Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anyone here thru hiked the entire AT?

My neice hiked all but about 60 miles of it over a couple year period. She did a lot of it with a group of "trail friends" she met along the way. VERY leisurely pace. They would hike along and find a little town they liked and hang around for up to a week just enjoying the whole experience. Her mother thought she should be hiking 20 miles a day so she flew up from Florida to try to speed her up. She lasted ONE DAY on the trail and quit because her friggin" toe nails fell off! I laughed my ass off over tht.
One thing I know, of you go into a store or restaurant with a bunch of backpacks out front, hold your nose! Personal hygeine diesn't seem to be real high on the priority list of the hikers.
Good luck to you, I hope you can do it.

I've done pieces. Might thru hike the whole thing some day.

I'd walked over 1000 miles of the AT before I turned 17. I did a 650 mile/2 mo's walk on it in 1977 with a friend on my summer HS break. I turned 16 on GA/NC border on the 21st of June that year. Tough summer as there was a heat wave and drought.

It's gotten easier due to lighter gear, the relocation of the trail (thanks to Jimmy Carter), and more re-supply points than when I was on it - we were typically 12-14 days between re-supply.

I'm still an active backpacker, and would have no problem doing it at my age (60 in June). PM me if you need any specifics.

But what I can say is, "there is no try, only do." Either you know you can do it, or you shouldn't bother. First, do a 2 week backpack and see how that goes. If you've never done more than a week's backpack you're out of your depth.

I have a friend hiking it right now. Not sure how many times he's done it before, but if he pulls this one off, he'll have the record for age upon completion. He is 83!

Thanks for sharing Ro. 👍

I’m guessing we grew up close by. I spent slot of time in Dismal in Jefferson NF

Never been on the AT but enjoyed Bill Bryson's humorous book about his hike on the AT.

A Walk in the Woods

That's a great book. He has a very sarcastic sense of humor. The best way that I've seen it described is that it's a "job". Your job is to get up every morning and walk at least 15 miles. The weather may suck, but you have to be out there in it. Like others have said, the new gear makes things much easier. Lighter pack, tent, sleeping bag, GTX jacket, etc. I wanted to do it 20+ years ago when I first got into backpacking until I realized very quickly that I just liked doing 3-5 day trips.

Super cool!

I’d like to hike up Appalachia’s tail.

I'm from Virginia, and I have hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail, but over a batch of years...

When my family came back from Europe in 1966, my dad was stationed at Pope AFB on Ft Bragg. I was in Scouts and then an Explorer post.
Ended up hiking all of North Carolina, and some of South Carolina from 66 to 68.

Then my dad was sent to Vietnam, we came home to Northern Va, and I was still in the Explorers, and our post ended up hiking it across VA, part of it in WVA, Western Maryland and then up thru PA... that was in 1969 and 1970..

Went to Massachusetts to go to college and then worked two summers in North Georgia 1971 and 72... Graduated college in 1975,

During that period, hiked it thru New England, NY and NJ... also in the summers of 71 and 72, hiked it in Georgia and the parts of SC I hadn't done.. closer to the GA state line...wrapping up what I hadn't done in Tennessee...summer of 72.

Our advisors of our Explorer Post at Pope AFB were a group of Green Berets.. young guys who had Nam experience and also had been Eagle Scouts and Explorers in their high school days....they taught us how to cover ground, travel light.. I've always did it, either in a group or at least with someone on two else with me...we'd drop off one car at the pick up site, and take the other to the drop in spot.... we'd be on the trail anywhere from 2 to 4 days...

My "tent" was an orange tube tent, it always came with me, even if we were camping at CCC hunts on the trail...Food was always high calorie and high energy ( probably full of sugar in those days)....We broke camp at 6 am and hit the trail, and hike 4 hours or so... then we'd stop and have breakfast at around 10 to 10:30 AM, 30 minutes for that...and a little rest, wash your feet, change your socks.. which were always wool...with a polypropylene insert sock.

hike from there until around 2 or 2:30.. stop and make a quick lunch...that was usually one pot of boiling water, and heat up a freeze dried pouch.. change socks back to the ones we started the day off with, that had been hung on the pack with clothes pins from a rope dangling off the pack...replenish any water we needed, often changed into clean underwear also....do a crotch wash sponge bath...wash you feet again, check for blisters.. if your footwear was tight, there usually went any.. if there were, apply moleskin... bug spray as needed

hit the trail again...after an hour stop... then hike until 6 to 7 pm, when we stopped for the night, had a boiled dinner again of freeze dried food...

in my youth, and depending upon the difficulty of the terrain, we could make anywhere from as low as 20 miles in a day easily, to sometimes as high as 30..
20 to 25 miles per day was more like the average....we ate high protein stuff traveling light, we could carry easily 4 days worth of what was needed..

traveled light on clothing but changed it at each stop as needed, always near water, so we would wash what we had worn.. and always carried just one change of clothes, 3 pairs of socks, with the inserts, a pair of tennis shoes when not hiking.. hiking boots when were... burnt all of our trash in the nightly camp fire.

