Dig into the cost of an AT hike

Sunday, June 21, 2026

I spend most of the day in a coffee shop working on spreadsheets to create a complete analysis of the costs of my hike. Enjoy!

happy coffee

doThe office would be a requirement to survive what will be a full day of number crunching. I found a local coffee shop in downtown Waynesboro, Happ Coffee, that offered a reasonably priced drip coffee that included two (!) free refills. Exactly what I would need. The store is located in an old brick warehouse and the decoration combines vintage and industrial styles. It would be a good environment to do serious work. The coffee was excellent, a big step up from the cup I get at traditional coffee shops. The Peruvian Women’s Group’s washed filter coffee was especially delicious and gave me a strong boost to fuel my day.

The inside of Happ Coffee.

Today’s office inside Happ Coffee.

A map of historic downtown Waynesboro displayed at Happ Coffee.

Cost Analysis: Hiking 4,400 Miles on the Appalachian Trail

doWhen it comes to confessing, as you’re about to see, I’m a numbers nerd. This section will be long. I wanted to do a full breakdown of the costs since I started my hike. I love digging into financial data. This is how I will have fun today with Formula One on pause. This section will cover the following:

• A breakdown of my costs so far
• A forecast of what I anticipate spending until the hike is completed.
• Information on how my expenses are different from traditional hiker costs
• Information on how I’ve kept costs down

We’ll need to group things into some logical categories to make them more manageable. Let’s get into it!

Initial inventory

Before I can talk about what I need to spend, I have to account for what I don’t buy. I promised that this would be a full review after all. Think “Naked-to-Katahdin” level of integrity. My starting inventory isn’t a long list, but that just means I have the benefit of researching a bunch of the latest and greatest gear options in the next section. While I didn’t purchase any of these items before starting my hike, I used them all during the hike. If I didn’t already have them, I would have needed them. Therefore, this cost plus an estimate of 6% sales tax will be included in the summary at the bottom.

Purchased equipment

I spent an inordinate amount of time selecting my gear after a day hiking the first 500 miles of the trail. I focused on keeping costs down while making sure the big items were trail tested and highly rated by hikers. I’m still thinking about adding a few things to my load, like an umbrella shock and some more heavy-duty winter gear, so I’ve added a provision of $200.00 under the total for those items that I’ll include in my forecast for the rest of the hike.

Replaced gear

I had to repair the Velcro I put on the back of my Topo shoes and recently bought a sewing kit to fix a tear in the lining of my mummy. I also bought a pair of Altra shoes to replace the worn out Topos. I suspect I’ll have to make a few more repairs along the way and will definitely buy at least two more pairs of shoes before I’m done, assuming they all continue to get about 1,000 miles per pair.

Consumables: trail food

I covered my trail diet a few Sundays ago, so this should be in line with that. My price is under $6.00 per day, which is great. I took my cost per day and estimated a total of 278 days of travel to create the forecast.

Consumables: city food

“Town Food,” the ice creams, beers, burgers and sundaes I gorge on when I get to town, all land here. This includes tips and coffees, anything I eat or drink that isn’t part of my strict trail diet. Coincidentally, this is also trending at around $6 a day, although I only get food from the city when I’m not on the road. I rated this using the average cost per day to date and an estimated total of 278 trail days to the end of my hike.

Consumables: Other (e.g. hygiene, laundry)

I stop by for more than just food to complete the miles along the way. Toothpaste, sunscreen, bags for my food and other “consumables” land here. As with my food costs, I calculated my actual cost per day and compared it to the remaining days to create a forecast.

Permissions/Subscriptions

Some things don’t fit into any of the above categories, but are considered essential costs for a hike. You need permits in certain areas of the AT and I consider the FarOut app and cell service plan essential. I also put my REI membership here since I didn’t have it. Fortunately, it paid for itself during the spring sales, where members received two 20% discounts to use. I applied them to two big ticket items and saved about $70. You should have no more costs to reach this cube until the end of the walk. Baxter State Park requires a fee, but my understanding is that if I don’t park at the state park I will avoid it.

Summary and discounts

Below is a summary of all the above categories. These are all the costs relating to a long distance walk of approximately 105 days, and a forecast for the entire walk which I expect to last around 280 days.

