Planned daily mileage in GA next year?

[Doughnut]

I am with Max Patch, I too planned on Hawk Mountain the first night, got there at noon, and humped to Justis Creek the first day. From then on, the itinerary was out the window. Let the terrain, your body and water dictate your miles. Also, if you want to stop and enjoy a view or Long Creek Falls, do it, there is no time table.

Dough Nut

[Kirby]

I plan on Stover Creek for my first night on trail, including the Approach Trail, thats 10-11 miles. Then I will most likely end up at Gooch Mountain Shelter then. After that is hard to say, depends on how I feel, and where I actually end up in the first couple of nights. I may be 16, but I will still take my time easin into trail life, I want to enjoy my hike, and not regret starting out to fast, once I am in hiking shape, I have confidence I can pull any milage I feel to a certain extent.

4.5 months to go!
Kirby
30-5-2

[SGT Rock]

I plan on Stover Creek for my first night on trail, including the Approach Trail, thats 10-11 miles. Then I will most likely end up at Gooch Mountain Shelter then. After that is hard to say, depends on how I feel, and where I actually end up in the first couple of nights. I may be 16, but I will still take my time easin into trail life, I want to enjoy my hike, and not regret starting out to fast, once I am in hiking shape, I have confidence I can pull any milage I feel to a certain extent.

4.5 months to go!
Kirby
30-5-2

Hey Kirby - I thought you were hiking with a group that sets the itinerary? Did I miss something?

[Kirby]

Hey Kirby - I thought you were hiking with a group that sets the itinerary? Did I miss something?

I am hiking with a group, and that is where the group intends to most likely end up, and they know the itinerary is done within 48 hours. I have confidence that these are the shelters where we will end up at the end of the first two days. After the itinerary is done, we as a group decide where to go. Either way, I will end up at Katahdin. But, yes, I am hiking with a group, but a very flexible one at that.

Kirby

[SGT Rock]

I am hiking with a group, and that is where the group intends to most likely end up, and they know the itinerary is done within 48 hours. I have confidence that these are the shelters where we will end up at the end of the first two days. After the itinerary is done, we as a group decide where to go. Either way, I will end up at Katahdin. But, yes, I am hiking with a group, but a very flexible one at that.

Kirby

So does your group plan to go with Shelters as the target for stops? And do you have the option to say "Well that sounds nice, but I would like to tent about 1/2 mile up the trail at this nice overlook"?

[Kirby]

So does your group plan to go with Shelters as the target for stops? And do you have the option to say "Well that sounds nice, but I would like to tent about 1/2 mile up the trail at this nice overlook"?

I am thinking we can camp where we please as a group, right now, in the start, it is shelter hopping, but if I know of a nice spot to camp ahead of time that is not marked on the maps, and it will hold 4 people, I am cofident the group will move on. Since we are four people, at least three of us are committed to giving up our spots in shelters if shelters are full and all of us are in there. I do not want the group I am with to ruin anyone else's experience, nor do I want to be in a group that has other hikers saying "they are ignorant, taking up the whole shelter and not give up any room". The organizers are very flexible with the way things go, as long as all of us are in the same vicinity sleeping, everything should be good.

Thanks for the questions S. Rock,
Kirby
30-5-2

[Sly]

Most people don't stay in shelters in GA, they're all full.

[Kirby]

Most people don't stay in shelters in GA, they're all full.

I wonder what time of day you need to get to a shelter to get a shelter spot in Georgia..

Hmm,
Kirby
30-5-2

[SGT Rock]

I am thinking we can camp where we please as a group, right now, in the start, it is shelter hopping, but if I know of a nice spot to camp ahead of time that is not marked on the maps, and it will hold 4 people, I am cofident the group will move on. Since we are four people, at least three of us are committed to giving up our spots in shelters if shelters are full and all of us are in there. I do not want the group I am with to ruin anyone else's experience, nor do I want to be in a group that has other hikers saying "they are ignorant, taking up the whole shelter and not give up any room". The organizers are very flexible with the way things go, as long as all of us are in the same vicinity sleeping, everything should be good.

