How I Afford To Thru-Hike

Hey y'all, Dixie here. Today I want to talk to you about one of the most common questions I'm asked and probably all thru-hikers are asked and that's how in the world do you afford to thru-hike? This is basically going to be a two-part answer for me because I prepared for the AT and the PCT in two different ways financially and then I'll also mention you know just some lifestyle choices that make it easier to be able to thru-hike but I'll get into that later. Let's go ahead and get started. In 2015 I started my Appalachian Trail thru-hike and I had never been on an overnight backpacking trip before. I didn't start buying my gear until February and you know I really had to do a balance of cost, the weight of the gear, the quality of the gear. You know I didn't have the best, most expensive, most ultralight gear but the gear I had was good and it did work. So how did I afford all of it? How did I afford the gear and the six months stint out in the wilderness? Well I cashed in on my retirement and I put my student loans on hold. I pared down all of my expenses so I got rid of any kind of like subscriptions or Amazon Prime you know any of that. I don't watch TV so you know I already didn't have cable or any of that but I also got rid of my truck insurance. I sold some things that I had you know like extra pieces of furniture just anything I didn't want. I just any way that I could I tried to save up some money and get rid of things that I didn't need. Now even though I put my student loans on hold I still had expenses while I was gone. I had the utilities at my house and I had my cell phone bill you know other expenses I mean trail expenses and then while I was on trail you know I made a point to really enjoy it because this was like a once-in-a-lifetime experience but I also tried to make sure you know to be conscious of my budget. So I split rooms with people when I could. I bought really cheap and unhealthy food the whole time and I just made sure that while I was in town I was careful to not just overspend on things that I didn't need to. I would say you know I fell into the average category as far as expenses go on trail. So the ATC estimates that people will spend about a thousand dollars per month that they're on the trail and I was on trail a little over six months and I spent about a little over six thousand dollars you know while on trail. Now you can do it for a whole lot cheaper than that and you could spoil yourself and do it you know a lot more expensive than that but again you know I thought this was like my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and you know I made myself comfortable while I was out there and when I started my AT through hike homemade wanderlust this channel was born and it started off as you know a documentation of my journey because you know I had no prior backpacking experience and I wanted to show people like hey if I can do this you can too and I wanted my family and friends to be able to see like yeah she's still alive and this is what she's doing. So once I got done with the trail you know I had a tiny little bit of cushion left but I pretty much had to hit the ground running when I got home and start working. I had some opportunities to get back into the engineering world but you know I just wasn't sure that I was ready for that yet. I had gotten a taste of freedom while out on the trail and learned what it was like to you know narrate my life to create my life and design my life how I wanted to live it and I just wasn't ready to give that up. I liked having flexibility of my own schedule and so I just decided before I jump into another career I really want to make sure that that's what I want. So I started working just a bunch of part-time jobs to get some money. I was working at an outdoor store, I was substitute teaching, I was bartending and waitressing, I was doing insurance inspections. Once I finished my through hike the channel only had about 3,000 subscribers but on top of all of these part-time jobs I was still putting content out on the channel and it really started transforming into like an information portal for people who were just getting into backpacking and hiking. And in addition to all the part-time jobs and the channel I also started a microgreens business because I thought you know being an entrepreneur would be a lot more rewarding than just you know working for somebody else from eight to five. My microgreens business started growing and I was selling to you know local restaurants and at farmers markets and things like that but the channel really started to pick up too. So I finally came to a crossroads and I was like you know what do I want to do? Do I want to start this business and put roots down here or while I still have my freedom you know do I want to go hike another trail? And I started to see that as a real possibility and I decided I could have a microgreens business anywhere. You know I could move to another town, another state, whatever and do you know a business for anything really. But I didn't know that I was always going to be healthy enough to get out and hike another long-distance trail or you know maybe something in life would happen to where that wasn't as much of a priority anymore. So I decided you know in 2017 that I wanted to through hike the Pacific Crest Trail. So after I decided you know I'm going to hike the PCT in 2017, oh my god how am I going to make the money to do that? Yes I was working like all these different jobs. I mean I was doing everything but sleeping but I wasn't sure that that was going to be enough and I realized I needed to focus on some passive forms of income. So the first thing I did was write an ebook about how to prepare to hike the Appalachian Trail. I was getting all these questions in about you know where do you sleep and how do you treat your water and I decided you know if I had had an outlet that had all of this stuff in one spot it would have been really useful when I was preparing to hike the AT so I thought you know I'll go ahead and create what I think would be a good resource for people who are preparing to hike and then it would also be some form of income for me to help me get out there on the PCT. It's