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jjebb58
10-01-2011, 02:39
How much should i expect to spend on the trail if I dont plan on staying in hotels or hostels? This will be my first thru hike, anyone leavin in late march or early april looking for hiking patners let me know?

Joey C
10-01-2011, 06:09
In short, cost will be between $2-5K, best have more than expected. Many get off trail due to lack of funds, which is a sad way to end this wonderful journey. It is easy to plan to not stay at hostels or hotels, harder to do in practice. It is something you have to experience to fully grasp, no other way about it. To set yourself up for success, have closer to $5K saved. If you finish and still have a bunch in your savings account, how bad is that? If you start and run out of money, how bad is that?

As for partners, there are many hikers starting in March. You'll not lack for companionship. No worries there.

garlic08
10-01-2011, 09:26
Read this article: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?2822-Ideas-for-an-Inexpensive-Thru-hike&p=22959#post22959

Jeff
10-01-2011, 09:47
To set yourself up for success, have closer to $5K saved. If you finish and still have a bunch in your savings account, how bad is that? If you start and run out of money, how bad is that?

I like this advice !!!

stranger
10-01-2011, 09:58
You might not 'plan' on spending time in hostels and motels...but you will, therefore take the time to save the money, because you are going to spend it anyway, you just don't know it yet.

Slo-go'en
10-01-2011, 10:19
Indeed, very few can resist the sirenes call of a hot shower and a warm room after a week of cold and rainy days...

Jeff
10-01-2011, 10:35
Many of today's thruhikers can hardly resist a paved highway going into town.

Going lightweight includes carrying less food and resupplying much more often, but once in town money seems to fly out of that hiker ziplock wallet !!! :)

WingedMonkey
10-01-2011, 11:48
Many of today's thruhikers can hardly resist a paved highway going into town. :)

Put that on a T shirt.

Wobegon
10-02-2011, 14:01
Haha, I used to say before my thru that I wouldn't stay in many motels or hostels.... That will almost surely change for you, as well.

jlo
10-02-2011, 15:32
I did run into a few people who would zip through a town where I spent 3 days, so it can be done, but rarely is.
And in some towns I would spend $10 for a week's worth of food supply (praises to Dollar General for those stops), but other times would spend about $200 after the booze, pizzas and hotel. I would stick with the advice to save $5K so you can party when you need to.

stranger
10-02-2011, 22:20
The key thing is the deprivation associated with long-distance hiking, which is hard to understand unless you have a decent amount of experience. Most people who set out on the trail have never done a long distance hike, they might have done weekends, or a 5-7 day hike here or there, but not many who set out from Springer have say hiked the Long Trail or done a 300 section of the AT.

Therefore...there is little understanding around deprivation and what it feels like.

So you arrive at the road crossing, cars are whizzing by, it's raining, it's windy, you tent is wet from last night because all the shelters are full, the road leads to a $45 motel room, with a hot shower, a soft bed, plenty of room to dry out your gear, ice cold beer, ice-cream and pizza. So 'just this one time' you head into town.

JUST THIS ONE TIME haha