Winging It!

[Snake Farm]

How many of you thru hikers have started without a plan and just winged it as you went (aka not having a schedule other than to reach Katadin before Baxter closes)? This obviously doesnt work well if you are depending on mail drops.

To me, that seems to be the most fufilling way to do it. I dont have my hikers Companion yet (still in the mail). When it arrives i'll probably end up with a rough plan. So far the most daunting part of my planning was getting all my gear. Now that I have that, I have to come up with an itinerary, which seems pretty overwhelming.

What do you guys have to say on this subject?

[Slo-go'en]

Any plan you come up with will be null and viod the minute you start hiking. Plan resupply to resupply as you go along. Start out with 3 days of food and go from there.

If you need mail drops, have someone who can mail them when and to where you request them.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Pick a start date and go. It's not like you're getting dropped in the middle of the wilderness. Follow the blazes and the parade. Stop to shop and drink beer along the way.

[SweetAss03]

That is about the best advice you are going to get. All plans go out the door. I would say have a start date set in stone and a very rough finish date give or take a couple weeks. In between have a blast as you move north.

[garlic08]

If you haven't thru hiked the AT before, there's really no way to tell how you're going to do on it. I don't know how you can plan for such an unknown, but some manage to do it anyway.

[Lone Wolf]

How many of you thru hikers have started without a plan and just winged it as you went (aka not having a schedule other than to reach Katadin before Baxter closes)? This obviously doesnt work well if you are depending on mail drops.

To me, that seems to be the most fufilling way to do it. I dont have my hikers Companion yet (still in the mail). When it arrives i'll probably end up with a rough plan. So far the most daunting part of my planning was getting all my gear. Now that I have that, I have to come up with an itinerary, which seems pretty overwhelming.

What do you guys have to say on this subject?

i've hiked more miles on the AT than 99% of folks that post here. the only plan i had my first time was the day i started. i had no mail drops or itinerary. winged it. yup.

[Graywolf]

I have the best plan in the world. And it is also the easiest to follow:

Just Hike!!

Thats it..

[maybe clem]

Before every long distance hike I've laid out a basic game plan so I'd have something to leave behind with my family. It's never adhered to exactly but it helps me figure out what and how much to buy in terms of food/gear/supplies, plan resupplies and mail drops, and purchase rail and airfares.

[Bronk]

Before you leave a town, buy enough food to get you to the next one. That's about all the planning you'll need. Don't bring the rat race with you...leave it at home.

[Iceaxe]

Fellow "Winging it" enthusiast. I had over 14 mail drops on the PCT. On the CDT I had just 4 planned (maps and shoes), and a couple i sent to myself while on the trail(Doc Campbells Post, Pie town, and Brooks Lake lodge.
I was so friggin' happy with my "buy as you go" strategy I would never consider anything else.
If you have weird feet like i do you might have to send shoes once in a while. But without even setting foot on the AT, I can tell you already, they have: peanut butter, Tortillas, granola bars, snickers bars, and cheese everywhere... if they have Spam, all the better!
Massive government conspiracy: Spam is the food stuff of life itself! Yes, Nasa is hidin the fact that Saturn's moon Titan is actually made of Spam.
Anyways...
Long live Buy as you Go!
It supports the trail town economy's and saves you money and the hassle of getting to the PO before they close.
My plan for the AT is to send shoes, maps, and socks every 500 to 600 miles or so. Anything else i can send from the trail to myself.
Listen to Mr. Lone Wolf.. I sense Wisdom there.
(Movie Clip from Pulp Fiction: "Sh$t.. why didn't you say you were sending the Wolf?!")
Besides, you are gonna get totally sick of all that damn oatmeal you shipped yourself and end up replacing it with crap you bought on trail anyways.
As for folks that supposedly only spend "20 bucks" in town on food.. Yea.. right.
If you are a horse you can hike the PCT for free. Every hiker box contains at least 2 lbs of oatmeal of all varieties.
(Side note: Anchovy paste in a mail drop really sucks even when you are a starving thru hiker.. don't bother sending Anchovy paste.)
YMMV and all that.. maybe you like Anchovies.

[Tenderheart]

Before you leave a town, buy enough food to get you to the next one. That's about all the planning you'll need. Don't bring the rat race with you...leave it at home.

Now that's good advice. Man plans and God laughs.

litefoot 2000

[Roughin' It]

I winged about everything on my hike. I picked a start date at random, felt like sometime in March would be nice, didn't care how long it would take to finish, didn't do mail drops, didn't bring a watch, filtered out my gear selections as I went, didn't have a budget.

I got so sick of planning my grocery purchases from town to town, that I eventually just started buying about the same amount of food at every stop, without knowing how long it would be until the next one. I was never short on food. People ditch schedules, nobody ever seemed to tighten theirs up as they go.

You walk until you are tired of walking, you stop to smell the roses, you take plenty of pictures, you enjoy the scenery, you have fun with fellow hikers, and I guarantee you will have the best time of your life.

[Grampie]

There is no need to plan very much to do a thru-hike. The only things you need to address are: When you will start, how am I getting to the trail and have enough food and fule for 3 to 4 days.
When I started I used the Data Book and tryed to law out some kind of schedule. The first day worked fine. I got to the top of Springer Mt. After that , it just fell apart.
My advise would be; take it one step at a time and when you feel comfortable with that, take one day at a time.
Use the Data Book, or whatever, to determine your next supply stop. figure how many days it will take you to get there and buy enough food. Keep doing this and you will be in Maine before you know it.
Happy trails.

[Snake Farm]

Wow, im surprised by the responses. I figured more people would have a plan. Now that its all settled im glad I dont have to make a plan!

And Iceaxe, what made you think anchovy paste was a good idea in the first place...yuck...

[Iceaxe]

Wow, im surprised by the responses. I figured more people would have a plan. Now that its all settled im glad I dont have to make a plan!

And Iceaxe, what made you think anchovy paste was a good idea in the first place...yuck...

Yea.. I bet there were some surprised hikers behind me when they pulled that out of the hiker box!
In case you can't tell from my posts I am somewhat of a knucklehead.
The anchovy paste actually tasted good on crackers back home.. I thought, but out on the trail was a different story.
However, the animal crackers in the kiddie box with the string handle was an awesome idea. It is impossible not to smile when you are eating animal crackers.

[Bearpaw]

I was still a Marine when I planned my thru-hike. I have a roughed out idea of where I would be each night on the trail. I planned to buy food along the way, but I still had 11 mail drops for maps, slide film, and contact lenses and some freeze dried meals I had bought in bulk.

I kept to that schedule for about 2 weeks until I reached the Smokies and found I could crank 20 miles days there with no problem. (I also wanted to get through the Park quickly because I figured it would be crowded - it wasn't really though.) After that, I got much more flexible in my planning. And I enjoyed my hike more.

Today I would have a few stacks of maps and a plan for my wife to ship them to certain hostels or businesses that would be open seven days a week. Otherwise, I would buy as I went.

[swjohnsey]

Plan but keep the plan flexible. Plan for contingencies.

[RockDoc]

Everything seems to have a way of coming out all right on the trail.

When I hiked 100 days in 1974 (HF-ME) I had only a vague idea of where the next resupply would be. Yet it worked out fine, sort of a grand adventure.

Now it's often all planned out the the tenth of a mile, and bookings are done months ahead. No real need for that.

It can be so easy. Just walk.

[wvgrinder]

You do need to plan which direction you're going.

[sherrill]

I started out in 83 just planning to get to Fontana. Somehow ended up in Maine. Go figure.