The 2,175 mile Appalachian Trail runs from Georgia to Maine and is one of the most challenging long distance hikes in the United States. Less than 25% of all those who set out to complete this trek succeed. Cost isn’t the only factor in determining who succeeds in completing the AT, but it is at least as important as fitness or motivation. If you run out of money half-way through the Trail, it doesn’t matter that you’re able to hike 20 miles a day with a 40 pound pack and are eager to complete your journey. If you’re out of money, you’re done.

Calculating The Cost

There are four major areas of expenses, listed in order, most expensive first:

• Food
• Health Insurance
• Hiking/Camping gear
• Trail-town lodging

Different hikers may spend wildly different amounts for a thru-hike, but most AT thru-hikers will end up averaging between $1 to $4 per mile, or between $2,000 and $9,000. Spending $2,000 for a thru-hike will be a very spartan journey with virtually no creature comforts, whereas $9,000 would be somewhat luxurious (relatively speaking) with a reasonable amount of time spent in trail town motels and restaurants. Assume it takes 6 months for the hike, starting in Georgia in April, ending in Maine in September. Let’s break it down by the above four cost categories.

Food: Mail Drops or Trail-town resupply?

You have to eat on the Trail. A lot. But you can only carry about 6-8 days worth of food in your backpack at a time. How do you get more food if you’re hiking for 6 months? You have two choices- mail drops or trail-town resupply. All along the AT are towns that you can walk to or hitchhike to from the Trail itself, most of the time when the trail intersects an auto road. These towns are sometimes few and far between. There is a stretch in Maine where there are no towns or intersecting roads for over 100 miles. But in most of the 14 states the AT goes through, there is a town at least every 30-50 miles that is accessible from the Trail.