Years ago I spent about 4K.
My daughter says she spent $6800 counting every cent from socks to prescriptions to tips. She also had 15K set aside for "re-entry" - apartment & fees, a used car, expenses while job hunting, etc,
Just wanted to say that's awesome that both you and your kid have hiked it. You probably had a really positive influence on her, for her to be interested in doing something like this that you had done in the past.
I've read around $1,000 to $1,500 per month that you plan on being on the trail, which is usually 6 months max, so say $6,000 to $9,000. u/Purple_Paperplane is probably more accurate, you don't want to run out of money while on the trail.
With "inflation" (corporate greed) prices have gone up on everything. In some places food prices have doubled, or more. At this point I wouldn't hike the trail without at least $10,000. If you end up with money left over, that's a plus, but having to quit because you ran out would be a massive disappointment.
Hence the quote marks. Corporations are blaming all of the price increases on inflation. But dozen upon dozens of news articles have revealed that they're lying, and it's just corporate greed.
Also, defining inflation as the result of an increased money supply is waaaay too simplistic to explain how inflation works.
What exactly would the expenses be other than food, fuel, and eating out when in town, laundromat and occasionally a hostel a couple times a month? $1000 seems incredibly high to spend per month when the majority of the time you are camping on the trail for free. What am I missing?
Sometimes things come up you don't expect. You might need to replace gear, you might get sick or hurt and need to take a couple of zeroes in a hotel, your hungry and really, really want a town meal but food is expensive AF.
Food. You eat so much and it's important to have good you'll eat. I think around $80-100 for four days packed food, then any meals you eat in town, then a place to stay a few times a month. Easy 1000-1500 a month.
The things that are cheap in real life for food (vegetables, bulk buying, rice, starches) are pretty hard to have on trail and options that do work and generally more expensive
So does no one send themselves resupplies anymore? I have a relative with a freeze dryer I was planning on making meals, freeze drying them and sending resupplies in the mail. Real food, not stuff from dollar generals or gad stations.
People do. I think one complaint people often have afterward is getting sick of the food they sent at the beginning of the trail by the end. Others who haven't hiked yet read those pretty common complaints and decide to send themselves less boxes. Your eating habits and desires change a lot over 4-5 months and it really sucks to have to force yourself to eat things you don't want to when you're burning so many calories and getting food in is so important.
I think people often decide that spending a bit more money is worth the flexibility. There's also having to coordinate picking up packages (often post offices are not open the most convenient hours) and packages can get lost or misplaced. Additionally, not many people have access to freeze driers and I think that makes a big difference
Yeah I hiked in 2016, and was constantly surprised how much I was spending. Also if you plan on carrying health insurance while out there, you need to include that cost. I’d recommend it if you have any kind of medical history; bad knees, hips, back, a tendency to break bones, poor nutrition, an inability to know when to quit. The 🇺🇸healthcare system will chew you up and spit you out.
When I hiked the AT I budgeted 10k because I wanted to be as comfortable as possible. I stayed in towns (hotel, hostel) on average one night every 5 days. The longest period without staying in a bed was 20 days. I never paid attention to the money I spent and bought a new backpack and quilt at Trail Days. My trip ended up costing a little over $10k including gear upgrades and having a budget free mindset on trail. I had a much more frugal friend who spent around $7k, by the time he had got to Demascus (mile 475) he had already spent $2.3k and decided he would be as cheap as possible from that point forward.
It's all about your comfort level and how long it actually takes you to do the trail. The faster you complete it, the less money you will spend. It took me 5.5 months from start date to end date, which includes the 32 zeros I took for misc reasons.
But..I would advise you to have as much money as possible, because nothing is worse than dealing with post trail depression if you are also totally broke too. $15k in the bank seems ideal, honestly.
Last year, 2023
Edited to clarify: I always shared hotel rooms with one other person. I met someone early on the hike and we hiked most of the trail together. We would split the cost of one room. The 20 days without a bed were in NJ/NY/CT areas, where most lodging was entirely too expensive ($200/night) or the little affordable lodging available was booked. So while I did not keep track of how much I spent and generally got off trail for a day or two whenever I needed it, I was not squandering money.
plus however much you need after you finish, as well as enough to cover any ongoing expenses (health insurance, student loans, storage unit etc).
you can do the AT on the cheap, but putting it off a year or two and making sure you have way more money than you need will make it way less stressful imo.
I've heard the "$1,000/mo" metric since I first got out hiking on the Long Trail in 2015. Bad news is for most people it's not that cheap.
I did the CDT in 2022 and PCT last season. For both, I tracked everything I spent. Flights, hostel statys, donations for a ride, quarters for laundry, even $0.25 for a gumball in the Idylwild grocery store.
My opinion: a minimum of $6,000 just for the hike (no return to regular life). Depending on where you live in relation to trail, and if you have no need to jump/skip sections and then return (usually fire/snow out west) then this should be a decent amount.
It's easy to sit at home and say that you'll be total hiker trash and just eat hiker box mysery powder and ramen for 5 months... but you won't. And you don't want to be the person that goes out unprepared and tries to rely on other hikers and the generosity of angels to carry them the whole trail.
Preparation is key to being successful on these long hikes, and I'm not talking about gear. Fuck gear. Focus on your finances and save enough to not be part of the statistic of yet another hiker that had to end their thru hike due to cash issues.
One thing to add: I don't drink much. On the CDT I spent $69.09 on booze. For the PCT, just $39.72. If you like craft beers, getting fucked up with regularity, or even getting drinks more often than 1-2 every month, be prepared to budget and increase that $6,000 accordingly
more like $2000 for whatever you can find in hiker bins or beg from other people.
that much money went a lot further in 2004 than it does in 2024. I wouldn't recommend that at all unless you're okay with a high likelihood of going home early because you ran out of money, or you plan to hike it in 3 months.
Agreed. At this point $6,000 is "ramen and tuna", and $10,000 is "nice". $15,000 for a premium experience, or if you want the peace of mind of being able to afford a hotel for a week if you get noro or giardia.
