Some people have mused about joining me for a portion of the AT odyssey which sounds great to me as long as they bear in mind a few things. The first 30 miles is supposedly the most difficult terrain. So either you join me in February to hike the most difficult miles or you join me when I'm up to speed. Well I suppose there is that narrow period after those first 30 miles and before I really get my legs under me.
I'm not planning to be fastpacking unless I have to but I will have time constraints so anyone thinking about joining me for a section should figure on an absolute minimum of 20 km per day with their pack on rough terrain day after day or I will have no choice but to leave them behind. I figure I will need to average 28 km per day to complete the trip in five months (what I would like to do), 24 km per day to complete the trip in 6 months (what I expect to do) or 20 km per day to complete the trip in seven months (last resort).
Of course these are averages and some parts of the trail are easier than others and different parts offer different hiking experiences. Some parts shadow a highway, others are untamed wilderness and in places the trail goes through downtown. Supposedly the 70 miles through Pennsylvania will destroy a set of boots and the Smoky Mountains, while beautiful, are full of curious bears.
Then there is the time of year and the incumbent weather conditions - cold, hot, rain, bugs, snow? I hope to mitigate the cold/hot thing by leaving the deep south in the dead of winter, but really, how cold can it get in Georgia? (in February about -4 Celsius) .
I see this in four general sections:
February-March in the Southern Appalachians lots of up and down to keep me warm.
March-April in the Virginias supposedly the easy section where a thru hiker should plan on doing at least 30 km per day.
May-June in the mid-Atlantic states not so bad but rocky and difficult in places. (see Pennsylvania comment above)
June-July in New England pretty good through the Green Mountains, pretty tough through the white Mountains and then the 100 mile wilderness sprint to the finish!
OK enough about the AT. From now on I`ll try to stick to more generic hiking or the Adirondack trail which will be the pre-AT practice/second thoughts?/gear testing hike in fall `09.
1 comment:
So I've just recently discovered geocaching (well haven't actually tried it cuz I don't have a GPS but its been brought to my attention by a couple of independent sources) and in checking it out a bit I realized that I probably walked by 40 or more caches in the last month. Seems like a nice enhancement of hiking. What are your thoughts on the whole idea?
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