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horicon
12-22-2013, 21:29
What is the Cost of hiking the AT???

kayak karl
12-22-2013, 21:44
here's a resent thread (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?96068-Cost-amp-Time-of-Hiking-the-AT&highlight=cost+of+hiking+at). there are about 4000-6000 others:rolleyes:

Marta
12-22-2013, 22:00
It's one of those "How long is a piece of string?" questions.

I recently heard about a new (to me) high-end: $45,000 for a mostly slack-packed-by-significant-other trip with motels every night, gas for the car, and restaurant meals every day. One for the record books.

ChinMusic
12-22-2013, 22:04
It's one of those "How long is a piece of string?" questions.

I recently heard about a new (to me) high-end: $45,000 for a mostly slack-packed-by-significant-other trip with motels every night, gas for the car, and restaurant meals every day. One for the record books.

Was that Molar Man?

johnnybgood
12-22-2013, 22:04
What is the Cost of hiking the AT???

If we take your question literally then not much . Where hikers spend money is in town .
Resupply for 5-6 days , get back on the trail and keep hiking....

Marta
12-22-2013, 22:46
Was that Molar Man?

That's not the name I know him by. I'm amazed that there were at least two people doing it this way this year.

canoe
12-23-2013, 07:20
It does nt cost anything to hike. Your resupplies/gear is what costs you

moldy
12-23-2013, 10:00
To be honest, it costs between 5K and 10K for everything from equipment to hamburgers. It depends on you. If you are already equipped and eat cheap with mac and cheese and the dollar menu and never stay in a hotel you can do it for 2 or 3K. If it's your goal to hike cheap, you can do it. Most people who hike the trail won't live like that. The trail is tough enough all by itself.

Don H
12-23-2013, 10:42
It's one of those "How long is a piece of string?" questions.

I recently heard about a new (to me) high-end: $45,000 for a mostly slack-packed-by-significant-other trip with motels every night, gas for the car, and restaurant meals every day. One for the record books.

Then there was the two ladies I met in PA. They drove two vehicles leaving one each day at their end point, then retrieving the one at their start point after hiking each day. Each evening they shared a motel room and ate at a restaurant. They said their husbands believed they were going for the most expensive AT hike ever.

Bronk
12-23-2013, 13:07
I wouldn't start with less than $3000 with your equipment already bought. Most people probably spend between 5 and 10 thousand, all depends on how much time and money you spend while in towns. And most people grossly underestimate how much time and money they will spend in town...after you've been cold, wet and hungry for a week how hard do you think it will be to resist the temptation of clean sheets and a shower in a motel room and warm food at a restaurant?

garlic08
12-23-2013, 13:58
Then there was the two ladies I met in PA. They drove two vehicles leaving one each day at their end point, then retrieving the one at their start point after hiking each day. Each evening they shared a motel room and ate at a restaurant. They said their husbands believed they were going for the most expensive AT hike ever.

In '08, I met a couple doing the same thing. They drove one car out from the West Coast and bought a new car for the shuttling.

A good average cost is $1000 per month. But then, I hear you ask, how long does an AT hike take? Three to six months on average.

RED-DOG
12-23-2013, 15:59
$ 4000-$5000 dollars thats if you only go in to towns when you need food, and don't stay in too many motels, only stay in the cheapiest places you can find and don't buy beer for all your hiking buddies, and don't blow a $1000 at mountain crossings then you might be able to do it on 4000-5000 dollars.

Don H
12-23-2013, 20:37
$ 4000-$5000 dollars thats if you only go in to towns when you need food, and don't stay in too many motels, only stay in the cheapiest places you can find and don't buy beer for all your hiking buddies, and don't blow a $1000 at mountain crossings then you might be able to do it on 4000-5000 dollars.

Yea but then you're taking all the fun out of it ;)

wornoutboots
12-23-2013, 20:44
after gear, $500-$1000 month, all depends on how much you love town :)

Drybones
12-23-2013, 22:39
It does nt cost anything to hike. Your resupplies/gear is what costs you

This pretty well sums it up. If you buy only what you "need", not what you want, you can get by cheap. Go into town, get your supplies and get back on the trail, any down days can be taken on the trail, hike at reasonable pace.

ChinMusic
12-23-2013, 22:50
It does nt cost anything to hike. Your resupplies/gear is what costs you


Sorry. That is like saying it doesn't cost anything to drive. Your fill-ups is what costs you.

fredmugs
12-24-2013, 09:40
here's a resent thread (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?96068-Cost-amp-Time-of-Hiking-the-AT&highlight=cost+of+hiking+at). there are about 4000-6000 others:rolleyes:

No kidding. If I had a dollar for every thread about this I would have enough money to do a thru hike.

Mags
12-24-2013, 09:48
No kidding. If I had a dollar for every thread about this I would have enough money to do a thru hike.

..followed by how they will do the thru-hike by scavenging, living on the land and they don't need town food or showers thank-you-very-much.

4shot
12-24-2013, 11:06
perhaps we should be asking ourselves a new question..."what is the cost to NOT hike the AT"? seriously, if you have no fixed costs in your home, isn't the cost of hiking for 5-6 months actually cheaper than living "in town" for the equivalent period of time?

Coffee
12-24-2013, 11:14
perhaps we should be asking ourselves a new question..."what is the cost to NOT hike the AT"? seriously, if you have no fixed costs in your home, isn't the cost of hiking for 5-6 months actually cheaper than living "in town" for the equivalent period of time?

I have a thru hike budget for the PCT of around $8,500 including transportation and some gear replacement costs. Of this amount $3,000 is directly offset by expenses I would normally incur at home that I will not incur due to being on the trail. This brings the net cost of the trip down to $5,500. If I rent my home for six months while I am away, I would have a net benefit of around $7,000 after taxes and paying for two moves and a storage unit for my possessions while on the trail. This would mean that I would have a net negative cost of hiking the PCT of around $1,500. However, I am undecided on whether to rent my home or not mainly because if I have to end the trip early for some unfortunate reason such as injury, I wouldn't necessarily want to be homeless or in transient housing until the lease on my home is up. In my opinion, the main economic cost of a long hike is lost wages but that isn't really a factor for me since my income isn't correlated with a traditional job.

peakbagger
12-24-2013, 11:26
I would really consider a key swap hike with one car and two or more hikers as a way to do a thru hike. Having a car and driving between trailheads really allowed me to get to know the area that the trail goes through. I did five weeks with a friend where we used two cars and would spot one drive south four or five backpacking days and then hiking back to the first car. We stayed in a hostel or a hotel for one night and generally could get a half day of hiking in for town days due to having a car so our average mileage was quite good. A year later we did slackpacking with one car and keyswapping using a combinations of shelters, motels and hostels. It was nice as we were in the early season so we had the trail to ourselves most days and could adjust our gear daily. I would serious consider a PCT trip key swapping sections but finding someone else interested in it would be tough.