Thanks for the questions S. Rock,
Kirby
30-5-2

Thanks Kirby. I am sort of interested from the group dynamic end of this. I can see benefits and drawbacks to a group hike and just wonder how those would be handled. One of the big ones of course is where you are going to camp and camping styles.

Using myself as an example, if I were in such a group I wouldn't want to always be tied into a group decision about where exactly to stay based on my own experience with the trail. So say if the group wants to stay at an overlook but you wanted to just stay at the shelter which is within a half mile - that is nothing in walking distance. Or if it were the other way around where the group wants to go to the shelter but it misses an obviously cool tent spot in doing so - how far are your boundaries in hiking your own hike while still maintaining your group affiliation. It may not be an issue to you at all where you stay, or it may not be now but you will probably find your tastes eventually changing over time while others can also change - and those may not be compatible at all times.

I hope you don't take this as knocking your hike or group either. I think you guys will do fine and I do not mean to stir any discord...

Anyway, in the Army leadership schools it isn't all shooting and marching. One of the things I have studied and applies for years is group dynamics at the small group level and I can say with 100% assurance you will have some friction in the group and I am sort of wondering how experienced the leader(s) of your party are at handling that and if they have put some "allowances" in for this in how they are doing their plan. I for one wouldn't want to try to lead a group of any type for 2,175 miles because the challenges of this area alone are pretty high. I think you will probably learn through practice some dynamics of small group interaction.

[rafe]

I wonder what time of day you need to get to a shelter to get a shelter spot in Georgia..

Fuhgeddaboudit. Don't make yourself crazy that way. You're going to be fighting crowded shelters all the way to Damascus or beyond.

Plan on tenting. If you like company, camp somewhere near the shelter.

This issue, BTW, is one that section hikers can easily avoid, simply by avoiding the "wave" of thru-hikers. I had the opposite problem on this year's hike -- on those nights where I stayed in shelters, I was alone most of the time.

[SGT Rock]

Yes, I missed your follow up. Plan a shelter as an aim point but don't plan on actually sleeping in them. I don't know your group's composition in ages/genders - but sleeping away from shelters is probably a good idea for anyone LOL.

[Kirby]

SGT Rock:
Thanks for the questions, and I do not take the questions in any type of bashing way. In the end, I am my own person, if I find a cool campsite that is not where we intended to camp, I will ask the group if that is a place where we could camp, or if it is a place where I could camp and catch up the following morning. I prefer to camp with other people so I may find tenting or sleeping in shelters is they way for me, but who knows. I refuse to let this group ruin my hike, it will not happen. Worse comes to worse, I will break way from them and move forward on my own. They can not force me to stay with them, I am under no contractual obligation to hike with them the whole way, I only signed a paper releasing them of all liability, thats all. I would like to think I will enjoy camping with them, and that I would want to camp where they do, however, there will most likely be days where I need a break, it may just be I need a day to hike on my own without being near them for a while, and I will let them know. My hike will not be destroyed or hurt because of this group.

Thanks for the questions Rock,
Kirby
30-5-2

[SGT Rock]

SGT Rock:
Thanks for the questions, and I do not take the questions in any type of bashing way. In the end, I am my own person, if I find a cool campsite that is not where we intended to camp, I will ask the group if that is a place where we could camp, or if it is a place where I could camp and catch up the following morning. I prefer to camp with other people so I may find tenting or sleeping in shelters is they way for me, but who knows. I refuse to let this group ruin my hike, it will not happen. Worse comes to worse, I will break way from them and move forward on my own. They can not force me to stay with them, I am under no contractual obligation to hike with them the whole way, I only signed a paper releasing them of all liability, thats all. I would like to think I will enjoy camping with them, and that I would want to camp where they do, however, there will most likely be days where I need a break, it may just be I need a day to hike on my own without being near them for a while, and I will let them know. My hike will not be destroyed or hurt because of this group.

Thanks for the questions Rock,
Kirby
30-5-2

Your going to do OK Kirby. I hope to see your group out there at some point to see how it is going. Don't be afraid if this old man pulls you off to the side to ask how it is going. But then again, I may be miles up the trail and never see you - and that would be a loss for me.

