From: daf@inmet.camb.inmet.com (Tony Flanders)
Subject: Re: Hiking the AT N->S
Organization: Intermetrics Inc, Cambridge MA
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 15:13:01 GMT

In article <LWVANELS.92Aug30014050@fionavar.mit.edu> lwvanels@MIT.EDU writes:

> I'm interested in hiking the Appalachian trail in the next couple of years,
> and I'm finally getting to the point where I'd like to make up some tenative
> schedules.  I'd like to do it from N->S, but it seems most people do it in
> the other direction- I'm wondering what sort of problems or pleasant
> surprises I'd run into by going against the flow.

I haven't hiked the AT end to end, but I have hiked big chunks of it, and I
have spent a lot of time on the trail with through-hikers.

What kind of experience you will have depends largely on when you start,
and how fast you plan to hike.  The basic reason for hiking south to north
is that the southern Appalachians are lovely both in spring and in fall,
whereas in northern New England "spring" (locally known as "mud season")
is the most difficult time of year for hiking.  The black flies come out
in force before the snow is gone in the high country, and only a dedicated
masochist could have a good time in the Maine woods during black-fly season.
Here are my guesses about the conditions in Maine at various dates:

    early May -- Very difficult.  You will have to battle bureaucracy to
	climb Katahdin, you will spend a lot of time in deep snow, and
	you will endure bug season in its entirety.
    early June -- Some snow, lots of mud, and hordes of biting insects.
    early July -- Thinkable.  Still lots of mosquitoes, but the black flies
	should be dead or dying.
    early August -- Good.
    early September -- Great.

The bottom line is that starting before June 1 is pretty much out of the
question, and starting before July 1 means that you will be pretty miserable
for the length of Maine.  Which would be a pity, since this is in many ways
the nicest part of the trail.  If you start much after September 1, you
will end up hiking through the heart of winter, which is a whole 'nother
subject entirely.

To hike the AT without having it degenerate into an endurance race, you
should figure on anywhere from 3 1/2 to 5 months.  If you start in the
north, you will perforce start later than most people, and therefore
have shorter days throughout, so you will probably tend towards the
higher end of this range.  This probably means that you end up in Georgia
some time in late October or early November, which are pretty nice times
to be there.

Through-hiking the AT is, above all, a social experience.  The scenery and
the wildlife and so on are all very important and interesting, but it is
the people you meet in the leantos who stick with you.  Hiking north to
south, you will miss out on most of the "scene" -- the people who get to
know each other over a period of weeks as they overtake and re-overtake,
and leave messages in the leanto registers, and all that.  Whether this is
good or bad, only you can decide.  Even without being part of the crowd,
you will still have plenty of opportunities to socialize, and observing
the scene from outside may be more fun than being part of it.  Plus, there
are sure to be some other north-to-south through hikers.

Anything else I can tell you?  What more is there to say?

    - Tony Flanders
	daf@inmet.com
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry