I love stats especially when it makes such nice charts and tables!

Thanks. There are a lot of influencing factors though so I hope people take that into account as well. I figured it would be helpful to see the details of one thru hike anyway.

Definitely add maybe 3% for inflation. Also, if you drink at all add that in. I know some people did it for far less this year by utilizing trail angels as much as they could but it never hurts to have a little extra when you finish. It will definitely relieve the stress at that point.

@@JayWandersOut thank you bunches for the reply!!! Water is my beverage of choice. Smoking and Alcohol are things of my past ... consumption produces ... no benefits. Thanks for the tip on trail angels ... maybe it is a "weight thing" for hikers using trail angels as well as a "cost thing"?

I'd like to see the spending layout of someone that drank a lot. I heard so many stories about people's outrageous bar tabs it would be interesting.

Jay Wanders Out HAHA! I’ll bet you are correct. Alcohol is crazy expensive. I don’t know how anyone can’t drink and get up and hike the next day. It’s awfully hard on your body!!

Thanks, Rich!

Yep, I thought I wouldn't have to spend any more money for socks with Darn Toughs but that didn't work out. There's always something.

Thanks. I believe some people don't like that I spent almost $7000 on the thru hike or had that to spend.

I love charts especially when it illustrates a trend.

A super amateur wood worker but just building out storage and sleeping platform for my SUV, nothing too complex. I'm hoping my truck gets me to more trails.

@@JayWandersOut I'm equipping a van I bought for Spring road trip adventures. Record the daily events ~ tour around the Northern States ,Head East. Cal. Is RUINED with the FiReS 🔥 Chemtrails fueled D.E.W. Murder path created for the new rail lines. So sad but True. If You knew that this was our last year alive on Earth⚡Would it change Your plans for tomorrow ? 🙄🤔😲🤨😐😒 😤☹️😭Enjoy ToDaY. 😍🗝️

Gathering that data was the hardest part! I loved how once I visualized the data you could really see the progression. I laughed when I saw what percentage was food.

You're welcome! The start is embarrassingly slow but I still thought I'd share.

@Garrick Cicero With all my KZfaq viewing I've never seen a daily mileage graph or categorized spending pie chart before so I thought they were cool to share. I thought maybe 1/20 people would think they're interesting as well.

Thank you. I figured people would be curious so I kept notes. I lost about 40lbs and butter was awesome. That whole sierra section our bodies were still reacting to the journey and lots of people lost tons of weight. Tough time and section. Butter helped and it also made everything delicious and go down smoothly.

Are you retiring anytime soon? I say the sooner you get out there the better!

Just don't fall and you'll be all right! I fell backwards a lot but never on my face.

How about you? Your canoe trip was crazy and you do such a great job with the narrating.

Thank you for your comment. So nice to have you stop by my campfire. In about a month I am moving into my van full time to camp and backpack - and be a trail angel on occasion for the CDT and PCT. The plan is to restart my channel in a few months when I'm on the road. @@JayWandersOut

On lazy days with nothing unique I'd take a snapshot of GutHooks before I went to bed so I can log the mile later. It's work all right but interesting to look back.

Relaxed is a good word for it! :) More relaxed hikes coming I suppose but I definitely more adventures.

That was the reality for me but it really depends on a lot of factors. My need for extra time to edit videos and such made it cost more though since I stayed at motels more nights than the usual hiker. Sadly it does depend on the person but these are the facts for me. The most amusing thing was what percent went to food!

Charts are cool.

@@JayWandersOut Would you be willing to share your spreadsheet template?

No problem, Mary. Every individual will have all their off trail back home expenses as well so be careful of that. I wonder if the people that leave trail forget about all those but it all adds up for sure.

Jay Wanders Out exactly. It is in my budget. My big factor is to make sure my home is rented out. I am pretty sure I have a tenant. Fingers crossed.

Just keep in mind this is just on trail expenses. I wonder if people forget their current bills and that's what breaks them. I'm curious how many steps a taller person takes. I'm 5'6".

@@JayWandersOut I, got you. Also off trail in and out of towns and supply stops.

Not bad right? I thought it would be worse. Honestly I never had that BO smell a lot of hikers got so I was glad of that but I was sure musty. By the time I got to Idyllwild I just smelled like dirt.

@@JayWandersOut I've never done a thruhike but... I think it's not about the smell but about the joy of hiking.... 🙄

I figured it would be interesting when I finished and it sure was. I think I'd keep even better records if I did it again.

