How to Save Money Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

5 tips that helped me save A LOT of money on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2023. The PCT can be relatively cheap or quite expensive. Hopefully these tips help in achieving your thru-hiking budget!
#pacificcresttrail #backpacking #hiking

[@JaredandTasha]

Cannot agree more about the hotels. Once we adapted to the tent, didn't get our best rest in hotel beds

[@HitTheTrailJack]

It’s a strange thing but so real lol

[@ironpig701]

The double nearo is a tip Ive heard several times and one Im going to embrace. Like the staying at campground idea. As long as I can get in a shower and do laundry its good for me.Only downside I have with boxes is shipping to much food or being tired of it. Ive been to a few of these trail towns as a non hiker and yes food even at the grocery store is expensive is they are out of the way.

[@HitTheTrailJack]

nero is the way! shower and laundry and I was good too lol

[@trevorjansma8513]

limit town zeros but on trail zeros are great! i wish i did a few more of. took one at rae lakes and one in the goat rocks. some of the best times

[@HitTheTrailJack]

I envy that brotha! There were times where I was just in too much of a rush to finish to enjoy some really sick spots

[@ironpig701]

I get zero and assume its same on trail but mind explaining what you do on a trail zero? And is it all day or part of day?

[@HitTheTrailJack]

I assume you just kick back and chill never took a trail zero @@ironpig701

[@miketroutman7365]

Great comments Jack. Sound wisdom from the 2023 trekker.

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Thanks Mike!

[@DartmoorPaul]

Great tips, especially for an international traveller. I’ve been advised by former PCT travellers from UK to budget $17k for my trip 😮 Your tips will really help reduce this, hopefully!🙂

[@HitTheTrailJack]

They must have had a realllllly good time lmao

[@DartmoorPaul]

@@HitTheTrailJack 😂 I’m hoping that included flights, insurance and visa costs 🇺🇸🤔

[@HitTheTrailJack]

@@DartmoorPaul you got it remember embrace the thru hiker bum in you lol

[@Cheezecube101]

Good insights Jack 🫡🦍

[@robertbarber2585]

👍🏻😊

[@kleenexhikes]

I'm starting out in April this year and am going to be sending myself boxes along with buying at some places. I'm working on dehydrating a lot of food for my meals right now. Also I'm paying for my food now while I still have my job so it will be cheaper when I don't.

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Going to pay huge dividends!

[@Ramblin_Dan]

Thanks for the info! I'm hiking NOBO in a couple months. I've been debating resupply packages or not. I've been leaning towards not... but after this video i don't know if my justifications are standing up to scrutiny. The more research I've done, the more I find hikers saying these small stops like VVR and Stehekin are in the least extremely limited, and at most, exorbitantly expensive. I'm lazy as hell. But more than my laziness, I'm cheap as hell. What you've said, I'm also adjusting for inflation, or gouging with the excuse of inflation. So, I appreciate it. I think I'm gonna start looking at Costco stock for packages. Question: which towns do you think are the most price gouging/least amenable to "on location" resupply? Do you think if I found a middle of the road approach and only set up like 12-15 resupply packages for the more remote/expensive resupply stops that such a move would be advisable? Thanks again dude!

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Even just that would be huge for saving a lot on food. I would say any town you plan on going into that’s small even when it comes to PCT standards is going to be insanely expensive. Some “towns” are just gas stations like white pass in WA for example. So find the smaller ones and send boxes there!

[@mountaincat8]

One question some PCT hikers may have is whether they should buy 5 pairs of shoes before they start the trail or buy their shoes as they go along. One advantage of buying shoes ahead of time is that you can take advantage of a shoe sale and get them cheap. One thing you need to be aware of is to buy your shoes a half or full size larger to allow your feet to swell. Jack, what do you think is the best strategy regarding the purchase of shoes? Should a hiker buy them before the trail cheaper or during the trail at a slightly higher price? Thanks in advance.

