How Much do I Need to Save for a Thru-Hike?

Just how much does a thru-hike cost anyway? This is a common question without a common answer. Running out of money is a common reason don’t complete their thru-hike, so it makes sense to worry about how much you should save. Yet there is no set number. How much it costs depends on the lifestyle you lead on the trail, and the expenses you have remaining at home.

For Paul and myself, even our own costs varied widely from trail to trail. We spent $7500 per person on the Appalachian Trail. We could have easily spent more. Alternatively, we spent $3500 per person on the Continental Divide Trail. We could have easily spent less. Why such a difference? When we hiked the AT, we didn’t know we would go on to hike for two more years. Maybe this was our only chance to do a thru-hike, and we could afford it, so we lived it up. We stopped in towns all the time. If we wanted to get a hotel, we got one. We really didn’t keep track of, or try to moderate, our spending. But, we didn’t have enough money to thru-hike forever, so as we hiked the PCT and the CDT, we started paying closer attention to our spending. Even so, none of our thru-hikes were meager experiences. It can definitely be done more cheaply than $3500, just as easily as it can exceed $10,000.

How much do you need? Follow these steps to calculate your number.

First, add up your recurring fixed expenses

Again, this is widely variable. Maybe you have a mortgage. Maybe you live with your parents. Maybe you need to pay for a storage unit. Maybe you plan to sell everything before you leave. What kind of subscriptions will you keep? Most of us have a phone bill and pay for health insurance at a minimum. Many people have at least few other costs to cover as well. Add all of these bills together to figure out your total monthly cost.

When Paul and I quit our jobs in 2016 to thru-hike for three years, we sold our car and many of our larger possessions. We put the remainder in storage. We kept a few subscriptions such as Spotify and Netflix, and purchased ACA health insurance on the marketplace. Our fixed costs came to about $350 per month, or $175 per person, per month. By contrast, if Paul and I were to take off today, we’d have a mortgage and all of its associated costs to cover, and our fixed costs would be closer to $1500 per month. If you have kids or other obligations, this number can get very high indeed. Run the calculation to get your personal number.

Once you’ve got your monthly number figured out, multiply it by the number of months you plan to be out of work. For a long trail such as the AT or PCT, 6 months is a fine number. If you finish earlier than that, I don’t think you’ll regret having money leftover. If you don’t finish in 6 months, the weather will kick you off pretty soon anyway. If you’ve quit your job, you might want to add in another month or two to give yourself time to find work.

Estimate on-trail costs

Thru hiking itself is actually very cheap. Once you’ve got your gear, all you really need is food. $15 per day is a safe number to use for your estimates. In the before-times, this was $10 per day, but with inflation being high of late, especially for food items, I ‘d feel more comfortable using $15 per day. If your hike is 180 days, that’s $2700. There are plenty of ways to spend less on food. You can also check out my post on strategies for lowering on-trail costs for more ideas.

If you want absolute control over your on-trail food costs, you can prepare all of your food beforehand and have someone mail it to you along the way in flat-rate boxes. However, shipping can be expensive and certainly eats into the savings with this approach. It’s also quite a lot of work and planning, and more likely than not, your plans and tastes will change. Hiker boxes are filled with food items people prepared for themselves months earlier, only to realize they don’t want it. I personally don’t want to ask busy family members to be dealing with my packages. However, I know some people have some enthusiastic relatives who want to help in this way. For these reasons, I don’t generally recommend this approach unless you have a lot of dietary restrictions or are on a very strict budget.

Budget your town/restaurant costs

Towns are the real money drain on the trail. A town day can easily run $100 or more. Sometimes much more. On a trail like the AT, there are a lot of towns, and a lot of opportunities to spend money. It’s extremely tempting. When all your friends are going into town for a zero day that you didn’t budget for, are you going to be able to say no and hike away? When it has been raining for 2 days and everything you own is wet, are you going to pass that dry motel room because it’s too expensive? When you hike past a roadside restaurant on a hot afternoon, are you going to walk by the sweet smell of french fries and hamburgers and eat your lukewarm tuna wrapped in a tortilla instead? When you are at one of the many shelters where you can order delivery and all the hikers are ordering pizza, are you going to say “no thanks, it’s not in my budget, I’ll just eat these powdered mashed potatoes…”? It’s harder than it sounds, especially when you are hungry all the time. And you WILL be hungry ALL the time. If I were planning for myself, I’d budget for at least 10 town days. (It is very easy to spend way more time in town than this). On the AT, I’d double that. There are just too many towns and temptations to resist. A more remote trail will have fewer towns and therefore fewer opportunities to spend money.

Be realistic with yourself about the kind of hike you want to have. There are some hikers who spend quite lot of money by staying in hotels frequently, utilizing shuttles to slackpack (pay someone to shuttle your pack so you can hike without it for awhile), eating at restaurants often, and taking multiple days off in town. There are others who hike frugally and try to never pay for a night in town. Both approaches are valid, but they cost drastically different amounts of money. Be honest with yourself about the kind of hike you want to have, and what you can afford. This is your hike – it should be what you want it to be.

Consider your shoes

If you are using trail-runners, as most hikers do, you can expect to go through 4-5 pairs on a thru-hike. If you have a pair of shoes you already like, you can save a lot of money by buying them all in advance when they go on sale. I personally never pay full retail price for shoes and aim for $60-100 per pair. If you want the newest model, you will probably be paying $120-150 per pair.

Some people prefer a more expensive pair of boots that will either last most or all of the hike. A nice pair of boots might run closer to $250 or more. There are a lot of arguments for why trail runners are probably the better choice for most people, but I’m not here to tell you what to do, I’m here to help you figure out how much it costs. 2 pairs of boots is not hugely different to 4 pairs of trail runners in terms of cost – both are close to $500 at retail.

