On a shoestring

imported
#1

i’m planning to start the AT May 12 - till then I’ll be a typical college student strapped for cash. Any tips?

hephzibah

#2

That’s the only way I make it through the months! Looking forward to the weekends when I can get out of the 'boro of greens in nc :slight_smile:
But at least you’re doing it soon! I’m waiting until next march!!! Talk about Springer Fever! i’m not going to get anything productive done!

hippie hiker chic

#3

Hey hephzibah, try a flip flop thru-hike since you are starting late. Start at Traildays (www.traildays.com) in May going north, then come back to that point and finish going south. That way you know you will make the whole way. Unless ofcourse you are a very fast hiker…??? And just have fun, no worries, you can get buy with spending not much money. Cheers

GR8FUL-HIKER

#4

I wasn’t clear - I meant ways to do the Trail CHEAP. How little can I get by on? HOW can I get by without spending much?

I hike fairly fast (ask Bono); not interested in a flip-flop - want to do it the old tried-and-true way. GA>ME

Thanks.

hephzibah

#5

First off, you could camp the whole way.

One of the big tricks for the real money-saving fanatics is to make big-time use of the hiker boxes. There’s tons of stuff in the hiker boxes you could use. Rumor has it that it’s possible to virtually live off them. Of course, it helps to not be discriminating in your tastes.

Stay out of bars.

Don’t worry about buying groovy name-brand gear and clothing.

Limit your restaraunt spending. When buying groceries, figure out the most calories/food value for the dollar.

Hike fast. All things being equal, a 6 month hike will cost you 50% more than a 4 month hike.

Stay out of towns as much as possible, that’s where you spend your money.

However, most, if not all, of these tips may reduce your standard of living. Others may increase the adventure. Depends on the person.

Colter

#6

I did my last hike in '98 for about $1,600. I lived pretty modestly, but did stay in hostels and even a couple of hotels. If you don’t drink and don’t waste a ton of time in towns you will be fine.

Israel

#7

The best way is to stay out of towns for lodging as much as possible. There are many towns that have shelters within three or less miles from town. Camp at these shelters (or find a stealth camp) and go into town in the morning. After doing town chores, hitch back out.

The second (as Colter said) is to use the hiker boxes. Since you are starting in May you might have a more difficult time with this as there are many places that dump the food after the main group of thru hikers go through. (I asked at several places that I stopped at.) I do know at least two hikers that did this sucessfully. One kid started with $40 and made it to Hot Springs before hopping a train. He used the hiker boxes almost exclusively, although he did do very well begging in the streets of Gatlinburg. :slight_smile: He did carry up to 10 days food at a time, because he was never sure of what would be ahead of him.

Another way is to do work for stay at some of the hostels along the way if you feel you need to be indoors for a night.

As for food (again as Colter mentioned) know what foods will give you the most calories for weight AND your buck. A box of Mac and Cheese could run about $1.50 in some of the smaller towns (for a total of one meal). Now, if you add something to it (for instance I added tuna and a packet of dry tomato soup) your meal could end up to be more. That whole meal with the tuna would be about 1200 cals or so. Now if you get a box of pasta, usually about $2 (total of 2-3 meals). You add some of the dry sauces (less than $1) and maybe some TVP ($1.50 for 10 oz. You will use a few oz. per meal.) Your meal would end up with about the same cals for less $.

Prepackaged meals will save you time and trouble but making your own will save you money and you will have more varity.

Pushing Up Daisies

#8

As others have posted, hiking the trail is essentially free. It’s in town where you spend your money. So, if you want to thru-hike on the cheap:

  1. minimize beer and drinking
  2. minimize zero days in towns
  3. minimize hotels and motels.
  4. minimize restraurants.
  5. resupply at hiker boxes.

I know people swear that they can resupply themselves exclusively from hiker boxes.

