Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike

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I've hiked part of it through North Carolina...wish I had the time and knees for doing the whole thing! Good luck to you!!

Read Bill Bryson's book - I think it's called A Walk In The Woods. It's all about his Appalachian Trail hike.

I'm on the left coast, and have always wanted to hike the John Muir trail. It's shorter (only 215 miles), but starts at about 4,500 feet and crests at about 14,500 feet. It takes 30+ days to complete... Unfortunately, my husband shattered his ankle a few years ago and is not able to hike at this level anymore (and I'm not going to leave him for 30 days to do this), so I'll be crossing this off the "bucket list" early...

That is AWESOME!!! Good luck to you and I hope you post about it! I'd love to read all about your adventure

I think it takes months to do the whole thing - and a lot of people quit! I have a friend who did the Virginia section. I hike the trail occasionally, but only day trips so far. I would love to do a longer hike like this, but I am not sure how long I could go without showers, a bed, etc. Good luck!

I have never hiked the entire trail but several pieces. Mostly in Va., Md., and Pa. And someday I would love to do it. During one hike I met a pair of brothers who had just recently taken early retirement (they were from Georgia) and they set a goal to hike it. I think I was near Priest Mountain in Va. when I met them and we sat for a couple of hours as they recapped the hike from Georgia to that point. They made one huge mistake (there may have been others but this one was serious) and that had to do with shoes and socks. They trained for several months prior to the hike. Their boots were worn out so they bought new boots. Instead of hiking with the boots for a short time to break them in, they started the hike. By the time they made it to southern Va, their feet were blistered and were in such bad shape that they had to spend a week in a hotel and I believe they had to have a doctor make a house call. You must plan to take care of your feet. From my standpoint, decide before you take the first step how you will get water. If you do the entire trail you can't carry it. There is water available on most of the trail but you need to know how to find it (there are many good guidebooks). Take a filter system with you. Do not drink the crisp, cool water from the stream, falls, or river because someone is most likely bathing in it upstream from you. But there are many good lightweight filtration systems. One more thing from the brothers I met..... start early in the spring (I am assuming you will start from Georgia).

Wish it was me... good luck

What an awesome goal, Sarah! Perhaps I can get 6 months off from whatever i'm doing then & hike it with you...haha that would be so awesome, although without showers my hair is a crazy-curly mess! Have fun researching it and learning all that you can from people! :flowerforyou: You GO girl!!!

I hiked the trail back in 2009 south to north (NOBO). I had always wanted to do it and planned on doing it when I retired. When the economy went south the company I worked for closed shop and I had money saved, I was burned out, and there didn't seem to be alot of job opportunities so I figured I would hit the trail. I has completely changed my life. Now I wish I had done it sooner. My goal is to retire in 2025 and to hike the trail again. A few things about how the trail improved me.

1. I was never crazy with money but I always seemed to be buying new toys, eating out all the time, wasting money left and right. Again, I made good money so I wasn't going in debt, but at the sametime I was spending more than I should. When I started planning my hike I gathered/bought everything I wanted to take with me and it literally would not fit in my pack. I would finally decide that I guess I don't really have to have this, I can get by without this, etc. Still, even tying things onto my pack it would not all fit. So I finally decided to just take the things I needed, not the things I wanted. Off to Georgia I go. Well in Georgia the climbs are not huge, but they are straight up and then straight down, you have very little flat terrain to recover. Doing this for about half a day you soon realize there are alot of things in your pack that you really do not need. The probelm is you are still 3-4 days to the next road crossing/store where you can ship things home. For 6 months you carry mostly the things you need with the only exceptions being maybe a camera and cell phone or mp3 player. It really hit home to me that the simplier life really is the better life. When I got home I went through my apt doing the same thing I did with my pack. Do I really need 40 pairs of pants? 4 bicycles? Scuba Gear I have not used in 5 years, all these appliances, etc. Do I really need a new car or will a good used one work? Do I really want a 3500 SF house or will something smaller work? Do I really need to spend 2 hours everyday watching TV when I could be out on a walk, working out, in the park, visiting friends/family, learning something new, etc.

2. Everyone is the same on the trail. You have Harvard Graduates, retired doctors, retired CEO's hiking, sleeping, sharing campfire stories with people who have just graduated from college, someone who just list their job and looking for a career change, to someone that has just gone through a divorce, lost everything they owned and just need to get away for a while. You get into town every 5-7 days to wash clothes, resupply on food, take a shower, etc so in other words we all smell and we all look to some extent homeless. You walk into a restaurant and you get weird looks except from the people that are familar with hikers. In a weird way you all become family on the trail.

3. The length of the trail changes slightly every year but it is roughly 2180 miles. If you mapquest the start to the finish you get around 1400 miles. The deal with the trail is that it takes you almost every highest point along the trail. If you get to a mountain and one trail goes around the mountain and ones goes up you can bet that 99 out of 100 times the AT is the one that is taking you right over the mountain. It is absolutely amazing how good of shape you get in. You may still get tired or out of breath climing the mountain with a 50lb pack, but it gets to where the point that you recover in seconds as opposed to minutes. You feel great, you look great, and everywhere you look you are surrounded by amazing landscapes.

4. Patience/Perserverance/Endurance - I remember when I as in high school hearing someone tell me that the three secrets to success are patience, perserverance, and endurance. You practice all of these on the trail. We were 60 days into the trail and had 54 days of rain. Imagine waking up everyday with wet shoes, clothes, sometimes wet sleeping bags, etc. There were days you didn't even want to get out of the tent (and some days I didn't). But even with all the rain, snow, sleet, cold, there ws just something about being there when the somes comes up and you walk across the top of the mountain or down in the valley below.. the wildflowers, the birds singing, the sun on your face, etc that made it all worth it.

Since the trail I have used what I learned. I have 40 acres that I am starting a small organic homestead on. I have a 750 foot cabin solar powered with rain collection (and soon will be installing a well run by solar power). I have honeybees and chickens. I have planted roughly 60 fruit and nut trees, rebuilt a small pond on the property and stocked it with fish. My only bills are my gym membership, my cell phone bill, and my car insurance. I invest heavily and plan to be able to retire in 13 years (sooner if the marker cooperates).

I do not know the person that put together this video, but it is a great song that if you listen to the lyrics can describe what it is like more poeticaly than I ever could. It is also a collection of photos of their Appalachian Trail Hike. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs8xPZnMkL4

and lastly if you want more photos you can check out the archives of my blog for March 2009 through November. www.timeoutdoors.blogspot.com If this is something you are thinking about I strongly urge you to do it. It doesn't matter if you just want to hike a week, 2 weeks, or to attempt to do the entire trail.. you will get something out of it and you will come back a better person.

Since the OP- I wonder did you do it yet?