[at-l] Fwd: pt 2: A question of money: estimation of throughhike costs
Art Cloutman
art at crystalacresnh.com
Wed Sep 20 11:26:42 CDT 2006
WOW, does anyone do 18 days between mail drops/resupply/towns? I
tried to get maildrops as often as possible. Sometimes after 2 or 3
days. I had drops mailed to hostels, outfitters, campgrounds, like
Neel's Gap, Rainbow Springs Campground, Elmer's, I rarely used a
post office. I made a maildrop to a hardware store in Stratton
Maine. Miss Janet accepted a maildrop for me. Believed it our not I
had 42 mail drops. It is probably some kind of record. I carried at
most 6 days worth of food. I had a maildrop in 100 mile wilderness
at Whitehouse Landing but almost ran out of food before then when
foul weather slowed the hiking down by a couple of days. But, just
as I ran out of food I found trail magic in the form of "Knuckles"
waiting for her hiking partner on a logging road and she had several
days worth of extra food that she gave me including mac and cheese,
tuna fish, hot chocolate and a lot more goodies.
>--- In at-l at yahoogroups.com, Sloetoe <sloetoe at ...> wrote:
>
> TOWNS = MONEY; TOWNS = TIME; TIME = MONEY
>
>TRIP LENGTH (in time)
>OK, so, you know that
>1) You are relatively fit. (If not, get to work!)
>2) You are worth X miles per day over a given stretch of trail
>when relatively fit.
>3) That some given stretch of trail relates 1|1 to the AT as a
>whole.
>
>(Now would be a good time to estimate a lesser pace down South,
>a greater pace in the MidAtlantics, and to *consider* your pace
>through New England -- where both you *and* the trail will be
>tougher. For myself, I *am* 'relatively fit,' am worth 15 mpd on
>Indiana's KT, and think that, with days off and such for an
>extended hike, the KT relates well at 1|1 to the overall AT.)
>
>Thus, 15 miles per day into 2160 yields 144.0 days
> 20.6 weeks
> or 4.75 months.
>
>That'd be a shorter hike than the current 7 month average, and
>still shorter than the traditional 'about six months' figure,
>but seems about reasonable for me right now. One trick I learned
>early on was to estimate both a seven day average week (what you
>*need* to do) and a six day week (what you may well *probably*
>do). Thus,
> 15 mpd but just 105 miles per week
> x 7 days one day off: by 6 days' hiking
> _________ __________________
> 105 miles per week 17.5 miles per day
>
>So when you take a day off, and your 15 mpd average needs to
>jump to 17.5 -- or else drop to [15*6] 90 miles per week instead
>of the assumed 105.
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>FOOD COST
>OK, now you know that
>1) You are relatively fit, and are worth X miles per day.
>2) You expect passage over the entire AT to take 20.6 weeks.
>3) You generally spend $X/week on provisioning for your average
>trail week. (For me, that's about $40.00)
>
>It would be simple to take
>
> Food $/week * trip weeks = Trip Total
> Food Cost
>
>but you need to remember that overall, as your mileage
>increases, your caloric need increases 105 calories per mile. If
>the $40.00 figure was based on 15 miles per day, and your
>stacking up 20-25 mile days, you're going to be short calories
>by a whoping 500-1000 calories a day: that's 2-4 Snickers bars,
>or up to a quarter pound of Gorp, PER DAY. Does it make sense to
>add (perhaps) $5 a week to your food budget, from 10 weeks up
>through to Katahdin? But here's another thought: buying in bulk
>can *easily* drop food costs 20% -- does it make sense to
>likewise drop your overall Trip Total Food Cost estimate? Let's
>compromise and leave it the same -- after all, this *is* an
>overall, trip total *estimate*.
>
> $40/week * 20.6 weeks = $824 Trip Total Food Cost
> or $0.38 per mile
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>TOWN EXPENSE
>
> $/Town Stop * Expected Number of = Town Expense
> Town Stops
>
>Seems easy, don't it? But first, how much money do you normally
>spend when you get to town? Buy a meal? There's ten bucks.
>Buying cheese, bread, etc. for the "perishables" portion of your
>hiking food? There's ten more. Buying a big bottle of Coke, 1lb
>bag of Flamin' Hot Doritos, quart of Cherry Vanila, and quart of
>Colt 45 Malt Liquor, and a Hersey Bar, just so you can breath
>normally when you're doing reprovisioning chores? Figure another
>tenner there. Laundry? There's a fiver. So there's
>
>$10 + $10 + $10 + $5 = $35.00 just for stopping in, thanks.
>
>Can't catch a movie on that (unless you save up), but maybe you
>can call home on the right calling card (one with minimum
>connect charges, but maybe higher per minute costs.)
