Werkzeug
Budget Calculator — Virginia Appalachians
This region has no permit, no entry fee and no camping fee at any scale. The only recurring charge in it is a $6 bus. So this calculator is small on purpose: it models the fixed trail-cost stack in USD, with distances in miles and elevations in feet.
What has no source carries no price: fuel, train and bus fares, motels in Roanoke or Lexington, and gear are excluded from the total and listed below. We do not invent a number to fill a row.
The plan
VA 311 trailhead — free lot, ~50 gravel spaces, fills early. Roadside parking on Route 311 is banned: ticketed and towed. Since 27 March 2025 the A.T. crosses the highway on a pedestrian bridge, so nobody sprints the blind curve any more.
When you go
The shuttle is running. 20 seats per run, 7 a.m.–7 p.m. April–September, shorter in the shoulder months.
Getting to the trailhead
Stops: I-81 Exit 140 Park & Ride, Orange Market (311), downtown Salem (101 S Broad), Longwood Park, the Dragon's Tooth trailhead and the McAfee trailhead. The McAfee Knob guide →
A meal in town
Catawba's Homeplace — the family-style farmhouse generations of thru-hikers called the best meal on the trail — reopened 22 April 2026 after five years dark. Wed–Fri 4–8 p.m., Sat–Sun 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
Permits & entry
$0 — and it is a sourced zero. No permit, no entry fee, no quota, no reservation and no camping fee exists anywhere in this region. The A.T.'s only three permit points are all outside it:
| Triple Crown, James River Face, Three Ridges, The Priest | no permit | $0 |
| Great Smoky Mountains NP | thru-hiker permit | $44.50 |
| Shenandoah NP | backcountry permit | $9 per person + $6 reservation |
| Baxter State Park | in person | free |
None of those three enters the total: they are regions away. Note also what is missing — our research carries no 2026 figure for Shenandoah's vehicle entrance fee or the America the Beautiful pass, so we quote neither. If your trip is Shenandoah and Luray, this is not your calculator.
McAfee Knob — day hike
1 day · 0 nights· USD
fixed trail costs · no fuel, fares, motels or gear
Realitätscheck
Parking, not money, is the bottleneck. ~50 spaces at McAfee (until the $6.3M rebuild lands), about 8 at Devils Marbleyard, and towing on Route 311. Arrive early or take the bus.
zur Einordnung
The region's three published fee stacks: a McAfee day is $0–11; a car-free weekend is $11 of fixed cost plus the train; a week-long section is $0–6. By a distance, the cheapest region this site covers.
The full cost breakdown →What we do not price
- Fuel and car — the dominant cost here, because apart from the McAfee shuttle no public transport reaches any trailhead. We have no sourced 2026 Virginia fuel price, so we invent none.
- Amtrak from Washington to Roanoke (two daily round trips, ~5 h) and the Virginia Breeze bus to Lexington: market-priced, bought like an airline seat.
- Motels and hotels in Roanoke or Lexington — real, but with no 2026 rate in our research.
- Gear, including the bear canister the ATC strongly recommends. Walkabout Outfitter has stores in Lexington and Roanoke; we do not publish prices we have not verified.
- Shuttle booking fees: they exist; the amount is not published.
Prices as of August 2026. Jede Zahl mit Quelle. Virginia research
Quellen
Every number in this calculator comes from one of these pages. No affiliate links, no commissions. All figures in USD; there is no currency conversion to explain in this region, which is rather the point.
Methodik: The $0 for permits, entry and camping is a sourced finding, not a gap: the ATC itself publishes that most of the A.T. requires neither permit nor fee, and the loop guide states it flatly. The shuttle fare ($6 one-way / $11 round trip, season 6 Mar – 29 Nov 2026) is Roanoke County's official price; booking fees exist but are not published, so they are not summed. Hostel and town-meal lines use the published 2026 A.T. ranges ($30–50/night, $20–50/meal) because Four Pines is donation-based and has no rate card; the $50/day trail-food line is the published thru-hiker burn rate (~$1,500/month) used as a ceiling, not a forecast. Lodging bills NIGHTS: a 3-day loop is 2 nights. Distances in miles and elevations in feet, as the US sources publish them. Deliberately excluded and not estimated: fuel, Amtrak and Virginia Breeze fares, motels, gear and the bear canister — our research carries no sourced 2026 figure for any of them.
Virginia price updates
The shuttle season, the trailhead rebuild and the bear rule change every year.
One email when Roanoke County posts a new shuttle season, when the $6.3M McAfee trailhead build starts, or when the camping and food-storage rules change. Every claim sourced.
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