[@HitTheTrailJack]

So I grew half a size on the trail from an 11 and 11 and a half. Shoes are expensive on trail, but if you can somehow take advantage of buying multiple pairs for cheaper than I would 100% take advantage of that!

[@MajorSherbear]

When you said excluding gear, did that include gear replacement (such as shoes) during the hike as well? Or was your 3-6K range including such replacements? Thanks for the info & awesome vids!

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Excluding shoes unfortunately lol they are a huge cost on trail

[@MajorSherbear]

@@HitTheTrailJack and the budget grows.. lol Thank you!

[@rickblevensjr8998]

I enjoyed this video! My question is is when you go in and out of groups what is that like? What if you enjoy it group but they want to spend more time in town and you don't. How do you move on? How do you handle it? Thank you so much in advance!!!

[@HitTheTrailJack]

I only really stayed with one group that kind of switched members on and off, but all I could say from an advice standpoint with that is just be honest with people no one will get mad at how you want to hike and if they do, you prolly wouldn’t enjoy hiking with them anyways haha

[@2ozfs]

Accurate ‘PCT’23

[@dangaspar1707]

My budget is on the high end, but I don't plan any non-injury-driven double zeros. I plan to eat what I want/need, but go cheap on accommodations. I start in 25 days, so we will see!

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Have the best time! Jealous ur going to be out there soon!

[@toddherman2020]

Outlaw! Jiyuu. One mistake I made sending boxes is even when I double checked a mailing address, sometimes it would give a physical address and the other source would be a PO Box. For sure send it to the physical address. NOT. It is probably going to be best to send boxes to PO box unless otherwise clearly stated. Good seeing you on here. Later.

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Haha I made this mistake a few times as well and learned real quick! Good to hear from you brotha!

[@user-dh5nc4nl4p]

Hey, thanks for the video. just a little note, the results of the halfway anywhere survey are in. it says the average person of the pct spents about 10k not 6k as you said. jupiter spend 6k and he did the entire thing in about 80 days and lives a pretty frugal life..

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Man that’s seems really high for the average person, but the average person on trail definitely takes quite a few zeros and tend to party in towns but there’s nothing wrong with that. I just didn’t spend anywhere close to that or the people I was hiking with

[@HitTheTrailJack]

I also don't know Jupiter's criteria for how he does the cost, mind you I spent about 5.5-6k on the trail without including gear (yes that means shoes for me) lol so if I factored that in it would go up a lot, but I am just simply talking from a standpoint of where I stayed, and ate and resupplied.

[@neverninetofive]

For someone who’s not from the US and has nobody to send them the resupply boxes: Is it possible to pack and send the resupply boxes while you’re on trail?

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Totally you can always bounce boxes ahead from whatever town you’re in, but you would still have to get access to cheaper wholesale products while you were in the states to make it worth it!

[@iamandreavodickova]

You send it to yourself as GENERAL DELIVERY to the next post office. They will hold it for you for two weeks.

[@neverninetofive]

@@HitTheTrailJack thanks a ton!

[@neverninetofive]

@@iamandreavodickova thank you Andrea!!

[@richardinjapan4578]

So if you spent about $6,000 excluding gear, that would come to about $2.25 per mile. Two questions: 1. Does this figure include the money you spent to flip? 2. How does that compare to Japan -- again, gear excluded and flight expenses excluded. Hope all is well Outlaw! Richard in Japan

[@HitTheTrailJack]

Yeah tbh the flip expenses weren’t too bad since 4 of us were splitting a hotel and we took a greyhound to Seattle lol but damn that was a gnarly bus ride. Japan wasn’t too bad at all I think I spent about 1200 for 20 days but that was mainly on train fares!

[@richardinjapan4578]

@@HitTheTrailJack How many miles (or kilometers) did you hike in Japan?

[@HitTheTrailJack]

I did the Nakahechi, ohechi, and Iseji route for about 175 ish miles I believe! @@richardinjapan4578