Date: 2016-06-02
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: fog

Today has been a nice, relaxing day with Alison, doing some trail chores, making phone calls to my parents and children, and, of course, eating. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), tracing its origins to 1925, is a non-profit confederation of thirty-one local organizations whose goal is to preserve, manage and maintain the AT. The ATC coined the phrase "2,000 Miler" to bestow on those who have hiked every mile of the AT. To qualify as a 2,000 Miler, you may undertake the journey in one mammoth, continuous trip done in one hiking season -- a thru-hike -- or complete the entire trail over a series of years, one section at a time -- a section hike. Section hikers will spend one to multiple weeks on the trail each year, doing different sections. A complete section hike of the AT may take two years, ten years, or even twenty years, depending on the length of each year's sections that a hiker chooses to bite off. But, when every one of the 2,189 miles has been hiked, the section hiker qualifies as a 2,000 miler. Thru-hiking typically requires five to seven months of continuous hiking. There are three ways to thru-hike the AT: northbound, southbound, and flip-flop, a catch-all phrase comprising a number of alternative itineraries. A Northbounder, or NoBo, will start at Springer Mountain in Georgia, and walk continuously until finishing at Mount Katahdin in Maine. One would typically begin from March 1 to April 15, would encounter large crowds of hikers in Georgia and North Carolina, and would hike through cold weather and snow in the southern mountains. Some 85 percent of those attempting thru-hikes are NoBos. Southbounders, or SoBos, start at Katahdin and walk continuously to Springer Mountain, Georgia. Less than 10% of those attempting thru-hikes choose this option, given that you start among the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire, the most challenging terrain of the trail, before you've had a chance to develop your "trail legs" and endurance. Given the snowpack and weather in Maine, SoBos do not typically start until June or July, and will face the dreaded black fly season in Maine if they begin on the early end of that period. Finally, Flip-Floppers will hike continuously for five to seven months, but complete all the miles in a non-linear fashion. With the ATC actively encouraging alternative itineraries to try to smooth and spread out the impact of hikers on the AT, there are a number of flip-flop versions outlined on ATC's website, plus other alternative ways with inventive names such as "Wrap-around", "Cool Breeze" and "Leapfrog". In 2014, 5% of all thru-hike efforts were done as a flip-flop or some alternative itinerary. Generally, a hiker completing the AT as a flip-flopper will hike the first part of the trek in one direction, and then "flip flop" to another point on the trail and hike in the opposite direction.As I've mentioned before, I chose as my hike the "Late Start Flip-Flop". I began at Springer Mountain on April 22nd after the hiker bubble, am hiking northbound to Harper's Ferry (just shy of the trail's mid-point), will then jump up to Katahdin in mid-July, and finish my hike southbound back to Harper's Ferry sometime in October. This year, the ATC estimates that 3,000 hikers will attempt to thru-hike the AT. Attrition rates for thru-hikers are high and have remained steady in recent years: about 75% of those starting out to thru-hike will not complete their intended journeys. But that still means that about one quarter will accomplish their 2,189 mile goal, and I hope to be included in their ranks as a 2,000 miler.