Slack-packing the AT

[Cuacoatchoo]

In the past I've always carried a 3.5 lb tent and back country camped. This last summer I was forced into the Shelters due to GSMNP rules and it wasn't that bad.

My question, what percent of successful Thru hikers don't carry a tent? Are there any distances over 20 miles without a shelter? (100 mile wilderness?)

Thoughts on the following set-up:

7.7 oz Go lite poncho tent (Add weight for 8 feet of paracord) for 'Just in case' moments between shelters.
16 oz Marmot Aspen UL 40 degree bag
14 oz Thermolite Extreme for PA to Maine
16 oz Q core mummy (luxury item for hard shelter floors)

[Malto]

Slack packing is hiking without gear because you are meeting someone at days end with either your gear or lodging. What you are proposing is NOT slack packing. As far as the wisdom of your plan..... can you stay warm and dry with your proposed setup? If so then you are good to go.

You didn't say when you are hiking but assuming it is in peak season, here is your issue. As the condition deteriorate the demand for the shelters will be the greatest. You will not get much sympathy if you show up at a full shelter unprepared. So you should always be prepared to camp outside the shelter.

[Malto]

One last thing. I am a Ul hiker with a 8 lb. base. I would not hike with your setup. you can make or buy a 1 lb real shelter with bug protection. I also would not be hiking with a 40 deg bag in normal season. Finally there are lighter pads than 1lb if lightweight is your thing.

[Starchild]

The longest distance between shelters that I know if is Glen Brook to Tom Lenard at 14.3 miles (+0.1 m off trail for Glen Brook). Southern MA.

[Don H]

I met a SOBO thru-hiker in VA this fall who claimed he hadn't carried any shelter the entire trip. Of course SOBOs have less competition for shelter space than NOBOs, especially early in the spring. He did say there were a few times on weekends where he had full shelters. Funny thing is we had this discussion during lunch, in a shelter, during a pouring rain. He said he had to make the next 9 or 10 miles to the next shelter before dark.

Point is you might not always want to, or be able to make it to a shelter for the night.

I hiked with a few NOBOs who ditched their tents latter in their hike, after the crowds thinned out and their experience and milage increase.
I personally like the flexibility to hike all day and set up camp just before dark where ever I end up.

[Slo-go'en]

If you are truly "section hiking" and can pick the location and time of year to maximize the chances of having shelter space and suitable weather, then yes, you can get away with that set up.

But as a thru-hiker starting in the spring, no way.

[Honuben]

I am not a successful thru hiker but a hopeful one but have been backpacking regularly for over a year now. So take my input with a grain of salt. A 3.5 lb tent is heavy, heavy, heavy. I have a 24 oz shelter but have succesfully moved to a sub 1 lb shelter system w/ full bug protection.

As Slo said, plan your section accordingly. I would try to go off season and plan accordingly for weather.

[slbirdnerd]

Shelter (tent, tarp, etc.) should always be in your 10 Essentials for any overnight trip (maybe even a day hike into areas where weather is unpredictable). It could be a life or death decision to take or not to take it. Some great, light options out there, even used--please take something.

[Cuacoatchoo]

Sorry for the misunderstanding with slackpacking. It was explained differently to me. I was talking about thru hiking 2180 miles using mainly shelter/huts and if doing so you could reduce weight. For example. It seems like shelters are warmer.

Of the thru hikers who responded what percent of the time were you in or next to AT shelters vs backcountry?

I'll work on the gear list. Maybe the thread question is silly since a CF Tarp is only 5 Oz. I've been using a 2 oz bottle of 99.8 % deet instead of a bug net.

[peakbagger]

I did much of the AT section hiking, off season I rarely needed a tent and carried a bivy. In many areas shelters are not necessarily convenient and if you depend on them, some days you will need to call it an early day and some days you will need to hike longer than you would like. Once I got close to the bubble, I was glad I had the option of camping elsewhere.

[swisscross]

I would never go into the woods for multiple days without a shelter.
God forbid if you get hurt and HAVE to take a short day with bad weather coming in fast.
If your plan it to rely only on shelters I would attempt a decent section hike and give it a go.
Pick yourself up a real tarp. Cuban is so light that you could justify carrying it for the just in case times.

[CarlZ993]

I think the longest stretch between shelters is between Kirkridge Shelter (PA) & Brink Road Shelter (NJ) = 31.2 miles in my 2013 guide.

I wouldn't recommend forgoing a shelter & relying on staying exclusively in shelters. If you guess wrong, you could be in a pickle. [Full disclosure: I slept in every shelter that I planned to stay at except one - The Birches @ the end. It was full w/ people planning to summit w/ another thru-hiker who had been inviting hikers for hundreds of miles to summit w/ him on his birthday.]

I met a couple who were section hiking ME (I think they started in Gorham NH). To save weight, they didn't take a tent. I recommended to them that they might want to revisit that strategy. In a worse-case scenario, they could hit a full shelter during inclement weather and be SOL. They decided to continue their trek w/o a shelter. Alas, they hit the shelter that was full of thru-hikers avoiding the rain (I was one of them). Another section hiker w/ a 2-man tent felt sorry for them & loaned them his tent (he had a spot in the shelter) so they could stay dry (I only had a 1-man tent & I wasn't inclined to loan them my tent; selfishly, I didn't want to carry a wet tent due to their poor planning).

For the remainder of their hike, they hiked early & fast & stopped early to ensure their 'spot' in the shelter. They didn't have any further problems for the rest of their hike.

[Malto]

Sorry for the misunderstanding with slackpacking. It was explained differently to me. I was talking about thru hiking 2180 miles using mainly shelter/huts and if doing so you could reduce weight. For example. It seems like shelters are warmer.