>
>So there's the $/Town Stop estimate. But how many Town Stops
>will you have? Well, you know all about the AT, right? Have a
>feel for what spots an AT hike would not be complete without
>visiting? Let's ballpark:
>
>Fontana 150 miles
>HotSprings 250 100 miles difference
>Damascus 450 200
>Pearisburg 600 150
>Waynesboro 800 200
>Front Royal 900 100
>Duncannon 1200 300
>Delaware Water Gap 1300 100
> {really big amorphous gap}
>Hanover 1600 300
>North Woodstock 1700 100
>Gorham 1800 100
>Caratunk 2000 200
>Monson 2050 50
>Abol Bridge 2150 100
>
>So there's 14 stops that you're going to hit because they are
>principle locations, have good hostels, are right on the trail,
>are the only things around, or some other combination. Now, how
>many days do you want to go between food drops? Down South,
>doing 15 * 0.75 = 10 miles per day, going from Springer to
>Fontana implies 15 days of travel. I figure my pack/back's limit
>to be about 18 days, so I'd be OK with that. Up north, with 200?
>miles between Gorham and Caratunk (and *that* including the
>Mahoosucs (1mph???)), I might want to figure a stop in Andover,
>Rangely, or Stratton. Overall, though, I'd have a range of
>
> 15 miles per day * 18 days' food = 270 miles between
> food drops, maxed out.
>
>So let's say that, with two stretches to fill of over 270 miles,
>that I add 5 more visits to town: 2 to shorten the 300 mile
>stretches, 2 more to cover some obvious choices (near-to-trail
>PO's like Caratunk), and 1 just cuz. There's 14 + 5 = 19 visits
>to town:
>
>
> $35.00/Town Stop * 19 Expected Town Stops = $665 Town Expense
> or $0.31 per mile
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>POSTAGE
>Got a Town Box? (Bump Box, Bounce Box, of town clothes to wear
>while laundering, shampoo, antiperspirant, spare cook pot, first
>aid supplies, snow seal, extra food, etc, plus tape to reseal it
>all.) Figure another $5-10 to send it up to the next stop,
>nineteen times (the last one, hopefully, to home!):
>
>
> $7.50 * 19 Expected Town Stops = $142.50 Postage Expense
> or $0.07 per mile
>
>
>
>Thus far, we've figured a throughhike's worth of expense at
>
> $824 food, or $0.38 per mile
> $665 towns, or $0.31 per mile
> $143 postage, or $0.07 per mile
> __________________________________
> $1632 total, or $0.76 per mile, sans equipment
> and lodging
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>TOWN LODGING
>Town lodging has abroad range of options, but in a lot of
>locales, it may be the only way to get a shower. However, you
>may decide that a shower at Damascus' The Place at $10/night
>gets you just as clean as a shower at Hot Springs' Bridge Street
>Cafe/B&B ($65/night), or "The Swank At Haughty Street Of
>Salisbury" in Connecticut ($259/night, with 30 days' advance
>reservation). Taking a room with someone, staying out of town
>the night before, or avoiding town altogether, are marvelous
>ways of cutting a big chunk out of your non-equipment trip
>expense. (Do you suppose you could bath in the woods in the
>middle of summer and avoid town altogether?) If we were to just
>figure one night in town per town stop, at an average
>out-the-door cost of $50 per night, there's
>
> $50/night * 19 Expected Town Stops = $950 Lodging Expense
> or $0.44 per mile
>
>Take a look: this is over half of your throughhike's total
>expense before lodging. Myself, I object to having the
>preponderance of a hike's cost being found in paying for the
>civilization from which I claim to be getting away. But
>sometimes you just need to, right? No. The throughhiking crowd
>has gotten into March departure dates and 7 month trips, while
>bemoaning increases in per-mile throughhike costs, and failing
>to notice or explain why so many of the early throughhikers
>completed their 3-4-5 month treks on a budget by starting in
>April and May. Is this what high technology gear has bought us?
>Perhaps. Leave in gentler weather; hike farther, lighter, and
>faster; and watch the probability of a finish, *and* your total
>sense of enjoyment, blossom.
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>OVERALL COST ESTIMATION:
>To summarize, your big points of estimation are:
>
>1) overall miles/day trip average
>2) food cost per week
>3) town stops expected
>4) town stops' costs
>5) postage
>6) lodging
>
>with the stops in town figuring the largest into the total
>expense picture. TOWNS = MONEY; TOWNS = TIME; TIME = MONEY. For
>a single person (with little room to share joint costs)
>averaging 15 miles per day from Springer to Katahdin, this looks
>like:
>
>
> $824 food, or $0.38 per mile
> $665 towns, or $0.31 per mile
> $143 postage, or $0.07 per mile
> __________________________________
> $1632 total, or $0.76 per mile, sans equipment
> and lodging
> $ 950 lodging, or $0.44 per mile
> __________________________________
> $2582 total, or $1.20 per mile, sans equipment
>
>
>Lastly, remember that the greatest luxury that you pack is right
>between your ears -- your attitude.
>
>Happy Hiking,
>Sloetoe
>
>
>
>
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--
Life is Good!!!
Art Cloutman
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