Hiking the Appalachian Trail

Oh, great question! I've been researching doing the AT in one trip. At a time in my life that I can do it (no major financial committments or kids) and hope it can happen.

Anyone do it all?

I'm looking into doing it in one go also.

I once planned on doing it all at once and had most of it worked out and setup. Just needed to do it. Instead, I got married.

I've gone and done a good bit of the southern portion (AL to Fontana Dam) and some portions more than once. I love it.

I avoided most of the shelters in the smokies strictly b/c of crowding, but other than that it was great! And I started out at Springer before they added the AL Pinhoti section, but I've gone back and picked that up now.

If it weren't for tri's, I'd be backpacking every chance I get. Feel free to hit me up if you need weblinks for the southern portions, and whatnot.

Not the appalachian but I have been trying to find a way to do a through hike of the Pacific Crest trail all in one go. Logistical problems and funding for something like that is kind of a nightmare though.

I have read about the AT previously and it sounds like a nice one to do and that it would be well worth the effort - just farther away for me.

The only problem with the AT is that everyone East of the Mississippi River wants to hike it so it can get quite crowded. Plus most folks head out here (northbound) around Mid March making it fairly crowded at the beginning. Once you bust through the Smokies, it's smooth sailing...

interesting! not many people hike the PCT each year and almost no one does it north-south, almost all sout-north since the north portion isnt even passable until much later in the summer. I know my wife will not hike it with me so part of my logistics is finding a hiking buddy who can take 3+ months off for it.

I did 31 miles on the AT over in the Shenandoah Valley area with a group of friends...was fun and met a ton of "travellers". 

We lost a dog out there on the 2nd day out there and luckily found him at a ranger station on our way out. 

Can I join you??

Always dreamt of doing this........

Did 7 days worth with my father when I was 12. To many stories to type here but let's see how about this one. The first night we spread our food out in the lean-to and the rats attacked it so we stowed it all away and hung it from a rope. So the second night we 

we heard the rats again and I ran my hand across my fathers face like a rat. He commenced to slapping himself and hollering so loud and long that I was scared to tell him until some twenty years later. He would bring up the rats from time to time during the 

trip and I would just turn away and try hard to not bust out.

Have you read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson?

This is a hilarious look at the authors attempt to hike the AT.

Interspersed with tons of factual and historical info.

A great read.

I've done short stints on the AT in PA (where boots go to die) and NJ. At least in the PA portion is OK but not necessarily the best backpacking to be done (at least in PA). Even though it is fairly close to where I live, I would rather drive out to the middle of the state and hike on some of the trails there.  The Quehanna is my "go-to" trip.  It has enough connectors to make loop hikes of anything from 1 day to 2 weeks interesting.  And close to Denny's Beer Barrel Pub as a post-trip reward. It has a lot of wildlife, but also a de-commissioned nuclear facility in the middle of it (just to make things interesting) and a minimum security prison in the area for some added excitement.

I think the best tri comparison would be that the AT as a complete through hike is like saying you want to do IM Kona.  Lots of people do it, but there are many shorter and more attainable tri's. And honestly not everyone who does a tri wants or needs to do Kona. But everyone that has not done a tri uses it as their point of reference (as in "Oh, you are doing a triathlon? You mean like the Ironman in Hawaii that I saw on TV?")

Just like you would tell someone new to tri's to do a few sprints and oly's before committing to the training of an IM, you should do a few week or two trips to see how you like it before setting off on a megatrip like the AT.  It is several months worth of hiking, in all kinds of conditions (both metereological and geographical).

^^^^^This. 

I've been inspired to do it only from my immense experience hiking the Smokies, and also up in Maine.

Not a through hike but I am planning to hike it for about a week this summer starting in GA.  Any info or tips anyone has will be greatly appreciated.  And Helen you are more than welcome to join me.

I thought this thread title was being used as a euphemism for flying off to visit one's mistress a la Mark Sanford.

Sorry for derailing if I did...but this is COJ right?

I hiked about 50 miles of the GA portion last fall.  Every shelter we stayed at had at least one other person and they provide cables to hang your food bags - except Blood Mountain.  Georgia has lots of ups and downs and water was scarce in some areas - we ended up hiking an extra 5 miles on day trying to get to a source that wasn't dry, it shouldn't be a problem in the spring though.  The Georgia AT club does a good job of maintaining the trail and has a very nice website.

http://www.georgia-atclub.org/

I didn't try hitch hiking into towns to restock, there was a shop at Neels Gap.  But we did come across a friendly couple out on a day hike who had offered to take us to town.

I hiked the AT end-to-end, south-to-north in 58 days back in '78 when it wasn't such a big deal.

Go easy, go light, it'll work out.

Really wanted to do the CDT, but that was really hard back in those days.

Just in case you have not checked out this site.  It is the go-to website for the AT.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/index.php