E2E- Aug/Sept 2017 Advice

[adesbonnet]

I'm hoping to hike NOBO towards the end of Summer, which will be creeping up fast! I'm wondering what level of planning you find is comfortable for a LT thru hike. Do you have pre-planned goals of where to stay each night? Are town stops done on a whim when food is near low or chosen in advance? Any advice is appreciated as I'm already feeling the nerves!

[colorado_rob]

I did a later E2E last year, starting mid September leaking over into very early October, and it was a dead-nuts-perfect time of year to do it. Have you considered delaying until after labor day for your start?

But to answer your question, I did do a lot of planning, as I know my miles-per-day speed on various types of terrain pretty well. So basically, I did pretty much know where I spent each night, and doing it when I did (after labor day), the shelters/camps were uncrowded enough to choose where I stayed fairly easily. I also had my resupply places figured out and those worked perfectly as well (I pre-mailed myself my food).

I did a SOBO, and it worked perfectly for my style to do it that way. Yes, the terrain on the northern 100+ miles of the LT is brutal, but I knew that going in and was ready for it.

Basically, the LT last late-summer/early fall was the highlight of my 2016 hiking. I will return in a couple years with my wife (she just retired this last winter).

[FreshStart]

Wife and I are doing a northbound end to end starting mid July. We are pumped!! We got all our gear figured out and have been looking over the map and end to end guide. We will start out slow and listen to our bodies so we can make it for the long haul. We are preparing for lots of rain and mud, hopefully not to many bugs!!! Good luck on your hike!

[MuddyWaters]

If you know your abilities, you can plan it to a T.

. Its not long, only requires about 4 resupplies. Thats 5 x50-60mile section on average, each 3-4 days depending.

Can you plan 3-4 days conservatively and stick to it in each leg? Sure.

Nothing wrong with winging it either. I like to plan maildrops though for something that short. I detest shopping.

[10-K]

I hiked it southbound and didn't do any extraordinary planning. I bought the end-to-enders guide and the waterproof map and read a lot of trail journals. For Long Trail specific planning it's more like a 170 mile trail because the other 100 miles run concurrent with the AT and there's an overload of info on planning that.

[StubbleJumper]

I'd say that you shouldn't plan it to a "T", but it's good to have a notion about where you want to re-supply and roughly how long it will take to go from one re-supply to the next. On the LT, there are long stretches where it's tough to find a place to set up a tent (but hammock places are easy to find). As a result, you will probably end up gravitating to the lean-to sites where you can normally find some flat-ish ground that has already been cleared for a tent (and these are good from a LNT perspective, because they are already established sites). In the southern third of the trail, the placement of the lean-to sites pretty much dictates that you'll do either a 7-8 mile day or a 14-15 mile day, depending on your preference. In the middle third of the trail, lean-to sites are more common and are spaced more like 5-ish miles apart which gives you a few more options. And the in the northern third of the trail, the bush is thick enough that it can be really tough to find a place to camp anywhere other than at the lean-to sites. And then you're pretty much locked in to doing either one, two or three lean-tos per day.

Personally, I have never had a long hike where everything worked as I had imagined at home. I have had to slow my pace due to tendonitis in my ankle, I have had to spend an extra day in town due to bad weather, and I have had to slow down due to excessive heat. My advice is to have a notional plan, but remain flexible. Everything will work out just fine, but sometimes, in reality it doesn't work out as perfectly as it does on paper.

[Wildtowner]

I think thru-hikers vary in approaches... and I'm not judging anyone here, they're all good for different people!

I've seen some people plan every meal, every campsite, every town stop, etc. These folks pump out detailed spreadsheets trying to foresee every possible eventuality, calculating calories/ounce, reserving ahead for their town hotels, etc.

Other folks I've known sometimes decide to do their hikes at the last minute, with very little planning, and they just "wing it". They need to be very easygoing, because sometimes they end up having to resupply at gas station convenience stores, being stuck with only junk food for 5 days on the trail. But usually, in the end, everything works out ok.

Personally, I'm more of a planner (and a picky eater, so I like to send my main food ahead, and use the local shops only for extra food items). Too much planning can be stressful (if you have to make it to a reserved hotel on a certain day), but OTOH no planning can also be stressful (when I arrived in town during a storm and all the hotels were full).

You'll figure out your own style, based on your personality, and you'll make it work for you. I'll be E2E'ing NOBO in September, so perhaps we'll pass each other on the trail.