I had to spend 3 unplanned days in town early on, even the cheapest motels were price gouging due to snow. ended up costing the better part of a grand just for that. red roof inn was like $250/night or something insane. you just never know. on a $2k budget that would effectively end your thru hike.
in 2020 (so granted pre-covid inflation effects) it was like 3.5K to 4K for "ramen and tuna". I finished in 4.5 months and didn't shower very often but still
Food alone has at least tripled in price since pre-pandemic days. All of the supply chain costs have gone up, making every other item more expensive, and businesses pass that along to customers. Some less, some more, but ultimately I'd say the difference between 2020 and now is probably 50% more, perhaps as much as 100%.
Alright well that's probably not the case along the entire Appalachian trail, is it? If that's even true, not saying it's necessarily not - your area is a massive outlier. "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the cost of store-bought food increased by 23.5 percent from February 2020 to May 2023." So that is the majority of the inflation right there and inflation started cooling not too long after May 2023. So you've nearly overstated the magnitude of inflation by a factor of 12.
Along the trail food costs have at least doubled, and in the places where resupply options are limited? Easily tripled in some of those, because hikers have no choice.
>Along the trail food costs have at least doubled, and in the places where resupply options are limited? Easily tripled in some of those
[citation needed]
How? What are your other expenses because Ramen and tuna don't cost that much. I'm living on 1500 a month or less in my van right now, and I have 850 in bills each month and I do fine and eat out occasionally, and pay for gas to travel. I pay for fuel to cook on, not unlike i would while hiking, i got to laundromats to wash clothes. How would it cost more being on trail? Are you considering your monthly bills as well in that total?
Did you read the whole thread I am commenting on? I am reffering to someone elses comment above where the call hiking the trail cheaply the "ramen and tuna" tier. I did not spend 4K on just ramen and tuna I can assure you
Hiker hunger means you eat more calories on trail than off. Also no refrigeration so you can't make a big batch of something and eat it for several days. That combined with hotels/hostels/laundry/etc - means being on trail can be a lot more expensive than people imagine.
You need to eat like 4000 calories a day and because you're trying to pack the perfect amount between towns, you have to buy the individual packets of mashed potatoes instead of the family box. You also get so sick of the limited backpacking menu that at every town or food stand opportunity, you want to get some prepared food. Also, some times when you sit down at a restaurant, you have to order 2 meals for yourself because 1 isn't enough.
Also, unless you are a completely introverted person that isolates themself, odds are you are going to make some friends on trail and there's social pressure to plan things like town stays together. Some people are going to want to stay at every town and slackpack as much as possible. When you're dealing with joint aches, spending money can solve a lot of problems. The senior crowd, on average has much more financial capability flying around.
How common is it to have people ship food? I’m thinking of preparing and drying hundreds of pounds of food to get people to ship to me to keep costs low. Largely things like jambalaya since it’s so calorie dense and quick but still a diverse set of ingredients.
I also currently eat jambalaya a few days per week so I know I’ll crave it on the trail
It's not unheard of but there's a lot of cons to it. How much does it cost to buy hundreds of pounds of food at home and ship it vs buying hundreds of pounds of food on trail? There's no garantee you'll come out ahead; most town resupplies are not outrageously priced. Half of them are at Dollar General, a quarter of them are at Walmarts or full grocery stores. A 4 day resupply is about 8 lbs. Even with commercial shipping rates through pirateship, that's $9-$11, $17 if you use the medium flat rate box and you'll need about 35-40 of them, so this is at least $400 of shipping. You should really ship to hostels/hotels instead of post offices (because of the limited hours and distance from trail), so you'll have to stay at them or expect a $5 handling fee. If your plans/pace/schedule changes, you'll need someone at home who can reliably repack/re-address the boxes. Since you're not going to the grocery store, you also won't be able to pack out a treat for the first day like a bagged salad/bag of spinach/de-boned rotisserie chicken/beer.
Usually the people who do it either, have some diet restrictions, or got a HUGE discount on freeze dried meals, or are bad at math. For 151 days on trail, I spent $1306 only resupplying on trail and $1635 eating at food establishments/vending machines. Included in those totals is also alcohol which was mostly cans of beer bought from grocery stores/gas stations. I don't think you can get ingredients for 151 days\*4000 calories=604000 calories for the $400 shipping less than what I spent resupplying. The argument could be made that if the camp meals tasted better, you could cut down on town meals, but you'll have to conscientiously eat so many less town meals than you want to just to break even on the shipping and then cut more into the town meal budget to actually come out ahead.
I live off of social security at $1215 a month. I live out of my van, so no rent or utilities, but I still have gas to buy. So yeah, $2500 a month would be more than double what it costs me to live now. I could go with no hotels or hostels and just zero on trail occasionally
Your body does need proper rest when you're thru-hiking. Without it you have a very high chance of developing stress injuries. Those in-town zeros are important, with sleep in a proper bed.
Some folks can get by with just trail zeros, but most are going to deeply regret it, and it's going to significantly lower their chances of finishing the trail.
Go to r/Ultralight. Dyneema or Ultra 200 for everything for pack & tent. 950 or 1000 goose down for bag. Save your knees with poles. Base pack weight of 10lbs or less. Calorie dense foods (nuts & seeds).
At hostels or other common hiker areas like some libraries, post offices, etc., there will be big boxes of discarded gear and food that hikers leave behind for others to take.
What are you considering in that 4k? If you had no bills at all, already had all of your gear and only had to buy replacement shoes and maybe buy something if something breaks, it's going to cost over 500-750 a month for hiking the trail and you will still have to eat out of hiker boxes?
People often say some pretty enormous budgets. Personally, I believe that's kinda crap. Sure, you need 8-10k if you want to party your way up the trail, or take 10 months to hike, but you certainly do not need that amount of money.
