Flip Flop from Delaware Water Gap SOBO

[ChrisChros]

Hellothere. What about starting in Delaware Water Gap walking south to Springer (early April), and later from DWG north to Kathadin?
Is there any reason this kind of flip flop is nowhere to be found/talked about? Any reasons regarding wheather, bugs, ...?
Thanks for advice.

[tdoczi]

two reasons i can think of- 1) you're going to spend a good amount of time hiking south against the grain. some people prefer this, i dont know why, i hate it. what i mean by this is there will be days when you pass by 50 or more nobo throughs going the other way. to me, thats an annoying way to hike. 2) youre going to end up racing the weather in maine. usually flups are done to avoid this. katahdin south to DWG would make more sense in this regard.

oh, and i dont know from experience but itll probably be rather unpleasant in GA when you're there

[ChrisChros]

Thanks for quick answer.
I can see the psychological part. Regarding your second point: There should not be a difference to a regular NOBO. Start could also be middle of March; then reaching Kathadin in time should be possible.
As to conditions in GA I see the point.
Our intention is to 1) avoid the bubble 2) finalize on Kathadin 3) avoid too cold wheather in Shenandoah. Any suggestion?

[tdoczi]

Thanks for quick answer.
I can see the psychological part. Regarding your second point: There should not be a difference to a regular NOBO. Start could also be middle of March; then reaching Kathadin in time should be possible.
As to conditions in GA I see the point.
Our intention is to 1) avoid the bubble 2) finalize on Kathadin 3) avoid too cold wheather in Shenandoah. Any suggestion?

i dont think hiking south from DWG at that time of year avoids the bubble. youll just experience the bubble differently. i suppose youll have the deep south more to yourself once you get there, but then when you flip back to DWG itll be back to the bubble again. avoiding cold weather in the south with a typical spring start is possibly a good reason to do what youre considering, hadnt thought of that, but thats more of an issue in the smokies than in shenandoah. also, if you were to start in spring in early april you wouldnt run into much snow/cold weather anywhere, and especially not in shenandoah (would be mid may easily by the time you got there).

i think if your goal is to finish on katahdin theres no good way to completely avoid the bubble.

[SteelCut]

Doing one of the alternate itineraries starting near the middle of the trail and going north first (as suggest by the ATC) will allow you to miss the bubbles, avoid most cold weather, and summit Katahdin during the better weather season but before the traditional NOBO thru's arrive in September and October. You will have some company from faster NOBO's and from other thru hikers also with alternate itineraries. But if will be far from crowded. In fact I started a hike this year going north from Harper's Ferry at the end of April and I saw very few other hikers and was all alone most of the two weeks other than a few early NOBO's that blew by me.

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/hiking/thru-section-hiking/when-where-to-start

[ChrisChros]

OK, thanks to both of you.
I will think about the start/ending points a lot more... It seems temting not to start in Springer because of too many people.