where to start planning?

[Wildflower_90]

Hi!

I am a complete newbie with long thru hikes. The longest I've done is 10 days in southern PA as a camp counselor with 10 12 year old girls! It was a blast and I've had the AT on my list for a long time! I have finally planned a start date. March/April 2014 as a NOBO. My question is where to begin the planning. There is so much I plan other than gear. Is there an order in what you plan? I am 23 and a solo hiker! So any advice will help! I've already statue getting my gear list together I'm just hoping to figure out the rest that I may be missing.

Thanks All,
Anna

[Hill Ape]

don't over plan. start with your gear, then do as many weekend, and week long hikes as you can to dial in your gear, do it in the rain too. get comfortable with your gear. most people, especially newbies carry FAR too much stuff. start saving money, one of the leading causes for not going the distance is running out of money. my rule of thumb, and this varies widely per person $2000 for your gear, $5000 for the hike. it can be done cheaper, it can be done more expensive. there are many great books, the two i suggest for planning inspriration are zach davis' appalachian trials and david millers awol on the appalachian trail. ask every question you think of, they've been asked before, its ok. do not listen to anyone (you family) that second guesses your goal, or you being a solo female hiker

http://theatguide.com/PlanNobo2010-15.html

one of the moderators here, sly, has a great spreadsheet of all the mail drop locations, and a nifty app for printing mail labels. you don't have to do mail drops, but if you choose that route, his app is handy. he's not hard to find, and will probably post in this thread before long. the link is in his signature line.

welcome, and good luck!

[QuabbinHiker]

Lots of info online to learn what to do. Pay your dues and go learn it, don't expect people to do the work for you. Be your own master.

[Hill Ape]

sigh... wildflower, here, as in life, some people are.... five paragraphs of self censored analysis of another new poster

[garlic08]

I think the amount you need to plan is inversely proportional to how much experience you have. That's just paraphrasing what's been said above. The AT is extremely friendly to hikers, with easy resupply, literally tons of accurate information, your choice of several guidebooks, internet access nearly the whole way, hiker-friendly inns and locals, 85,000 white blazes in just one direction (that's something like a blaze every 150'), etc. On the other hand, there are some remote areas and very harsh weather conditions that can challenge the most experienced (and leave one breathless with excitement and accomplishment).

With some confidence and experience, a guidebook, and a ride to Georgia, one can hike the AT with virtually no planning at all. You can learn a lot from other hikers along the way, like when your shoes start wearing out and you learn you can order new ones online from Zappos and have them shipped to the next town.

Best thing, in my opinion, is to get out on some 100-mile-plus hikes and start learning what you need to learn. How far can you comfortably hike without resupply? How much food per day do you need? How many miles per day can you cover? What clothing do you need during four days of steady rain? How do you eat in the rain/cold? What kind of sleeping bag and pad do you need to rest well? Are your joints up to the task? Do you even enjoy this whole business?

Every hiker's pack is different (I'd never hike with someone else's pack). So don't pay too much attention to someone else's gear list, or a critique of yours.

[garlic08]

sigh... wildflower, here, as in life, some people are.... five paragraphs of self censored analysis of another new poster

Please note I kept it to only four paragraphs!

[q-tip]

If you are interested, I have several gear lists-UL to Lightweight--if you are interested pm me and I will send to you--they have weight & costs $$$$$$.....

[Autummyst]

Hi Wildflower!!! My fiance and I are hiking next year too and we are super excited. I've noticed from whiteblaze and talking with thru hikers I've met on the trail when doing casual hiking, that there are TONS of ways of planning and going about hiking itself. I know for me at least, I got into ultra research mode, not because I had too, but because I just really enjoyed/enjoy it!

There are super experienced people on here who will have more to offer than me, but here are some fun things I enjoyed looking into along the way the past year and half or so:

1) Synthetic clothing versus Wool clothing
2) Ultralight versus 'averageish' pack weight - pros and cons of each
3) Tent vs tarp vs hammock
4) Down vs synthetic fillings for sleeping bags and winter coats
5) boots vs trail runners vs barefoot type shoes
6) how to bear bag
7) How much money to save for the thru hike itself (not including gear)

Other stuff we both really enjoyed reading was Zach Davis "Appalachian Trials". It's a good mental prep guide for the trail. I also enjoyed reading "The Barefoot Sisters, Southbound" and "The Barefoot Sisters, Homeward bound". They are personal accounts of the trail. And then finally, I'm following a bunch of current thru hikers on wordpress and trailjournals.

We also went out for a week hike this summer with our acquired gear, and that was the MOST educational of anything I've done. A lot of the experienced people here say that, how the only way to really prepare is to do it and it turns out they were totally right! We quickly learned things like how much food was correct for us, how to adjust our backpacks correctly (thanks to a friendly thru hiker we met on the CT/MA border), and really just what it feels like if your new like us.

So, that's some stuff from a total trail newb. Hope to see you out there next year :)

[Mags]

Here's a quick and dirty AT guide I wrote:
http://www.pmags.com/a-quick-and-dirty-cdt-guide

Maybe it will help.

[Wildflower_90]

So I should probably clarify, I've done several stretches of the AT in NC but never more than a few days in a row and I was younger then. I wasn't as serious about truly thru hiking until now. I'm a very outdoors person but for the last couple years my outdoor experience gas consisted of extended river trips with kayaks along stretches of the new river in WV. I guess I'm wondering where to start with planning such as my stops on the trial do I plan my stops ahead of time? I know I'm a hammock sleeper that's what I've always used. How theoretically possibly is it for a new thru hiker to go super light with gear? How to get the best deal on gear? It's a lot I know but I'm a little OCD about over planning.

[Hill Ape]

re: town stops, http://theatguide.com/PlanNobo2010-15.html tells you how many days of food you'll need between resupply at an average pace. you'll start slower than that, then at some point you'll be beyond the average pace. there are three spreadsheets on that site with different MPDs. but mostly, it just works itself out. the trail will tell you, it's funny like that. the trail doesn't really care what you planned, it will impose its will on you, you will roll with it
re: ultralight its not just theoretically possible, its proven, with repeatable results. easiest way to start is with the heavy items; pack, tent, bag/top quilt, bed roll/underquilt (hangers have a different set up than ground sleepers) and carry less than half of the clothes you probably want too. beyond that, gram weenies start cutting down their toothbrush, or tossing it completely, that sort of thing. its impossible to advise someone on that, we all find our own happy medium.
re: deals, shop around, research every single piece of gear from your skin out
don't stress it too much. 3-4 days into the hike you'll get to neels gap. the store there, (you can't miss it, the trail goes right through the building) is a traditional spot to drop all the gear you realize you don't use or want to carry. winston and crew there are happy to shakedown your pack, they take a gleeful approach to tossing things aside, they are all thru hikers, trust them
its all been distilled down to an exact science. there is a reason thru hikers all gear up so similarly. but your gear doesn't hike the trail for you. it can help you, and it can hurt. one of the more famous trail legends hiked with a pillow case thrown over her shoulder as a backpack.
hike your own hike, happy trails