Anybody here ever hiked part of the Appalachian Trail?

[Alicia64]

Hi Everyone,

It looks like I might be writing an article on hiking the Appalachia Trail. 🙂

Wendy

[Pam in CT]

2 minutes ago, Alicia64 said:

Hi Everyone,

It looks like I might be writing an article on hiking the Appalachia Trail. 🙂

Wendy

Wow. That is awesome. Are you planning to do all / long parts of it yourself?

I've done a bunch of very short bits (never more than one night at a time) in PA, NJ, mostly NH and a little bit in ME.  In the northeast, the AMC has a lot of huts / lodges / family programs that make doing little bits very accessible. We've had universally good experiences with them.  They've also done a great deal to make it *safer* for the more intrepid/committed thru-hikers.

[jen3kids]

I've done MD and a bit of the southern part of PA.  My dream is to do it all, as a thru hike, but I would settle for a sectional completion...

[Rachel]

I’ve hiked little portions of it. Most of the Smokey’s, a section in VA and NC, a couple day hikes in NH. I don’t feel like I’ve hiked enough to be qualified to speak about it.
 

I know a mom who has 3 girls who has hiked 150ish miles with her girls and is planning a sort of thru hike this year. The plan is to complete it in 12 months, but they are hiking it in sections during school breaks. She would be an interesting person to interview. I’ll send you her IG via PM. 

[Zoo Keeper]

Just little day hikes on some of the parts here in Maine... like this one https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parksearch/PropertyGuides/Maps/FullSize/graftonmahoosucmap.pdf

The water was high that year, so we had to ford the river, which was at the beginning of our hike.  Of course, I slipped and went under.  And had to spend the rest of the hike soaking wet and cold. 🥶 The scenery was beautiful, but I'm afraid I didn't appreciate it very much.

My husband and sons have done different trails on Katahdin (end of the AT). https://baxterstatepark.org/

[Terabith]

Very small amounts, because I'm not a hiker, but it basically runs through my town.  

[Carol in Cal.]

Just the very end—I hiked Mount Katahdin on Labor Day Weekend years ago.

It was already cold then.  I met a couple coming down where I was going up who had turned back because they saw a bear and it didn’t give way.  I kept on going, though, and I never saw him.  I did see a mama moose with a baby.  Right in the trail ahead of me.  I had to wait for them to leave.  I was praying that she didn’t have twins and that I didn’t get in between her and a hidden calf!  Moose are BIG!  

Up at the top we were above the clouds.  The way the geometry worked was that if you looked down into the clouds with the sun behind you, you would see a rainbow halo around the shadow of your head, which was pretty neat and which I have never seen before or since.  There are three peaks up top, and a very narrow trail between them, call the Knifeedge Trail because of the sheer cliffs on both sides.  It was both glorious and terrifying.  The last peak was the end of the Appalachian Trail.  People were arriving there and screaming with achievement pretty much all afternoon long.  It was awesome.

[Robert Columbia]

I walked a little bit of it when I was in Harper's Ferry, WV (Jefferson's Rock was a bit of a letdown, actually). The trail goes right through the center of town. Something really interesting is that just across the bridge in Maryland is the C&O Canal Towpath trail which goes all the way to Washington, DC.

[Spryte]

My uncle and aunt are thru-hikers.  They have done the Appalachian Trail twice, start to finish.  And the Continental Divide Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and some others - most more than once.  It is what they do.  

Another aunt nearly completed it, but her knees went out, and she had to stop.  She needed surgery.

I have a few other friends - older family friends - who have completed it, or done large sections. 

I have camped and hiked along it multiple times, but never for more than a week at a time.  I have also run packs for thru-hikers.  (Basically picking up a hiker’s backpack at a designated spot and delivering it at another point up the trail so they have a small break from carrying it)

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by Spryte

[ScoutTN]

Only sections, in NH and VA. A looong time ago. Loved stopping at the huts in NH to get fresh fruit and weigh our packs on the meat scale on the porch! 

[Kalmia]

I have done day hikes on the Appalachian Trail in ME, NH, and NY. My father has done the entire Maine portion, he often mentions the roughest patch in the hundred mile wilderness with the rock passage called "Fat Man's Misery" as one he's glad he did in his youth. 

By Fizgerald Falls in Monroe NY on the trail has a popular bathing hole in the stream above the falls. Several times I came across hikers, each one naked as a jaybird, having a bath there. Often bears along this portion. Also, talked to many clothed hikers there as they were passing by the falls, all commented on how much weight they'd lost.

A much loved stop beside the trail is the Bellvale Farms Creamery in Warwick, NY for ice cream. Some times of year there were many through-hikers sitting on the ground against their backpacks savoring every bit of the homemade ice cream. 

I once abandoned good sense and picked up some young through-hikers and drove them to the post office in Pawling, NY. It was okay, they were a sweet couple. There is also an Appalachian Trail Metro-North NYC commuter rail stop near Pawling for hikers from more urban areas to access the trail. 

There is a canoeist who ferries hikers across the Kennebec River in Maine. 

Are you going to hike it then write? Or are you writing about the trail from a particular journalistic angle?

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by Kalmia

[slackermom]

My ex did all of MA, and parts of NH and ME. I was the driver/pit-stop supplier.

 

eta: Actually, I did some of it too, but on several long-weekend trips with groups in the White Mountains (NH). We had big group reservations at cabins with hot meals waiting for us. A different experience than what my ex did, mostly on his own with a tent for a week at a time, sometimes with a friend joining for a day or two. 

Edited October 28, 2020 by slackermom
eta

[Ottakee]

Doing at least parts of it are on my bucket list.   

[ashfern]

My son did his 50 mile hike with his scout troop on the AT.