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The Appalachian Trail

F

Forsakenproductions

Active Member
I've been reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

It all about his walk in the afore-mentioned trail. Its approximately a 5 month hike if you do the whole thing.

So I was wondering if any of you have ever done it? Even a portion. I want to do it when I graduate college before I incur too many obligations and am looking for advice and tips.

Or, if there is any prolonged hikers in here, any tips/stories in general would be nice.
 
I've done parts of it here and there, and am planning to do the whole thing as soon as I have time (and probably do a doc about it, since thats kind of my forte). If you're in decent shape you can do it in three months. The furthest that I've hiked on a single trip is 300 miles, which is a far cry from the full AT, but I can still say that the best way you can prepare is to just work out like you mean it and walk up hills wearing a 70+ lb pack. You ought to schedule it so that you avoid the New England region in the winter... the weather in the Presidential Range is the worst in the entire country and holds the record for the fastest wind speed ever recorded on land. I'm heading up there in December because I enjoy that kind of stuff, but if you're an inexperienced winter mountaineer, it can be very dangerous. During the summer, the White Mountains are a great training ground if you want to go up there for a few days and give yourself a baptism by fire, just to see what the hardest parts of the trip will be like.

Bryson's book was a disappointment. I read it while in New Zealand last year and it annoyed me when he said that he had hiked the AT even though he didn't finish it. He and his buddy walked for a few weeks and then gave up because they saw a map of the entire AT on a wall and realized that they'd only gone a few inches even though they felt like they'd gone much further. You can't have that kind of attitude about it. You need to have rock-solid resolve and perseverance if you want any chance of making it.

And yes, it's generally a good idea to avoid the bears, too.
 
Backpacking is the worst possible fate known to humankind, other than execution by fire ant feeding and dropping the soap in Oz.

I've done about 120 miles on a trip (covering over 9,000 feet of vertical rise) and have absolutely no desire to ever do it again.
 
I hiked all of the MD trail back when I was 15 or 16. It was a blast - but very tiring.

I love Bryson's book. Wasn't disappointing at all. He's a hilarious writer.

-Chris
Studentfilms.com
 
I did portions of the trail in the Tennessee/North Carolina area a few weeks ago. It was pretty amazing. You've just gotta do it yourself if you care at all for natural beauty.

Tyler
 
Bryson's book was a disappointment. I read it while in New Zealand last year and it annoyed me when he said that he had hiked the AT even though he didn't finish it. He and his buddy walked for a few weeks and then gave up because they saw a map of the entire AT on a wall and realized that they'd only gone a few inches even though they felt like they'd gone much further. You can't have that kind of attitude about it. You need to have rock-solid resolve and perseverance if you want any chance of making it.
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Bryson's books aren't meant to be thorough guides; they're mostly just entertaining stories and interesting pieces of trivia. A Walk in the Woods is what prompted me to start hiking about five years ago. I've done sections of the trail in Georgia and Virginia, usually about a week at a time, mostly during Spring or Summer. It's beautiful. I'm considering being there for Christmas day, as I've never been overnight during winter.

Anyway, I've liked most of Bryson's stuff minus what he's published in the last four years or so. A Short History winning the Aventis was a joke.

Good luck on your trip. Wear sneakers with lots of padding. Boots are heavy, and they'll give you a sh*tload of blisters.
 
Originally posted by Harris:
Wear sneakers with lots of padding. Boots are heavy, and they'll give you a sh*tload of blisters.
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Boots only give you blisters if they don't fit you. People often make the mistake of taking new boots on hikes, which is a death sentence. Buy boots well in advance and spend a couple months breaking them in. It's very important to have ankle support... sneakers are a bad idea.
 
I'm probably going to buy boots at the beginning of '07, break them in over the year and get them nice and comfy. Then they'll be ready by '08.

I read somewhere to buy your boots 1/2 a size larger then your actual size to compensate for foot swelling: true or false?

I've done all my previous hiking in sneakers. Then one time I wore boots and I'm never going back. They stopped my ankles from bending side to side on slippery rocks and the bottoms gripped the ground so much stronger.
 
I read somewhere to buy your boots 1/2 a size larger then your actual size to compensate for foot swelling: true or false?
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Awful idea. You will have blisters within five minutes if you have boots that are too large.

About blisters and fit - I have always heard (from very experienced hikers, etc.) that blisters are a fact of life no matter how well the boots fit and how long you've had them or how much they've been broken in.

Anyway, if boots always give blisters when new, that just means you will get blisters when you have to break them in. So much fun.

In case you can't tell, I despise backpacking. I'd have joined Mao in the Long March if I liked it.
 
I am so very tempted right now.
I am very prone to obsessions. They come and go at about month-long intervals. (except for a few, for example, the rubik's cube obsession lasted for about 6 months) I'm basically done with my barely-current obsession (juggling), and I am looking for something else to get hooked on.
Reading this discussion really makes me want to go outside right now (its 11:00 PM) and walk a few miles carrying a backpack stuffed with cinder-blocks.
 
Originally posted by Evan Kubota:
Awful idea. You will have blisters within five minutes if you have boots that are too large.
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Correct.

Originally posted by Evan Kubota:

About blisters and fit - I have always heard (from very experienced hikers, etc.) that blisters are a fact of life no matter how well the boots fit and how long you've had them or how much they've been broken in.
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Incorrect. It's not just the size of the boot that makes a difference. Everyone has different shaped feet, and different brands of boots are designed for different kinds of feet. That's the point of breaking boots in: to mold them to the unique shape of your foot as closely as possible. But the first step is to buy boots that are as close as possible to the right size and shape to begin with. If you're able to do that (which, admittedly, is a rarity, buts its easy to get it close enough), then you won't get blisters.

I'm not surprised that "experienced hikers" told you otherwise. This is unfortunately not something that one can easily learn from experience. It's just something that needs to be known to begin with.

Additionally, if you don't mind the extra sweat, wearing two pairs of socks will just about guarantee that you won't get blisters, unless of course your boots don't remotely fit you.
 
I'm not sure you would want to do this for hiking, but my soccer coach told us to put vasaline on our feet if we were getting blisters. That'd be really disgusting for more than 2 hours probably though (I never did it, I just delt with them).
 
Originally posted by Heliotrope:
I'm not sure you would want to do this for hiking, but my soccer coach told us to put vasaline on our feet if we were getting blisters. That'd be really disgusting for more than 2 hours probably though (I never did it, I just delt with them).
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I wouldn't do that. Putting something on your feet that you'll wash off after a two-hour practice is very different from putting something on your feet and then walking 20 miles, and maybe not being to wash it off for days or even weeks at a time. Your feet are gonna be nasty enough as it is. Don't start putting more greasy crap all over them.
 
well, I think I know what I'm going to do . . . mostly.

I will start in June of 2008 (Maybe with heliotrope along
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) and with another guy I know. Then we'll take two months and just go. No goal, no destination, just see how far we can get in two months. Then when we reach the deadline, make it to the nearest town, find the closest airport, and go home with approximately 2 weeks left of summer.

I know I probably won't be ready for the whole trail the first time around. And I know my buddy will have to get back to finish his college (I may have to also, but I think I'll be done in 3 semesters WOOT!) So this will be a good sampler, and then one day, when I don't have to worry about school and after saving up a butt load of money, I'll tackle the whole thing.
 
after doing some heavy duty research and planning my budget, I came to a very depressing conclusion.

I won't have the money to embark on my endeavor (that is, unless you want to send me donations
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)

But, I decided that I need to do something, so I will hike the grand canyon. its only a couple hours away, and I haven't been inside yet.
 

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