There are few liberties taken with the figures I have reported:

• There are some seasonal discounts that I took advantage of that are not reflected in these numbers. This allows the figures to be closer to what someone might pay during a “normal” time of year, although prices can still fluctuate. With patience, you can definitely save some money compared to what you see here.
• There are discounts I get for being a The Trek blogger. I can’t show them discreetly. You’ll have to join the blogger team if you want to know what they are.
• Between the two items above, I saved a little over $300 in the categories shown below.
• I was able to ship some of the equipment to a tax free state. In total, I have paid about $50 in sales tax. The $177 shown below the total reflects a 6% sales tax on most items (for example, it is an additive for equipment and hygiene products, but not food).

Specific expense of my walk

The summary above still doesn’t tell the full story. As a single hiker on the AT who brings my car with me, I have to keep in mind some specific costs of owning a vehicle. Car insurance, gas, and some maintenance should be expected to keep the vehicle on the road during the hike. I added a prorated car insurance payment that I will have to make to have insurance during the hike. I also added a gas estimate until the end of the hike. I believe the van will not require any additional maintenance for the remainder of the hike. If I have to make a repair, it will end up in this category.

Spend on a typical hike

The flip side of hiking the trail twice with a vehicle is that I can arrange all of my own transportation along the trail. I drove to the trail from South Carolina and took a return trip with my family on the East Coast. Since I can camp in the van, I have not needed a hotel or hostel.

Like other hikers, I don’t carry a stove or gas cylinders and cold soak all the food along the way. Since hikers carry stoves, I added the cost of a stove, plus an estimate for gas bottles and backpackers’ meals to reflect the cost of hot meals along the way.

Conclusion

Adding all of the above together, my base forecast for my raise would be the $6,950 on the statement, minus about $300 in savings, plus about $50 in sales tax and $20 in shipping. To the resulting $6,720 I would add approximately $1,470 to have my car with me, or $8,190.

To estimate the cost of doing this hike today without waiting for sales and paying 6% sales tax on the applicable items, you would start with $6,950, add $212 for sales tax and $20 for shipping. To the resulting $7,182, most hikers would also need to add about $2,800 to cover a short flight, regular hostel stays, backpacker meals, a stove and gas cylinders, or $9,982.

Now, this is just an educated estimate using real-world data because I thought it would be a fun analysis. I limited myself to one day so this isn’t a masterpiece of any kind. There are some assumptions I could refine, but I really just wanted to see what a tangible analysis would yield and then make a rough bridge to what a more typical hiker might expect to pay. If you have any ideas, feel free to share them below!

Last week

Every mile of this week’s trail was spent with a backpack on for the first time since late April in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 4-day stint was a bit arduous, but that was because I ditched my balanced itinerary and opted for a more aggressive one. My planned itineraries aren’t bad, I just have opportunities to adjust them once I’m on the road.

One thing I want to emphasize in future planning is to look for awesome campsites even if they don’t have water. As long as there is a water source within about a mile radius, bringing water to camp is pretty realistic for me and worth having an epic campsite.

Last week was overshadowed by reports of a norovirus outbreak in seemingly every shelter, campground, and many water sources. Although I am far behind the bubble, it appears that I am at the core of the outbreak. It is not possible to avoid all of these areas, I need to collect water along the trail and I still use the toilets regularly. I haven’t had any symptoms so far, fingers crossed that it stays that way and the cases go down quickly.

next week

Next week will be a little different. All of my hikes will be in Shenandoah National Park. There are camping restrictions throughout the park, hikers must stay in hot spots, which are essentially shelters. I discovered that the cabins are usually within 10 miles of each other, which means I have to choose between walking 20 or 30 miles each day. The plan that most appealed to me was to walk 20 miles each day since that would allow me more time to enjoy the splendor of the National Park. I might also be more inclined to do some of the side trails. Since I was doing fewer miles, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a six-day backpacking itinerary. He would take six days’ worth of food on the trail on Monday morning and return Saturday night. This would mimic the typical experience of a hiker who would often have six days between their resupply locations.

Knowing me, I’ll probably end up sneaking in a few 30 mile days to have a day off.

One thing’s for sure: I’ll use the extra time to stop by Waysides for a proper meal! I was inspired by the completion of “The Triple Crown of Blackberry Smoothies” by blogger Sarah J. I plan to literally follow in her footsteps during my stay in Shenandoah National Park and try other foods as well. I heard they serve smashed burgers, one of my favorites. It’s going to be a rich week! If I start to look a little fatter in my photos you’ll know why.

-See you tomorrow