Datto's Top Ten Tips for 2017 Thru-hikers In-Planning


10) Bring disposable earplugs and put new earplugs into your maildrops -- lots of people on the AT snore loudly (way louder than you can possibly imagine while sitting in your living room planning your AT thru-hike) -- this is in shelters as well as when they are camped out next to your tent/tarp.

9) Bring four small screw-in hooks from a hardware store and some twine -- some shelters are oriented for view rather than weather so wind and rain pour into the shelter day and night -- string your tent/tarp across the front of the shelter with the hooks/twine in order to block the wind, snow and rain in Georgia/NC and to keep the terrible cold out when you're in Maine. You may be telling yourself from your living room that you won't be staying in shelters but that's not likely, particularly in the beginning (while you're adapting to trail life) and at the end when you're trying to make miles in bad weather through very difficult terrain.

8) Gear will not get you to Katadin so stop focusing so much on gear -- if you're a person who likes to be prepared, there's no better preparation for thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail than to do overnight hikes in the rain and/or snow (anywhere) while carrying your full backpack (carry food, water, gear -- everything) -- hike eight miles per day before camping for the night on your prep hike -- don't do car camping and think that will be helping you. During the last six months prior to starting your AT thru-hike you should be hiking overnight two weekends every month and should have had at least one week-long trip where you've hiked at least forty miles under your belt. If you have a treadmill, carry your backpack on your treadmill -- when you get to the point where you can sustain 6% upslope at 3.0 miles per hour for 45 minutes straight while carrying your full backpack the entire tie, you're probably physically ready for the start of your AT thru-hike. Mentally -- well that's the biggest challenge of an AT thru-hike and that's why hiking in the rain and snow during your prep hikes is useful and important.

7) The two toughest parts of the Appalachian Trail are 1) New Hampshire/Maine and 2) Georgia/North Carolina. If you're going to hike on the AT prior to starting your AT thru-hike in order to see if you're ready, pick one of those areas. There's a very good chance yours will be handed to you and you'll return home with a much better understanding of what you'll be undertaking with an AT thru-hike.

6) During your AT thru-hike, don't take the Aquablaze -- why would you go through all the trouble and expense and life/career-risk to give up your thru-hike just to go on a canoe trip? Why not drive down the highway and throw fistfulls of cash out the window on the way to a canoe trip -- that'll save you the time, money and career risk of an AT thru-hike and you can just return to your existing job on Monday.

5) Information from AT Profile maps and the information from the AT data book are the most important pieces of information to utilize on an AT thru-hike. Next in importance would be town information. All the rest is a nice-to-have information. Geez, don't spend any money or time getting a GPS or GPS software for your phone. In some places on the Trail, the white blazes are literally fifty feet apart. It is literally laughable to see someone using a GPS on the Appalachian Trail.

4) If you will only take your phone out of Airplane Mode every other day, the difference in immersion will be the difference between computer speakers and Bose 5.1. Use your phone for music, pics, recording your thoughts if you want, on-board logistic planning. Constant connection to the Internet will so water down your AT experience and connection to the natural world you might as well stay home and save the money and life-risk for something else rather than an AT hike.

3) If you're wanting to bring your dog on your AT thru-hike (because you have no place to keep your dog while hiking or your relationship is close with your dog), you can make it work on an AT thru-hike if you will do two things; 1) always camp in your tent/tarp every single night without exception and never stay overnight in a shelter and 2) Never take your dog -- even once -- into a shelter during the day. It's this simple -- no one wants your muddy-azz dog. If you think you can impose your dog on others in a shelter, you are sorely mistaken. However, if you will be responsible with your dog, other hikers will grow to like you and your dog. Keep in mind bringing your dog along with you on an AT thru-hike will almost double the challenge of an AT thru-hike for you -- extra logistics, extra food, your pack weight, wear on the dog and common dog injury, extra expense -- all the things that have escaped your brain because you're not thinking things through. Is taking on the challenge of an AT thru-hike not enough for you? There's only a 15% chance you'll complete your thru-hike and that's for people who don't bring a dog along. Completing an AT thru-hike with a dog where you hike past every blaze and walk end-to-end in a continuous journal is tough enough -- bringing a dog along on an AT thru-hike will almost guarantee you'll not be finshing and will be going home early. Why don't you and your dog just take a road trip out west instead?

2) If possible, plan to take thirty calendar days after completing your AT thru-hike before returning to work. Sitting at home right now, you're not going to believe the difficulty you will face when transitioning from an AT thru-hike back into everyday Society. Use that post-hike thirty days to gather up your table manners (I'm laughing as I write this) as well as the time necessary to realize not many back in Society want to hear about the Appalachian Trail as much as you are going to want to talk about your thru-hike when you return from the Appalachian Trail.

1) An AT thru-hike where you walk past every blaze, enjoy town stops, take about six-months to complete will cost you $5,000 door to door, not including gear replenishment along the Trail. If you plan to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail with less, you're wildly fooling yourself.


Datto