After AT completion

[Easyhiker]

After completion of hiking the AT I am more likely to .......

[EarlyRiser]

hike the at again, and also the other two and possibly more and more and more... you get the point.

[DebW]

I'm planning on the Long Trail next summer, even though I've only finished 300 miles of the AT. (I have reasons for waiting a couple years on the AT.) I've always wanted to do it, and a thru only takes about 3 weeks. A year or two ago I ran across the post below somewhere on the net, and liked it so much I kept a copy. It really makes me want to hike the Long Trail.


Re: After the hike, which one?
by Kilroy 1996
Jan-11-01 3:16am

Hey Howie,

Couldn't help but write when I noticed your plans to southbound the
LT. I Southbounded the LT in September '97 and I'm not too proud to
say this: it kicked the everluvin S#!#T out of me! The LT's version of
Katahdin is a monster hiding under the pseudonym Jay Peak. After that
is some of the toughest ups and downs ANYWHERE.

Of the hikers I met in '97, there were only 8 southbounders I know of
- every one of us agrees it was a HUGE mistake to do it southbound.
Every northbounder we passed said they simply could not believe we
were still doing it - the hike that is. Most of them were dying too.

I can also honestly say that there's nothing on the AT as difficult as
the northern sections of the LT. Nothing. Not one AT thruhiker (myself
included) was anywhere near prepared for what we found - with the
possible exception of native Vermonters. One guy I hiked with had this
to say about the treadway (excerpt from my jurnal), "If it aint
frozen, it's pure muck! If it aint frozen and it aint muck, it's a
solid slab of moss-covered granite a 100 feet high and straight up!
And I do believe the trees are trying to kill me!"

Ok, I feel better now. That being said, the LT is perhaps my favorite
trail ever hiked. It's home to 3 of my top 5 favorite mountains:
Camels Hump, Mt. Mansfield, and Mt Abraham. The shelters on the
northern section are simply fantastic - they're actual cabins with
wood-burning stoves, porches with rocking chairs, awesome views, the
works. When you stand at the Canadian border and look around, there's
... nothing but forest. Forest for days. The north Vermont woods have
a wild feel I've enjoyed in very few places.

Howie, oh Howie, are you in for a great trip! If I wasn't hiking this
year, I'd be jealous! But you might want to consider doing it as a
northbound trip. I really think you'll enjoy it more. The best stuff
is in the north and you'll give yourself a week or so of warmup before
taking a left at the Maine Junction - where the fun starts.

Also, in case you haven't thought of it yet, grab a copy of the LT
Guide put out by the GMC. It's pretty good.

Happy trails, mate!

[Lone Wolf]

Hey Deb. I was a snowmaker at Jay Peak for 10 years. I lived about 3 miles from the end of the LT. I used to snowshoe on the LT in the winter. The blazes were at my ankles! The LT rocks up north!

[Hammock Hanger]

I still have 343 miles of AT to finish ..... August > Oct 2003 >>>

Thru hike Basrtram Trail ..... April 2003

Finish northern half of Long Trail ..... June 2003

Do some section hiking in the Adirondacks ..... June, July, Aug 2003

Colorado Trail 2004

Looks like my hiking plans are made.

Hammock Hanger

[Kerosene]

DebW -- I heartily endorse your desire to thru-hike the LT. I did it with my little brother in August 1979, southbound. I had just graduated from college and spent much of the summer backpacking with future wife, brother and friends. Our first day out the temperatures in the valley soared to 94 degrees, so the climb up North Jay Peak was truly hellacious with millions of big, noisy flies. We heard the rumble of an approaching thunderstorm at the top and scampered down to Laura Woodward Shelter just as the rain started to fall...the first of 22 days with rain out of 26.

Certainly the terrain is tougher up north, but I loved starting up there. I went to grade school in Burlington and skiied over at Bolton Valley and Stowe on weekends. I had always wondered where those Long Trail blazes went to. It's a nice 3-4 week jaunt that I encourage everyone to consider.

I submitted my trail log to Hike Vermont awhile back, posted here.

When I finally finish the AT I'll be in my late-sixties, but I'd really like to tackle the John Muir Trail and possibly the Superior Hiking Trail and Isle Royale.

[Peaks]

So many trails. So little time.

Sure, I'd like to do the AT again, but I'd also like to explore other trails as well.
I've done the LT almost twice now. But, Northfield Lake Placid Trail is on my list, as is finishing the 46er's, New England 4000 footers, and Northeast 115 highest. There's more, but that's only in the next couple of years I hope.

By the way, that northern section of the trail in Vermont is frequently called the "Long and Hard Trail."

