Folks – apart from gear, does anyone have an estimate for the out-of-pocket expenses on a typical 5 month thru? Some motel nites, some meals, some laundry – and a number of other things – what has been range (low to high) of actual experiences? we won’t count cost of medivac. thanks in advance. and merry christmas, good cheer and happy holidays to all.
McIntyre
well you have a legitamate question here, but it really all depends on your personality. there is one factor that will make your hike alot more expensive. that is if you are a drinker of the alchohol beverages. if you dont drink, then you could be very comfortable with 2,000 dollars for the trail. this year i hiked the pct and all together (including my gear) i spent around 3,500 dollars. but i spent waayyyyy to much time and money in towns. i think i had about 45-50 zero days on my hike.
i hope this helps somewhat.
hey anyway, have yourself a grandioso hike a!! you will love the pct! maybe not when you are in the middle of it but as you get to canada and you start remembering everything and then you get home and see your pictures, you will love it and want to do it again!!
TYVEK
TYVEK
You’ll probably be splitting the majority of your hotel rooms with other hikers. Plan on $20-30 a pop. Laundry is the same. Plan on $2. Food, drinks, etc, depend. I did a 105 day hike and spent, I suppose, somewhere around $2500 (?) including transit to and from the trail. I didn’t take too many zeros (something like 7) and not too many nights in town (another 10 or so), but lived like a king when I was there. Put $3000 in the bank and you’ll be fine. Put $2000 in and watch your expenses a little. Put $1000 in and be a tight wad.
Suge
I’m planning on the '07 thru. I sat down a couple of months ago and on a big whiteboard just wrote out what all my expenses would be before, during, and after the trail.
Before, I’ve got to buy some better equipment, and I’ve got to rent storage for all my crap, I have to leave money for the parents to send in for my student loans, and I’ve got to pick up all my food + boxes + figure out postage.
Then during, there will be the trip out there, then in-town resupplies, laundry, motels, restaurants, and the very rare rental car. I’m also planning for a visit or two to a clinic just in case. I’m still working on this part, pretty loosely right now since it’s more than a year away. Until I get Yogi’s book I’m just using pctplanner.com to help me figure out where I might resupply and/or take zeros.
And finally after the hike, I hope to settle somewhere in the PNW area, so I want to have money on hand to kind of get rooted, and be able to get back home to retrieve my car and storage crap.
Anyway, all of this generally comes out to 5000 USD. 3000 would be the very least I would go with and feel ok, but it would change a lot of my during and after expenses.
Steph