Estimate your travel cost

You’ll have to get to the trail somehow. Plane tickets, bus tickets, hotel rooms and shuttle rides should all be considered. Hopefully you’re lucky and have someone who can drop you off. If not, plenty of options are available at a variety of price points.

Add some emergency cushion

On the AT, I had knee problems that forced me to take a lot of unplanned rest days. I also sprained my wrist at one point and went to urgent care. On the PCT, we had an unplanned flip-flop, which resulted in several extra hotel stays, bus rides, shuttles, and even a rental car. Paul and I both got a little sick on the PCT which led to some unplanned rest days. We’ve replaced stoves, trekking poles, backpacks, and tents at one point or another. Things happen. Things cost money. I’d set aside $1000 for these unexpected events.

Quitting your job to thru-hike is a risky thing for most people to do. It is leaving security behind and trading time that could be spent focusing on career growth instead focused on personal growth. Don’t worry, it’ll all be worth it, but it might be hard to find a job when you get back. It might be hard to find a place to live. Chances are, the older you are, the more these things will be a concern for you, and the more conservative you will want to be. A young hiker with no financial obligations who still lives at home can return penniless to a bed and a hot meal without much concern. Someone a bit older who quit their job and put their things in storage will have some work to do to get re-established. Having a little money to get through this time is nice.

Make your savings plan

Add up each category – now you’ve got your number. Now how do you get there? Let’s say you’ve run your calculations and decided you want to save $10,000 for your thru-hike, and you hope to start in 18 months. Divide $10,000 by 18 and you’ll see you need to save $555 per month. Play with your numbers and your timeline. I’ll be following up with a post on strategies for saving money before a thru-hike, so stay tuned.

You could run this calculation in reverse if you have a set number you are able to save per month. So, if I know I can save $300 per month and I know I want to save $10,000 for my hike, it will take me 34 months to save up.

Let’s put this method in action using our numbers for the CDT. Our hike was 125 days, which was about as planned – 4 months. Our at-home costs for 4 months came to $700 per person. In those days, I budgeted food costs at $10 per day, so let’s call that $1,250 per person for on-trail costs. Are you with me so far? We’re at $1950 per person. Budgeting 10 town days at $100 is another $1000. Now we’re at $2950. Adding another $1000 for unexpected costs and we’re at $3950. Shuttle and shoes was another $300. That’s an estimated spend of $4,250 per person. Anecdotally, most people on the internet seem to estimate that thru-hiking costs about $1000 per month, so this tracks with that. The actual number we spent was closer to $3500 per person, leaving about $750 each leftover. An unplanned setback could have easily eaten that right up. For a variety of reasons, hiking as a couple does not significantly reduce the costs per person, but there are some savings to be found as a couple.

I can’t possibly save that much/Wait that long!

Before you can thru-hike, or quit your job for any type of long-term adventure, you have to be in a position to save. If you are unable to save money right now, a thru-hike will be a little farther off into the future for you. If you’re in credit card debt, you should focus on getting that taken care of before you start saving for something like a thru-hike. I’ve been there, I know it’s hard. Focus on reducing your fixed costs and increasing your income to get yourself on solid financial footing. 

Making sure you have enough money before you start will ensure that you don’t have to stress about it while you are on the trail, giving you a more enjoyable experience. Having a little cash left over after the trail will also ease your transition back into the real world. If you hate your job, the thought of sticking it out for many more months and grinding through can be discouraging. The trail is not going anywhere. It will be waiting for you when you’re ready. Future you will be grateful if you set yourself up well.

But, if you just can’t wait any longer or save any more – it IS possible to thru-hike on very, very little money. I’ve seen posts of people claiming to thru-hike on $1000 or less. I even watched a YouTube about a girl who rode her bike across South America with no money at all! There is an incredible amount of generosity on the trail, hiker boxes offer free food and gear, and if you never stay in town, you’ll never have to pay for a room, which is one of the biggest costs. The drawback to this approach is that you’ll miss out on certain aspects of trail life, but this is your hike. If you want to hike now, on an extreme budget, go for it. You do you. 

Why I didn’t include gear

Yes, gear is an additional cost, and it can be significant. But most of us will gradually amass our gear items over a period of time while we are building up to our hike. Some of us might already have the majority of the gear we will use. So, aside from shoes and/or unexpected gear failures along the way (which we already budgeted for), the cost of gear is already realized before you actually set foot on the trail. For this reason, I have not included gear in these calculations. Not to mention, there is always so much to be said about gear that it usually warrants its own dedicated post. Maybe I’ll start working on that 🙂

This is all too much math, just give me a number

Hopefully by now you can see why just picking a number is difficult to impossible and depends entirely on your personal situation in addition to your preferences. That said, here’s my best stab, for a 6 month thru-hike. This is extremely unscientific and if you disagree, well, that’s totally valid. I’m not here to split hairs, just trying to come up with some guidelines that can hopefully help people with their planning. The major assumption here is that you are not paying for any housing costs, or at least not including that in the following very rough numbers:

Extreme: under $1000

Very Frugal: $1000-2500

Budget: $2500-5000

Average: $5000-7500

Above Average: $7500-10,000

Luxurious: $10,000+

Parting thoughts

There is no right or wrong way to thru-hike. There is no prize for spending the least or the most amount of money, just as there is no prize for finishing faster or slower than anyone else. This is your experience and it should be whatever you want it to be. Having enough money so that you can complete your journey without stress will increase your overall chances of success, not to mention your overall enjoyment of the experience. The more you save, and the less you spend, the longer you can take without working. I personally recommend you take as much time away from work as you possibly can. You won’t regret it.