Sobo Itinerary Question

[dmath010]

First off, thanks for everyone's input on helping me all but decide to attempt a SOBO thru this summer. I have plans to arrive in Bangor on June 19th, take advantage of Phil Pepin's 100MW special and climb Katahdin on June 20th (or as soon as weather permits) and head south from there. However, I have a few key dates where I would like to be near places for special events. Do these sound realistic for a fit 24yo (just broke my 10k record this morning on a tough course with a time of 36:09!).

Start

Start	Destination	Desired Date of Arrival	Distance	Days btwn last point	MPD
Katahdin	West Mtn Shelter (NYC)	8/2/14	793	43	18.4
NYC	Rockfish Gap	9/3/14	535	28	19.1
Rockfish Gap	Fontana Dam	10/18/14	691	41	16.9
Fontana Dam	Springer	10/30/14	166	10	16.6

There are some discrepancies in dates/days btwn bc I plan on taking some time off the trail in those specific locations. The only STEADFAST date is reaching Rockfish Gap +/- 50 miles by 9/3 to attend Lockn festival ( From Big K, thats 1328 miles in 71 days or 18.7mpd). It will be the one chance to get together with my entire family mid-hike, which is important to me. The others are just ideas to spend important dates with my wife (a couple days in NYC for her birthday and a couple days on trail in the smokies for our anniversary).

The end date is not set either, just seemed like if I wrote it down then I could be done before halloween! Let me know if you think this is possible, or I am being unrealistic (I'm prepared for torment on pulling 18.4mpd through ME and the whites)

[map man]

Yes, that first 43 days (with some of the miles on the very hardest parts of the AT) is pretty ambitious but it seems like you could get to NYC around August 2 almost as easily from CT or MA if you come up short, instead of NY.

[Slo-go'en]

Hard to say, but your intial 18.2 miles/day right out of the gate with no zeros might be a bit much to expect. Maine is a pretty tough state and doing consistant 20 miles days through there will be tough. Shelters are spaced on average about 8 to 12 miles apart, depending on how difficult the terrain is in between, so you will be striving to go every other shelter which can in many cases be a very long and difficult day. If I remember right, Map Mans data shows the average MPD to be 9-10 mpd through Maine and NH. It's quite possible you can achive the schedule your looking for, but it will be tough and the odds are against you. No way to know until you try, eh?