View Full Version : any advice?
charliethruhike
09-06-2013, 15:40
So next summer I am hiking the Appalachian Trail, and writing about it on my blog (http://noviceallthings.blogspot.com)! What I am looking for are things that most experienced hikers know, that it would help everyone to know! also anything that you see as "I wish I had known that".
I can guarantee that you will get all the answers you will ever want on here, many of them conflicting.
I am just a weekend section hiker and I don't know what your background is, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
Above all else, match your expectations with you abilities! You will see a lot of posts on here about how they do 20+ miles a day or how this section or that section was easy. When you start hiking don't do more than your abilities allow. If you can hike 20+ a day great, but dont think you need to just becasue someone else told you you should.
Also keep your pack reasonably light, you will enjoy yourself much more if you only pack what you need.
Welcome to WB!
hikerboy57
09-06-2013, 16:02
you might also want to check out trail journals.com. there are plenty of people who have completed the at or are still on trail. you can benefit from thier experience as well as ours.
also, check out the articles here on the home page., plenty of stats, info on resupply, etc.
welcome to wb.
You plan on bringing dogs?
FarmerChef
09-06-2013, 16:51
Biggest thing I wish I knew was to "do as the Romans do." Even as a section hiker, the more I adopted what Thru's did the easier it became. How did I learn? By being on the trail, the same way you'll be as you get started. Read lots of trailjournals journals - look for the ones with lots of entries, you'll get more detailed descriptions that way. Don't sweat it too much, just take it slow in the beginning and let it ride. Enjoy yourself, don't plan every day weeks in advance. Your plans WILL change once you hit the trail on the first day. It will not be all roses and posies. That much you know. But it will be much harder than you could imagine some times and much easier others. Just take what the traill gives you on a day to day basis. Don't fight it. The trail always wins. ;) Most people out there are good and want to help you. Be polite, respectful, courteous and kind and you will get the same if not more in return. That's all I got right now. Hope it helps.
Slo-go'en
09-06-2013, 18:11
Keep in mind that very, very few dogs have completed a thru hike. Starting out with a dog also greatly reduces the chances of your finishing a thru hike. Much has been said on this subject here on WB and much more will be said, maybe in this thread now that the subject has come up.
I know, your dog is different and your *sure* he can do it. Right. That's what they all say and soon find out different. Besides the long term physical challenges for the dog, finding places to stay in town and getting things done is a lot more difficult, time consuming and expensive then if you were alone. From a simple logistics view, Fido greatly complicates your life. If your serious about doing a thru hike, leave Fido home or have a plan to get him home when the time comes, as it will come.
Other than that, don't start too early, pack as light as possible and have more then enough money stashed away.
Odd Man Out
09-06-2013, 18:19
... don't plan every day weeks in advance. Your plans WILL change once you hit the trail on the first day....
Or as it is often suggested here - write out a detailed plan for your hike on a piece of paper, then on the first day, use that as a fire starter.
johnnybgood
09-06-2013, 18:34
In other words, enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
hikerboy57
09-06-2013, 18:35
outside of moldy, where did the dog come from, didnt see any mention of a dog in the op
ams212001
09-06-2013, 18:39
outside of moldy, where did the dog come from, didnt see any mention of a dog in the op
His blog has numerous posts about his dog and talks about them doing the trail together.
Sarcasm the elf
09-06-2013, 18:43
Keep in mind that very, very few dogs have completed a thru hike. Starting out with a dog also greatly reduces the chances of your finishing a thru hike. Much has been said on this subject here on WB and much more will be said, maybe in this thread now that the subject has come up.
I know, your dog is different and your *sure* he can do it. Right. That's what they all say and soon find out different. Besides the long term physical challenges for the dog, finding places to stay in town and getting things done is a lot more difficult, time consuming and expensive then if you were alone. From a simple logistics view, Fido greatly complicates your life. If your serious about doing a thru hike, leave Fido home or have a plan to get him home when the time comes, as it will come.
Other than that, don't start too early, pack as light as possible and have more then enough money stashed away.
While I am one of the most pro-dog folks on this site, everything that slo-go-en said is accurate. While we could sit here and lecture you about various things dog related, I think it's easier to sum it up with this:
(Keep in mind this is general advice, it may or many not all apply to your situation. I'm also mostly listing the negative stuff, since you probably already know all the reasons why it's awesome to have your dog with you.)
- Bringing dogs changes the entire dynamic of your hike, it becomes the dog's hike and it's wellbeing comes first, your hike comes second.
