Backcountry trip planning shenandoah national park u. They are the first four installments in the path of survival series. Please feel free to share your favorite resources in. There are probably hundreds of books, websites, articles, and guides on how to backpack on this trail. Included is a quick glance at mileage between the most convenient and popular resupply options, and an easy way to print out package labels for mail drops of food, gear, maps and meds, etc. Mackayes idea detailed a grand trail that would connect a series of farms and wilderness workstudy camps for citydwellers along the appalachian mountains from the highest point in the north mt. I have broken down planning into five different categories, and there will be dedicated posts each month concentrating on one of the five categories that will get you on your way to hiking the 2,180mile trail.
Its time for two things at the ultimate appalachian trail the appalachian trail in your mailbox. Even after all of that research, there were countless mistakes i made. Since i love the appalachian trail, i put together a web page for the gaia gps website that includes the official atc gps data for the trail with some added goodies. However, for planning sake id rather plan a slow to moderate pace and take it all in. From our africa map printed in 1909, to our latest reference, adventure, or trail maps, national geographics unique, vast map archive is available to be licensed for print or digital products. Get started on the right path by dispensing with three common at myths. Given this deficiency in calories, hikers are known for their offtrail feasts in towns crossing the trail. Other expenses to consider when planning an appalachian trail budget is your initial cost of gear, travel to and from the trail, and athome costs. Ignore those who recommend an organizational jumpstart six or eight months in advance.
I provides a mile by mile account of all of the shelters, water sources, resupply points. I spent months researching every question i could think of before starting the sixmonth journey. This tool negates hours of effort in creating an accurate plan. Dec 03, 20 planning for an extended trek on the appalachian trail can be easy. What was cool about it is you could mark any startstop point with an x and it. Andy somers planning an appalachian trail thruhike so, you want to hike the appalachian trail. Awol on the appalachian trail is millers account of this thruhike from georgia to maine. I have broken down planning into five different categories, and there will be. Planning for an appalachian trail thru hike go backpacking. Responding to covid19 appalachian trail conservancy. Whiteblaze thru hike planning spreadsheet, 15 mile plan. Hiking the appalachian trail the complete guide for beginners in.
An overview of the trail and surroundings is avaialable in this big map 1. History of fmss national parks were given a one year deadline to enter their assets and conditions into fmss as one of the big 9, appa was. The appalachian trail and pacific crest trail are so well marked for the most part, that one could conceivably get by with following the trail markers. The ati should be a requirement for anyone planning to hike the at. This is the first of a series of articles that should allow you to prepare over the next five months. Hiking the appalachian trail is on many peoples wish list you might hope to hike from springer to damascus or complete the whole 2,190 miles of trail. Its an honorable goal, one that we here at the active times respect greatly. The appalachian trail is predominately hiked northbound by those beginning somewhere around the first day of spring. Gps download for the appalachian trail following my thruhike, i started working at an awesome company called gaia gps.
Thru hike planning spreadsheet, 15 mile plan if this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. Feb 19, 2017 i completed the marathon des sables in april 2016 and in 2017 i will be thru hiking the appalachian trail 2,190 miles in 100 days. The appalachian trail is accessible from hundreds of road trail heads strung from georgia to maine. Jul 22, 2010 the appalachian trail mate is the premiere tool for planning your next hiking adventure. The mailing labels are ideal for sending food, maps, guidebooks, gear, and bounce boxes to most locations along the trail.
Appalachian trail thruhike planner appalachian trail conservancy. Before embarking on an appalachian trail thruhike, set yourself up for success by engaging in some prehike training. According to the appalachian trail conservancy, out of the 1,500 to 2,000 hikers who try to thruhike the appalachian trail every year, only 200 to 300 hikers succeed. So far, in our special series on planning a thruhike, weve covered important categories from financial planning to gear lists in previous installments. Planning process 5 years in advance to get into the nps funding.