Yeah, almost each time we ate out it came to about $20, even at McDonald's! We would eat a biggy size meal plus additional food so that hiker hunger really costs you. The postage surprised me as well but I guess it makes sense. I did a lot of clothes rinsing in creeks and lakes as well but each time I had a chance to do laundry I still did to get the oils out as well. I didn't think I did laundry so often though but I guess so.

Sharing a room is a great way to cut expenses but when with a group you're more likely to go out to eat so watch out for that. I think not having any big expected gear expenses helped as well since I took all my gear out backpacking before on earlier trips.

I tried to film a day hike but I didn't film enough I felt for a video.. I started way too late that day so rushed it. I'll keep working on more though.

Hope you found it interesting!

I'm still working on making a gear video. The Arc Haul wore out at a couple of places to the point I didn't think it would make it another week so I wrote ZPacks with photos and they sent me a new one. During that time though I was home so I just grabbed my ULA Catalyst, which I already owned and used. The ULA worked out well for the rest of the trip but I love packs with that gap in the back like the Arc Haul or Ospreys for the hotter climates. FYI, I believe the year I bought the Arc Haul they had a design flaw which noticed wound up breaking on several other hikers. I saw packs bought in early 2018 had a different design on the bottom and the one they sent me had the new design as well.

@@JayWandersOut , pretty sure I have the same problem. Had to use tape so the stay would stop pocking through the bottom strap. Busted on that long water haul after the aqueduct.

I'll probably end up in Florida just for the winter weather but I'm doing some local hikes in southern Wisconsin to test out some things first. Not the best views at all but good for testing gear.

It is 6 months of living and also why many people leave the trail before finishing. You can do it with less but this was just me.

@@JayWandersOut I guess you missed the humor in my comment-oh well.

Yep. I'll be hitting the road soon. I didn't even know you were making videos until you started posting them recently but keep it up! Hope your achilles tendon is better. That's a doozie. Tendons could rupture and I'd rather get off trail rather than have people try to carry me around or something. Connective tissue is such a pain sometimes especially as you get older.

I hope my Achilles is better too! I'm taking a 2 week trip in January to do a bunch of hiking, might do Grand Canyon R2R2R!

Yes, it's in the works albeit slowly. I'm trying to get in the hang of some things now but haven't settled into a routine to make them yet.

I already had all my gear so it was gear spent on trail. A lit of the gear I actually had for other backpacking trips. You're right about the food. I bought a lot of it on sale years back so I didn't know the cost but I could have estimated somehow. Perhaps on future hikes I'll keep better track. It's day 15 in my SUV now and so far so good. It's tight to be sure but I have everything I need and a lot I don't think I need so I should be able to me more room. It's kind of fun so far and definitely freeing. I just wish it would stop being so windy so I can cook more! I have a ton of video on the build so I have to edit that together and will do a tour. I just wanted to figure stuff out first but I think I have a groove going. Pilot truck stops have been great fallbacks to stay a night on the really short days.

680 was replacement gear like water filter, extra padding for backpack, new waist belt, insoles, stuff like that. The total cost of all gear would probably be several thousand. Duplex is $630, backpacks used come to probably $580, sleeping pads $400, quilt $300. Electronics alone would be over $2000 due to the cameras and all the memory cards. It wasn't a cheap trip but most of the gear is still useful now.

@@JayWandersOut thank you so much for clarifying :) I was freaking out for a second,thinking damn ive spent thousands... lol yes definitely not cheap, but worth it..I'm so excited for my hike! Thanks again!

I've been using Open Books but I'll check out your suggestion.

I believe it is not height adjusted. I didn't have access to total elevation changes each day so I couldn't reliably include it. I know my GPS app could've recorded it but it would have killed my phone battery and I didn't bring a GPS watch either. A floor is 10 feet so theoretically it could be 10x floors for the feet but I think the FitBit counted more floors than I actually hiked.. not sure.

Thanks @@JayWandersOut. I didn't think that the distance would be heigh adjusted but was curious. I have a Garmin 935 which will fully track all sorts of stuff include up and down BUT I'd have to charge it every night. Plan was to just pick up the steps & HR from it as it has optical HR. I may see what battery life is like if I record less frequently. In any case, I really enjoyed your videos of your hike along with these data points.

