[at-l] pt 2: A question of money: estimation of throughhike costs
sloetoe at yahoo.com
sloetoe at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 11 08:06:40 CDT 2009
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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