Statistics and Reflection

Well, it’s been over a month since I finished the Appalachian Trail. I’ve had time to reflect on the accomplishment and gather some data for those of you that are into the raw numbers. The whole thing still feels a bit surreal and I often wake up and wonder if I really did hike the whole trail. As soon as I climb out of bed and my feet hit the floor, I’m still painfully reminded that it was definitely real!

I don’t know how long before the bottom of my feet stop being sore. I’m sure trying to run every couple of days in a vain attempt to remain in the best shape of my life isn’t helping any. The rest of me feels pretty good, with just minor aches and pains in my legs. Overall I cannot complain about how well my now 60 year old body held up during the 6 month, 2200 mile adventure. I am still over 40 pounds lighter than when I started and I hope to stay closer to my current weight than my pre-trail weight, but time will tell. I can’t really say that I experienced a major spiritual discovery during the hike that so many other hikers claim. I do know I enjoyed the hike more when Amy was with me than I did after her hike-ending injury. I suppose that, in of itself, is a positive revelation. If she hadn’t gotten hurt would we yearn for each other’s company as much as we do having been apart for 4 months?

Hiking Data

The Appalachian Trail for 2022 was officially 2194.3 miles long when the season started. Some rerouting actually occurred during the season and modified this distance slightly but 2194.3 remains the official distance for this year. In addition to hiking the 2194.3 miles of the trail, I walked a significant amount getting to and from the trail to access nearby towns. One example of “bonus” miles was early in our hike when Amy and I had to leave the trail due to weather and the only pickup location for a shuttle was 5 miles down a currently closed dirt road. After 3 days in Franklin, NC waiting for the weather to get better, we had to walk the same 5 miles to get back on the trail. The real kicker was the dirt road we walked would reopen the next day but 3 zeros in a row was already more than we had wanted to take. The spreadsheet template I used to track a bunch of data had an entry for bonus miles but I found it too much effort to try and accurately track it. A WAG would be another 100 miles or so total over the 6 month journey.

Miles walked – 2194.3 trail miles (744 w/Amy) plus 100 or more additional miles.

Another measure of how much walking was involved in the adventure would be to look at the steps taken during this time. For step data, I simply used the data recorded in my iPhone, which spend most of the time in my pocket or in the case on my shoulder strap. For the 6 months from March 1 to September 1 (hike was March 2 – August 28), I averaged 36,500 steps a day, or well over 6.5 million steps! My biggest week was from June 12 – June 18, when I averaged 53,460 steps. My single largest step day was June 20 when I hiked 24.9 miles and took 68,537 steps. No wonder my feet are still sore!

Total Steps – more than 6,500,000
Most Steps in one Day – 68,537

The total hike took 180 days from start to finish. Amy spent the first 60 days on trail with me. I was off for 15 days while we got Amy on the mend, making for a total of 165 days on trail. Of the 165 days on trail, I took 16 zero days leaving 149 days where I hiked at least some of the trail. I averaged 13.2 miles per day or 14.6 miles per day when removing the zero days. Below is a table breaking down the frequency of various daily distances.

Distance Range	Number of Days (w/Amy)
0 – 5 miles	6 (2)
5 – 10 miles	19 (12)
10 – 15 miles	46 (18)
15 – 20 miles	57 (22)
20 – 25 miles	22 (2)

As we all know, the Appalachian Trail is not flat. Some sections are definitely flatter than others but each day encompassed some amount of elevation change, both up and down. Just how much elevation gain/loss did we experience? The entire trail encompasses just over 500,000 feet of elevation gain and the same amount of loss. The amount of elevation gain and/or loss in a given day has a big impact on how much distance you can cover. A quick measure of this relative difficulty is called total grade. The total grade is the sum of the total ascent and total descent divided by the distance, resulting in a number of ft/mile. If the total grade is over 500 then it was going to be a relatively difficult day. The trail as a whole has a total grade of over 450 ft/mile. Below is a table showing the number of days for ranges of ascent and descent.

Elevations Range	Days of Ascent (w/Amy)	Days of Descent (w/Amy)
< 1000	8 (6)	4 (2)
1000 – 2000	15 (7)	12 (8)
2000- 3000	31 (11)	46 (17)
3000 – 4000	43 (15)	42 (17)
4000 – 5000	37 (10)	35 (7)
5000 – 6000	13 (5)	5 (2)
6000 – 7000	2 (0)	3 (2)
> 7000	0 (0)	2 (0)

Sleeping Data

As mentioned above, I spent 165 days on the trail which means I also spent 165 nights on trail. When hiking the Appalachian Trail, we tended to spend the night at official camping locations which are usually at a shelter. Most shelters have a privy nearby and several places to pitch a tent. Staying in these areas usually has you camping with or near fellow hikers. This provides the opportunity to meet new friends or get reacquainted with hikers you may have met previously.