Peaks

#9

great tips - drinking/bars won’t be an issue; i plan to take a tent so should be able to camp without relying on shelters. how hard is it to find showers without paying for a hotel? i’ll throw in one more kink - i’m vegetarian, prefer no dairy products (cheese, eggs, milk, etc) - guess that makes me a little “discriminating in my tastes”! =)

hephzibah

#10

You bring up a good point when you mention food preferences. I think that everyone worries about equipment before their hike, but doesn’t put the same effort into thinking about food. As a result, many of us get down right skinny, too skinny because we don’t eat enough and the right stuff.

So, here goes. The “normal” diet is around 2000 to 2500 calories per day. A thru-hiker needs to double that. So, read the little labels on all the food packages and figure out how you are going to carry all those calories. Your body also needs protein. Normally it comes from meat products. On the trail, it frequently comes from cheese. So, if you prefer no dairy products, then get your protien some other way.

I suspect that a major reason why people quit the trail after Harpers Ferry is that they run out of energy because they are not eating well enough. So, my recommendation is that you put some serious thought into getting enough to eat right from the start.

Peaks

#11

If you choose not to stay at a hostel, most places will let you take a shower for a buck or two. But, you can get creative. Especially in Maine. I probably took a swim once a day, if not more while hiking Maine.

Hostels are usually not that costly. The non-profits like The Place request $4.00 per night. Commercial hostels like Shaws is $30, but that included AYCE dinner and breakfast.

Peaks

#12

The hiker boxes get pretty slim by the time you get to new england. There are fewer hikers to drop supplies and when they do they are picked over fast. By the time you get to NH or ME you start catching the SOBOs but they are few in number so the boxes pick up a little but not much. In the South you should not have a lot of trouble except they will have been picked over by the time you get to them. Good luck. Most Veggie eaters we met were on cheese burgers by VT

Papa Smurf

#13

Well you could buy 50 lbs. of Beans and 50 pounds of rice and brake them up for mail drops. It’s cheap and will feed you but kind of bland. On moy hikes the biggest expense has been food in town and groceries. My suggestion would be to avoid long town stops and plan your food purchases.
On meel I highly recommend is ramen noodles w/ two large spoon of peanut butter, sun flower kernels, and a pinch of Cayenne pepper. Never got tried of this meal and it’s cheap. Little Debbie also makes a lot of cheap calorie packing snacks since you get a box for a dollar.
I believe mail drops can cut your cost if you buy the food at a large discount store like Sam’s or Costco before you hike. Just keep the weight down in your boxes or postage will kill you. Also remember you’ll have to eat what you bought for the next 4 to six months even if you quit the trail you’ll still have all the food.
When you do stop in town buy food and cook instead of restuarant meals. Good Luck.

Darth Pac-man

#14

Dumpster Dive. I have found amazing food in garbage cans. You smell bad any way, what do you need pride for, it’s way too heavy. I swear if you get good at this plus Yogiing you can thru hike for under a thousand.

Blue Jay

#15

Sorry…advising folks to depend on hiker boxes, or telling folks where they can easily panhandle is lousy advice.

Hiker boxes are for EVERYONE’S use, and it’s unfair to monopize or hog them and their contents, and in any case, you can’t always depend on finding them full of what you need. As for panhandling or begging, it’s a good way to get arested, and it makes ALL the hikers look like low-lifes. Hikers have enough trouble convincing small-town locals that we’re not shiftless bums without resorting to standing on a street corner with your hat in your hand; dumpster diving and mooching is NOT the way to hike the Trail.

The advice on staying outta towns is dead on—you can’t spend money in the woods. But maybe it’d be better if you made sure you had enough money to have a good trip WITHOUT being on a total shoestring all the time—May is a long way off, and you should be able to put away enough money by then to have the trip you want.

B. Jack

#16

That is easy for you to say. You have done the entire trail many times over the years, so you must have some kind of money. I did not say begging, there is a huge difference between begging and creative yogiing. As for dumpster diving that is the ultimate recycling. You would be completely and absolutely amazed at what I’ve found in dumpsters. I found a ring once that financed me for almost a year. There is no shame in dumpster diving. In other countries, with far poorer pickings than in this rich country, people actually kill each other for the right to do this. I forgive you Mr. Jack because when I had money I never thought about poor people either.

