How Much Does It COST to Hike The Appalachian Trail? -- Actual Credit Card Statement!

hi my name is Nick green Hollywood on trail so what does it take to hike the Appalachian Trail or any Long Trail the truth is a lot a lot of planning a lot of consideration and a lot of sacrifice people do some extreme things to make it happen I personally moved out of my apartment I sold most of my furniture I got rid of my car I took every acting and teaching job no matter how terrible it was just so long as it paid I even drove for Uber to make some extra cash it's not a light decision not only are you spending several thousand dollars on trail but you're presumably not working while you're on there either so it could be a huge swing financially there's a cost to you emotionally as well there's figuring out what the hell you're gonna do when you get off Trail do you move back home do you have a home to move back to you don't want to be broke when you go back there or even in debt there's so many things to consider today we're going to talk about the nuts and bolts of finances including my actual credit card statements from my four and a half month long through hike of the Appalachian Trail [Music] before we dive in I want to say that I just got back from the annual all the Gathering in Williamstown Massachusetts that's the Appalachian long distance hikers Association we had an outstanding time we got to share ideas with fellow lovers of the trail we got to meet some absolute Trail Legends like all the founder and 18 time at hiker Warren Doyle we got to get out there and do some trail maintenance like fixing privys which is a really dirty job but someone's got to do it so I recommend joining all the going to these gatherings supporting your local Trail clubs and getting out there and doing some trail maintenance it's our Trail she gives so much to us she always provides it's our turn to give something back all right let's get going like I said I have the actual printouts of my credit card statements and bank statements so by the end of this we'll know exactly how much I spent on my through hike I broke it down by category so we'll go one by one to get a total I'm leaving all the initial gear costs off of it this because I acquired it all over several years so it'd be hard to pin down exactly how much everything cost but it's safe to say a few thousand dollars for your initial gear purchases for these purposes we're going to talk about on trail costs okay first things first getting to Trail either to Springer Mountain in Georgia or up to Maine if you're a Sobo or anywhere else on trail if you're flip-flop I flew into Atlanta Georgia then had a very nice friend pick me up lend me a bed for the night and then drove me to Trail the next morning my flight was a hundred and twenty eight dollars and 98 cents one way from LAX to Atlanta it was a cheap covet flight I just bought that one-way trip because I knew at the very end I was going to take a road trip back from Maine to Los Angeles so one-way flight for me next on the list is Gear Repair this can be anything like your fuel cost for your stove to say your backpack breaks and you need to kind of get a new one or something like that I bought an ursac and used it as a bear bag for a while to of course your shoes of which I bought four pairs along the way this came out to a total of 635 dollars and 12 cents my gear actually held up pretty well so I didn't need to buy a new pack or a new tent or a new sleeping bag or anything like that which would have been obviously several hundred dollars more next is the really big cost for me and that's resupplies for food and in town meals this is what I spent most of my money on hiker hunger is quite a sight to behold so most of my funds went to Food and in town meals that I could not refuse when I'm descending into a town the only thing I'm thinking about is Burger in a beer that's what I want so I would not and should not deprive myself of that luxury I did a resupply like every three or four days or so and that usually turned out to about between 40 and 70 dollars depending but the total cost for all things food was 2719.92 and I never felt like I wasn't buying food that I wanted trust me you eat a lot so this covered pretty much everything I wanted food wise granted there were several times where Trail Angels provided Trail magic or bought a meal for me or I went into a town and a really nice person bought me a sandwich something like that so this was what I spent however there was some food that was purchased that I I didn't spend money on that uh I was able to reap the benefits of like my wife sending me care packages with food snacks and some really nice day dinner meals as well next on the list hostels and motels so I didn't really utilize this very much as much as other people did I stayed at a total of 10 either hostels mostly or motels which is a little more than two a month so not a lot I really liked maximizing my time sleeping in the woods I felt like I can stay in motels or hostels pretty much whenever I want when was I going to get another opportunity to sleep in the woods for 143 days however hostile life is really fun you meet some wonderful people there it's truly part of the trail culture in my opinion so I did want to experience that I just knew it was going to end up being expensive if I stayed a long time sometimes you get sucked into the Vortex of hostile world and you just stay there and don't leave which clearly is not good for getting to Katahdin and and ultimately I wanted to sleep in the woods but I did utilize it just not as much as other people okay anyway uh the total cost for lodging was 628.69 the next cost to consider is your map or your GPS system um I had the AWOL guide the AWOL at guidebook that that I used for the first half of the trail and that cost 17.95 which I love by the way I'm a big advocate for that but there was a hurricane uh up by around New York Connecticut that caused a lot of tree blowdowns and I