The ultimate in socializing with other hikers actually occurs when staying at a hostel. Hostels are scattered along the trail and can be located a short walk from the trail or several miles from the trail. If the hostel is located more than a reasonable walking distance from the trail they usually provide a free shuttle ride to and from the trailhead. Visiting a hostel provides the opportunity to get a much needed shower, do laundry, and make a resupply run. Like the free ride to and from the trail, most hostels offer a free shuttle ride to the nearest grocery for resupplying for the next segment of the trail.

Accommodations in a hostel can vary greatly as well. Some hostels offer private rooms in addition to bunk rooms. We would always opt for the private room if available. These were usually more expensive than staying in a bunk room with other hikers but was often not much more than 2x the cost of the bunk so when we were together the private room was sometimes cheaper.

At times the need to get off trail for resupply or hiding from the weather did not coincide with the location of a hostel. In these cases, we would stay at a hotel. Some hotels are very friendly to hikers and will sometimes offer services similar to hostels. I stayed in a very nice motel in Bennington, VT that offered free shuttle rides from the trail and back the next morning and it only cost $65 a night. The best part about that stay was the 2 breweries in the small town of Bennington within walking distance of the motel.

Besides the tent, shelters, hostels and hotels, there is a final category of stay that falls under “other”. In our case other would contain the houses of trail angels that invited us into their home. Notably this would include Sue, our first real trail angel, and Betty & B., the couple that helped me get back on the trail after Amy’s injury. Additional stays in the “other” category include the 3 nights I slept on Jim & Corinne’s sofa in their RV, the many nights I stayed at Becky’s (my sister) place in Maine, and the memorable last 2 nights on trail at my cousin Fred’s place and in Rob & Laura’s RV.

Accommodations	Number of Nights
Tent	85 (32)
Shelter	8 (6)
Hostel	29 (16)
Hotel	20 (7)
Other (Home, RV, etc)	24 (3)

Expenses

Many people are interested in how much it costs to hike the Appalachian Trail. Many individuals that are attempting a thru hike are recent college graduates that want to attempt this life goal before entering the workforce. For these individuals, the expenses are a real hurdle and they are usually on a tight budget when planning their hike. In fact, along with injury, finances or simply running out of money is one of he biggest reasons for people failing to complete a thru hike.

Luckily for us, we were not in that same boat. In fact, we figured our expenses for hiking the trail would be lower than our expenses would have been had we remained in our RV traveling the country. That became even more probable as fuel prices this past summer were almost double what we experienced in our first three years of RVing.

When researching for a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail, you will find that $1,000 per month is a good estimate for the hike. This does not include the cost of your gear before commencing the hike; simply the expenses while actually hiking. You can hike for cheaper and you can spend more, it all depends on how frugal you are and how much you spend while off trail. It is said that when you go into town from the trail, you will hemorrhage money.

When it came to staying in hostels, we splurged and chose to stay in private rooms. When there were two of us, this wasn’t really any more expensive than it would have been for two separate bunks in the common area. When I was hiking alone, I still requested private rooms when available and this did cost me close to twice as much as it would have if I stayed in the bunk room. I also got off trail more frequently in the second half of the hike than we did in the first half. Part of this was to try and get some good meals to keep my strength and nutrition up.

Overall, the hike itself cost us almost $12,000 for the 6 months of the hike. On one hand this was just slightly less than $1,000 per month for each of us but Amy only hiked 2 months. Upon closer inspection, I may have spent as much per month when I was alone as we did together. I continued to book private rooms and I ate in restaurants and delis more frequently because the trail in the northern states allowed for that. Our gear cost us about $5000 before starting the hike and we spent another $2000 – $2500 in replacement gear as I returned to the trail solo. This included a new 2-person tent and a lighter weight sleeping bag for me. Amy also bought herself a new sleeping bag for the few nights she spent with me in the 100 mile wilderness in Maine. We both went through 3 pair of hiking boots at an average cost $120.00 a pair.

Table of Expenses

Category	Expenses
Hostels	$2,095.00
Hotels	$3,022.00
Restaurants	$4,091.00
Resupply (Trail Food)	$2,420.00
Gear	$8,691.00
Misc.	$105.00
Total	$20,424.00