Originally Posted by
honu
I'm planning to thru-hike the AT next year (2006) and am playing around with possible itineraries. Right now I'm leaning towards starting at Harpers Ferry in early May and hiking north to Katahdin. Various reasons -- convenience (my brother lives near DC), easy terrain to start, follow the weather north, minimize crowds.
Then I'll do the southern half of the trail in late summer, early fall. What I'm trying to decide is whether it would be better to start the southern half at Harpers Ferry and go south or start at Springer and go north. Any comments?