[at-l] thru-hike budget , maps, etc.

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

I didn't keep track of  what I spent during my six months and three days in
1993. But having walked the trail and observed others walking the trail, I'm
convinced that average expenditures are pretty meaningless, and that my walk
came in on the low end of the cost scale, despite spurging on photography.

It's easy to cut costs, especially if you have experience with hiking and
backpacking on a budget. It's even easier to spend as much as you want, with or
without experience.

My biggest expense was film and photo processing. I shot 80+ rolls of slide film
and spent around $1,000 on that alone. I wanted a complete photo record of the
trail. That was my priority.

I skimped on other things to compensate.

Take food, for instance. The staple "cheap" foods for most thru hikers are
Lipton Dinners, instant oatmeal, and other convenient concoctions that cost
$3-$4 a pound in supermarkets and twice that in trailside convenient stores.

Generic quick-cooking oatmeal, rice and macaroni are available in supermarkets
for between 30 and 90 cents a pound. The difference is mostly convenience. You
add sugar, salt, pepper, bouillon, spices and supermarket dried onions to the
generic stuff. The nutrients are the same. The cost is dramatically different.

Since you need at least two pounds of such dry goods to do the trail without
serious weight loss -- or even more expensive intown eating -- the difference is
$2 a day vs. $8 or $12. Over a six month hike food alone can range from $400 --
including shipping -- to well over $2,000.

I skimped also on gear. I bought nothing new except a $20 rain jacket from
Campmor. Most of my gear was at least a decade old and well-worn. If starting
from scratch you can duplicate my gear for a few hundred at used gear sales,
thrift shops and the like. The penalty? A couple of pounds or so of extra weight
-- though I'm sure my pack was lighter than those of most trail pioneers..

Jim is right when he reports on people who have "done the Trail" on $800....
Some of them have reputations as bums, scroungers, con-men, dumpster-divers,
leeches, hustlers, hiker-box raiders - and worse."

But I did none of those things. Nor did I particularly skimp. I never hung back
when the gang was going to town for beer and pizza or a steak -- especially if
the place had an all you can eat salad bar. But if I was feeling real thirsty
I'd try to nurse a couple of cans before going. A couple of times I shared the
cost of a motel room, but I greatly preferred sleeping at hostels with prices
ranging from a donation to $15 or so a night.

All I'm suggesting is that you can do the trail quite cheaply with a little
planning and knowledge and common sense, without in any serious way lessening
the quality of your experience. It's mostly a matter of setting priorities and
sticking with them. Most people prefer to spend freely. But if you don't have
the money, you can still have a great time -- and frankly none of the other
hikers will hardly notice if you don't tell them. I suspect many thought my 80
cent meals were some kind of special luxury that only old folks like me could
afford.

Weary