NOBO switching to SOBO. please help

[jbrecon2]

OK....so I had intended to go NOBO, but due to an Army commitment in June it looks like will be going southbound with a start date between June 20th and July 1st. This changes alot of things. For one thing...I am bummed. A guy from my fire department who bought into the hike with me has already quit his job and is leaving next week without me!! I thought of joining him wherever he is when I start, but the idea of climbing katahdin in such a non pinnacle way doesnt appeal to me (still having 800 miles down south to do). Ok that is the venting. Now the questions.....I have done all my research based on a NOBO hike. I have all my gear already. What do I need to consider differently for a SOBO hike? Clothing? I read somewhere that you absolutely need pants and a long shirt not to get eaten alive in Maine. Cold weather gear? Will i need cold weather stuff for that kind of start date up north? If anyone could help me out I would appreciate it. i've spent so much time and planning on a North bound hike, and now im just not sure how to go about this.

[singing wind]

Check around the SOBO forum and other threads - there's a good amount of info in WB about going SOBO at this time.

Yes, it may be buggy - be sure to take whatever repellent works best for you. Weather in July-early August in northern Maine was anything from nice warm days to high winds, cold rain, and fog. Some beautiful amazing spots and the terrain is quite varied - from bogs and forest to near artic alpine environments on some of the summits.

Enjoy the walk and good luck!

[kayak karl]

no big deal!! and SOBO is all downhill:D

[fiddlehead]

The two most important things IMO are:
Make sure you take a bug head net and
You should be in better shape for steep climbs and downhills on a SOBO hike.
So, get on the step machine or go out to your favorite steep climb and put some weight in your pack and start training.
Have fun.
Once you finish the whites, it's all downhill.

[Lone Wolf]

The two most important things IMO are:
Make sure you take a bug head net and
You should be in better shape for steep climbs and downhills on a SOBO hike.
So, get on the step machine or go out to your favorite steep climb and put some weight in your pack and start training.
Have fun.
Once you finish the whites, it's all downhill.

what fiddlehead says

[Jeff]

Last years SOBO's who left in June would say "Get comfortable being wet in Maine". !!!!!!!!!

[Lupine]

Last years SOBO's who left in June would say "Get comfortable being wet in Maine". !!!!!!!!!

That's right Jeff, rainiest June on record! --By the way, my father & I drove by your hostel about a month ago & I told him how great you were! Thanks for our shower & ice cream last summer :)

jbrecon2 Sobo is certainly different than Nobo, but more on the mental side & Jeff's place was a true gem. If you have any specific questions DM me.

[Tinker]

I've been to both ends of the trail and am picking away at the middle. If I'm in any sort of shape by the time I retire I will do a thruhike. Which way?
Sobo - I like being alone more than I like too much company. I like company, just not TOO MUCH company.
Katahdin is just a mountain. It's a tough climb, and many people use it as a symbol of a thru, but it's the trip, day by day, not the destination, that makes it worthwhile (or not).

[white_russian]

Headnet is a requirement. Make sure you have a hat so the net wont be in your face.

If you have any intentions of sleeping in shelters an A16 Bug Bivy would be helpful. (Be realistic with your expectations of sleeping in shelters. Some folks read all the shelter haters on whiteblaze and swear they will never use them until that first big storm floods their tent and then they are in them every night)

use 100% deet not the cut down stuff. also get a pump spray bottle and not aerosol because you waste as much.

I like hiking in pants and a short sleeve shirt. It is easy enough for me to deet my arms.

For staying warm you need around a 30 degree bag. A fleece and raincoat should be enough to keep you warm. Nice days can be very nice up to the 90s, but if it is rainy out things can get pretty chilly. As long as you stay dry you are good to go.

