[at-l] Cost of a thru-hike?

[jeanpaul at comcast.net (Jean-Paul Miller)]

my thoughts on this are:

save up more then you may think..  if you have extra it is good it gives you
more time to re-adjust after you get home find another job if you want or
need and  take that vacation from your "vacation"  to let you legs mellow
out and to let everything settle down.. this extra money will also be a
buffer for bad thing like broken gear and unexpected expenses along the way.

those 1.00 and 1.50 dollar a mile numbers were not accurate for me .. I
think I would need to double those numbers... and I too like the calculate
not my mile but by day. it seems to be a more exact and valid way of pricing
such a thing.

I also bought food along the way(I hear mail dropping is cheaper) and ate in
alot of restaurants (I don't drink but if you do drink that can add up very
quickly too)

there are also two way to stay in town  I noticed ..
there is the stop in town grab a meal or 3 and shower stock up and go...
stop in town grab a meal grab a room cleanup grab a meal and go..

if you do the seconds type .. stay in lots of these rooms hostels and hotels
you can add a lot of money onto your hike too.
zero days or low mileage days for a break are much cheaper spent in the
woods.

something else that is interesting being in better shape from the beginning
will help you spend less money.  if you are in better shape and can hike
farther without needing to take so many slower days... you will save a lot
of money and generally be in less pain and much happier. the first few weeks
were hell for me and my out of shape-ness... I would imagine if the in
trail-shape curve was less steep I would have completed much more trail much
faster!

now I have been running, climbing, biking and "cross country skiing" it has
me in a comfortable fitness level where I can hike for about 17 miles
"comfortably" in a day, day after day. it is also some reason to go outside
and stay active or else I would sit around playing video games all day
eating carrots, apples and peanut butter! yum it is dinner time

start training!

Wisperlight



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