikes.

[SunnyWalker]

Sounds like while one is on the CDT it would be a real money saver to have mail parcels come from home containing food and all. Can't do much about the motels though except try to avoid them or get less expensive ones.

[Mags]

Sounds like while one is on the CDT it would be a real money saver to have mail parcels come from home containing food and all. Can't do much about the motels though except try to avoid them or get less expensive ones.

Do the hybrid approach. In a big town mail food ahead to smaller towns.

It's what I did because, for some reason, my friends were not willing to let me take over their basement with a bunch of boxes with mac n' cheese.

[Marta]

Do the hybrid approach. In a big town mail food ahead to smaller towns.

It's what I did because, for some reason, my friends were not willing to let me take over their basement with a bunch of boxes with mac n' cheese.

And yet you call these people friends!!! What, just because you like them and enjoy spending time with them?

[Dogwood]

Do the hybrid approach. In a big town mail food ahead to smaller towns.

It's what I did because, for some reason, my friends were not willing to let me take over their basement with a bunch of boxes with mac n' cheese.

I saw a pic of Andrew Skurka's resupply boxes for his Great Western Loop hike. It did indeed consume almost one whole room(I think his basement). Think about that. Granted that was a very long thru-hike, but also consider he hikes big miles nearly every day meaning he needs to resupply less often than most of us and he still needed all this space for just resuppy boxes. This didn't include all the space he would need to organize and pack all those resupply boxes.

On the PCT I did what Mags is suggesting. I prepared ahead of time all to-be-mailed resupply boxes for California. Just had someone reliable waiting in the wings to give the go ahead on mailing a few boxes out at ta time. When I got to Ashland OR, where I knew there was a good co-op grocery store, I spent 2 days purchasing and mailing all my resuplly boxes for that state. When I took 2 days off in Portland OR I did the same for WA state. Spent a little extra time while on the trail to do these things but saved some money by not having to mail resupply boxes all the way from Hawaii or NJ. In towns that had large or acceptable grocery stores I bought food as I went.

I think Jack Tarlin, who also knows a thing or two about resupply, wrote some great resupply articles here on WB that, even though pertain to the AT, contain some very useful resupply advice that can be appplied to any trail.