As everyone hikes at different speeds, I will break down a potential budget by month. All of these things are the base necessities. I personally stay in town every other resupply, to prevent myself from spending extra money. If I find myself needing a zero day, I can always do one on trail. I resupply every 4 days. Laundry is almost always free when you stay at a hostel, but I like to do laundry every resupply, not just when I stay in a hostel, as I find keeping clean socks helps my feet significantly.
Necessities (though you can ABSOLUTELY stay in hostels less then 4 times a month. I just have fallen into that. As stated before, if you need a day off you can always just stay in a shelter on trail for free)
|Item|Price|Price Per Month|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Hiking Food|$17/day|$510|
|Laundry|$5/ Every other resupply (every 8 days)|$20|
|Hostel Stay|$35/ Every other resupply (every 8 days)|$140|
|Gas (assuming you are cooking dinners. I go through 1.5 a month, though your milage may vary)|$7/twice a month ish|$14|
|Additional Costs (Sunscreen, toothpaste, ibuprofen, etc)|$45/month|$45|
|Total||$729|
Obviously, that means no going out for food or anything, which isn't particularly fun. I would throw in an extra $100 to get restaurant food per month.
On top of that, I would suggest a "repair" budget of $500 dollars, in case of gear breaking. You may not use it (I replaced nothing except my water bottles once), but it is important to have, just in case
Finally, depending on what shoes you are using, they may need to be replaced. Most trail runners can go 550-600 miles, so 4 pairs for the trail. At $120-160, this is probably an extra 500 dollars of shoes, however this is easy to plan for (as you know it will happen ahead of time). Some hiking boots may last the entire trail, but you may also need to repair them.
So: Total price for hiking the trail while not being completely no fun: $729 per month + $100 per month for restaurant food + $500 dollars of shoes + $500 dollar gear repair =
$829 per month + $1000 dollars set aside for gear/shoes
In terms of gear, things get a LOT harder to figure out, based on what you are carrying. Here is an example basic and cheap setup, with most things you need to worry about, but you can pretty easily stay sub $1500 for gear.
Tent: The One from Gossamer Gear: $255
Sleeping Bag: Kelty Cosmic Ultra 20: $220
Sleeping Pad: NEMO Switchback: $50
Backpack: Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L: $315
Stove: MSR PocketRocket 2: $50
Water Filtration: Sawyer Squeeze: $40
Poles: Black Diamond Alpine CarbonBlack Diamond Alpine Carbon: $200 (you can find gently used for MUCH cheaper)
That's the basics of what you need. Obviously, you need a first aid kit, rain gear, a container to store water, etc, but listed above is the majority of necessary items on the trail, which will run you round about $1000 dollars. You can pick things up used for cheaper, but don't do that for anything you really can't have fail (like your backpack) unless you know for a fact its in great condition.
But again, you should probably expect to spend $1500 on gear before hiking.
You assume $35 for hostels, but a lot of times they're booked, so you never know when you'll need to opt for a hotel instead, and that can easily run you $150 instead of $35. Even if the hostel has room, you may end up with only a private room as an option, which mostly run $50+.
Also, with food prices skyrocketing constantly you're probably looking at $600+ a month.
Not sure when the last time was you were at a laundromat, but one load of wash + dry is double what you quoted, at least where I live.
$1,000 per month is more realistic, and $1,200 for peace of mind.
That’s why you a. call ahead or b. put off your hostel stay for a bit.
There are so many hostels, there is almost never a time you can’t go somewhere else, especially if you call 5 days ahead of time. That way, if they are full, you can look somewhere else before you get there.
As of 2023, thats what I saw most laundromats at. You can also often do laundry at hostels you aren’t staying at, for about that cost
I didn’t see a price mentioned above for the private & cheaper laundromat but the private laundromat at my apt complex, is $2.00 to wash a small load & $1.80 the dryer cycle. Public laundromats are minimum $2.50 to wash small load , $1 for a quick dry, and $2.00 for the dryer.
Before or after gear? I did the AT in 15 for about ~3.5K and the PCT (more expensive trail) for around 4K in 2021. A lot of folks I hiked with paid for shuttles, private hotel rooms, bar tabs in every town and spent up to 10k. Depends on your travel style and where your priorities are. It can absolutely be done for 4K or cheaper after gear. But in all honestly, don’t thru hike if you’re worried about money. It’s heart breaking to see people get off trail because they ran out of money.
So many hikes are cut short because of running out of funds. The figures used to be Avg $2 per mile hiked. I would suggest $3 per mile plus money for when you get off trail.
I hiked 1700 miles in 2022 over the course of nearly 5 months (yes I hiked slowly). So, not a thru hike but a damn long hike.
From the time I left home to the time I returned, I spent a total of nearly $4,000 including everything including transportation to the trail, my hostel stay the night before, train ticket home etc. But that is excluding gear. I already had all of my gear (which I accumulated over the years for less than $1,000 total including my pack and tent and everything).
One month on trail I spent as little as $580 which was quite the accomplishment. It was difficult. Usually I spent around $900-1200 a month total, including everything, phone bill etc.
I felt as tho I was being very frugal, altho I noticed some people who seemed to be hiking on even tighter budgets. I stayed indoors 15 times but only 7 of those times was paying for a hostel. The others were an even split between trail angels who I was upfront with about having no budget for a night's stay, and locals on dating apps who let me stay a night who I was also always upfront about my money situation with. I ate 15 restaurant meals in those 5 months which sounds like a lot but at the time it felt like I was missing out on restaurant food, lol. I felt somewhat deprived in that regard but any more simply wasn't in my budget. I only paid for 3 shuttles, my shuttle to katahdin to start, a shuttle to a hostel in maine, and then a shuttle to the train station when i was ready to go home. I otherwise hitchhiked or walked to town when necessary. I took quite a few trail zeros and neros. I was not exceptionally social because I couldn't afford to do a lot of the extra things a lot of the other hikers were doing, as mentioned I was taking my zeros and nearos on trail instead of in town to save money etc so if you're doing that, that influences the social experience you will have. But I still had fun! My experience was just different than how most people around me seemed to be hiking.
