Date: 2016-12-04
To: A thru hike
Miles today: 0.0

I will elaborate on some common terms used by hikers over the next few entries. I mentioned yesterday that my intention is to thru hike the Appalachian Trail in 2018. What is a thru hike? A thru hike is walking the entire length of a trail usually in one 12 month period. The Appalachian Trail, or AT, is a nearly 2,200 mile trail that runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. The exact mileage of the AT changes slightly each year as re-routing projects are completed on the trail. There are many ways to thru hike the AT. The three most popular are northbound or NOBO from Georgia to Maine, southbound or SOBO from Maine to Georgia, and a hike that is becoming more popular, the flip-flop hike where you start at a point in the middle and walk to one of the ends, then go back to your original starting point and walk to the other end. NOBO is the most popular way to thru hike. As many as 75% of thru hikers are NOBO's. NOBO's may start as early as January in Georgia, but the bulk of NOBO's start in March or early April. Because of the long winter, SOBO's can't usually begin in Maine until early June.The total time an AT thru hike takes depends on the individual. Most AT thru hikers take 5 to 6 months to complete their hike. For most hikers, there is a shared tempo that is set by the spacing of shelters, camping areas and hostels along the trail. Shelters are usually about a day's hike apart, so groups of hikers that camp together one night, will tend to camp together the next night at the next shelter, even if they don't actually hike together. Hikers also take days off along the way, usually in a town. This is called a zero, because you accomplish zero miles that day. Often going into to town, or leaving town hikers record reduced mileage. A low mileage day is called a nero, because it's near zero miles.For my hike, I'm planning a NOBO hike starting probably in early February. The earlier you start, the worse the weather can be. There is actually some winter weather in the southern highlands. Temperatures at elevation can get to 20 degrees and lower at night. Snow is possible, sometimes quite heavy. Extreme cold, or a trail drifted over with snow might force me to hit pause on the hike for a few days. There are a couple of reasons I would like to start early. One is that it gives me more time to finish without having to do high mileage days and gives me a chance to take zeros when I feel like it. Another reason is that if I wait until the numbers of hikers leaving Georgia is at it's highest, I will be competing for resources with all the other hikers. That includes tent space at the shelters, hotel rooms in town, space at the hostels, and even rides to town. By the time hikers who started later catch up to me (and trust me, there will be plenty of 20 somethings who will catch up to me) the crowds will have thinned from people dropping out and the remaining people will be a little more spread out.If I can make good progress, I should be able to finish in mid to late July. Good progress is probably averaging 12 to 15 miles per day including zero and nero days.In future posts I will continue to go over background info on the AT, go over what gear I will be using, report on how my warm up hikes went.