Please define section hiking

[2XL]

I'm sure this topic has come up several times, but the search gave me no results. :-?
What constitutes a section hike?
Is it a state?
A specific distance?
An area covered by one of the ATC maps?
How many sections are there from Georgia to maine?

[tribes]

I think that any length that does not cover the entire distance of the trail could be considered section hiking, whether 1 mile or 2171 miles, you have, in theory, hiked a section of the AT or any other LD trail for that matter.

[Jaybird]

I'm sure this topic has come up several times, but the search gave me no results. :-?
What constitutes a section hike?
... a state?
... specific distance?
An area covered by ...ATC maps?
How many sections are there from Georgia to maine?

I guess different hikers would give you different answers...but, i'm with TRIBES...

any miles would be considered a "Section-hike" in my book....i try to do 100+ miles each year in my quest to finish the A.T. "on-the-20-year-plan".
Starting in Ga & hopefully in 2022 (or sooner) i'll summit Mt. Katahdin. :D

good luck with your hike...no matter how many miles in your Section!

see ya'll UP the trail!

[azchipka]

I guess the other real question is how long do you have to be off the trail to be considered a section hiker and not a thru-hiker. Considering most everyone "gets off the trail" at some point in the trip if not a bunch of times in the trip. So its not how far you go per section but more how long you stay off the trail after each section. If for example you start at the same time as a friend and you cover 20 miles a day and they cover 10, so when you get to maine you get off the trail for over a month so you can both make the finaly climb together even though you started and ended at the same time. In my mind I think a thru-hiker is more of someone who completes the trail in one effort with in the time frame that it takes an average person to complete. I had a friend who was injured and had to get off the trail for 6 weeks, but then returned to the trail to complete it. In my mind he was still a thru-hiker.

Another example is someone who starts the trail in Maine but gets a call from a friend who decided they want to join them but wants to start in georgia, so he gets off the trail and flys to georgia, in order to be a "thru-hiker" where can he stop on the trail.

When it comes right down to it, hiker your own hike, and enjoy it. If your a thru-hiker in your own mind thats all that really matters.

[max patch]

The term originally meant (and still does to many) anyone attempting to become a 2,000 miler by doing a series of hikes over time (i.e. not a thru-hike).

Over time the term has become redefined by many to describe any hiker who is not a thru-hiker...even if they have no intentions of ever becoming a 2,000 miler.

[MedicineMan]

Well I hike but have no dreams of every completing the trail, with the sheer number of times I have repeated sections I feel that I will never see the end and that's OK, for me there is another term- Lifetime Hiker- which is my goal, too hike until I am wormdirt, no matter where, no matter what trail, no matter if it is a repeat or not.....so a section hiker in my mind doesnt nec. have to have trail completion as a goal. My goals are more short sided I suppose. Currently my goal it to reach SNP by winter, beyond that I cannot see.

[bobgessner57]

Most people out for an occasional weekend would not define themselves as a section hiker. Self described section hikers usually have a goal of completing the whole trail and/or certain chunks; eg., another 30 miles and I will have completed all of (name that state). Thru hiking is a also up to the masochist.
Am I not a thru hiker if I take a ten mile detour on blue blazes to see some great water fall thereby missing 5 miles of the AT? If you enter a shelter from the southern side trail and get back on by the more northerly have you lost your credibility?? ad nauseum. HYOH

[weary]

any miles would be considered a "Section-hike" in my book....i try to do 100+ miles each year in my quest to finish the A.T. "on-the-20-year-plan".


In 1993, I did two sections -- one of 1,800 miles and one of 200 miles, ending on Katahdin. A couple of years later I did another 150 miles. Technically I have a few scattered miles here and there to qualify as a 2,000-miler, though somehow that seems unimportant. I felt like a thru hiker in '93, after spending six months and three days and summitting Katahdin.

Weary

[Lone Wolf]

I've done 16,000+ miles of section hiking. Thru-hiking is WAY overrated. So is abstinance.

[Chip]

I agree with Max Patch and the basic definition. By doing a series of hikes or backpacks over time. The length of the section and the time you do it in is up to you. That's the great thing about it!! You hike at your pace and complete the sections of the AT at your leisure.

[TJ aka Teej]

The term originally meant (and still does to many) anyone attempting to become a 2,000 miler by doing a series of hikes over time (i.e. not a thru-hike).
Ayup. If the intent is to complete the entire trail, a thru-hiker is trying to it at one go, a section hiker is trying to do it bit by bit, and a 2,000 miler is a hiker who has done it either way.

[MedicineMan]

The shuttle hiker....whether they do sections or thru-hikes they use shuttles at each road crossing and sleep in RV's or motels....now that would be the life wouldnt it? nah, they miss the fun of hamocking and stars at night and the comraderie of leaking shelters.......

[weary]

Am I not a thru hiker if I take a ten mile detour on blue blazes to see some great water fall thereby missing 5 miles of the AT?

There is no such detour. But a lot of much shorter detours. The rules for thru hiking are those imposed by each hiker on themselves. The 2,000 mile rules of the ATC say you must have hiked "every mile" of the AT to qualify to buy a special 2,000 miler patch.

I don't have a clue to what ATC means by "every mile." And I suspect ATC doesn't either. Part of every mile? All of every mile? And what is the AT? Is it the white blazed footpath? Or is it the system of white and blue blazes that if followed eventually gets one to Katahdin.

Some blue blazes are short cuts. Most make the trail longer. Loop trails to scenic or historic attractions are almost always longer. Loop trails to shelters usually are longer. Very rarely shorter.

The system is so screwed up that I've advised people to ignore it, and just hike the trail in whatever fashion that suits you at the moment and ignore such enticements as the right to buy a $2 "rocker".

Weary

[B Thrash]

I'm sure this topic has come up several times, but the search gave me no results. :-?
What constitutes a section hike?
Is it a state?
A specific distance?
An area covered by one of the ATC maps?
How many sections are there from Georgia to maine?

When ever I plan a section hike I look at the number of days that I can spend hiking, not how many miles that I can cover in a certain amount of time. In the trail guides each state has sections listed starting at the state lines (maybe with the exception of Tennessee-North Carolina) that may be from one or two miles up to twenty plus miles. Have been section hiking north for ten years now covering anywhere from 50 miles in one year up to 300 plus miles in other years. A section hike can be any distance you want it to be.

[stranger]

I have always thought of a section-hiker as someone who is hiking the entire AT in sections, as opposed to someone who just enjoys long distance hiking. I think it's a bit silly to say someone who has hiked from Springer to Killington is a "section" hiker, because that is a great distance and they may never intend to finish the trail. I guess it depends on what your intentions are, I have done large sections of the AT but never intend to finish the trail that way. If I was to hike the entire AT it would be a thru-hike...so I do not consider myself a section-hiker.