How do you afford it?

imported
#1

I’m sure this has come up plenty of times before, but here goes again. How do you all manage financially to take the time off and set the money aside for a PCT thru-hike? Especially more than one year in a row?

Yogi? Five out of the last six years!?! Do tell!

How much $$$ do you have in the bank when you start out?

I started out with more than $10k in the bank in 03 for two of us, and that wasn’t enough thanks to far far too many side-trips and town indulgances. Next year I will be lucky to have half that in the bank.

I know from experience that it can go very fast (especially if it’s CDN funds to begin with) so other than the obvious (take fewer expensive hotel zero days) what have you learned about financing a thru-hike?

Cheers,
Toes

toes

#2

I spend money on the trail. I don’t spend money at home. That means I don’t go to movies. I don’t go out to eat. I don’t buy new clothes. I don’t make impulse purchases. When people go out for drinks after work, I go home. Every dollar I spend in this world is a dollar I can’t spend on the trail.

I saw a woman pushing a diet on the Oprah show once. She said that when you’re dieting and there is a piece of chocolate cake in front of you, you have to ask yourself this question: “What do I want more: (1) to be thin, or (2) to eat that chocolate cake?”

I convert that to trail speak: what do I want more: (1)to go to a movie in KC in March or (2) to stay in a motel on the trail next year?

It’s all about choices. People who have children do it all the time. They do without so their children can do with. It’s the same thing with saving trail money.

. . . . . . . so this week’s entertainment here in KC? Tomorrow night I’m going to see a presentation by Demetri Coupounas (the founder of Go-Lite) at the local outfitter.

free entertainment!

yogi

www.pcthandbook.com

yogi

#3

I think also that if you think this is your “once in a lifetime” trek - you will be more likely to indulge in the side trips and town visits and various extras. If it becomes a lifestyle, you become a bit more frugal while you are on the trail as well as off. You don’t max out your credit card because you know that that will affect next year’s hike as well as this. You share a cheap room with a group instead of staying at the nicer motel.

As Yogi said, you pick your priorities. Sometimes it is important to enjoy your life right now (so you go to that concert you really want to see), and sometimes it is important to spend less now (rent a movie instead of going to the theater) so that you can have something that is more important to you later - like spending a cold wet night in a motel.

I have sometimes felt like I was putting too much of my life on hold, saving every penny for my travels – but when push comes to shove, I’d rather spend the money on the trail than on new clothes. You just have to find the balance between enjoying life now and enjoying yourself on the trail.

Ginny

#4

How does anyone afford anything? How can you afford that boat or new truck or golf clubs? People generally find a way to save some extra money when they want something badly enough. The trail is no different.
Unlike many hobbies and purchases, a thru-hike (of any trail) can be relatively cheap, depending on your tolerance. One advantage to hiking many years in a row or multiple hikes is having your gear already. Generally it costs me around 5 dollars in groceries a day on the trail, give or take. Obviously you’ll spend more on meals in towns, but motels can be split and hostels are a good alternative.
I don’t have the experience Yogi has, but certainly anything is possible and it’s all about priorities and what’s important. Most of the folks I know who hike most years don’t have spouses or kids and don’t own houses. They don’t own cars and have employers who understand that they only want to work winters.
It’s all easy on paper. Assuming you needed 3 Grand each yr to hike, you’d only have to make that during the winter (plus rent and food money). You could work at a ski resort as a lifty or snow maker and easily make that and maybe find free room/board at a job too. But would that make you happy? Would it be worth it to be misreble during the winter, to have no ties or fun or roots in a place. This makes it hard to have friends and get involved in a community. But this isn’t important to some people.
It’s all about finding what’s right for you.

A-Train

#5

How does anyone afford anything? How can you afford that boat or new truck or golf clubs? People generally find a way to save some extra money when they want something badly enough. The trail is no different.

Unlike many hobbies and purchases, a thru-hike (of any trail) can be relatively cheap, depending on your tolerance. One advantage to hiking many years in a row or multiple hikes is having your gear already. Generally it costs me around 5 dollars in groceries a day on the trail, give or take. Obviously you’ll spend more on meals in towns, but motels can be split and hostels are a good alternative.
I don’t have the experience Yogi has, but certainly anything is possible and it’s all about priorities and what’s important. Most of the folks I know who hike most years don’t have spouses or kids and don’t own houses. They don’t own cars and have employers who understand that they only want to work winters.
It’s all easy on paper. Assuming you needed 3 Grand each yr to hike, you’d only have to make that during the winter (plus rent and food money). You could work at a ski resort as a lifty or snow maker and easily make that and maybe find free room/board at a job too. But would that make you happy? Would it be worth it to be misreble during the winter, to have no ties or fun or roots in a place. This makes it hard to have friends and get involved in a community. But this isn’t important to some people.
It’s all about finding what’s right for you.