Of the thru hikers who responded what percent of the time were you in or next to AT shelters vs backcountry?

I'll work on the gear list. Maybe the thread question is silly since a CF Tarp is only 5 Oz. I've been using a 2 oz bottle of 99.8 % deet instead of a bug net.

I used to do this until I did a NJ hike in July. It was so hot that you could use any covering. And the bugs were bad and did not go to bed like other areas such as the Sierra. It was that trip that converted me to a bug net after years of the head net approach.

[bamboo bob]

Sounds like the kind of guy who shows up at Baxter and DEMANDS a space in the shelter.

[Cuacoatchoo]

CarlZ

Thanks for mentioning that 32 mile stretch. That seems like just good general knowledge anyways so I appreciate it.


I used to do this until I did a NJ hike in July. It was so hot that you could use any covering. And the bugs were bad and did not go to bed like other areas such as the Sierra. It was that trip that converted me to a bug net after years of the head net approach.

Malto, thanks for your input. Yeah Maine was definatley on my mind regarding use of bugnet and I wasn't sure if NE would also apply. Still makes me wonder if I could just keep the bugnet saved for a mail drop in NJish, but based on your input I will definatley look into getting one for whichever tarp setup I end up with.


Sounds like the kind of guy who shows up at Baxter and DEMANDS a space in the shelter.

Pretty much everyone else here offered constructive criticism or advice. I'd appreciate if you kept your offensive presumptions to your own threads. Never said anything about demanding or expecting anything from other folks and my OP had a tarp listed that would avoid a medical emergency that would otherwise inconvenience people.

Thank you in advance for your maturity around an otherwise awesome community.

[Deadeye]

I was talking about thru hiking 2180 miles using mainly shelter/huts and if doing so you could reduce weight. For example. It seems like shelters are warmer.

Tents are actually much warmer than a shelter - it's an enclosed space and some of your body heat will be retained inside, and no wind in the tent to contend with. It's already been said - you need to have some sort of shelter to be self-reliant for those occasions when the shelter is full, out of reach, burned to the ground, being replaced, hosting a frat party... whatever.

[Don's Brother]

I thru-hiked the AT in 2013 and didn't carry a tent, or any shelter for that matter, after Franklin, NC. (about mile 107). I, however, only stayed in the woods 17 nights out of 164. Other than three nights in my tent the first week, the other 14 were in shelters. All the other nights were in hostels, motels, cabins, private homes, and even one night in a condo. Some days I was able to slack pack, but I often carried my full pack, even though I seldom slept on the trail. It usually weighed around 20 lbs. with food and water. By the way, after the RPH shelter in New York, I didn't spend another night in the woods until New Hampshire. Other thru-hikers knew of my method and I was never denied a spot in a shelter. You can read about my method of thru-hiking the entire AT in my book, Don's Brother: A Hike of Hope on the Appalachian Trail. It's available at amazon.com and on Kindle. Send me an email if you want more info. [email protected]

[Hangfire]

One thing you will have to consider depending on when you are planning to begin your hike and where you start (Springer?) is that the shelters are heavily impacted early in the season. To top it off, if there is any weather to speak of they will be packed! If you are traveling without shelter you better be ready to get up early and travel fast and don't get greedy trying to pass too many shelters, if you find a shelter with room at mid day plan on staying. If you do get stuck in weather be prepared to stay a while, if you go trudging out in the rain expecting a spot to be open at the next shelter you will be in for a big surprise.

[peakbagger]

On one of my Maine sections we ran into a rather entitled obnoxious thru hiker who had decided to ditch most of his gear in Gorham NH including his tent. He did have a small cheap blue tarp. One evening he decided to camp out at a tentsite. When a major rainstorm came in at some point in the night, he got soaked and decided to hike a couple of miles to the next shelter which was full of sleeping hikers. He ended up crawling under the shelter (a very disgusting spot) and leaving real early the next morning. I saw in a couple shelter registry's northbound that he was outraged that everyone didn't wake up in the middle of the night to make room for him, as his buds would have made room for him. He must of dropped off the trail because we ran into him a few days later and he came strolling into a full shelter in late evening a few nights later and hung around hinting at trying to fit him in, he eventually went tromping away and we saw a few more of his diatribes in later registers. One of the other thrus in the shelter mentioned after the fact that she was glad he didn't hang around.

The point is if you want to make the decision to hike without essential gear don't expect others go out of their way to accommodate your decision. Sure you can hike early and end your hike early to guarantee a space but with ultralight weight tarp tents less than pound why screw up your flexibility, after the first week you wont really even notice the extra weight.

[Tipi Walter]

This whole conversation about taking a minimal shelter and relying on Trail Shelters is one big reason why the AT is over-run with backpackers in March/April. Bamboo Bob shouldn't be attacked as he really doesn't know if Cuacoatchoo would be a person to actually demand a space in a shelter like in the example of Peakbagger's. Maybe so, maybe not---we just don't know.

Cuacoatchoo said--

" . . . my OP had a tarp listed that would avoid a medical emergency that would otherwise inconvenience people".

I just don't know what the heck this means, it sounds as if the tarp is a last-ditch backup when things really go south and the box isn't available. I guess getting hypothermia would be the emergency and a tarp the solution w/o relying on an AT trail shelter.

I think Deadeye has the best post---a tent is warmer and you need to carry your own shelter.

Some of us hate the rat-box shelters and never use them no matter what because we hate to hang out with chatty-cathy strangers from dusk to dawn and sleep butt to butt next to other grown men. It's unnatural.