Yeah, my watch would have kept track as well but I didn't want to charge it every night. Forget once and your records have gaps too. I had enough trying to keep my phone, Garmin, FitBit, and camera batteries charged up.

I started March 22nd and thought it was a great starting date. I had an Android and used Cyberlink PowerDirector but have no experience with iMovie so I'm not sure what the feature differences are. There were some things I wish the app did but overall I thought it did enough and figured if it had even more features it would have taken me even longer to edit them. One thing I noticed is if a group of hikers show up somewhere with wifi immediately the speeds drop because everybody's backing their data up. Be prepared for long waits and keep in mind data will upload quicker when less hikers are around or after hikers have been around a while. Post hike is doing all right. I'd like to get on the road and start exploring again but I'm just delaying it. Thru hikes are so nice because once you start you pretty much know what you're doing every day. I do miss that simplicity. I've been following your channel since before I started! I loved how much experience you had with the southern sections so I paid attention and appreciated your water status reports. My plan now is to be out there and do a lot of the side trails and peaks and redo sections I loved or had bad weather during. Have fun on your thru hike!

Hey Jay thank you for the fast reply. Thank you for the tip on uploading speeds being dependent on how many people are using the WiFi, I appreciate that. Did you back up all your stuff on anything like an exterior hard drive or? Wow didn’t know you watched my videos in the past. I started truly to figure out how to edit with iMovie so I felt I knew what I was doing before I eventually thru hiked because I knew like you, I wanted to record my adventure. It morphed into deciding that many people that don’t live here near the desert part of the trail and especially foreigners tend to have some fear of it especially the water. Just like you I mostly enjoy showing the trail, it’s views and conditions, but then I decided I might as well help future thru hikers that are worried know more about the first few hundred miles to hopefully ease their minds. I’m really glad you watched some of my past videos and I hoped they did help a little. So did you have a few favorite areas of the entire trail?

It was all great! So many people complained about the desert but I absolutely loved it. Joshua trees are so dang cool! Even in the worst places there are huge spikes of amazing views or unique experiences. I'd like to go through the sierra when there's less snow for a different vantage point but I enjoyed it all... except hiking on the left side of mountains all the time in NorCal. I was thinking I need to go SOBO to test my theory to see if my left shoe gets worn out quicker. I wish I saw more wildlife but other than that I liked it all.

I wrote down what mile slept ar each night and just counted PCT miles from that unless I backtracked or something. On Android with Guthooks you can click on alternate trails, blue lines, and it will show you miles so you can count how far that is. Fire detours also say how long it is and often give milage per segment of a detour. Lots of writing down each day to keep track.

@@JayWandersOut Thanks so much! I keep stats on all my day hikes/backpacking trips and doing so on the PCT is next level! Thanks for sharing your spreadsheets! They're awesome to stats nerds like me!

The crazy part is I replaced my trekking pole tips twice. I push down hard on all the climbs.

Jay Wanders Out I shared a link of this video with The Senior Class of PCT . Their a small group and recently started. They are liking your dedicated work.

Thanks! If there's anything else anybody wants that could help I'd be more than happy to discuss it if I can help.

Yep, no drinking or drugs saved me money all right. I have no idea how some people could afford it racking up $100/night in beers each night at some spots. Hikers should definitely avoid tabs if possible. I don't have Office so Google Drive it was.

Microsoft Office costs $149.99, or the cost of three pairs of shoes.

@@allencrider Not when your room mate's brother works for Microsoft , free software.

@@JayWandersOut Quit drinking in 88 and can't imagine the cost of craft beer in the small town let alone some of the resorts. So do people quit in N. Cal because they are hurt or run out of money partying too much . I think our craft beer was when Miller Lite come out because it was different being the first lite beer.

It seemed like everyone was drinking IPAs and I never even heard of an IPA before. It all adds up quickly though.

ULA backpacks come with two shock cord loops per shoulder strap for holding water bottles. They work quite well. ZPacks sells loops but they are way too weak for anything more than 16oz. On my Arc Haul I just bought thicker shock cord and made my own and attached them.

Hmm.. a lot of people had good luck with the Circuit. The Arc Haul was just not durable enough to trust for me anyway. If you can thru hike in 5 months and make it a routine to check over your pack to adjust wear and tear before it becomes a problem the Arc Haul would be good. Also the newer model addressed some of the major downfalls of mine so it could work out well. The Arc Haul is just so much lighter than the Catalyst but when you feel the two together you can really feel the durability difference in the fabric and straps.

