Decided to Thru-Hike October-08, Is this too late to prepare?

[Gaza]

Well how on earth do you guys keep your shoes going without running your weigh into 40-50-60lbs? I'm confused about that. Is it pretty easy to buy shoes in the trail towns? Or do you just carry the extras with you? Or just call home when you absolutely have to get some and have friend/family send them to you?

[bigcranky]

Well how on earth do you guys keep your shoes going without running your weigh into 40-50-60lbs? I'm confused about that. Is it pretty easy to buy shoes in the trail towns? Or do you just carry the extras with you? Or just call home when you absolutely have to get some and have friend/family send them to you?

Are you talking about replacing your trail shoes when they wear out? Sure, you can buy new shoes in many places along the AT. Or you can buy several pairs and have someone at home mail them to you as needed.

[fancyfeet]

to WB! Yeah, pretty much what everyone said...get your gear, try it out, get in shape. You can plan a hike to death. Being prepared is important, of course, but I found that most of the things I planned on went out the window once I started.

If I was laid off tomorrow, I would put my stuff in storage and be hiking somewhere with a week.

[Slimer]

I planned it in about 8 hours. Very little planning is needed for an AT thru-hike.
Just get some good gear and start walking.

[whitelightning]

Well how on earth do you guys keep your shoes going without running your weigh into 40-50-60lbs? I'm confused about that. Is it pretty easy to buy shoes in the trail towns? Or do you just carry the extras with you? Or just call home when you absolutely have to get some and have friend/family send them to you?

I may not understand your question concerning the weight. However, if I'm interpreting your question the way big cranky has I would not reccomend buying several pairs of shoes/boots to send to yourself BEFORE YOUR HIKE. I did this and I regret it now. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though. I bought and extra pair of boots and spent time breaking them in so they could be sent to me on the trail when needed. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to Hiawassee, GA my feet had swollen in ways that caused my boots to no longer fit properly. I had terrible blisters and had to get off trail for a few days and find different boots. Not the end of the world, but I did spend money on an extra pair of boots that don't fit now.

There are outfitters along the trail that can help you with new footwear. Or if you are confident a particular shoe will work for you, have it shipped ahead to a post office near the trail. Just wait til you've been on the trail for awhile and have a better idea of what will fit. I wore out 3 pairs of boots on my thruhike this year. Two of those pairs I ordered from REI and had shipped to me when I needed them. I did this to avoid arriving at a outfitter in need of new footwear only to find out they did not have what I needed i.e. wrong size, shoe, etc. Good Luck to you.

[Old Goat]

It doesn't matter how much you plan and prepare you'll learn many along the way and make changes. You will not hike and camp the same as you did in the beginning after a few weeks. I've seen many hikers buy new gear on the trail, myself included (new backpack in Front Royal,VA. @1000 miles into my hike). Be open minded to what you see and adapt the things you like discard the ones you don't like.

Reading these forums is a good start.

[Haiku]

I could thru-hike the AT with one day's notice. As others have said, just take enough food to get you to the next town. Besides that, all you really need is a trail guide. If you're not sure of gear, it will work itself out on the trail. You go through Walasi-Yi, which is a great outfitter. Hot Springs and Damascus both have good outfitters. By then you should have everything dialed in. Just make sure to have at least a few thousand dollars in the bank (you could probably do it for less than $4,000 but you don't want to have to worry, do you?).

Haiku.

Haiku.

[Bigagnes]

I've got most of my gear...all I gotta do now is figure out how to braid my own hair. Yesssssss.

[Mikiniki]

I'm more in the hole than you are, I just decided to commit to this hike 2 days after christmas. From what I can tell...we are going to be just fine. I def. agree with whoever said that we make work to fill up the time....very true, and that actually helped me stop stressing!

[Tudor]

I'm more in the hole than you are, I just decided to commit to this hike 2 days after christmas. From what I can tell...we are going to be just fine. I def. agree with whoever said that we make work to fill up the time....very true, and that actually helped me stop stressing!

Decided tonite to do a NOBO thru. Lost my job, among other things, so its a perfect time to finish what I started 5 years ago. Remeber the Pareto principle: 80% of an outcome comes from 20% of the actions. No stresses.

[superman]

Lots of people hike the AT a transitional point in their life. Some times the time on the trail is well spent and the person moves on with their life. Other times it is just active avoidance. Welcome to the club.