Trail easy to follow in winter?

[Petr]

I'm planning a thru-hike starting Feb. 1 next year. I know that the trail is well-marked, but should I expect difficulty in following it this early in the year, when it has been largely unused and snow/ice may obscure the path/blazes?

[Egads]

Not much of a problem in the south. It gets used year round and there is seldom deep or long lingering snow

[SGT Rock]

I've never expereinced a problem. Usually the hole through rodies, cut blowdown logs (log ends with a 3' wide gap between them), sidehill, and other trail sign give it away. I would imagine the snow would have to get very deep for it to be an issue.

[fiddlehead]

I did a SOBO winter hike in 2001/2002.
Trail was never too hard to follow BUT you should know what to look for:
cut logs is a biggie.
Of course white blazes (even when covered with some snow can be spotted because of their clean edges and square corners fairly often)
Put yourself into a trailblazers mind: Where would YOU put the trail? The AT likes to be on top of the ridges.
If you get into too many blowdowns, you could be off trail. Doesn't hurt to backtrack to make sure.
Experience means a lot here.

[kayak karl]

the snow lingered long this year. 3 out 4 days i was the first prints on trail. balds and a few days of deep blown snow were the only bad days i had to find blazes. twice i got lost because i followed a lost day hikers footprints. my bad:D

[Kirby]

All the popular spots along the trail essentially have packed trail year round due to winter warriors.

[fiddlehead]

All the popular spots along the trail essentially have packed trail year round due to winter warriors.

Except for hunters in hunting season, we RARELY saw other people out except on weekends. (and then not far from the roads)
Just my experience. My hike started at Katahdin on Oct 14 and ended at Springer on Feb 13th.
We did see 3 NOBO'ers outside of GA in all that time though. (and one SOBO although he was in a hostel)

[Tennessee Viking]

I'm planning a thru-hike starting Feb. 1 next year. I know that the trail is well-marked, but should I expect difficulty in following it this early in the year, when it has been largely unused and snow/ice may obscure the path/blazes?You will have no trouble following it in the south. Very well marked and maintained. Just be sure to carry ice cleets/Yak Treks for the ice. I have seen the trail in the Smokies with a foot or two of ice, then there will be a few exposed parts of the trail where ice/wind/temps will be the real challenge. And any open areas will have blazed posts to follow, if fogged or clouded in.

Now the north will be a different story, there are a few sections, especially the rocky sections, where blazes will disappear for a mile or two. But usually the trail is well travelled and noticeable.

[1azarus]

best news is you can always follow your own tracks back to the trail if you get "sort of" lost, and try other options. i find this to be a great comfort!

[George]

I did Virginia in Jan there were sections of long ridge walks in open mature woods with the snow completely leveling out the treadway, with the short daylight I often hiked after dark, the blazing was not at all set up for this scenario so I walked off the exact trail a lot wondering if the trail had turned off the ridge until blundering into blazes again. The blue blazed trails to shelters were sometimes impossible to follow after dark and I just slept on the trail

[Blissful]

Yes, that can certainly happen. It happened to us on Roan Mtn where new snow blown by winds on tree bark obliterated the blazes and we got off the trail.

Another reason to have......MAPS. :)

[Ox97GaMe]

I have never had much problem following the AT during the winter. Georgia has gotten really good at relos that are now more side hill, which makes finding the trail pretty easy, even with up to a foot of snow on the ground. NC still does a lot of straight up the hill, straight down the hill, which causes the trail to be in ruts. These are fairly easy to identify in snow as well. The other thing that aids this is the fact that the trail, being open dirt, tends to collect snow at a slower pace than the surrounding leafy/grassy areas. This creates a 'ditch' in the snow that can be followed.

Unless the snow is really deep (above knee deep) the trail can generally be found by looking for things that are unnatural looking. Look for places on slopes that are not smooth (angle, flat, angle), trees that are cut, tunnels in low brush.

Another thing to keep in mind. The weather patterns in the south, along with the grain of the mountain range, lend itself to snow settling more on one side of the ridgeline than the other most times. Even in windy conditions, there is one side of the mountain that gets little or no wind. The trail meanders along both sides of these ridges. This means that half your day may be spent searching for trail on one side of the ridge, and the other half following easily identified trail. Look for trail signs at longer distances as well. You might not be able to see exactly where the trail is 25-50 yards in front of you, but you might see signs of it on the next uphill or downhill slope.

Lastly, for most of the southern part, the trail goes top of hill to gap to top of next hill. Occassionally, it misses a peak and goes around, but general rule would be to look first for it to follow this pattern.


As was mentioned above, nothing beats experience following trails in winter conditions. However, after a day or two of slowed down pace looking for trail, you will be suprised at how quickly you start to identify exactly where it goes.

[JAK]

Except for hunters in hunting season, we RARELY saw other people out except on weekends. (and then not far from the roads)
Just my experience. My hike started at Katahdin on Oct 14 and ended at Springer on Feb 13th.
We did see 3 NOBO'ers outside of GA in all that time though. (and one SOBO although he was in a hostel)Very important message here.

Not that there is ever a good time to get lost in the woods, especially in winter, but in some places the winter woods really do empty out once the weekend is over, which is something to keep in mind. Also, after a storm you can come across a road that has been plowed and think you are onto something but it could have been because of a logging operation thats done, so it might not get plowed again or see any more traffic for weeks. You really can't count on anything with much certainty except the way you came in, and other ways out you have taken before. Even then snow depth can change travel time and energy expenditure quite remarkably. Also if you do hear a snowmobile its really hard to tell how far away it is or in what direction.

A fun thing to do in winter is to see just how slow it can get. Nice think about those sort of winter trips is they tend to confine you to a small area, but its still quite an adventure and lots of fun, so you can do it almost anywhere as long as the snow is deep enough.

[JAK]

This time of year though you have to be mindful of deep water under snow. You can get a thaw and rain and runnoff forming a lake, then a freeze and some snow over that so you might not even know its there. I would stick to trails this time of year, starting now, or at least be extra mindful of the terrain when bushwacking between trail after snow that has followed rain. If you don't know an area try and imagine if it might have gullies, or places where intermittent ponds might form.

I haven't gone deep in the woods this time of year, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I've poked around a little ways on day trips and there can be some really nice days but some messy situations also.

[The Solemates]

we too started 1 feb. had no problem following the trail. Its well blazed. know what you are getting into though.

[fehchet]

The trail is hardest to follow after the leaves begin to drop in autumn.

[Tinker]

I've snowshoed some of the AT in the White Mountains over the years. The only place I had trouble following it was where it is also called the Garfield Ridge Trail. Snow was more than 8 feet deep in February in places so the trail was often not visible. The spacing of the trees was so even some places that it was nearly impossible to find it. We just headed in what we thought was the right direction (after all, we were on a ridge) and got lucky. Of course you probably won't be in the Whites in February, I'm guessing.