Best places to meet up with section hiking friends and family?

[gillian]

I'm planning to hike NOBO this year and have a couple of friends and family members that would like to meet up to hike with me for a week or long weekend. I know that the timing is going to be super tricky and unpredictable, but I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for places that would be easy to meet up or not so bad to hang out for a day or two if I'm running early or late for the rendezvous. Most likely these folks would be coming from the Midwest, so easy access from a decent sized airport would probably be a plus. Also definitely a bonus if it's a particularly interesting or beautiful area of the trail. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

[peakbagger]

In New England nearby airports are tough. Portland Maine is about 2 hours to the whites. If they are Midwestern folks, they can get their fill of the seacoast fairly quickly in Portlands Old Port area (I recommend the ferry cruises that make a loop out to the islands as a cheap trip). Then they can drive up to Gorham NH or North Conway and meet you at several local road crossings and possibly slack pack you a few days. They can also do the cog railroad or the Autoroad up Mt Washington. The major downside of the whites is that the trails are not easy and even though you have a backpack and they don't, they may still not be able to handle it. It may be best to get a motel room and slackpack with them a few days but even then the logisitics with one car make it difficult. The trail is somewhat newby friendly south of the whites. I definitely wouldn't recommend any overnights for them unless they want to spring for reservations at an AMC hut.


The drive up from Manchester NH airport although longer is a bit more impressive as they drive north and eventually through Franconia Notch. The downside is no ocean near Manchester NH and its not much of a destination with the exception of a minor league ball park (Portland has one also).

[illabelle]

Albany airport gives pretty good access to the trail through southern Vermont and all of Massachusetts. The trail through there isn't extremely hard like NH, while still being pretty. Nice bonus is that there's a local bus system that parallels and crosses the AT a few times through the area.

Asheville would have plenty of stuff to see and do if they need to kill a little time. Reasonable distance from the trail.

Another option would be the Roanoke area.

[TEXMAN]

On my Thru attempt I met friends in Damascus which is a great town to hang in and also has hiking/biking trails and lots to do around town...
and I meet my wife in Shenandoah National Park and we hiked together for a few days and stayed at the Lodges and cabins in the park ...short distances between lodging and hot meals

Most Thru hike attempts end before getting to the end so sharing your hike in the beginning is a good plan

[Southerner]

The Roanoke area would really fit your bill well. While the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport isn't exactly a hub, it is possible to get reasonably-priced flights into / out of the airport and is one of the larger airports near the trail corridor. The city is also served by Greyhound and has another bus (Smart Bus) that connects it to Virginia Tech, the Lynchburg AMTRAK station, and the Christiansburg Mega Bus stop. Roanoke has a nice downtown with a good number of things going on as well as typical malls and business areas accessible by local transit. Trail-wise, the city is close to some marquee landmarks such as Dragon's Tooth, McAfee's Knob, Tinker Cliffs, and Hay Rock.