When do people start the appalachian trail

The generosity of locals is one of the greatest gifts you can receive as an AT hiker. After an entire season of heavy traffic, the footpath starts to look distinctly careworn in places.

Educating hikers about Leave No Trace principles is one way to address this growing problem. Another is encouraging them to spread out. Peekaboo views through bare trees are abundant before the green tunnel fills in.

Most of the AT is in deciduous hardwood forest, so you genuinely get socked into a green tunnel of leafy vegetation during the growing season. Although this is lovely in its way, it does mean the AT is notoriously short on views compared to, say, the Pacific Crest Trail.

Lotus encountered mild weather in February left but hiked through five heavy snowstorms in March right. Ordinarily drab stretches of forest become magical under its fluffy white influence. By brushing yourself off occasionally, you can often stay weirdly dry. Be especially cautious about the weather in high-elevation regions like the Smokies and the Roan Highlands. Even in the mountains, Georgia weather is sometimes—not always—mild by February.

Come prepared with warm clothes and sleep gear, extra fuel, and microspikes. Make sure you and your gear can handle freezing conditions safely before you commit to an early-season thru-hike. Budget extra time and money for town stays, and carry a little extra food and fuel in the backcountry in case you need to zero in your tent. Take it from someone who grew up in Virginia: the heat and humidity of the east coast are horrible.

Shelter space is first-come, first-served, and it quickly fills up, especially early in the thru-hiking season when 60 to 70 people might be starting on any given day. Thru-hikers should carry some sort of tarp or tent. Full-size one- or two-person tents, small bivy tents, tarps, tarp tents, and hammock systems all have their advocates, depending on how they prioritize comfort, weight, and protection from weather and bugs.

A degree bag is not overkill for early spring. Camping regulations vary. In some areas, unregulated, so-called stealth camping is permitted, but on many stretches, hikers must camp in designated sites; occasionally, small fees are charged. The ATC camping chart summarizes the current regulations pertaining to camping near shelters, within sight of the trail, and above the tree line, as well as proper distance from water sources, and above tree line, and it provides information about national parks, Baxter State Park, and the Appalachian Mountain Club huts in the White Mountains, which have more restrictive regulations owing to such issues as bear activity, crowds, and environmental impact above the tree line.

Vegan, organic, junk food, ketogenic: no matter how you eat at home, someone has figured out how to do it on the trail. The one thing hiker meals have in common?

Significant calories. Calorie requirements vary by gender, body size, and daily effort mileage and elevation gain , but the general consensus is that 4, calories a day is a good starting rule of thumb. With plenty of road crossings, hikers have relatively easy and frequent access to towns along the AT for shopping and resupply. Most hikers send at least some food drops—prepacked boxes of supplies—to themselves via the general delivery at trail-town post offices.

You can find a list of popular trail towns as well as their mileage marker and the zip codes for sending mail to them at The Trek , a website dedicated to providing information to long-distance hikers.

Hikers carefully calculate the mileage between one town and the next, figure out how many days it will take to arrive, count up the breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, and drinks they will need during that time, pack a box for each trail segment, and cajole a friend or family member to mail the boxes at designated times.

On the downside, postage is expensive and packages sometimes get lost. More casual hikers might only send a few food drops, to smaller towns where resupply options are limited. In bigger towns, they shop as they go. My own system is to prepack and send most but not all of my food. AT hikers can also make use of so-called hiker boxes. Found in hostels, shops, post offices, laundromats, and other businesses along the trail, hiker boxes contain anything the last hikers to come through had too much of—from socks to stove fuel to sunscreen to food.

Since , there have been 13 murders on the AT. Other causes of death on the AT have included drowning, heart attacks, hypothermia, lightning strikes, falling trees, and getting lost. Solo hikers starting their thru-hikes at this time can easily join a tramily—thru-hiker talk for a trail family—that moves at about the same pace, camps together, and takes zeros and neros together.

Wildlife sightings—moose, bears, deer, foxes, coyotes, and a host of other animals—are a magical part of the trail experience, but encounters with animals trying to raid your food stash can be an annoyance and a safety hazard. The ATC recommends using bear canisters, which also protect supplies from mice, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, and other nocturnal visitors. Less dramatic but equally bothersome trail threats are ticks parts of the AT in Massachusetts and Connecticut are ground zero for Lyme disease , poison ivy pretty much everywhere except the higher elevations in New England , rattlesnakes everywhere except northern New England , and giardia an illness caused by drinking contaminated, untreated water.

Leave no trace. The ATC has an entire section of its website devoted to these principles, including pack it in, pack it out, and correctly dispose of all waste. Stay on the trail to help prevent erosion. Shelters are first-come, first-served, and hiker midnight is around 9 P. If you arrive later, when everyone is asleep, either pitch a tent outside the shelter or try to be quiet. Cell-phone etiquette is a potential point of conflict in shelters.

This applies to both lights and noise. At the very least, keep the volume down and go outside to make calls. Also note that cell-phone reception is only sporadically available and not something to count on. Carry your own weight! In , the ATC asked all thru-hikers to leave the trail, due to concerns about community spread of COVID in shelters, as well as from hikers to residents of small rural communities. As the trail follows the eastern ridge of the Appalachian Mountains it passes through 14 states, and although the slogan is "Maine to Georgia," most people hike the trail the other way, Georgia to Maine.

Georgia's mild climate plays a role in this, since hikers like to start the 6 month trek in April. Another reason: the toughest part of the trail, in New Hampshire and Maine is saved for last, when hikers are in condition to handle it. Some excellent backpacking adventures await those who decide to hike the Georgia portion of this National Scenic Trail.

From Blue Ridge, take Aska Road Turn right on Newport Road, go 4. The store has had to limit its customer capacity to abide by state COVID rules and has not held any of its usual classes on camping, orienteering or thru-hike preparation. Related : Max Patch being overrun, trashed by campers.

However, the trail spreads across many public lands like Pisgah National Forest, including popular spots such as Roan Mountain in Mitchell County and Max Patch in Madison County, drawing as estimated 3 million to 4 million day hikers a year.