was going around in circles and I thought all right time to cave and get my gut hook which is now far out and that GPS system I got from Great Barrington to Katahdin and it cost me 26.97 next there is mail or shipping cost to home and back from home there were a few things that I shipped home like my sleeping bag in the summer months when I didn't need it and could shave a little bit of weight and then I got my sleeping bag back in Fall when I was getting really cold some love letters that I sent home that are really nice to write so anything like that now a few people sent me things like my wife and my parents and friends that they paid for and I didn't have to dish out the money for but in total I spent 121.30 on shipping moving along there are experiences or excursions like I Aqua blazed which is when you take a canoe down the river so I did that for part of the shenandoahs which I highly recommend and the canoe rental cost me ninety dollars next there are rides shuttles or ride share things you take into town things you take to wherever you're gonna go now I did not use or need too many of these things because typically I just stuck my thumb up and a nice uh passerby would pick me up and bring me into town for resuppies but sometimes you know you're going to be getting off Trail at like a dirt road it's going to be difficult to find somebody so you want to plan in advance for a shuttle the hostels run shuttles there are other townsfolk who run shuttles as well and sometimes they cost a little bit of money again I didn't use this too much I typically found a way however I did spend fifty dollars total on rides all right next are medical or clinic bills now injuries happen Giardia happens things happen so sometimes you got to go to a clinic I had really bad shin splints for a while that I thought may have turned into a stress fracture so I went to a clinic and got an x-ray and that cost me one hundred and twenty dollars for the visit and the X-ray next is cash I carried a little bit of cash with me throughout the entire trip and now most places take your credit card but I never knew if I was going to need cash for something um I sometimes split a bill with somebody uh at a restaurant or something like that or I would tip a busker playing a really nice song on guitar making me happy so whatever things like that it's all your miscellaneous cash cost all I know is that I took out two hundred and forty dollars from the ATM and then I spent it I'm not quite sure what it was on but it was spent regardless so total on trail expense was four thousand seven hundred and seventy eight dollars and ninety three cents but there's one more thing we're going to talk about in a minute however that works out to about a little over a thousand dollars a month you can easily spend way more than this if you go into town more often and stay in town that was one place that I really cut costs that I know a lot of people are spending tons of money on and it's tempting it is you you get those Comforts for even a second and you think oh man maybe I'll just stay a day or two more but the reality is one for timing's sake it's really tough to do that and two it really adds up so if you're looking to cut costs hostels motels in town stays are a great place to do that to spend less than me on trail you can hardly ever go into town or not stay at hostels at all you can also eat out of your pack instead of getting your burger and a beer which I highly recommend again you've been working really hard you deserve a burger and a beer you earned it and the last thing to consider in terms of expenses is everything you have going on back home your bills health insurance phone bill car insurance rent mortgage anything you have ongoing that you cannot stop now I didn't do this but some people will get like a supplemental health insurance a Traveler's Insurance to go on top of their insurance I did not do that but it's a consideration as well clearly everybody's going to be different in this category I was able to work it to where I didn't have rent I didn't have a car payment or car insurance and I was able to keep this cost relatively low so while I was gone on a phone bill health insurance and other extraneous costs like that I spent around two thousand dollars on everything I had going on in my off Trail life so the grand total of being gone for four and a half months on the Appalachian Trail was six thousand seven hundred and seventy eight dollars and ninety three cents everybody is going to be different in terms of how much money they spend on trail I personally knew that finances were a big consideration for me I didn't have an endless pit of money to throw at my lovely little hiking hobby so I had to cut costs where I could however I wanted to maximize my experience out there so I didn't want to cut costs where I thought it would hurt my experience as you can see it's not cheap but it doesn't have to be exorbitant either it's the absolute adventure of a lifetime so work those jobs no matter how menial or trivial they are beforehand do things you wouldn't otherwise do make that extra buck and get out there and make it happen if you like what you saw here go ahead and hit the Subscribe button so you'll get all the up-to-date videos as soon as they come out leave a comment below let me know how much you spent on your through hike how much you're planning to spend on your through hike or if you think I'm absolutely crazy for spending this much money or not enough money at all please let me know below remember can't carry it in your pack or in your soul sometimes in your wallet you don't need it

Channel: PackAndSoul

Views: 25,028

Keywords: Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Hiking, Camping, Thru-Hike, Running, Gear, Gear Review, How much does it cost to hike, van life, Yosemite, smoky mountains, yosemite, yellowstone, tent, backpack, dogs, wilderness, bears, nature

Id: 2bhyJ4FFlYk

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2022