>>444886Yeah, there are a lot of hostels and places like them that do a pretty good job of sucking people in. A lot of them are fun, unique, and enticing. Hostel experiences are an important part of the thru-hiking lifestyle though, I don't regret staying at any of the ones I did. Just gotta be smart about only staying at them as often as you can afford.
You encounter a weirdo every now and then, but for the most part you hear about them way before you meet them so you know to keep your distance. The trail is a grapevine, news travels quickly.
Encountered some strange rednecks a few times but for the most part they were just interested in hikers as a subculture and more often then not just tried to buy weed off of us.
Honestly there was never a point that I felt unsafe, which is more than I can say about walking to the gas station to grab smokes in the city. I'm not sure which stories about Tennessee you are refering to, in general I found Tennessee to be pretty hiker friendly.
Most of my gear I already had, so I didn't spend much on it. A few things got replaced here and there but it was never too much of an expenditure. If you don't have decent gear though that'll definitely cost you. I recommend not being stingy on gear, you want stuff that will last you or you'll end up spending way more replacing it along the trail.
Can't reccomend the experience highly enough, thru-hiking was the best thing I've ever done with my life by far.
