This post presupposes that taking the publication "Awol on the Appalachian Trail" guide is a reasonable and good idea, so please feel free to critique that as well.

The main questions here is, paper or digital? I'll have my phone already and carrying a digital version seems like an easy way to save weight (and a little money). What do you think the upside and downsides are? My biggest concern is just having to look at my phone a lot (even if it's on airplane mode) because a subgoal of the trip is to be somewhat disconnected. I'm not particularly worried about my phone dying and being left without a map since as many people pointed out here it's a pretty well-trodden path (should I be?).

Has anyone who has done this, or thought about doing this and decided not to, comment on how it worked out or why they didn't?