mud season? isnt it a problem for northboudners

[DavidNH]

hello folks,

As I sit here on April 2nd, 2005 and look out my window..there is nothing but rain from the sky and puddles on the ground and mud all over the place! of course I do live in New Hampshire and we expect mud this time of year..though perhaps not this much (actually the NH mountains still have snow so mud season comes later there).

But what I am wondering is..with all the hundreds starting off at Spring mountain in Georgia and heading north and being that roughly mid march to mid April is the peak kick off for thu hikers....isn't mud a problem? Do the southern Appalacians not have a mud season? Maybe it is a silly question but honestly I dont know. I have never hiked yet south of New Jersey!

And while were at it, just how bad is the mud season and the erosion on the trail in March and April on at least a normal year (excepting for now the unusually dry or unusually wet years)?

David (Nhhiker)

[BookBurner]

The dirt must just be different down here! I hiked the Long Trail during a wet fall in 2003. The Vermont mudholes were deep and never dried up even after days of sunshine. In the south, the trail sheds the rain off into the underbrush, probably as a result of the soil's high clay content. Because the soil does not really absorb alot of water, mudholes / ruts never seem to become a problem. A few hours of sun and you would never know it had rained.

The high clay content probably also keeps erosion down to a minimum. Despite all the spring-time traffic, the AT shows miraculously little wear and tear, relatively speaking. By comparison, popular trails in Yosemite Nat'l Park have become foot-deep ruts.

-- BookBurner
www.enlightenedthruhiker.com

[Brushy Sage]

Although a properly constructed trail does shed water, there is mud to be found on the southern AT. New, or newly worked stretches of trail that haven't had enough traffic to be packed down, will be muddy in rainy weather. I remember an access trail to a new shelter in Georgia -- it was just like wading through a swamp. The trail does get soft in other places as well, and during wet weather the mud collects in shoe treads, gets heavy and has to be stomped off periodically. Banging shoes/boots together to get the mud out is an evening ritual at shelters.

[Peaks]

Another difference between North and South in spring is that up north the ground is very soft because of the frost coming out of the ground, or thawing. Don't get 2 plus feet of frost down south.

[Jaybird]

....& don't foreget....those DAMNED BLACK-FLIES !

[The Solemates]

Mud season was a problem for us. It rained every day while we hiked through VT, 8 straight days of rain total. We were constantly soaked and our shoes were basically rotted when we got to NH.