Comparing Sections of the AT

[FinnMelanson]

I will begin a NOBO thru hike a week from today. My only hiking experience on the AT is a 4 day section hike of the 100 mile wilderness in Maine last August. I have heard that the much of the trail down south is manicured, figuratively speaking, in comparison to the New England section of the trail. My thru-hike is pressed for time. I have to finish in 4 months. Is it easier to do big miles down south compared to the north?

[Starchild]

It's easier for big miles down south for sure, Maine is the hardest state (the western part) IMHO.

But since you are on a time constrain consider that most AT record attempts are done SoBo, for various reasons.

One thing to consider, and I don't know if the math really works out, is it takes about 3 weeks to get your 'trail-legs' For me that turned 17 mile days into 25 mile days, so that's 3 weeks at 17 miles per day instead of 25. Under a time constrain it may be better to get one's trail legs up north where miles per day is less, this way you can do the whole south with them.

[Slo-go'en]

The first 400 miles can be a little tough just starting out. People who push too hard in the beginning often have a short hike due to blisters, shin splints, injured knees and so on.

Virginia is where most start to move right along and then slow down again in NH/Maine.

[rafe]

MD and PA, and Shenandoah NP -- are the easiest. Maine and NH are the hardest two states. Georgia and TN/NC have their hard sections. VA has both easy and hard stuff. MA and VT (in my opinion) both relatively easy.

There are gnarly bits everywhere. Eg. people talk about the rocks in PA, but really the rocks are everywhere on the AT. It's just that PA has sections that are a bit extreme in this regard.