How Much does a Thru Hike cost?
One of the most common questions about the thru hiking adventure! Saving for a thru hike can be a multi-year process and leave you asking “how much do I need to save anyway?” Unfortunately, the answer is not straightforward but we can definitely shed some light to help you figure out what budget is realistic.
This article breaks down my exact costs from my Pacific Crest Trail thru hike in 2024. I’ll dive into the specific categories of cost and how my experience lines with the average thru hiker.
2024 PCT COSTS
I spent $6,699.49 on my PCT thru hike. This was across 134 days on trail, including zeros, which makes my daily cost roughly $50. This does not include gear purchases pre-trail, but does include any gear purchases I had to make on trail due to necessity or gear failure.
My costs was substantially lower than the $10,149 average that Halfway Anywhere reported from the 2024 PCT survey. That survey also found a daily cost of $71. You can see the full survey results here.
WHere Did I Spend My Money?
Food
Food comes in two forms when long distance hiking: resupply and hot food. “Hot food” is the term for food consumed NOT on the actual trail, so restaurants, breweries, and snacks from a grocery store eaten in town. Combined food costs amounted for roughly 60% of my total on trail costs.
Even though both of these categories are nourishment, I would group "hot food" with other town expenses, like accommodations. I will dive into town expenses later down.
I did not mail myself resupply packages so all of my resupply food was purchased from trail stops. Overall I never felt like the cost of a resupply was unreasonable. To put it in perspective, I had 105 days where a majority of my meals were from resupply as opposed to hot food. That would make my resupply cost roughly $18/day.
Just like in real life, you can significantly effect your grocery bill based on what you choose to buy. In this video, myself and a fellow thru-hiker compare our resupply costs. I spent nearly 3x as much as him at the same store for the same amount of days. It boiled down to him selecting cheaper items. Understandably this is frustrating to hear when trying to get some estimate pre-trail because it is so variable. The only sure bet I can provide is that the backpacker meals will always, always be more expensive than traditional grocery items. Most freeze-dried backpacking meals run $12-19 a meal. Meanwhile my most expensive meal would be a box of Goodles at $3.50 with a chicken packet at $1.75. If you are looking for ideas of cheaper backcountry meals check out this blog post about our favorite backpacking meals.
Gear
This does not include my gear purchases prior to trail, only my gear purchases while on trail. I did have two major gear purchases that were unplanned: $399 on a new pack and $160 on a new sleeping pad. These costs were extreme for on-trail gear but it is common, and something I experienced on both thru hikes, to swap out gear. No matter how much research you conduct beforehand, nothing is a replacement for living it. I would bank on finding a couple items that are just not working out and either need to be replaced or mailed home.
Outside of large gear purchases, shoes will be a sure bet for this category and can be easy to forecast. Any aspiring PCT/AT/CDT hiker should budget for 4-5 pairs of shoes. At $100-160 a pair, that cost will easily reach $600. On both my PCT and AT hike, I swapped out my socks mid-trail due to the cushion flattening. It is also normal to get a fresh water filter, not because it needs to be replaced, but out of frustration of slow flow. Together those two things are roughly $90 I would recommend building into your budget.
TOwn and Accomodations
Easily one of the biggest costs to any thru-hike is town! Don't get me wrong, I love a good town day, but this is definitely the category that can add zeros not only to your hike but to your spending.
I slept in a bed that I paid for, 20 nights out of my hike (that is roughly a stay every 7 days.) Looking at the numbers, accommodation does not look that bad. It is my fourth category and only half of my resupply cost, coming in at $818. Here is the caveat, I was lucky enough to hike the entire trail with at least 3 other hikers. My accommodation cost really only reflects a 1/4th of the cost compared to a solo hiker. Our cheapest hotel room was $60/night and the most expensive $180. If I take the average of that ($120) by 20 nights, that is $2,400 in hotel stays. Accommodation costs add up quick!
Another cost to town was one I mentioned earlier - hot food. What inevitably ends up happening, even if you promise yourself you will stick to a budget, are meals out with your increased hunger. One zero day will typically include 2 dinners (one the night before the zero), 2 breakfasts (one the morning after the zero), and lunch. My meals for a zero in Bishop, CA totaled $110. I will say that California is an extreme because I found my hot food costs there to be significantly more expensive compared to other states, especially any state on the Appalachian Trail. However, if you are hiking the PCT you will spend over half your hike in the state and therefore unavoidable.
The singular most expensive item to any thru hike is a town zero day. Between two hotel nights and restaurant food, you are easily looking at $200 per zero. If you have a budget for your hike, this is the category I would recommend watching the closest. This is not to say that you cannot take zeros, but there are many options to bring down the cost of town. Sharing hotel rooms, staying with local trail angels, cooking your own food, etc. can easily keep costs down. On the flip side if you are someone who prefers taking rest days and wants to stop into towns, then plan for a larger budget.
Transportation
My transportation to and from trail (start and end) was $484. This is a category that is pretty inflexible depending where you live. I was flying to San Diego from Chicago so my airfare reflected that. Similarly upon completion of the trail I traveling back from Vancouver/Seattle to the east coast. Overall just do not forget to include this line item because it is a necessity and not one that has a lot of cost saving hacks.
Another transportation cost is transport while on trail. You will not have a car and need to get from trail to town and back again. My trail transportation costs were $100. If I had to guess, this cost is on the lower end for most hikers because I relied on hitch hiking about 95% of the time. There were a few times I spilt an Uber or paid for a trail angel shuttle. If you do not feel comfortable hitch hiking then factor in a larger cost for trail transport. There is a expansive network of shuttles and trail angels for the whole of the PCT, but a majority of them expect payment or are donation based. At bare minimum a paid ride would be $5 with the highest cost around $20.
Weighing in at $195 is the cost of postage. As I mentioned above, I did not send myself any food resupply boxes from off-trail so where is this even coming from?! My biggest mail cost was sending and receiving gear. Mail received to trail included my bear can twice and four different packages containing my shoes. I also mailed items back FROM trail. This included my bear can and two other small packages with items like cold weather gear.
I would expect to spend at least $20 a package in postage. The USPS large flat rate boxes run $25 and are normally the best deal. Postage costs can sneak up on you because they are easily forgotten. Factor in the cost of at least receiving your shoes to trail, but otherwise think carefully if sending resupply packages will be the best bang for your buck.
Life costs
As much as thru-hiking can be an escape from reality, there are costs that will follow you to trail. I did not include these in my thru-hike cost above because I would be incurring these regardless if I was hiking or not. Health insurance, cell phone bill, and car insurance were the biggest life costs that I was still responsible for while on trail. I have the luxury of living out of my van when not hiking so I did not have mortgage/rent costs.
THe Bottom line
“Hike your own hike” applies to budgeting and cost as well. You can easily turn a thru-hike into a luxury experience or keep yourself on austerity measures. Ultimately the longer your hike, the higher the costs. You will have more zeros/town stays and consume more food.
It is difficult to apply a singular number to the cost of a thru-hike, but I hope I was able to provide insight into the structure of thru-hike costs. When coming up with your cost estimate, go through the categories noted above and ask yourself if you expect your spending to be in line with how I described aspects of my hike. There will be categories you spend more, less, and the roughly same. Just remember, there is no wrong way to thru-hike!
