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mlandig
03-01-2016, 20:46
Hi there,

My name's Matthew, and I'm a college student in Columbus, Ohio. For a writing course I'm taking, I was given freedom to write a research paper on anything I wanted. So I chose to write about the Appalachian Trail. I'm going to be researching three different sections of the Trail each having a different difficulty. Also including what specific gear to bring and general tips. That is what leads into my question...

What are 3 different sections of the Appalachian Trail (easy, medium, and hard difficulty) I should spend time researching?

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated! I'm fairly new to backpacking so any other advice would be awesome, as well.

Thanks
Matthew

Crabapple
03-02-2016, 18:42
hard-The White Mountains in NH, and southern Maine
medium-the AT in North Carolina
easy-Shenandoah National Park in Virginia (easier trail and lodges/waysides)

Then again, any part of the trail could be easier or harder, depending on the weather, and depending on whether you're at the beginning or the end of a long hike (whether or not you have your 'hiker legs')

bigcranky
03-02-2016, 23:22
I like Crabapple's ideas, but make the medium section the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This gives you a specific place.

Shenandoah - easy
Smokies - medium
Whites - hard

Good luck with the research.

Traveler
03-03-2016, 08:23
Hi Matthew, welcome to White Blaze!

There are two different answers you may want to consider writing about. The first is a fairly common writing topic, which is the difficulty of the trail itself, much as Big Cranky points out. To me, there is a far more interesting topic that isn't explored often but is typically what takes people off the trail or conversely, allows them to complete it. One can physically train for a long distance pursuit, but its more difficult to prepare oneself emotionally and mentally for a journey of this type.

There may or may not be commonalities between people who face the challenges of mental and emotional exhaustion, but I have always been curious if there are. How different people deal with these issues would be a unique body of work and probably give the writer a deeper insight into what long distance trekking is about. The physical demands of the human body pitted against terrain can be interesting, but tend to mask some of the real and serious internal challenges of what trails like the AT provide the individual.

Just a thought.