Blue Jay

#17

Whoa, Blue Jay. Please refrain from personal comments when you don’t have any of your facts straight. As to “You have done the trail many times over the years, so you must have some kind of money.” Here’s the facts: I have very little in the way of money, riches, land, goods, etc. Anyone that knows me or has visited me in the fall and winter knows this is true. For three of the last five winters I’ve lived without plumbing, and except for an unreliable woodstove, I’ve essentially lived without heat as well. I can afford to hike mainly because I work my ass off from October to March. I don’t take weekends off, I don’t take vacations, I don’t go skiing, go somewhere warm when it’s freezing out, I don’t go home for Christmas. What I do is this: I do whatever I have to, which includes watching my expenses, for half the year so I can do what I want to do the rest of the year.

Also, I don’t doubt you’ve found great things in dumpsters.

You’ve missed my point: There are plenty of places on the Trail that are no longer hiker friendly, or businesses, restaurants, even entire towns that aren’t very cordial to hikers, partly because of the perception that we’re lazy shiftless bums. Begging, mooching, eating outta trash bins, and panhandling does not endear hikers to folks in small towns. And it is these folks who decide on whether to pick up hiker hitch-hikers; who decide on whether to open their churches or homes to hikers; who decide whether hikers can camp on the town green or athletic fields, etc. Creative yogi-ing is one thing. Living and behaving like a bum is entirely different, and I assure you that when hikers engage in behavior like this in small towns, it does not go un-noticed, and it reflects very poorly on hikers in general.

No hiker has to beg on the A.T. If anyone sets out for a thru-hike without sufficient funds, it’s due to laziness—if you work your ass off for half a year or so, save your money, cut un-necessary expenses, and set yourself a realistic goal/budget, it can be done.

As to the comment “I forgive you Mr. Jack because when I had money I never thought about poor people either” it’s way outta line. You don’t know a thing about me. I do without a great many things in my life so I can take time off every spring and summer to hike; anyone that wishes to do likewise can find a way to make it possible, and they can do so without engaging in behavior that makes the thru-hiking community look like bums.

If you want to defend creative financing of a thru-hike, that’s fine. In future tho, please lay off personal comments about folks you know next to nothing about.

                                    Jack Tarlin
                                    Hanover, NH

Baltimore Jack

#18

Its true that the trail can be hiked for 1600 or so in 2000 there were people who were tight for money. Some dropped out some stopped and worked along the way. You have to set ur prority, I decide in 97 in late 98 I would hike. I worked 2 jobs up until January 00. I managed to save about 4000. I decide in 98 I did not want to have worry about money so I saved it. Dont ruin your trip of a life time because you have no money or yourpack is to heavy.

A lot of hikers will help out when they can.

Chef

#19

If you’re a vegetarian pay very careful attention to your diet. I suggest experimenting NOW with living off a variety of lightweight, high-protein foods that you can take on the trail. Especially if you don’t eat dairy products, you need to be sure to have a good source of protein and B12 in a form you won’t get sick of after a couple weeks.

When I got a job in forestry some years ago I was a veggie, but was hungry all the time. Always eating. Then one day I looked at the fried chicken that everyone else was having for lunch and said the hell with this, I’m hungry.

steve hiker

#20

I’m in the $40 club as well. I never begged or asked for food or cash, dumpster dived or did anything else of the sort (I like my pride). But I did spend alot of time being insufferably hungry until I stopped and worked.

As it happens, the reasons that send many to the trail in the first place (divorce, loss of a job, etc.) don’t always allow one to choose his circumstances.

Looking back, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I had loads of fun leaving it all to serendipity, and possibly gained more insight into my own inner workings than from any other experience in life.

There are lots and lots of things that one can buy that are packed with cheap calories. I liked rolls of cookie dough. One guy that I met lived off of rice and corn meal. The list is endless.

AT ROCKS!!!

The Moose (of Monte Crisco)