A-Train

#6

How does anyone afford anything? How can you afford that boat or new truck or golf clubs? People generally find a way to save some extra money when they want something badly enough. The trail is no different.

Unlike many hobbies and purchases, a thru-hike (of any trail) can be relatively cheap, depending on your tolerance. One advantage to hiking many years in a row or multiple hikes is having your gear already. Generally it costs me around 5 dollars in groceries a day on the trail, give or take. Obviously you’ll spend more on meals in towns, but motels can be split and hostels are a good alternative.

I don’t have the experience Yogi has, but certainly anything is possible and it’s all about priorities and what’s important. Most of the folks I know who hike most years don’t have spouses or kids and don’t own houses. They don’t own cars and have employers who understand that they only want to work winters.

It’s all easy on paper. Assuming you needed 3 Grand each yr to hike, you’d only have to make that during the winter (plus rent and food money). You could work at a ski resort as a lifty or snow maker and easily make that and maybe find free room/board at a job too. But would that make you happy? Would it be worth it to be misreble during the winter, to have no ties or fun or roots in a place. This makes it hard to have friends and get involved in a community. But this isn’t important to some people.

It’s all about finding what’s right for you.

A-Train

#7

Why is it that I indent and space paragraphs in the box when I write, but when I submit, it’s all one big paragraph?! Sometimes this happens and sometimes it doesn’t. Sorry guys

A-Train

#8

I agree with the folks above. it is all about choices… I don’t own a house, have kids… or even a couch for that matter. I can still put everything I own in my rig and drive out . If it is a once in a lifetime trip then spend some $ but if it is a way of life then save whereever you can…I remember talking with my friend Batch on the Pct about this and he said he had milk jugs in his house full of change and paper money… by summer he had close to enough to hike… I do that as well… just keep adding to my little piggy bank in the winter… it adds up !.. if I am not hiking that summer what I put in that pays for my drive up to AK . ( I live here now so don’t have to worry about driving up here)

yappy

#9

Yogi, what about your 03 hike? (I wasn’t too far behind you on much of the trail up till Yosemite) You said in your journal that you had a huge load of credit card debt. How did you manage to thru-hike the PCT in 03 last minute and with big debt?

Personally, I’d abandon my debt & any hope of a decent credit rating to go this year if I could, but my consolidation loan has a co-signer, so I have to pay it off and save up money by spring 06.

I met people on the trail who seemed to be hiking on a very tight budget … even to the point that they were getting a lot of their food in california from hiker boxes.

So, how much have all of you managed to thru-hike on? What was your budget when you thru-hiked and after the experience, what would you budget for next time?

Cheers,
Toes.

Toes

#10

Just kept the minimum payments for the time I was on the trail. I paid down the debt after the hike. Living frugally, it’s not hard to pay down debt.

yogi

www.pcthandbook.com

yogi

#11

I found that life on the trail was cheaper then off the trail.
Most of your trail expenses will be in the area of food or hotels unless your a big beer drinker or smoke cigarettes. Back home, I am constanly buying stuff, cofee, snacks, movies, drinks out.

In the end though , I thought of the trail as a valuable investment in my physical and mental health. When it comes down to it, thats the most important and wisest investment you can make.:cheers

jjalan jalan

#12

To A-Train,

To get your paragraphs to indent when the final product comes out, you need to hit the “enter” button twice, not once.

Hope this helps. See you at Dot’s.

Hello to Wolf.

Sidetrack

Sidetrack

#13

Another thing I think about is really and truely WHY we do this again and again.For me in my 20s I thought my adventures as chances not choices… as I moved into me late 30s I thought of them as choices…cuz that is what they are now. Dennis and I didn’t buy the house cuz our $ went into the hikes. We didn’t start the family cuz of the same reasons.But, our time of being able to do both was sorta gone . It was an either or thing. You do give up alot to hike…maybe at 20 most folks aren’t thinking about it but at 40 you do. Our marriage couldn’t survive the real world… other world… cotton world … whatever you want to call it… I have another relationship now with someone who doesn’t hike… and this summers hike is ALOT harder… becuz of that.I don’t think he particularly wants me to and I am having a hard time saying goodbye… way harder then I thought I would…It is hard to balance leaving for 5-6 months and nurturing a new and absolutely wonderful, fragile relationship… So miss Yogi…do you feel like you are making a choice between the 2 ?

yappy