Originally Posted by
Turkey Sandwich
Hi there,
My name is Connor. I've always loved hiking, though I've never really had any experience backpacking or camping. I've lived in Pawling, NY all my life, and the AT is only 2 minutes away from my house (I may have even given one or two of you a lift into town), so my brother and I have been planning a thru hike for a while now.
In poking around for information, I came across this site and have read many of the articles and prep tips, so I figured I'd introduce myself and ask a few more questions. Our plan is to begin in late February or early March of next year, because I start graduate school in the third week of August. That gives us about 5 and a half months to complete it. We're both in fairly good shape and my brother does have some backpacking experience, so my question is: is this a reasonable enough goal? If we were to take a few less zero days and pick up the mileage, would we be able to finish by August without being thoroughly miserable? Also, if we're starting that early, I'm guessing we'd need two sets of some gear, for warm and cold weather. Is that correct?
Any opinions are appreciated. Thanks, and I hope to learn a lot more from this site before I set out.