When I first stood on the AT in 1973, there were no rules about hiking from Georgia to Maine or vice versa to my knowledge. There was just opportunity. Later in 1997 when I finally was free to think about it, I found that all sorts of things had developed during my absence. For instance, there were trail names. At first I thought that was nonsensical, but then I came to realize the utility of it and came to embrace the practice. Then there was a much cited rule that to do a successful thruhike, one must walk continuously (whatever that means) past all the white blazes in one calendar year. I thought that was okay until I learned the meaning of "one calendar year." Instead of within 365 days of one's beginning date, one had to begin sometime in January and be through before December 31.
Frankly, I have never cottoned to that "rule" and would like to know the history of its making and where it is written today. Or is it written anywhere today? Perhaps one of our governing bodies removed it. Can someone help with this information?