View Full Version : Has anyone ever hiked the AT and NOT ...
stefanib123
02-01-2013, 13:11
Gone into towns (except for resupply), motels, hostels, etc.
I'm talking about going the whole length of the trail, without spending a night in a REAL bed, or eating at a restaurant?
I'm stuck at home, a snow day, with my family, and they are driving me nuts. 2000 miles seeing nothing but woods is really looking good to me right now! So, that got me to thinking about the AT and this.
I guess, though, that's not really how the AT is? If someone wanted an experience like that they would need to go somewhere else, like Alaska?
bigcranky
02-01-2013, 13:42
Maybe the Continental Divide Trail, though even there you can be tempted by a motel on occasion.
My experience is that after 5 or 6 days in the woods, especially when it's been cold and raining the whole time, a motel or hostel starts to look pretty good. Motels are better, though there are a few hostels that I really liked. With a motel room I can get a long hot shower, hang out all my gear to dry, sleep on a real bed, and get pizza delivered. Even a crappy motel that I'd drive right past in "real" life turns into a luxury establishment on a hike.
You can hike the AT any way you want. Of course you could hit the grocery store and get right back on the trail. But it's human nature to be lazy every once in a while...
Totally understand about being stuck at home with the family and going a little stir crazy.
You need to google up excerpts from the authors website of her book on Conway-- "the Lat American Man"
tarantolk
02-01-2013, 14:17
You need to google up excerpts from the authors website of her book on Conway-- "the Last American Man"
good book. anyone been to his 'turtle island' ?
max patch
02-01-2013, 14:21
I don't know the answer to your question, although if you really wanted to do that I suppose you could. I never would; I enjoy my one day a week in town and milk it for all its worth.
atmilkman
02-01-2013, 14:46
I enjoy my one day a week in town and milk it for all its worth.
And MILK for all IT'S worth!
bigcranky
02-01-2013, 15:18
And MILK for all IT'S worth!
Hey, milkman, at least admit that it's refreshing to see someone not add an apostrophe, when its opposite is far more common. :)
atmilkman
02-01-2013, 15:22
Hey, milkman, at least admit that it's refreshing to see someone not add an apostrophe, when its opposite is far more common. :)
It is refreshing isn't it.
stefanib123
02-01-2013, 15:24
Realistically, I know I would probably hit the towns happily! I'm planning right now, and there's a motel/hostel/bed at least once a week.
I just dream, as I'm sure a lot of us do, of walking off in the woods and never come back. Especially on days like today...sigh...
And its very interesting reading of others who have done it.I guess that on a trail like the AT, it would be more of choosing to avoid civilization that actually not being around civilization.
Off to google the hikers suggested! Thanks!
Ward Leonard a couple times.
Cookerhiker
02-01-2013, 21:02
Earl Shaffer.
I'm not home so I can't consult my Walking with Spring book but I thought Earl spent one night in a bed - in Pennsylvania when his family picked him up and took him home for one night. Otherwise, I recall that Earl accepted dinners from some farm families, particularly in the South, but always turned down offers to stay the night, even to the point of taking off in the dark with pouring rain.
"Maybe the Continental Divide Trail, though even there you can be tempted by a motel on occasion."
In this respect the CDT isn't all that much different than the PCT --- not as many options to stop as on the AT, but enough on each unless you intentionally skip the motel/hostel/restaurant opportunities (you need food resupply regardless).
Hiking for months without staying in a bed --- some get closer to it than others, but unless you think you'll get notoriety or made a vow or something, I think your attitude will change after not too long on trail. Practically speaking I think the ones most successful at this are those on the tightest budget plus a few others who are just really thrify/disciplined. Note that even if you don't stay in motels or hostels, you likely will want to shower and wash clothes along the way.
Going without restaurants: again, do-able, but few to none would want to. After a while on any long trail people stop talking about gear and adventure and that sort of thing and focus on important issues such as where the best AYCE restaurants are along the way.
The other thing about limiting your stay in motels, I would suggest this as a better strategy for AT SOBOs because my recollection is that hostels were more plentiful and motels cheaper in the south --- so that for a SOBO by the time you had given up on the idea of limiting town stuff, breaking your vow would take less out of your pocket going forward!
my thru-hike involved very little town time. I stayed in a few hotels - not traditional trail hostels but most of the time was in the woods.
Hey, milkman, at least admit that it's refreshing to see someone not add an apostrophe, when its opposite is far more common. :)
And MILK for all IT'S worth! (cut and pasted from milkman's post).
I think I see an apostrophe here...........:-?
As written, it could be understood "All it is (the apostrophe replacing the missing letter "i") worth.
If the intended meaning is "all the worth inherent in it", it should read "milk it for all its worth."
More fun with a ridiculously complicated language.
I had previously said that one usage could be "all its' worth." From what I just quickly searched on the internet, its' is apparantly not used anymore (unless it could mean "those things [plural] that belong to "it" as in "The meal with all of its' many courses" (but this may be an error of interpretation on my part). :o
bigcranky
02-01-2013, 22:18
And MILK for all IT'S worth! (cut and pasted from milkman's post).
I think I see an apostrophe here...........:-?
Right, milkman was correcting someone who didn't add an apostrophe when needed to make the "it is" contraction. I pointed out that the more common problem is people adding the apostrophe when not needed, either to the possessive if "it" or to plural nouns, e.g., "It rubs the lotion on it's skin." That would be wrong on so many level's, er, levels.
Now of course I am assuming that "milk it for all it is worth" is the saying, which is how I understand it. Not sure the possessive makes grammatical sense.
Good times!
Ward Leonard a couple times.
That's only 'cause folks found out about him and locked all the doors. :p
Probably been done by many who would not make a point of posting it here or anywhere else.
Chip can be a pia. Because he eats so much. I am certain I'll see him this year because I have those 6 weeks to walk. One time I seen Chip eat two blocks of cheese, a sack of potatoes and a shed full of eggs. Then he like stands up and paces around . I'm not sure if we were in Tenn or NC. Back than I thinnk the trAIL WAS MOSTLY IN tENN, down there.
Tipi Walter
02-08-2013, 10:59
Del Gue: Jeremiah, maybe you best go down to a town, get outta these mountains.
Jeremiah Johnson: I've been to a town Del.
I bet thair have been quite a few folks who have done what you have questioned. Especialy in the early years of thru-hiking the trail. Most of the ones who have done this were loner types and did not want the publicity. It surely would not be a hard thing to do.
Slo-go'en
02-08-2013, 13:41
I bet thair have been quite a few folks who have done what you have questioned. Especialy in the early years of thru-hiking the trail. Most of the ones who have done this were loner types and did not want the publicity. It surely would not be a hard thing to do.
In the early days of thru-hiking the trail went THRU more towns then it does now. The trail has been relocated in a number of places to bypass towns in order to "inhance the wilderness experiance". In years past there were fewer hostels, but more low budget motels. My experiance only goes back 25 years, but myself and eveyone else I met at the time were eager to get to a town and spend the night to resupply and get cleaned up.