[SGT Rock]

I would love to end up a hiker bum. Going from trail to trail. If it weren't for raising a family maybe I could. Maybe I will win the lottery

[Hammock Hanger]

The Northville Placid Trail is very beautiful. We slept on a lake almost every night. Sunsets... Loons... If you are an avivd hiker the terrain is fairly easy. We went 3 days w/o seeing another hiker. Then there was our first nude hiker, a guy @70-80. It was a birthday hike after a summer of camp instruction. LOVED it. Hammock Hanger

[Jumpstart]

We haven't been once since we got back in August. Can't seem to get motivated about going for a hike when it's just one mountain, just one night, just ten miles, etc... Hopefully will be able to shake it by mid winter and get some winter camping in.

[RagingHampster]

I live about 20 minutes from the southern-most point of the long trail. You actually have to start on the appalachian trail for a few miles before coming to the vermont border, where the appalachian and long trail coincede. This is my main place of hiking, the southern long trail. I hiked in the Breadloaf Wilderness, about 2/3 up the long trail, and it was the most brutal up and down muddy rocky hike I have ever done. Started at middlebury gap, hiked to breadloaf mountain, and back. Unbelievably straining. Flies are ridiculus. I used Avon SSS, and then broke out the deet when that didnt work. Water just trickles in the summer, and it's a million degrees out with 200% humidity (really). I'll never hike there in the middle of summer again.

On the other hand, I love places like Camels Hump, Stratton Mountain, Killington, and Mansfield. never went up Jays Peak. Camel's hump has this short side trail that ascends the whole mountain in a little over 2 mi. It's almost all rock, and beats the snot out of you. Hitting it from the long trail is much better...

I would love to hike the whole thing. I think I would take a little more than the 3 weeks to complete the 270 miles though. 3 Weeks would require 13 miles a day not including re-supplying. I would also start northbound in mid-september. Less mud, and you'd get the foliage when you reach Camel's Hump and Mansfield.

Now that I think of it, the southern third of th elong trail isn't that tough. You could easily pound 15miles out a day, and compensate for the difficult north sections. It would definetly be a tight squeeze though!

[Trail Dog]

Climb Mount Everest!!!!

after I complete the AT they tell me I'd have climbed Everest 16 times already!!!!!!

why not do it once for real?

Dog

[Sleepy the Arab]

In the near future, I hope to be hiking some longish trails, but not as long as the AT such as the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway, The Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, the Long Trail, and quite possibly the Cohos Trail and Northville Placid Trail.

In the little-bit-further-off future, I'm thinking of the Allegheny Trail, the Tuscarora Trail and a potential yo-yo of the AT. Off in the quite-distant future, I'm thinking of the Mountain to Sea Trail and, well, just a host of others lurking on this half of the country. I have little desire to hike out West, although maybe when my beard is getting gray, I'll go seek out the PCT.

Sheesh, I may be dead before I hike all the miles I want to hike! If only I could get paid to do this....

[Minerva]

Hey Sleep,
I've hiked some of those trails you mention, the LT(2x), ALT, TT and MSGT so if you need any help with planning let me know.
Cin

[mac]

First, I salute you for fighting for our country, and to help free those oppressed around the world. Too often I think we as Americans forget what a priviledge it is to take off and walk across the borders of 14 different territories within a Soveriegn whole freely. Second, after the AT honeymoon in 2004, I think my wife and I will pursue the hiker bum status. Our next major hike after AT will probably be the over comercialized Macchu Picchu (she's always wanted to go), or Mt. Kilimanjaro. Outside magazine put out a book called Trekking: The Twenty Greatest Treks in the World, and that is our life's goals. Sounds a bit grand when I type it, but we would both rather be wet, cold, tired, and hungry on a stretch of some little traveled backcountry, than well fed and warm and tied to a desk!

[Grimace]

Hiking the JMT thid year. Perhaps the PCT soon to come.

[chris]

After doing 450 miles on the AT last spring, I'm off to try the PCT. 2600+ miles and about 105 days to do it in. So, I may not finish, which really isn't super important any ways. I'd like to do the whole of the AT at some point, along with the CDT, and the Pacific Northwest trail. I occasionally have mad thoughts about a hike from Manning Park (BC) to somewhere around Skagway. Or, a trek/float following the Green River all the way to where it meets the Colorado, and then following the Colorado to the Sea of Cortez. Or, paddling the Yukon and MacKenzie rivers. Perhaps a multiseason hike from Gaspe to the Olympics via a modified version of the Sea-to-Sea "trail". A traverse of part of the western desert, from Mexico to Spokane, passing through the Mojave, Death Valley, Black Rock, and eastern Oregon would provide some laughs. Yeah, I'd say the possibilities are pretty endless. It is just a matter of what order to do things in.

[Haiku]

Hey Grimace, when are you planning on hiking the JMT? I'm planning on doing it the first two weeks of August this year.

Haiku.

[Grimace]

Hey Haiku,

We're planning the first two weeks of July.

[Redbeard]

Too many choices I think I'll go back to motorcycles and beer for awhile.