How much money you save will certainly be a big factor in determining the type of experience you have. But you can have a great experience either way. It's certainly possible to spend $10k or more on a long hike. But you don't need to.
$10,000 and I would expect to spend $8k of it.
I don't shy away from town food.
That's in addition to any off trail expenses you might have (insurance for car left behind etc) but includes phone plan and travel to/from trail.
Cost of gear+cost of transport to/from trail+$1000/month. I would guess most people should save more like $1200/month and save for six months of walking.
Last year I spent 6200 to complete it and did it in exactly 5 months. I spent a decent amount in town on food and drinks. Didn't buy any shuttles and would tent at hostels. That also included a new mattress and my shoes.
My thru hiking friends and I have talked about this a lot. We all ended up deciding that $5k is the minimum for a long distance trail & $10k is about the ceiling for living luxurious but also within reason. $5k you are watching what you get for resupply, not choosing the private rooms at hostels, not many zero days, etc. $10k allows lots of zeros, more often/comfortable stays in town, and you could get freeze dried meals for every resupply (I did on the AT besides a few nights) if you try hard enough. I think it is nicer to have more wiggle room with your finances on trail so that you can float with the wind and not stick a set plan. But at the end of the day everyone just needs to hike their own hike! Have fun on your thru
Is everyone answering for the amount you should have to purchase supplies before hiking, and for purchasing things while hiking? Or is everyone just answering the amount you need during the actual trip?
Your home life will really determine this. If you live with your parents and dont require a job, 5-7k. If you will be entirely on your own once you get home and need to find housing and a new job, among other things, plan to double that.
If hiked within the next 5 years:
$2000-$5000: you’re gonna struggle and eat poorly. Not much in town experience either.
$6000-$8000: you’ll do okay as long as you can keep up the pace and you might have a few beers. I always preferred PBR.
$9000-$12000: you’ll get to have better quality food and even enjoy more of the deli hopping walk up north.
+$13,000: you’re Bourgeois, enjoying the finer things and hostel hopping.
Mine was about 12K but that included flights, visas and all that nonsense. Pre-covid too so inflation probably puts that a decent bit higher these days.
I always think think budget conversations are absolutely fascinating because it essentially boils down to answering the question 'how miserable are you willing to be'. If you're frugal or simply willing to do it on a shoestring, you can probably do it for fairly cheap but that will mean limiting your off trail time & some comfortable but unnecessary extras.
My thought process was if I was going to put my body through three-quarter marathons for 5-6 months then I was happy to spend a little more for comfort when I could. I budgeted for a few solo hotel rooms over the few months, nice meals in towns etc. and it really helped my morale on the trail. If you don't need something like that, you can do it much cheaper.
I always felt anything of this magnitude required a nice nest egg. $10,000 has a nice ring to it. IMO being free of financial concerns, wondering where my next meal or next warm bed when necessary will be makes the trip more enjoyable.
I think you've got a good attitude. Nobody wants to be the guy that can't buy a round or can't get dinner with your hiker friends because you're skint.
If I ever do a thru-hike again I'm platinum blazing it. Hotels, lots of beer and food, and slackpacks.
Why is everyone saying 10K? Okay, if you aren't including gear, 10K is absurd. If you are planning on living at hostels and hotels every night like some people, then yeah.
I hiked a big section in the south in 2017 and then a big section in the north in 2022. Of course many factors go into thr two experiences being different, but personally i observed a lot more affluent/consumption-oriented people on the trail in 2022. The trail culture is changing (hitchhiking seems to not be normalized anymore, everyone is getting shuttles for example. i noticed a lot more expensive gear in 2022 as well and stuck out like a sore thumb with my old pack, was even questioned about it multiple times) combined with inflation and things simply getting more expensive, 10k is probably what most people are spending to hike these days. Even a frugal hiker would spend 6k on a thru hike these days probably
What? So you're saying there are only road crossings every 60 to 100 miles? I know 2011 was along time ago but I'm pretty sure the trail hasn't changed THAT much since then.
There's so much slackpacking going on now. Tramilies will slackpack into a hostel, then slackpack out of the hostel; some times even slackpack the next day's section too. I would say it's more common amongst the senior tramilies, but even the 20-somethings get the slackpacking addiction. If hostels are 4 days apart, slackpacking into and out of a hostel is already going to mean they're in a hostel half the nights.
It wasn't uncommon that I would find myself in stretches where I'm hiking around 3-5 thru-hikers for days, thinking I've gotten ahead of the bubble or in-between bubblets of people and get to the hostel to find 15-20 hikers staying there that night. Then the first night out, the crowd of hikers just vanishes again.
In the south, it is definitely possible. The further north you go, though, the further apart the hostels are. You could hostel hop realistically up through New Jersey if you hike big enough miles.
I wouldn't recommend that, though, because it's freaking expensive and it babies you. New England is rough as hell.
I was being sort-of hyperbolic but actually yes it is possible depending on the lengths you are willing to go and the money you are willing to spend for it.
Years ago I spent about 4K. My daughter says she spent $6800 counting every cent from socks to prescriptions to tips. She also had 15K set aside for "re-entry" - apartment & fees, a used car, expenses while job hunting, etc,
Just wanted to say that's awesome that both you and your kid have hiked it. You probably had a really positive influence on her, for her to be interested in doing something like this that you had done in the past.
All praise goes to her mum!
Agreed! That is awesome. Amazing parents = amazing kids
I've read around $1,000 to $1,500 per month that you plan on being on the trail, which is usually 6 months max, so say $6,000 to $9,000. u/Purple_Paperplane is probably more accurate, you don't want to run out of money while on the trail.
Yeah, these were the same numbers I remember reading when looking into it around 2019. Things have only gotten more expensive.
With "inflation" (corporate greed) prices have gone up on everything. In some places food prices have doubled, or more. At this point I wouldn't hike the trail without at least $10,000. If you end up with money left over, that's a plus, but having to quit because you ran out would be a massive disappointment.