- Don't consider bringing a dog unless you and the dog have backpacked together extensively beforehand. This means doing full or multi-week trips; dayhikes and overnight shakedowns are not sufficient practice for long distance backpacking.
- Have somebody at home that is available to take the dog in and care for it in the event that the dog needs to go home. Also make sure you have a way of getting your dog to this person in the event that your dog cannot continue the hike with you.
- Using a leash will prevent many conflicts in the trail. In my experience about 95% of dogs I've met on the trail (my dog included) weren't trained well enough or didn't have the right temperament to be off leash safely. Unfortunately everyone seems to think that their dog is one of the 5% that is just perfect and this is why so many people bitch about problem dogs on the A.T.
Again, I don't mean to be a downer, but this is a list of the things that will prevent or fix most of the common problems people encounter when hiking with dogs.
Just have fun. That's what its all about.
Sarcasm the elf
09-06-2013, 18:47
Or as it is often suggested here - write out a detailed plan for your hike on a piece of paper, then on the first day, use that as a fire starter.
That's great advice!
Wrote this article as it addresses many of the questions that frequently come up:
http://www.pmags.com/a-quick-and-dirty-guide-to-the-appalachian-trail
Good luck. Be safe. And have fun!
BirdBrain
09-06-2013, 19:12
The biggest lesson that I have learned is that there is no one perfect way to do a hike. That was hard for me to except. Many will proclaim their way to be the best and that other people's ways are BS. Ignore the noise. Find what works for you. Be open to every reasonable tip. Be ready to change everything once you have a week or 2 on the trail behind you. You won't know what works for you until you have actually hiked some distance. It is wise to plan as best you can and try to limit the snags. However, there will be snags. It is all part of the adventure.
kayak karl
09-06-2013, 22:46
everything i planned for didn't happen. everything that happened was not planned. surprise surprise. :)
charliethruhike
09-11-2013, 11:07
A lot of great advice! is there anyone on here that would be opposed to being quoted in a post on my blog? Negativistic stuff is good too because I definitely already understand a lot of the positive side of having a dog in the wilderness with you.
Tipi Walter
09-11-2013, 12:31
Here are some things---
** Start sleeping outside in your backyard and get used to using a sleeping pad, either an inflatable or a foam. It takes several days---a week---to get used to sleeping on the ground.
** If you're doing a summer hike, go ahead and get a headnet now. Sea to Summit sells a good one.
** Keep sleeping outside in the yard or on a deck or patio.
Any advice?You might consider but do not take everyone's advice!
You don't need the perfect or ideal gear set-up/rain jacket, etc(whatever that means?), hiking philosophy(whatever that means?), itinerary(whatever that means?), hiking budget(whatever that means?), trail diet(whatever that means?), etc to happily thru-hike the AT. All these things and a great many other things are constantly evolving as it pertains to yourself and to others. What is right FOR YOU at the beginning of your hike will change as you continue on your thru-hike. Embrace that! You will evolve as a hiker as you are evolving as a human being. What you can use is a great amount of laughter, flexibility, adaptability, commitment, independence that necessitates a greater responsibility for your actions and lifestyle, and being a good manager of yourself and your hike. Being a good manager is required of all who complete thru-hikes. This includes managing not only logistics but your body and especially what goes on between your ears. You do not and can not know all that will take place on your hike. Don't try to do this as you'll probably wind up getting hung up in the minutiae. and get overwhelmed. Get comfortable managing being outside your present comfort zones especially as it pertains to your thought processes. Walking around town in the rain w/ your pack on, sleeping outside in your shelter, practicing walking(sounds silly but if you don't enjoy LOTS AND LOTS of walking for long hrs(10 + hrs) WHEN YOU'RE NOT GOING BACK TO A HOUSE W/IT'S CONVENIENCES WHEN THE WALKING IS OVER FOR THAT DAY you will have a difficult time doing a thru-hike), abstaining from electronics(TV, internet, AC, ph., etc), preparing and eating at home what you will eat on the trail, getting familiar with all your gear(practice using your stove, setting up your shelter, adjusting and geting used to wearing a backpack for 10 hrs /day, etc), etc can all help.
ENJOY the journey. Staying in the moment not living in the future and not reliving the past is helpful FOR ME in this regard. Maybe, it can help you too.
Carefully read through AND CONSIDER and then reconsider what Slo-go-en and STE wrote about taking along a dog on a thru-hike.
charliethruhike
09-11-2013, 17:36
So just to recap what seems to be the highlights:
Find what works best for you.