not like I knew what I was doing when I was self-publishing. It's not like I knew what I was doing when I decided to write a book but I was like I know this topic. I you know got out there and saw everything firsthand so why can't I provide this information? And if you want to know how to do anything these days you can find it online. So I learned all about self-publishing and I decided I was going to make it happen and I did. In addition to putting out the ebook I became a member of Amazon Affiliates and I created an Amazon wish list. Now I learned about both of these things through my subscribers and your subscribers will take care of you so thank y'all. But anyway Amazon Affiliates is basically just a program where you can sign up and people shop through your affiliate links and then you know you get supported for whatever you're doing. So in my instance you know through hiking the PCT. So basically I just get on there do their normal shopping like they would and a certain percentage goes to your fund. Now just a tip for anyone who's thinking like oh I'm going to start an Amazon affiliate account and then just go share all these random links and that's just not a good idea and you know can ruin your credibility. I never personally share any item that I haven't myself used or seen used successfully. You know I wouldn't just get on there and share a bunch of junk and honestly a lot of times I don't even put out affiliate links. I just tell y'all you know if you want to support this channel you can shop through Dixie AZ which will you know redirect you to Amazon. Now the Amazon wish list is just basically something that can be used for family members that are you know shopping for each other for Christmas presents or whatever. But I had several folks suggest that I set one up for my gear and I thought you know surely nobody would want to get on there and purchase anything you know gear related for me to take on the PCT. But I was wrong. A lot of people came forward and showed some interest and you know I did have a lot of my gear purchased for me for the PCT. And the great thing about that is you know I'm able to say like I am not sponsored by a certain company. I don't have you know somebody that I feel obligated to give good reviews on or anything like that. I pick the gear that I want and I use the gear you know that that I prefer because it's good gear not because you know somebody suggested like hey we'll pay you x amount of dollars if you'll use this. And finally I am registered with Patreon. So Patreon is basically just a platform for content producers. So you have to be putting out you know either blogs or videos or songs you know some kind of content. And then your biggest supporters can get on there and pledge a certain amount to you either you know like per piece of content or monthly. And mine is set up for monthly. So through all these passive forms of income and just honestly working my butt off with all these part-time jobs I was able to get out on the PCT last year. And for the CDT I'm basically doing the same thing you know I'm working part-time not quite as much as I was before. And I'm putting more focus on creating content and you know I'm working on a PCT prep book. And eventually I'd actually like to you know write down the stories of each trail. It's taken a lot of time and effort to build these things you know it's not something that happened overnight. When I finished the Appalachian Trail my channel only had 3,000 subscribers and now you know I'm a little over 70,000. So those are the ways that I was able to fund each hike. But the things that stay constant in my life are my lifestyle choices. I live very much below my means. I don't have fancy nice things. You know I don't keep up with the latest fashion trend. I mean honestly I still have clothes from high school that have holes on them. I care more about making memories and having adventures than stuff. You know I drive the same old 1997 Toyota Tacoma that I've had since 2004. That's 13 years and old Tanya. I live in a very small old house. I borrow my sister's sweater and I wear Dollar General sunglasses. I try not to go out to eat a lot. I cook at home a lot. You know it really is a lifestyle change. It's kind of like you know folks will go on these fad diets and lose a bunch of weight or you know they can just make a lifestyle change and become healthy and exercise and you know they're a lot better off. So basically it's the same thing. You know rather than just going crazy and saving up a bunch of money and then going and spending it all I just really try to minimize how much I spend by the way that I live my life. And also I'm not married and I don't have kids. Now that's not to say that people who are married and have children can't get out and adventure. I mean in fact I know that that's not true. In 2015 I met an awesome family, five kids, two parents that were out there through hiking the Appalachian Trail and you know I still keep in touch with them. They're an amazing people to do awesome things with their children. And then also in 2017 there was a couple who through hiked the AT with their baby Ellie. So what I'm trying to say is it basically comes down to will and priorities. You know where there's a will there's a way. And I decided that the triple crown was a huge priority in my life and that I wanted to get out there and make it happen. And for me to do that I had to have like a complete lifestyle change. I just had to change up everything. So I wish I could tell you that there was some easy simple way to fund a through hike. But basically I think it all just boils down to you know how much effort are you willing to put into something to make it happen. Because things worth having generally do take a lot of time and effort and you just got to get out there and believe in yourself and make it happen. If y'all have any questions about you know anything that I talked about today I'll be happy to answer those questions. Just leave them in the comments below. Thank y'all so much for watching and supporting me and believing in me. It has meant so much to me over the past couple of years and I just couldn't have it without y'all. Thanks again and we will see y'all next time.