@@JayWandersOut thanks for the quick review and honest assessment! I lean more towards something that I can depend on vs saving a little weight, something to think about.

Just on trail expenses, mostly shoes and insoles. New water filters, backpack accessories like new waist belt. I had all my gear for several months before I started and I'm afraid to tally those up!

Right now I'm staying with my parents and there's no good place to film so I have to get out somewhere. I still have plans to make a post gear video and some others but just got to get around to it. I still have a few more things to do to my car so it's ready for a long road trip but it's almost done. I'll keep making videos though that's for sure. I've been watching a ton of videos about cameras, filming, editing, special effects, and coming up with some crazy ideas.

If you'll be walking in fresh snow where it could soak your feet it's fantastic. It truly was waterproof and with no seams there were no hotspots. I did wear Injinji liners just be safe though. There were a lot of times when I was happy to have them. If creek crossings are below a foot or so it's easy to walk right through and keep your feet dry, although you'll feel the cold from water soaking the exterior. My take is at least the skin is protected from getting water logged and becoming softer. The problem is the exterior gets wet so you'll have to dry them out over night otherwise it will freeze. A couple of times by the time I got to camp they were just soggy, not dripping wet, so I actually went to bed in them knowing my feet would dry them out but I also have hot feet. It worked out and my quilt was still fine. They are nice at times but there's a lot to work out using them on a longer trip. Mostly in the sierra I did not wear them because once you hit a water crossing over a foot high water will get inside the sock making them pointless and take a LONG time to dry. I sent them home in Bridgeport. Some people did the bread bag thing but I didn't want my socks smelling like bread. I'm torn but probably wouldn't bring them if I did it again. It was good to test them out though.

@@JayWandersOut Excellent info. I have been trying to find first hand experience from an actual thru-hiker and have not found anything till now. What you said makes total sense, and was curious if it still had any waterproofing properties in deeper water. I guess it makes sense why more people weren't raving about them in the Sierra. Thank you very much!

Road tripping right now. Currently sitting in SE Arizona.

@@JayWandersOut You lucky person. Hope you getting video for us less blessed ones.

On the detours they described the mileage for each section of the detour so I just used that. I didn't grab the GPX files though. Yep, it's tough getting these videos together. Filming is so much easier than editing.

I usually put it inside a Mountain House bag or a beef jerky bag of if not that inside a bar wrapper bag inside a separate ziploc bag then put them all in my main garbage ziploc bag. I thought it worked out well enough although MH bags sometimes rip at the seal part. Beef jerky bags though are always great. Sturdy and reliable bags.

Can you rephrase the question?

@@JayWandersOut You mention you hiked the equivalent of X number of floors, I wanted to know how tall is the floor being used as the reference point

My FitBit logged floors so I used those. They say 1 floor is equivalent to 10 feet. help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1141 From my running days I've always heard one floor was 10 feet as well so I went with it.

@@JayWandersOut Thats what I thought, just wanted to make sure. Thanks

Yes, it's very nice not having to struggle with 20 other devices charging on a few outlets. There are definitely pros and cons but it is one category where a hiker has more control over their full budget. Food and gear are hard to avoid but making plans to stay with trail angels or sharing hotels with more people will definitely save money.

I'm planning on leaving in two days and just driving straight south so everything doesn't freeze overnight. What general direction are you going?

@@JayWandersOut kinda going north..lol..no real plans..

Besides Morena Lake, $5, I didn't pay anything else for camping. We deliberately avoided any place that would charge us to stay like the Acton KOA. Most places let you stay for free like Kennedy Meadows or VVR.

@@JayWandersOut Sweet. Thanks for that. I am just working out my own spreadsheets before I hit the trail next month. Am also taking on the vlogging challenge so appreciate your insights into that arena. I am also easily distracted by interesting humans. If you want to follow my trek and see how I deal with my own on camera discomfort I am over here: kzfaq.info/love/AXIZ3ITu28HzanbZrvNINg

Your link just says the channel doesn't have any content. You may have to post one video first or something. I searched for you but came up with tons of motorcycle videos.

@@JayWandersOut Strange. It works fine for me. Maybe a link to a specific video works better. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ibB3gJCc0NW4np8.html

Just building out my 4runner so just an SUV. It's tight but I wanted the 4x4 capabilities.

@@JayWandersOut Awesome!

Sorry, it's to my other mailbox so I haven't checked in a while.