[wcgornto]

What do I need to consider differently for a SOBO hike? Clothing? I read somewhere that you absolutely need pants and a long shirt not to get eaten alive in Maine. Cold weather gear? Will i need cold weather stuff for that kind of start date up north? If anyone could help me out I would appreciate it. i've spent so much time and planning on a North bound hike, and now im just not sure how to go about this.


I hiked SOBO last year starting on June 14. Here are my thoughts:

You will definitely need pants. Some nights early on will be a bit too chilly to be comfortable in shorts. You should be able go go to shorts by sometime in July, but things will get colder in November, so back to pants. As for myself, I hiked in convertible pants and never zipped off the legs from ME to GA. It was never uncomfortably warm and I preferred to stay in long pants to keep mosquitoes, ticks and mud off of my legs. I treated my pants and shirts with permethrin to keep ticks off of me. I never saw a tick from beginning to end.

I did not need a long shirt to hike up north, only down south when there were stretches of cold weather. There was a very cold, rainy week in mid-October in Virginia. There were some very cold days in November further south. I wore short sleeves in Maine while hiking and used Ben's 100 DEET on exposed skin. This kept the mosquitoes at bay. Black flies were a non-issue last year because of the cloudy skies and non-stop rain.

Northbounders generally start with a cold weather sleeping bag, switch to a warm weather bag somewhere in Virginia, then switch back to a cold weather bag around Hanover, NH. Southbounders generally start with a warm weather bag, then switch to a cold weather bag around Harpers Ferry, WV or a bit further south in Virginia. I hiked from Mount Katahdin to Daleville, VA with a 30 degree bag and switched to a 15 degree bag for the remainder of the trail. My timing was perfect, as a cold snap hit when I was just south of Daleville and I would have been very uncomfortable with my 30 degree bag. Some Southbounders split the difference and hike the whole trail with a 20 degree bag.

Basically, the gear needs are the same going NOBO or SOBO. The difference is the timing of which gear is needed when.

[jwalden]

Get a headnet, like everyone else is saying. Once you get south a bit, say MA or so, you can probably ditch it (same for bug dope as well, pretty sure I carried mine several hundred miles past its last use).

Bivy sack is less weight/volume and more versatile than a tent, provides bug protection even in shelters. I didn't even use a sleeping bag late August-late September (Palmerton to shortly before Pearisburg) when I was carrying mine, just slept inside it in hiking clothes, so if you can get away with that you can even ditch the sleeping bag (probably want it for higher-elevation climes, tho). I wouldn't worry about shelter crowding (I had one overfull shelter, one night, over the entire trail -- and I'd barely seen northbounders at that point), but maybe I just missed all the crowded ones by starting early-ish. Virginia to Georgia I was probably alone in shelters >30% of the time (I could always tell when it was a weekend).

Lightweight sleeping bag (or even none outside high elevation for the first few months) is the way to go at start. (Depending on luck you might be chilly overnight at high elevation; I say pull out the sweater and rain gear and tough it out in that eventuality.) I carried a 30deg the entire way and used it every night except that month noted above. I don't recommend this unless you can't afford a second lightweight bag.

Get hiking poles. They will speed up your descents down mountains in Maine a lot (will also be helpful on not-completely-absurd ascents). If it's really rainy they (or usually-plentiful natural hiking sticks) will be essential for Maine fords as well.

Convertible pants are absolutely the way to go. (By end they may be nippy at the start of hiking; by then you'll carry something warmer to switch into in camp, of course. I don't recall noticing cold much early on, although it did happen, mostly at elevation and in rain.) If you're smart you'll get two identical pairs and only carry the legs for one, makes the cleaning rotation easy. (I carried two mismatching pairs, big mistake. Also didn't help one pair inevitably caused chafing when hiking; I ended up putting those to exclusive town use pretty quickly.) These pants (http://bit.ly/CxXHx) are perfection: lightweight, quick-drying, resilient (although thorn+small rip puts them on death row), and built-in liners. I can't recommend them any more highly. (They were the good pair I used while hiking. I bought four new pairs last summer and now wear them all the time. Seriously, I could probably count the number of days I've worn anything else since I got them on one hand.)

