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Hey, I'm looking to thru hike the AT in the next couple of years but to be honest I'm fairly sedentary and know very little of what kind of equipment to bring and how to find good value for money on these items.
What is also a realistic time frame to complete the trail?
Any advice would be very welcome :)
There is a ton of information here, use the search function and spend lots of time reading.
May be sone "sticky" posts or articles with lots of info too
You may want to get in better shape beforehand.
4-7 months
Plenty of online places to buy gear cheap when its on sale, or buy used.
Expect to spend ~$700-1500 on gear depending
Most reccomend $4000-$5000 saved for the hike, after gear
Realistically, most people don't complete it.
Rain Man
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Rain Man is right and you don't sound totally committed to be honest.
To thru-hike is a major endeavor - at the time I thru-hiked, it was a life endeavor not just a "hey, I'm looking to do this" which sounds sort of ambivalent.
Long Distance Backpacking (in general) is a mental and physical endeavor - - the AT is much more difficult to hike for long-distances than people think - hikers get injured physically and mentally burned-out. A thru-hiker is a special sort of person. This doesn't mean you necessarily have to plan for months and months - many successful thru-hikers "wing it" a bit (much to many folks on this site's chagrin) and some folks that plan every detail of their hike for months on end can't deal with a little wrinkle in their plan, get frustrated and quit.
I'd suggest good planning but with a lot of flexibility and a little bit of free-spirited (I'll figure it out) thrown-in. Be willing to change your mind about things such as what is an appropriate pack weight and about what you should carry, eat, how far you should hike in a day, whether to tent or shelter, etc. Like Muddy Waters noted, there is plenty of info out there - - take everything with a grain or two of salt and remember that this site is chocked full of nay-sayers .
Like I said, Rain Man is right, most folks don't make it, but a lot of people DO make it - - maybe you're one of them - we just don't know.
Well - maybe he needs to hike Hadrian's Wall first for practice, folks from the UK don't understand how big this county is at first... including the idiot who wrote "Walk in the Woods"
Pathless I am not calling you an idiot - I had a bad moment with a cousin who visited.... I am a British Subject.
My advice would be to do a lot of research. You can start here with the articles found on the home page. Then go to the ATC website and read everything there. Buy a trail guide, I recommend the A.T Guide by David Miller, it shows elevations as well as milage and tons of other information.
After you're done all of that start researching gear. Search here and research info on specific items such as sleeping bags, packs etc.
Check here for gear lists that people post for review, there's always lots of good discussion on what to bring on those. Don't be lazy and post a question like "What gear do I need to do the AT?". You won't get a lot of feedback from that. Feel free to ask specific questions if you have them.
If you can find someone who has actually hiked the entire trail who you can talk with then pick their brain. Nothing beats first hand experience. I don't know if you're on Facebook but there are AT hiking groups on there. I know of several UK AT hikers on there, maybe one lives near you that you could meet and talk with.
And when you've done all of this start taking some week long hikes to practice and get into shape.
Good Luck!
Since you aren't planning to thruhike immediately, best thing you can do is get out and start doing as much dayhiking as you can. Find out if you like it enough to do it day after day after day. Build up your mileage slowly. When you are comfortable with all day hikes, borrow or rent some gear (pack, sleeping bag and pad, tent) and see if you like sleeping out. Do some weekends where it rains all day. If you like that (or at least can find some fun in the situation), then start doing research to buy your own gear. There is a lot of info on this site about your basic requirements. Truth is, the gear isn't that important. What mattters for thruhiking, is wanting to be out on the trail for 4-6 months. And you can't know that at your current activity level.
The big thing you need to do is walk. You got to like walking. Take a 5km walk, and see if you like it. Then find a long trail in the UK and hike that first. I have grand scheme of going on a thru hike, but when you actually hike 15miles / 24km, or more a day you realize its actually a lot of physical work and at times a little boring. Its one thing for someone living on the east coast of the USA, to attempt a AT thru hike and realize on day 2 that its not for them and to go back home, but for you there is a lot more work involved. You have more travel expense, passports, visas, on top of everything else.
So before you make that big commitment, get in shape, and do some research to see if it something you really want to do. Good luck.
i always took 5 1/2 monthsQuote:
Originally Posted by Pathlesswoodsuk
A wise man once said, "It's just walking."Quote:
Originally Posted by Pathlesswoodsuk