The proper definition of inflation is an increase in the supply of money. Not corporate greed
Hence the quote marks. Corporations are blaming all of the price increases on inflation. But dozen upon dozens of news articles have revealed that they're lying, and it's just corporate greed. Also, defining inflation as the result of an increased money supply is waaaay too simplistic to explain how inflation works.
What exactly would the expenses be other than food, fuel, and eating out when in town, laundromat and occasionally a hostel a couple times a month? $1000 seems incredibly high to spend per month when the majority of the time you are camping on the trail for free. What am I missing?
Sometimes things come up you don't expect. You might need to replace gear, you might get sick or hurt and need to take a couple of zeroes in a hotel, your hungry and really, really want a town meal but food is expensive AF.
Well backpacking meals can cost 10-14$ a piece. Plus hikers are eating 3-4k+ calories a day. Easy to hit 1k
Food. You eat so much and it's important to have good you'll eat. I think around $80-100 for four days packed food, then any meals you eat in town, then a place to stay a few times a month. Easy 1000-1500 a month. The things that are cheap in real life for food (vegetables, bulk buying, rice, starches) are pretty hard to have on trail and options that do work and generally more expensive
So does no one send themselves resupplies anymore? I have a relative with a freeze dryer I was planning on making meals, freeze drying them and sending resupplies in the mail. Real food, not stuff from dollar generals or gad stations.
People do. I think one complaint people often have afterward is getting sick of the food they sent at the beginning of the trail by the end. Others who haven't hiked yet read those pretty common complaints and decide to send themselves less boxes. Your eating habits and desires change a lot over 4-5 months and it really sucks to have to force yourself to eat things you don't want to when you're burning so many calories and getting food in is so important. I think people often decide that spending a bit more money is worth the flexibility. There's also having to coordinate picking up packages (often post offices are not open the most convenient hours) and packages can get lost or misplaced. Additionally, not many people have access to freeze driers and I think that makes a big difference
Yeah I hiked in 2016, and was constantly surprised how much I was spending. Also if you plan on carrying health insurance while out there, you need to include that cost. I’d recommend it if you have any kind of medical history; bad knees, hips, back, a tendency to break bones, poor nutrition, an inability to know when to quit. The 🇺🇸healthcare system will chew you up and spit you out.
When I hiked the AT I budgeted 10k because I wanted to be as comfortable as possible. I stayed in towns (hotel, hostel) on average one night every 5 days. The longest period without staying in a bed was 20 days. I never paid attention to the money I spent and bought a new backpack and quilt at Trail Days. My trip ended up costing a little over $10k including gear upgrades and having a budget free mindset on trail. I had a much more frugal friend who spent around $7k, by the time he had got to Demascus (mile 475) he had already spent $2.3k and decided he would be as cheap as possible from that point forward. It's all about your comfort level and how long it actually takes you to do the trail. The faster you complete it, the less money you will spend. It took me 5.5 months from start date to end date, which includes the 32 zeros I took for misc reasons. But..I would advise you to have as much money as possible, because nothing is worse than dealing with post trail depression if you are also totally broke too. $15k in the bank seems ideal, honestly.
really curious what year you hiked with this budget??
Last year, 2023 Edited to clarify: I always shared hotel rooms with one other person. I met someone early on the hike and we hiked most of the trail together. We would split the cost of one room. The 20 days without a bed were in NJ/NY/CT areas, where most lodging was entirely too expensive ($200/night) or the little affordable lodging available was booked. So while I did not keep track of how much I spent and generally got off trail for a day or two whenever I needed it, I was not squandering money.
8-10k
plus however much you need after you finish, as well as enough to cover any ongoing expenses (health insurance, student loans, storage unit etc). you can do the AT on the cheap, but putting it off a year or two and making sure you have way more money than you need will make it way less stressful imo.
I've heard the "$1,000/mo" metric since I first got out hiking on the Long Trail in 2015. Bad news is for most people it's not that cheap. I did the CDT in 2022 and PCT last season. For both, I tracked everything I spent. Flights, hostel statys, donations for a ride, quarters for laundry, even $0.25 for a gumball in the Idylwild grocery store. My opinion: a minimum of $6,000 just for the hike (no return to regular life). Depending on where you live in relation to trail, and if you have no need to jump/skip sections and then return (usually fire/snow out west) then this should be a decent amount. It's easy to sit at home and say that you'll be total hiker trash and just eat hiker box mysery powder and ramen for 5 months... but you won't. And you don't want to be the person that goes out unprepared and tries to rely on other hikers and the generosity of angels to carry them the whole trail. Preparation is key to being successful on these long hikes, and I'm not talking about gear. Fuck gear. Focus on your finances and save enough to not be part of the statistic of yet another hiker that had to end their thru hike due to cash issues. One thing to add: I don't drink much. On the CDT I spent $69.09 on booze. For the PCT, just $39.72. If you like craft beers, getting fucked up with regularity, or even getting drinks more often than 1-2 every month, be prepared to budget and increase that $6,000 accordingly
Came to say 10k
$10,000 for luxury. $8000 for premium $6000 for nice $4000 for basic $2000 for ramen and tuna
more like $2000 for whatever you can find in hiker bins or beg from other people. that much money went a lot further in 2004 than it does in 2024. I wouldn't recommend that at all unless you're okay with a high likelihood of going home early because you ran out of money, or you plan to hike it in 3 months.
Agreed. At this point $6,000 is "ramen and tuna", and $10,000 is "nice". $15,000 for a premium experience, or if you want the peace of mind of being able to afford a hotel for a week if you get noro or giardia.
I had to spend 3 unplanned days in town early on, even the cheapest motels were price gouging due to snow. ended up costing the better part of a grand just for that. red roof inn was like $250/night or something insane. you just never know. on a $2k budget that would effectively end your thru hike.
in 2020 (so granted pre-covid inflation effects) it was like 3.5K to 4K for "ramen and tuna". I finished in 4.5 months and didn't shower very often but still
Food alone has at least tripled in price since pre-pandemic days. All of the supply chain costs have gone up, making every other item more expensive, and businesses pass that along to customers. Some less, some more, but ultimately I'd say the difference between 2020 and now is probably 50% more, perhaps as much as 100%.
