View Full Version : what's your favorite side trip to take on an AT thru hike?
RITBlake
12-12-2007, 19:28
Maybe you need a break from the trail and want to take a short side trip. The AT runs close to some great areas and there are endless side trips one could take. What's your favorite side trip to take on an AT thru hike?
For me it was hitching in to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We were looking for a break after a chain of back to back very humid days. It was a 25 mile hitch but on a well used road.
Great to to walk around the historic town, grab a bite to eat, and see the sites. We also paid 20 bucks or so to take a 3 hour bus tour which was great because you actually learned what you work looking at it and they stopped for walking tours of the important battle areas.
Very cool stuff for anyone remotely interested in history.
Ended up meeting some kids from the Gburg outting club who put us up in their clubhouse for the night.
So, what's your favorite side trip to take on an AT thru hike?
Just a Hiker
12-12-2007, 19:32
Washington, D.C. and NYC are my favorites. But talk about budget busters!!:D
Just Jim
RITBlake
12-12-2007, 19:33
We also did D.C. but resisted NYC.
D.C. is very easy, just hop on the train out of Harpers Ferry. Expensive though there unless you know a friend.
max patch
12-12-2007, 20:46
I also hitched into Gettsburg and spent a day walking (!) around the park.
My wife met me in SNP and hiked with me 3 days then we spent 3 days in DC. A night at an Irish Pub was fun.
Also took the bus to Tanglewood and saw the Boston Pops. Camped by a lake that the BSO owned. Cool night.
I took a side trip off the AT to Dot's in Damascus. That was fun..... :)
Due blue blazes count?
Kirby
Downunda
12-12-2007, 22:10
Lot's of nice places to see on side trips, many of them are towns close to the trail... Gatlinburg is not one of them (LOL)!
Footslogger
12-12-2007, 23:19
Never took one. I thought about it a few times but at my pace, a side trip would/could have cost me making it to Katahdin.
My wife did fly out and meet me for Trail Days ...and we got a motel room in Abingdon. Does that qualify as a "side trip" ??
'Slogger
saimyoji
12-12-2007, 23:26
.... we got a motel room in Abingdon. Does that qualify as a "side trip" ??
Only you can answer that, just remember this is a family site. :D
Spirit Walker
12-12-2007, 23:30
We did a rafting trip out of NOC to a river on the GA/SC border. It was a lot of fun, especially since it was warm and sunny there while it was snowing in the mountains.
After summiting Katahdin and filling in a few miles near Stratton, I met some friends I had been hiking with through much of Maine for several days at Acadia National Park. A really remarkable place, with history, tradition, and diverse places and activities.
Footslogger
12-13-2007, 00:11
Only you can answer that, just remember this is a family site. :D
==================================
You're correct ...what happened in Abingdon stays in Abingdon !!
'Slogger
After summiting Katahdin and filling in a few miles near Stratton, I met some friends I had been hiking with through much of Maine for several days at Acadia National Park. A really remarkable place, with history, tradition, and diverse places and activities.
That's funny! My very first visit to Baxter State Park was a "side trip" off a visit to Acadia. My buddy and I were hanging out at the top of Cadillac Mtn. in Acadia, squinting into the afternoon sun and wondering if we could make out Katahdin. After a half hour of that we just decided to go for it. We didn't get to climb Katahdin on that visit, but did a day-hike up South Turner (?) instead. We climbed Katahdin and Knife Edge the following summer.
Jim Adams
12-13-2007, 01:24
Gulf Hagas....2002
hallucinagenics in Mass....1990
geek
Short hitch to the Thai/Chinese/Sushi place in Hiawasee, that is about as far as I'll go off trail during a hike! :)
Jack Tarlin
12-13-2007, 17:01
Favorite side trips?
Well, in no particular order, getting off the Trail and spending some serious down time with Winton Porter; Ron Haven; just about everyone in Hot Springs, NC, especially the guys at the Duckett House Inn and Bluff Mountain Outfitters; Miss Janet and family, including Fabian; the entire Engman family in Tennessee; Bob and Pat Peoples; the community of Damascus, VA and I mean everyone there; the folks at the Rendezvous Motel in Pearisburg; the people who run the Ming Garden restaurant in Waynesboro; Bfitz and the Goat in Northern Virginia; Ron and Laura at the Outfitters in Harpers Ferry; Laurie and Brian and everyone else at the ATC HQ in Harpers; Trix, Drive-By, Jester, and Matty in various places in Pennsylvania; everyone in Duncannon, PA, especially the folks at the Doyle Motel and TrailAngel Mary; Tom Levardi in Dalton; Mad Hatter and his family in Rutland; the great folks at the Hikers Welcome in Glencliff; Blister Sister in North Woodstock; Honey and Bear in Andover; Steve Longley in Caratunk; Keith Shaw, Jr. in Monson.
And my apologies to anyone I left out.
Oh, and then there's Tom Leonard and the staff of Five Olde Nugget Alley in Hanover, and my friend, landlord, and sometime employer Dave V. who has put up with me for over ten years now, and opened his property to all sorts of hiker trash over the years.
Come to think of it, the best side trip I make each year is to go about a third of a mile up the hill at the trailhead leading North outta Hanover, and walking
back to my place for some R&R.
There's no place like home.
Merry Christmas!!
My favorite side-trip during my 99 thru-hike was the 2-mile loop in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. The little activity center at Fontana Village offered a shuttle to the forest. The HUGE old growth trees were a major highlight of the hike. There were a couple of trees that took five of us linking hands to reach around.