Don't push yourself too hard in Maine or northern New Hampshire if you like keeping a good pace. After a couple hundred miles it was crystal clear to me that, regardless what I wanted mentally, I must resign myself to a slow-ish pace until Glencliff after the Whites. After that, you won't even have to think about engaging afterburners, the difficulty of hiking will be night and day.

[jbrecon2]

thank you all so much....i'm hoping this switch only adds to the adventure. sounds like i need a head net!!! other gear i already have are...the main stuff

sleeping bag-mont bell ss ul #2
bag- ula circuit
tent- tarptent moment, but considering a hammock
black diamond locking poles
aqua mira
ice breaker tee....would it be in my best interest to get something like a ex officio long sleeve shirt?
under armour shorts....considering cargo pants. either REI or the columbia mentioned above
two one liter aquafina bottles
2 liter bladder
and some accessories but i was planning a really light load 23-27 punds with food and water
patagonia capilenne #2 top bottom

[Blissful]

We are starting July 1st. Plan to take it slow though.

[peakbagger]

Unlike a NOB0, there are far less options to get help with your gear early on ialong the trail. I.E. there is no Mountain Crossings equivalent to help you rework your gear or ship it home until Monson so make darn sure that you have triple checked and tested all your gear and know how to use it in real world conditions.

The biggest issue I have heard from many SOBO's is to pick a good pace and stick to it. The hiking is fairly easy the first few days after Katahdin and some folks start to convince themselves that Maine doesnt live up to its reputation. They then ramp up their pace and expectations and inevitably get beat up going up White Cap and end up falling short of their next nights shelter and getting bummed out about it. Plan on cutting back on your mileage a bit when you start climbing and plan on stopping a bit earlier after a day of ups and downs.

BTW, there is no subsitute for DEET insect repellents unless you want to reapply a lot more often. I highly recomend 3M ultrathon as the longest lasting. Its not as readilly available as soem other products but its worth looking for.

[mudhead]

Fleece hat if you are cold blooded like me.

Yes. Even in July.

[jbrecon2]

hey walden, thanks for the tip on the pants. I researched and bought them, and wore them last night on a 12 miler. i like them alot, am planning on using them, but would not reccomend them to anyone who needs to use the pockets as they are deep and whatever you put in there will bounce off your knee. i got the jist of really needing a head net. outdoor research makes a hat with a net built in i was looking at. i have a tarptent moment but will be considering a bivy as many of you suggested or perhaps even a hammock. i definately expect a slower pace and am ready for that going south.

[jwalden]

Awesome. And yeah, the pockets aren't particularly intended to be "load-bearing"; I—personally—couldn't imagine backpacking with something in a pocket in the clothes I was wearing, outside maybe a piece of paper or something very lightweight and non-dense like that. (Even ignoring the awkwardness, isn't that what the copious and reasonably accessible waist-level pockets, and the typical top pouch, of backpacks are for?) Outside of backpacking, I do notice that phenomenon when I keep keys in there while biking. There I end up doing the same thing I'd do while hiking: keep the keys in the backpack I'm wearing. (The back pocket is also a reasonable option for stashing a thing or two without it getting too much in the way, if you're not sitting down a lot.)

[jbrecon2]

We are starting July 1st. Plan to take it slow though.
hey blissful are you doing a full southbound this year? i've read so much of your posts and pictures, it would be cool to actually meet you. i havent narrowed it down to a start day yet but it is going to be right around the July 1st timeline. perhaps a week before that.

[TJ aka Teej]

i havent narrowed it down to a start day yet but it is going to be right around the July 1st timeline. perhaps a week before that.
Make that decision soon so you can book a spot at Katahdin Stream the night before and after your climb. Spots are going quick.
http://www.baxterstateparkauthority.com/