August of 1969, the Explorer post went to Montana to Glacier and Waterton Peace Park. we were on the trail for 14 days and hiked 292 miles, in Montana and Alberta. We were at no supply points on the entire trip.. my pack weighed 55 lbs when we hit the trail.. and that was covering food for 4 man cook groups, for the entire 14 days...mine was the lightest pack, from what I had learned from the Green Beret guys in North Carolina...

In college I also hiked the 200 Miles of the Long Trail in Vermont. In the Army at Ft Lewis/ Madigan AMC in 1977 and 1978, I've hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Canadian border in Washington, down as far south as Bend Oregon... Got married in Sept of 1979, and that pretty much got my back pack and hiking shoes hung up in the closet or the garage...

Went thru Scouting with my son, as a parent. He made Eagle Scout... at 14 he did go to Philmont with a group from Southern Oregon, Crater Lake Council.
Dad supervised him packing for the trip... on the shake down night were they inventoried everyone's pack, my son was both the only one of 24 kids that had everything they were told to bring with them, he also had the lightest pack, they were told to keep it under 50 pounds.. none of the boys did so, except Jonathan.. his pack weighed 40 pounds....for two weeks at Philmont. He enjoyed the trip... but swore he's never do that again, once he got home..

he isn't the hiking fool his dad was... I'd do it again in a heart beat, as I met so many great and interesting people on those trails...

and for you guys from New York, I don't know if you have a clue what the 46'ers Club was.. but I just missed that by two peaks, which I still climbed after they closed the club down, as it was sent to do so after the first thousand people to do so... also did that from 1971 thru 1975...

and yeah, on the Appalachian Trail, I've hiked that in 100 degree weather, with 150% humidity, and use bathed in Bug juice, while getting attacked by Mosquitoes the size of a small plane...incessantly .. I've been on the trail, in knee deep snow, with and without sleet at 10 degrees, with and without 30 to 40 mph winds... that weren't on the forecast by the weatherman, but that is what we woke up to....Thank God for being able to camp in the old CCC huts... are those things still maintained? in the 60s and early 70s, they were only like 30 to 40 years old... but that was 50 plus years ago...

Wouldn't trade a minute of it, all the time I spent doing that things... in those days, we got off our asses and did things... kids nowadays... its all about video games.... I have never been able to get the kids in scouts around here to get motivated to do any of that stuff.... then one adult, a retired Navy guy got out and hiked some of the Pacific Crest Trail with his two sons, who were already beyond Scouts, but they had both got out as Eagles.... that inspired the hell out of them, and their replies were " I sure wished we would have listened to you back then! that was stupendous!"

I did at least got about half a dozen of the boys finally interested in the Cycling Merit Badge. Once they started getting off the couch and riding bikes on 10 and 20 miles rides for the merit badges, they pretty live on their bicycles now... but all their Video Game friends think they are nuts...

Probably a good reason, most of the people found on those hiking trails nowadays are old folks.. the average millennial is probably too damn lazy, which is probably a good thing... because most of them would be pretty damn clueless of what to do out there nowadays... especially if they got in some sort of trouble or danger...

I hiked across it one day.....LOL

On my last Honeymoon, we stayed near Hot Springs and checked out the area. Trail goes through the town so we had some fun with that....

I've hiked a couple small sections here in Maine. This summer I'd like to do the entire Maine section from the Whites to Baxter. The Mahossuc section is a hell hole from what I understand, one of the hardest sections of the entire trail. The Bigelow Range is my favorite section I've done so far.

Scanning the thread...read your post with interest Seafire, without knowing who had posted it until I looked back. Extremely interesting and informative.

I can't stress enough how folks go missing on the trail. Carry a personal locator beacon and a gun. If possible, travel with another person and a dog.

When I was in my twenties I hiked parts of the AT in NY, NJ, PA and ME, three to four days at a time was the most time spent hiking. It was always an ambition to hike the entire trail but now nearing age 72 don't think that will ever happen. I still like to read about the adventures of those who have hiked the entire trail. I remember the cold and rain from some of my trail hikes including waking up on Easter Sunday morning with everything snow covered on a part of the trail in NJ. Also getting drenched with heavy rain while hiking in the Delaware Water Gap near the NJ-PA border.

That's quite the education Seafire!

I wager there are a good many people who would pay good money to learn from SF.

'
Wythe, Bland Counties. Family homesteaded the area around Reedy Creek back in the 1700's

folks interested should read this forum

https://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/

Interesting topic. 2190 miles. 14 states. Takes 5 to 7 months to complete. A lot of rugged terrain. A person would have to be in top notch shape.

several Boy Scout Merit Badge booklets or books can provide a lot of information... Like Wilderness Survival. Emergency Prep. Wilderness 1st Aid

Took a Wilderness First Aid Course by Red Cross, via the local County Search and Rescue, a $450 course. It was essentially 4 Scout Merit Badge booklets that cost $5,00 each... instructor didn't believe me until I showed him the credits in small print, and brought him the 4 Merit Badge books to look at. Blew his mind.. he'd been teaching it for10 years...

Its more proper planning than anything else..