[soilman]

I did my SOBO in late August to early September like you are planning to do. For me the most time spent planning was figuring out how to get to the northern terminus and then how to get home when finished. I got the guide and figured out my resupply options. I did one mail drop in Richmond since the trail went right past the P.O. My other resupply stops were planned as needed while on the trail. The only town I definitely planned on stopping was Manchester Center since I wanted to stay at the Green Mt House since I missed it on my AT thru. The one thing about going this time of year is there were lots of college groups out for orientation. Most were no problem but one was a royal pain.

[bigcranky]

We had a very loose plan for the hike, knowing it would change when we got on the trail. For me, being able to plan out where we'll be each night helps get my head around the hike, and lets me at least plan how much food to bring for the first leg. Then I know when we're on the trail everything will change and I'm okay with that. In general we hit most of the towns we planned on for resupply, though we ended up with unplanned zeroes in a couple just to give my poor knees a break. We were able to get to a decent grocery store in every town where we stopped, and resupply was generally easy.

I spent a lot of time planning how to get back from the northern terminus, since we had to be back at work on a specific day and couldn't just wing it.

[LoneStranger]

Had to cancel my planned trip for last Fall, but due to the drought I'd mapped out a pretty detailed chart of mileage between water sources. I wasn't worried about where I would sleep each night, but I wanted to know where my next drink was coming from :)

[Slo-go'en]

The last time I SOBOed the LT, I did 5 resupplies.
1) Johnson
2) Waitsfield
3) Richmond
4) Rutland
5) Manchester Center

That more or less equally spaces them. All but Richmond were also overnight stays off the trail. I took 24 days to hike E2E, but if your a strong hiker, you can probably do it in maybe 18-21 days, so you could skip one of the mid state resupplies. But the trail gets lots and lots harder starting at Mount Abraham and points north.

[Slo-go'en]

Had to cancel my planned trip for last Fall, but due to the drought I'd mapped out a pretty detailed chart of mileage between water sources. I wasn't worried about where I would sleep each night, but I wanted to know where my next drink was coming from :)

Well, you should be worried about where you would sleep each night, since north of the National Forest (non AT section) your required to stay at shelters or one of the few designated camp sites. And even in the NF land, the terrain isn't too suited to camping at many places other then the shelters.

[bigcranky]

The last time I SOBOed the LT, I did 5 resupplies.
1) Johnson
2) Waitsfield
3) Richmond
4) Rutland
5) Manchester Center

This is what we did, except in reverse, and we went to Waterbury instead of Richmond (same road crossing, different direction). We also stayed overnight in each place, with zeroes in Manchester, Rutland (at the Inn at Long Trail), and Johnson. Since this was our vacation, we stayed at some pretty nice B&Bs :)

[LoneStranger]

Well, you should be worried about where you would sleep each night, since north of the National Forest (non AT section) your required to stay at shelters or one of the few designated camp sites. And even in the NF land, the terrain isn't too suited to camping at many places other then the shelters.

I meant I didn't care which shelter I set up camp at so long as I filled my water bags on a regular basis. It wasn't a scheduled itinerary is what I was saying in response to the OP's question about planning. I put the crib sheet together only with a mind to knowing when to carry a little extra water just in case the next wet spot wasn't there. I am a steam engine and require water to move. Made sense to have as much water info as possible last year it seemed to me.

Didn't mean to make you think I'd be violating any forests or mountains along the way. :)

[NHWhites]

I did my e2e 8/13-9/2 last summer. The only thing I planned was what towns to stop in for resupplies. I usually carried an extra days worth of food and found this worked well for me. The only reservation I made in advance was in Rutland to stay at the Inn at the along Trail and even then I arrived a day early (they're very accommodating). The rest of the time I called from the trail the day of or just showed up (Waitsfield). All of the big towns have plenty of options for resupply. I averaged ~13.5 miles per day, partly because I always got a later start the morning after stayingin town.

[Praha4]

be aware the college/university orientation groups will be all over the southern part of the LT in late August. Last year I ran into some groups from Yale that basically took over some AT/LT shelters at night.

we tented nearby the shelter and watched the evening's entertainment as the new freshmen got to go in front of the entire group and tell their life story, how they ended up at Yale...why they hated their parents...on and on. Dr. Phil on the Long Trail.