Start camping outside, hiking and walking long distances, anything that will help you acclimate to the conditions you will run into on the Appalachian trail. This goes for your dog too.
Live in the moment.
Have fun.
Have a back up plan in case your dog needs to leave before you do.
Anytime you plan to stay in town, realize a lot of places probably won't allow your dog. Plan Accordingly.
Everyone thinks their dog is the best behaved dog and the best dog for the Appalachian Trail, but make sure this is really true!
Leashes stop a lot of headaches.
Consider everyone's advice, but make sure you find what works best for you!
I think that sums it up. Did I miss any?
May I suggest to take a woman with you on your AT thru-hike instead of a trusty dog? Might become a much better intellectual and stimulative companion and lead to something more lasting. Of course, that's just one man's opinion of course.
So, about Virginia someplace on my AT thru-hike, just south of Dragon's Tooth. I'm sitting at the edge of a shelter alone, contemplating whether I should stop for the day in the overwhelming incessant heat or continue on to make more miles for the day.
Just then, a gorgeous runway model appears at the shelter. One from Tampa/St. Pete she says. Stands out in front of the shelter, looking at me wearing the skimpiest of shorts and top.
I'm thinking it's an hallucination in the Virginia heat. Wouldn't be the first AT thru-hiker to have a heatstroke.
Then she says to me, "Are you one of those thru-hikers?"
Well yeah, it's a heatstroke, for sure.
It was the second time on my AT thru-hike where I looked to the sky and said, "Thank you. Now about that ice cream..."
Screamer showed up a few minutes later and stared at her for the rest of the night. Heh, it wasn't just Screamer. Musta been a dozen AT thru-hikers showed up at the shelter and tried to stop staring.
Just saying you know....
Datto
:) LOL. I don't know if that's a good or bad piece of advice Datto. Best story I read all day. I can't imagine what Tiger Woods goes through when the Scandinavian Swimsuit Models Team show up at one of his golfing events. After that plea to the heavens for ice cream what if she had pulled out an ice cream and said, "wanna share this?" After reading your post i think I'll need some Magic City or Doll House entertainment in Atlanta tonite.
:) Doll House entertainment in Atlanta tonite.
There's always the Double Divas here. Might even make it on-air. Ha.
Datto
I was just recollecting about that night with the runway model from Tampa/St. Pete.
Boy, some pain.
A woman, thru-hiker, 21 or so, pretty, very smart, attractive, had made it all the way from Springer to Dragon's Tooth, VA -- who had lived less than a mile from me in Fort Wayne, Indiana before our thru-hikes of the Appalachian Trail. She had come into the campsite that same night as the runway model and was in such terrible pain.
She and I had never met in person back in Indiana -- just had talked via email. It had taken a storm in Grayson Highlands, Virginia to allow the chance for the both of us to have met in person in the middle of the driving rain on a rock during our AT thru-hikes.
She had some into the camp that night in such pain. I had sat with her at her tent -- she had said to me that she'd thought her hike was over. I'd had asked her why and she had said that her knees had just hurt too bad to continue.
I had asked her if she was taking any Vitamin I and she had said yes, she had. I'd asked her if it was the over-the counter type or the prescription and she had said it was the prescription strength.
Pre-hike, she had been so excited about taking on an AT thru-hike. As if it had been a right-of-passage for her. Maybe it was.
I had tried to talk her into taking a few days off and sitting in town and just resting. She had been trying to keep up with the people she'd been enjoying company with and that "keeping up" had stretched her beyond her physical limits.
I don't think anything I could have said would have made her continue. But I wanted to try to talk her out of leaving the Trail anyhow.
It had been just too much for her to bear. She'd had a terrible depression about it all.
I would see that many times all the way into Maine. People would say they can't go on and I would ask them why? Why they would have gone this far and not, well, have adapted or succumbed or something. I would see grown men and women in tears about not being able to continue -- for whatever reason.
I'd tell them it's just short-term. They could continue on if they could just get past whatever the current hump was at the moment. Try to get them out of their funk and back to enjoying their time on the Trail.
Sometimes it would work. Most of the time I would be too late for them.
A guy in Connecticut -- he and I would meet up at some General Store out in the boonies. I'd thought highly of him because he had talked through a nasty confrontation I'd had with a day hiker who'd had their dog eating my viddles one evening. He seemed to be level headed and a leader-type and I respected him for that. He'd told me a story about another hiker I'd had a friendship with who had gotten terribly injured and me, being up ahead of that incident, hadn't heard about it before then even though the incident had happened more than 1,000 miles beforehand. How the other injured hiker had just, well, continued on like the rest of us would learn to adapt and adjust and continue northward regardless of condition.
