Starting in February

[wally]

Hi,

I am hoping to walk the trail with a friend in 2009, and, because we are not expert hikers, wanted to start as early as possible so I can get back to the UK by September at the latest. I know that starting in mid/late February gives me plenty of time (>6 months), but is it sensible to start that early? My attention was drawn to difficult conditions making the trail both hard an dangerous...

As I say we aren't experts, but we're no novices and will be training all over England beforehand. What do you think?

Thanks

[Zander 2831]

People do it. I don't see an issue. Just have to carry another layer of clothing.
The views would be more brown at first too.

[The Solemates]

We started Feb 1, a little earlier than you are proposing. If you have specific questions, feel free to rattle them off and we can answer.

In general, we had temperatures at night dip below 0 degrees F 10% of the time, to be between 0-10 degrees F 40% of the time, to be between 10-20 degrees F 40% of the time, and to be over 20 degrees F 10% of the time for the first 1-1.5 months.

Expect ice and snow, rain and shine.

[shaggy2004]

I started in February too. It was very late into February but still... I don't see anything wrong with starting that early. If I were to hike again I would probably start mid February. In my opinion there are a lot of advantages to being an early nobo. You'll be ahead of the main pack of hikers, so more shelter space; better views for longer since there won't be any leaves for a while, like probably a good bit into Virginia.; you won't have to deal with bugs as much; and another big one, you'll avoid some of the heat, which I think is much worse than the cold. You'll still get it for sure probably from northern Virginia up through Massachusetts or so, but if you start that early you should be getting to Vermont by early or mid July just as the heat would be at its worst further south, but in the higher elevations from Vermont on up it will be quite comfortable for the most part. The only think I would say in caution, besides possibly really cold weather at the beginning, is that a lot of the hiker services may not be opened in the beginning if you start that early. I don't know this for a fact but it seems like I remember a place or two still being closed when I hiked and that a lot of places said they just opened. Nothing you can't live without, but just something to keep in mind. Anyway, that's what I think about it. Have a great hike whatever you decide to do.