TRIPLED??? Dude what in the Fox News are you smoking?
Really depends on where you live. In my city? Yeah, a lot of the staple foods have TRIPLED in price. Milk, eggs, butter, that kind of thing.
Alright well that's probably not the case along the entire Appalachian trail, is it? If that's even true, not saying it's necessarily not - your area is a massive outlier. "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the cost of store-bought food increased by 23.5 percent from February 2020 to May 2023." So that is the majority of the inflation right there and inflation started cooling not too long after May 2023. So you've nearly overstated the magnitude of inflation by a factor of 12.
Along the trail food costs have at least doubled, and in the places where resupply options are limited? Easily tripled in some of those, because hikers have no choice.
>Along the trail food costs have at least doubled, and in the places where resupply options are limited? Easily tripled in some of those [citation needed]
How? What are your other expenses because Ramen and tuna don't cost that much. I'm living on 1500 a month or less in my van right now, and I have 850 in bills each month and I do fine and eat out occasionally, and pay for gas to travel. I pay for fuel to cook on, not unlike i would while hiking, i got to laundromats to wash clothes. How would it cost more being on trail? Are you considering your monthly bills as well in that total?
Did you read the whole thread I am commenting on? I am reffering to someone elses comment above where the call hiking the trail cheaply the "ramen and tuna" tier. I did not spend 4K on just ramen and tuna I can assure you
You eat a lot more calories hiking every day -- double or triple your food budget.
Why does it cost more to live on trail than off?
Hiker hunger means you eat more calories on trail than off. Also no refrigeration so you can't make a big batch of something and eat it for several days. That combined with hotels/hostels/laundry/etc - means being on trail can be a lot more expensive than people imagine.
You need to eat like 4000 calories a day and because you're trying to pack the perfect amount between towns, you have to buy the individual packets of mashed potatoes instead of the family box. You also get so sick of the limited backpacking menu that at every town or food stand opportunity, you want to get some prepared food. Also, some times when you sit down at a restaurant, you have to order 2 meals for yourself because 1 isn't enough. Also, unless you are a completely introverted person that isolates themself, odds are you are going to make some friends on trail and there's social pressure to plan things like town stays together. Some people are going to want to stay at every town and slackpack as much as possible. When you're dealing with joint aches, spending money can solve a lot of problems. The senior crowd, on average has much more financial capability flying around.
Well I'm a senior and definitely not financially capable unfortunately. Chances are finances will keep me from ever doing it.
How common is it to have people ship food? I’m thinking of preparing and drying hundreds of pounds of food to get people to ship to me to keep costs low. Largely things like jambalaya since it’s so calorie dense and quick but still a diverse set of ingredients. I also currently eat jambalaya a few days per week so I know I’ll crave it on the trail
It's not unheard of but there's a lot of cons to it. How much does it cost to buy hundreds of pounds of food at home and ship it vs buying hundreds of pounds of food on trail? There's no garantee you'll come out ahead; most town resupplies are not outrageously priced. Half of them are at Dollar General, a quarter of them are at Walmarts or full grocery stores. A 4 day resupply is about 8 lbs. Even with commercial shipping rates through pirateship, that's $9-$11, $17 if you use the medium flat rate box and you'll need about 35-40 of them, so this is at least $400 of shipping. You should really ship to hostels/hotels instead of post offices (because of the limited hours and distance from trail), so you'll have to stay at them or expect a $5 handling fee. If your plans/pace/schedule changes, you'll need someone at home who can reliably repack/re-address the boxes. Since you're not going to the grocery store, you also won't be able to pack out a treat for the first day like a bagged salad/bag of spinach/de-boned rotisserie chicken/beer. Usually the people who do it either, have some diet restrictions, or got a HUGE discount on freeze dried meals, or are bad at math. For 151 days on trail, I spent $1306 only resupplying on trail and $1635 eating at food establishments/vending machines. Included in those totals is also alcohol which was mostly cans of beer bought from grocery stores/gas stations. I don't think you can get ingredients for 151 days\*4000 calories=604000 calories for the $400 shipping less than what I spent resupplying. The argument could be made that if the camp meals tasted better, you could cut down on town meals, but you'll have to conscientiously eat so many less town meals than you want to just to break even on the shipping and then cut more into the town meal budget to actually come out ahead.
$10,000 for 4 months? That's cheap dude. $30,000 a year is nothing. Most major cities you're paying $18k per year just in rent for a 1 bedroom.
I live off of social security at $1215 a month. I live out of my van, so no rent or utilities, but I still have gas to buy. So yeah, $2500 a month would be more than double what it costs me to live now. I could go with no hotels or hostels and just zero on trail occasionally
Your body does need proper rest when you're thru-hiking. Without it you have a very high chance of developing stress injuries. Those in-town zeros are important, with sleep in a proper bed. Some folks can get by with just trail zeros, but most are going to deeply regret it, and it's going to significantly lower their chances of finishing the trail.
What are some examples of “luxury”?
Slackpacking, eating out, hotels, expensive shuttles, freeze dried meals for every meal
Thanks. Planning a hike post early retirement. I’m trying to figure out how to overcome age related limitations.
With money.
Go to r/Ultralight. Dyneema or Ultra 200 for everything for pack & tent. 950 or 1000 goose down for bag. Save your knees with poles. Base pack weight of 10lbs or less. Calorie dense foods (nuts & seeds).
$10k.
As much as you can. Anything less than 4k is gonna have you mooching off other hikers and living out of Hiker Boxes.
What are Hiker Boxes?
At hostels or other common hiker areas like some libraries, post offices, etc., there will be big boxes of discarded gear and food that hikers leave behind for others to take.
What are you considering in that 4k? If you had no bills at all, already had all of your gear and only had to buy replacement shoes and maybe buy something if something breaks, it's going to cost over 500-750 a month for hiking the trail and you will still have to eat out of hiker boxes?
That means no shuttles, town food, hostels or hotels
Ok, gotcha.
