When I learned that about 10% of the hikers in my research studies gave up their dream of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) because they ran out of money, my heart kind of broke a little.
I kept wondering: Why do so many people run out of money?
When I looked deeper, I found one possible reason that people run out of money: because they read that you only need $5,000 to thru-hike the A.T.
In online forums about the A.T. and guidance from the the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, general wisdom seems to be that people should budget about $5,000 for a 5-month thru-hike.