At the General Store, he'd told me he didn't think he could carry on anymore. That the suck of home was too much and he being from Connecticut was just too strong for him to continue northward. I'd tried to talk him out of it was we sat at that table -- me eating ice cream, him eating a donut. I told he we couldn't have come this far without having gone to the finish.
We would meet again I'm guessing, a month later. At the base of Katahdin. He would go up Katahdin in a raging storm with his daughter and would decide, way up at the Tablelands, to turn back in that raging storm so his daughter would not risk her life for his cause. He would again be in tears when I would arrive the next day, with my ascent of Katahdin coming ahead. Telling me how he'd wished it had not been so difficult, so risky, to have gone up Katahdin. He would finish his AT thru-hike at that point and not return to Katahdin again.
I remember thinking to myself -- what it must be like for people to reach this point and not be able to go up to the sign.
Wow, I am so fortunate.
Datto
Thru-hiking is all about the gear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3SFqV0hMyo
Old Hiker
09-13-2013, 22:40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepFO4psgKE
Had to be said.
Unless you do this for a living (Sherpa), be prepared to WORK. Take Motrin or some other ibuprofen. Pain will go away. Plans will fail. You will not.
Unless you slip in the mud and sprain/crack your ankle. :) Just sayin'.
I remember meeting up with an AT thru-hiker who had done 25 mile days through the 100 mile wilderness in order to complete a thru-hike and return to a job on-time with the agreed upon six-month leave of absence.
I had done, what I review, as being a 17 mile longest day though that most difficult terrain of the 100 mile wilderness and think to myself what consecutive 25 mile days must have been like.
Datto
I think there are fundamentally two ways people get ready to hike the AT-One, the go to REI, buy a bunch of stuff and start hiking. The other, they research and plan everything. Each can succeed, but I am in the planning school. Send me a pm and I will forward my extensive gear lists, food lists and calorie requirements and a physical training program. I completed 1,000 mi. in 2010.
So next summer I am hiking the Appalachian Trail, and writing about it on my blog (http://noviceallthings.blogspot.com)! What I am looking for are things that most experienced hikers know, that it would help everyone to know! also anything that you see as "I wish I had known that".
Keep its simple:
1. Read Mags stuff.
2. Read this. Three times over. http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/THP_top.html
3. Spend time reading about the natural history (tracks and scat, birds, stars etc) and history of and along the trial rather than watching repeats of Duck Dynasty again and again.
Get out there few weekends sooner rather than later. Screw all the journals.
May I suggest to take a woman with you on your AT thru-hike instead of a trusty dog? Might become a much better intellectual and stimulative companion and lead to something more lasting. Of course, that's just one man's opinion of course.
LOL! A girlfriend is also a much better hitchhiking partner than a dog :)
LOL! A girlfriend is also a much better hitchhiking partner than a dog :)
Gross generalization. It depends upon the specific girlfriend and the specific dog. :)
MuddyWaters
09-15-2013, 09:00
Do a few multi day shakedown trips first, on strenuous terrain.
Pack light.
Buy only high quality, light weight gear that wont let you down
Be in shape
Its just walking 3-5 day sections, consecutively.
Its been done by old people, blind people, disabled people, children, etc.
Most people make it difficult for themselves. Of course, most people are in pitiful physical shape as well.
LOL! A girlfriend is also a much better hitchhiking partner than a dog :)
You are certainly right about that -- I can attest to the advantages of hiking with a girl. I would still be sitting with my thumb out on the PCT today, trying to get to my maildrop.
Of course, even when you hike with a woman you still have to explain the bees getting in the car with you when a driver stops to pick up the both of you.
"Are those your bees?"
"Why yes. They follow me everywhere I go. They'll be okay until we get to town."
True story. I would get out of the tent in the morning, the bees would be waiting there for me. I'd stand up and they'd hover around my face saying, "Are you getting up? Are you getting up? When are you going to start hiking? When are you hiking? Are you going into town today? Are you going into town? Is that a Pop-tart?"
These were the nice bees. They'd just light on my shirt and take a ride with me for miles. Asked questions all day long.
It was the forty or so mean bees that stung me in the face coming down from Fuller Ridge where those African bees had invaded the beekeeper's huts. I couldn't take those bees anywhere with me. Way too much attitude.
Datto