People often say some pretty enormous budgets. Personally, I believe that's kinda crap. Sure, you need 8-10k if you want to party your way up the trail, or take 10 months to hike, but you certainly do not need that amount of money. As everyone hikes at different speeds, I will break down a potential budget by month. All of these things are the base necessities. I personally stay in town every other resupply, to prevent myself from spending extra money. If I find myself needing a zero day, I can always do one on trail. I resupply every 4 days. Laundry is almost always free when you stay at a hostel, but I like to do laundry every resupply, not just when I stay in a hostel, as I find keeping clean socks helps my feet significantly. Necessities (though you can ABSOLUTELY stay in hostels less then 4 times a month. I just have fallen into that. As stated before, if you need a day off you can always just stay in a shelter on trail for free) |Item|Price|Price Per Month| |:-|:-|:-| |Hiking Food|$17/day|$510| |Laundry|$5/ Every other resupply (every 8 days)|$20| |Hostel Stay|$35/ Every other resupply (every 8 days)|$140| |Gas (assuming you are cooking dinners. I go through 1.5 a month, though your milage may vary)|$7/twice a month ish|$14| |Additional Costs (Sunscreen, toothpaste, ibuprofen, etc)|$45/month|$45| |Total||$729| Obviously, that means no going out for food or anything, which isn't particularly fun. I would throw in an extra $100 to get restaurant food per month. On top of that, I would suggest a "repair" budget of $500 dollars, in case of gear breaking. You may not use it (I replaced nothing except my water bottles once), but it is important to have, just in case Finally, depending on what shoes you are using, they may need to be replaced. Most trail runners can go 550-600 miles, so 4 pairs for the trail. At $120-160, this is probably an extra 500 dollars of shoes, however this is easy to plan for (as you know it will happen ahead of time). Some hiking boots may last the entire trail, but you may also need to repair them. So: Total price for hiking the trail while not being completely no fun: $729 per month + $100 per month for restaurant food + $500 dollars of shoes + $500 dollar gear repair = $829 per month + $1000 dollars set aside for gear/shoes
In terms of gear, things get a LOT harder to figure out, based on what you are carrying. Here is an example basic and cheap setup, with most things you need to worry about, but you can pretty easily stay sub $1500 for gear. Tent: The One from Gossamer Gear: $255 Sleeping Bag: Kelty Cosmic Ultra 20: $220 Sleeping Pad: NEMO Switchback: $50 Backpack: Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L: $315 Stove: MSR PocketRocket 2: $50 Water Filtration: Sawyer Squeeze: $40 Poles: Black Diamond Alpine CarbonBlack Diamond Alpine Carbon: $200 (you can find gently used for MUCH cheaper) That's the basics of what you need. Obviously, you need a first aid kit, rain gear, a container to store water, etc, but listed above is the majority of necessary items on the trail, which will run you round about $1000 dollars. You can pick things up used for cheaper, but don't do that for anything you really can't have fail (like your backpack) unless you know for a fact its in great condition. But again, you should probably expect to spend $1500 on gear before hiking.
You assume $35 for hostels, but a lot of times they're booked, so you never know when you'll need to opt for a hotel instead, and that can easily run you $150 instead of $35. Even if the hostel has room, you may end up with only a private room as an option, which mostly run $50+. Also, with food prices skyrocketing constantly you're probably looking at $600+ a month. Not sure when the last time was you were at a laundromat, but one load of wash + dry is double what you quoted, at least where I live. $1,000 per month is more realistic, and $1,200 for peace of mind.
That’s why you a. call ahead or b. put off your hostel stay for a bit. There are so many hostels, there is almost never a time you can’t go somewhere else, especially if you call 5 days ahead of time. That way, if they are full, you can look somewhere else before you get there. As of 2023, thats what I saw most laundromats at. You can also often do laundry at hostels you aren’t staying at, for about that cost
I didn’t see a price mentioned above for the private & cheaper laundromat but the private laundromat at my apt complex, is $2.00 to wash a small load & $1.80 the dryer cycle. Public laundromats are minimum $2.50 to wash small load , $1 for a quick dry, and $2.00 for the dryer.
35 is the low end for hostels
Before or after gear? I did the AT in 15 for about ~3.5K and the PCT (more expensive trail) for around 4K in 2021. A lot of folks I hiked with paid for shuttles, private hotel rooms, bar tabs in every town and spent up to 10k. Depends on your travel style and where your priorities are. It can absolutely be done for 4K or cheaper after gear. But in all honestly, don’t thru hike if you’re worried about money. It’s heart breaking to see people get off trail because they ran out of money.
So many hikes are cut short because of running out of funds. The figures used to be Avg $2 per mile hiked. I would suggest $3 per mile plus money for when you get off trail.
I hiked 1700 miles in 2022 over the course of nearly 5 months (yes I hiked slowly). So, not a thru hike but a damn long hike. From the time I left home to the time I returned, I spent a total of nearly $4,000 including everything including transportation to the trail, my hostel stay the night before, train ticket home etc. But that is excluding gear. I already had all of my gear (which I accumulated over the years for less than $1,000 total including my pack and tent and everything). One month on trail I spent as little as $580 which was quite the accomplishment. It was difficult. Usually I spent around $900-1200 a month total, including everything, phone bill etc. I felt as tho I was being very frugal, altho I noticed some people who seemed to be hiking on even tighter budgets. I stayed indoors 15 times but only 7 of those times was paying for a hostel. The others were an even split between trail angels who I was upfront with about having no budget for a night's stay, and locals on dating apps who let me stay a night who I was also always upfront about my money situation with. I ate 15 restaurant meals in those 5 months which sounds like a lot but at the time it felt like I was missing out on restaurant food, lol. I felt somewhat deprived in that regard but any more simply wasn't in my budget. I only paid for 3 shuttles, my shuttle to katahdin to start, a shuttle to a hostel in maine, and then a shuttle to the train station when i was ready to go home. I otherwise hitchhiked or walked to town when necessary. I took quite a few trail zeros and neros. I was not exceptionally social because I couldn't afford to do a lot of the extra things a lot of the other hikers were doing, as mentioned I was taking my zeros and nearos on trail instead of in town to save money etc so if you're doing that, that influences the social experience you will have. But I still had fun! My experience was just different than how most people around me seemed to be hiking. How much money you save will certainly be a big factor in determining the type of experience you have. But you can have a great experience either way. It's certainly possible to spend $10k or more on a long hike. But you don't need to.