Take it easy. And enjoy your new screen name.

[Kirby]

Your going to do OK Kirby. I hope to see your group out there at some point to see how it is going. Don't be afraid if this old man pulls you off to the side to ask how it is going. But then again, I may be miles up the trail and never see you - and that would be a loss for me.

Take it easy. And enjoy your new screen name.

Depends on how many zeros you take, and how fast my group moves, I will be sure to look for your entries in the shelter journals.

Thanks for changing ny screen name,
Kirby
30-5-2

[Appalachian Tater]

It is hard to sleep in crowded shelters for all of the obvious reasons like being elbow-to-elbow and getting whacked by the person next to you, if they don't end up with their feet in your face. They make noise and smell.* There will always be one person who gets up an hour before everybody else. It doesn't matter whether or not they try to be quiet, they will wake you up. And that's after somebody got up every hour to pee all night. If your fellow humans aren't enough to discourage you, mice, racoons, porcupines, snakes, spiders, wasps, etc. all love shelters.

It's also a good way to catch a cold or the flu, particularly in Georgia where so many people have come together from all over the country.

It can be nice to camp near the shelter to enjoy the water source, comraderie, picnic table, fire pit, bear cable, privy, etc. You'll still need earplugs.

Out of courtesy to others, a group of four really should not be relying on shelters at all; at many shelters you would take up half (or even more) of the spots.

On the other hand, you should try to stay in some shelters just for the experience. There are some shelters that will accomodate a couple of dozen people and there are times when no one else is around. Maybe an early March start will be different from a mid-March start, but I doubt you'll see more than a couple of empty shelters until you get up in Virginia.


*Most hikers smell but you will encounter a few with such a gut-wrenching body odor that you feel like vomiting.

[Kirby]

Appalachian Tater:
If all four of us sleep in a shelter that will be full for the night, and another hiker comes along, we plan, one by one, to move out of the shelter to accomodate the hikers who want the shelters, comes with being in a group, I like tenting better, I sleep like an angel in my tent.

Kirby
30-5-2

[Appalachian Tater]

Appalachian Tater:
If all four of us sleep in a shelter that will be full for the night, and another hiker comes along, we plan, one by one, to move out of the shelter to accomodate the hikers who want the shelters, comes with being in a group, I like tenting better, I sleep like an angel in my tent.

Kirby
30-5-2

Shelters aren't all bad, most of the shelters I stayed in were in Maine, usually there were very few other people. Nothing like getting to a shelter in the late afternoon rain, calling it quits for the day, and having it all to yourself!

I sleep better in my tent than I do at home.

[map man]

Stranger, at the risk of giving you a lot more information than you want, here is how some thru-hikers have hiked that section in the recent past:

Based on thru-hikers who keep journals at trailjournals.com, the mean and median number of days to hike Georgia for a NOBO thru-hiker is 8 days and that translates to 9.4 miles per day and 10.0 miles per hiking day (excluding zero days). The middle 80% of completing thru-hikers (excluding the fastest and slowest 10 percent) take between 5.7 and 9.7 days to hike Georgia and that translates to between 7.8 and 13.2 miles per day for this mainstream bunch of hikers (to give a realistic range).

Of course, only around 20% of hikers starting from Springer intending to thru-hike actually do it, and if I had to guess I would say this larger population of INTENDING thru-hikers probably hikes Georgia slightly slower, but I have no data to back that up.

I got all these figures from "AT Hiking Rates, Section by Section," and its accompanying thread, in the articles section (sorry, my pathetic computer skills won't let me provide a link here to the article).

[stranger]

Thanks for all the info but I was just curious to what the Class of 2008 was planning on doing through GA - wasn't really looking for advice. I've hiked through GA twice, so know the terrain well and I will be in strong trail shape by 9 April, I'm not worried about my own mileage, I'll be outta Georgia on day 5 or 6.

[SGT Rock]

Yes, but isn't fun where a simple question can take you?