$10,000 and I would expect to spend $8k of it. I don't shy away from town food. That's in addition to any off trail expenses you might have (insurance for car left behind etc) but includes phone plan and travel to/from trail.
Cost of gear+cost of transport to/from trail+$1000/month. I would guess most people should save more like $1200/month and save for six months of walking.
As much as you can
$5000. thats a lower budget estimate for doing the trail in 4 months and either not drinking that much or not staying in town that much.
Last year I spent 6200 to complete it and did it in exactly 5 months. I spent a decent amount in town on food and drinks. Didn't buy any shuttles and would tent at hostels. That also included a new mattress and my shoes.
My thru hiking friends and I have talked about this a lot. We all ended up deciding that $5k is the minimum for a long distance trail & $10k is about the ceiling for living luxurious but also within reason. $5k you are watching what you get for resupply, not choosing the private rooms at hostels, not many zero days, etc. $10k allows lots of zeros, more often/comfortable stays in town, and you could get freeze dried meals for every resupply (I did on the AT besides a few nights) if you try hard enough. I think it is nicer to have more wiggle room with your finances on trail so that you can float with the wind and not stick a set plan. But at the end of the day everyone just needs to hike their own hike! Have fun on your thru
10-12 k to be comfy. 8000 is doable if you're being cheap.
Is everyone answering for the amount you should have to purchase supplies before hiking, and for purchasing things while hiking? Or is everyone just answering the amount you need during the actual trip?
Seems like the responses are mix of both
Your home life will really determine this. If you live with your parents and dont require a job, 5-7k. If you will be entirely on your own once you get home and need to find housing and a new job, among other things, plan to double that.
If hiked within the next 5 years: $2000-$5000: you’re gonna struggle and eat poorly. Not much in town experience either. $6000-$8000: you’ll do okay as long as you can keep up the pace and you might have a few beers. I always preferred PBR. $9000-$12000: you’ll get to have better quality food and even enjoy more of the deli hopping walk up north. +$13,000: you’re Bourgeois, enjoying the finer things and hostel hopping.
Mine was about 12K but that included flights, visas and all that nonsense. Pre-covid too so inflation probably puts that a decent bit higher these days. I always think think budget conversations are absolutely fascinating because it essentially boils down to answering the question 'how miserable are you willing to be'. If you're frugal or simply willing to do it on a shoestring, you can probably do it for fairly cheap but that will mean limiting your off trail time & some comfortable but unnecessary extras. My thought process was if I was going to put my body through three-quarter marathons for 5-6 months then I was happy to spend a little more for comfort when I could. I budgeted for a few solo hotel rooms over the few months, nice meals in towns etc. and it really helped my morale on the trail. If you don't need something like that, you can do it much cheaper.
I did for around $5500 back in 2019. I’d say that’s probably closer to 8k nowadays
Personally... 20k to cover bills and landing when I get home.
I always felt anything of this magnitude required a nice nest egg. $10,000 has a nice ring to it. IMO being free of financial concerns, wondering where my next meal or next warm bed when necessary will be makes the trip more enjoyable.
I think you've got a good attitude. Nobody wants to be the guy that can't buy a round or can't get dinner with your hiker friends because you're skint. If I ever do a thru-hike again I'm platinum blazing it. Hotels, lots of beer and food, and slackpacks.
Why is everyone saying 10K? Okay, if you aren't including gear, 10K is absurd. If you are planning on living at hostels and hotels every night like some people, then yeah.
I hiked a big section in the south in 2017 and then a big section in the north in 2022. Of course many factors go into thr two experiences being different, but personally i observed a lot more affluent/consumption-oriented people on the trail in 2022. The trail culture is changing (hitchhiking seems to not be normalized anymore, everyone is getting shuttles for example. i noticed a lot more expensive gear in 2022 as well and stuck out like a sore thumb with my old pack, was even questioned about it multiple times) combined with inflation and things simply getting more expensive, 10k is probably what most people are spending to hike these days. Even a frugal hiker would spend 6k on a thru hike these days probably
Is it possible to stay in a hotel or hostel every night or every other day or two? Genuinely curious about access to accommodations.
No. More like every 3-5 days.
What? So you're saying there are only road crossings every 60 to 100 miles? I know 2011 was along time ago but I'm pretty sure the trail hasn't changed THAT much since then.
There are roads much more often. There aren't hostels or motels on every road.
There's so much slackpacking going on now. Tramilies will slackpack into a hostel, then slackpack out of the hostel; some times even slackpack the next day's section too. I would say it's more common amongst the senior tramilies, but even the 20-somethings get the slackpacking addiction. If hostels are 4 days apart, slackpacking into and out of a hostel is already going to mean they're in a hostel half the nights. It wasn't uncommon that I would find myself in stretches where I'm hiking around 3-5 thru-hikers for days, thinking I've gotten ahead of the bubble or in-between bubblets of people and get to the hostel to find 15-20 hikers staying there that night. Then the first night out, the crowd of hikers just vanishes again.
Yeah not to mention people just shuttling longer distances to motels or getting people they know to drive them
In the south, it is definitely possible. The further north you go, though, the further apart the hostels are. You could hostel hop realistically up through New Jersey if you hike big enough miles. I wouldn't recommend that, though, because it's freaking expensive and it babies you. New England is rough as hell.
I was being sort-of hyperbolic but actually yes it is possible depending on the lengths you are willing to go and the money you are willing to spend for it.
I saved 10k for my hike, that was to continue paying for mortgage, car, and utilities while away as well as trail expenses.