Of course, theres another trail reroute in va for 2015, so this will be a little off, but if youre a numberschartsexcel junkie its still a great way to plan your trips. Adjusting your plan, lengthing or shorting, is absolutely painless. Keep it simple dont let the length of the appalachian trail confuse things. Appalachian trail mileage chart a little wanderlust. This detailed guide will help you prepare, plan, and successfully complete the 2193mile.
They make the discovery of new routes and planning. Is there a long distance hike on the appalachian trail or other long trail in y. To help you better understand what it actually takes to conquer the at and everything else youll need. A firsttimers ultimate guide to the appalachian trail.
Effective immediately, the national park service is closing all overnight shelters 56 total and privies 75 total on land administered by the appalachian national scenic trail park office in the states of va 11 shelters, 12 privies, md 1 shelter, 2 privies, pa 8 shelters, 6 privies, nj 1 shelter, 1 privy, ny 5 shelters, 5 privies, ct 7 shelters, 16 privies, ma 1 shelter, 4 privies, and me 22 shelters, 29 privies. Oct 04, 2015 weve built a tool that combines a backpacking gear checklist and budgeting tool into a single excel worksheet that helps aspiring thru hikers create a realistic budget for an appalachian trail thruhike. Theres a lot of gear that you will want to think about taking on your trek, but one thing you definitely should pack is appalachian trail apps. Car trips along the appalachian trail in the northeast. It was a wildly ambitious plan to reorganize the economic geography of the. A simple planning model that can be used to help a trail club put together a local management plan consists of four steps. This class is designed to give the prospective appalachian trail hiker and backpacker a solid foundation for planning a. The appalachian trail thruhike planner is an essential reference for any hikers in the planning phase of a thruhike or longdistance sectionhike, based on. We suggest that you print a copy of your selected itinerary and bring it with you along with a topographic map. General maps and information concerning regional access can be found on the state and national park and forest sites below.
The appalachian trails history, just like its geographical coverage, is long and full of remarkable changes. Guthooks guide app iphoneandroid app for at, also excellent. Drop your pack and sun yourself on that warm slab of rock. The appalachian trail covers almost 2200 miles, passes through parts of 14 states and includes more than 90 miles of elevation change over its full course. After deciding when and where to begin and then registering your thruhike, you will need to plan your resupply points and know the camping regulations along. Of course, the trail is but one segment of a thruhike. Good preparation is often the key to whether they become part of the 2528 percent who make it. Start your thruhike out right with prehike training. Appalachian trail thruhike planner lauterborn, david on. Budgeting tool for planning appalachian trail thruhike. The same information gathering strategies used to plan for the pct were used to plan for a thru hike of the appalachian trail in less than one month. Planning an appalachian trail section hike section hikers. Sep 07, 2010 when planning an appalachian trail section hike, the first thing i do is to consult a ragged 2006 copy of the at thruhikers companion that i use to keep track of all of the miles ive hiked. The mailing labels page has a wealth of information for planning a thruhike or sectionhike of the appalachian trail.
Each year, more than 2,500 men, women and, occasionally, children set out to hike the more than 2,189 miles of the appalachian trail from georgia to maine or vice versa. Calculating where youll camp every night is an exercise in futility, and spending thousands of. Planning is a directed, logical process of organizing common efforts to achieve maximum results. The trail was conceived by benton mackaye, a forester who wrote his original plancalled an appalachian trail, a project in regional planning shortly after the death of his wife in 1921. We license our digital maps to other organizations to use in their products and publications. Training for the at so how does one train for the appalachian trail. Hiking the appalachian trail in this ultimate guide to the countrys favorite footpath, youll find our picks for the best hiking and camping, and a complete plan for thruhikers. Appalachian trail planner dynamically create an accurate hike plan.
Use the hiking style slider to adjust your plan to your style. Local management planning guide appalachian trail conservancy. Jun 16, 2016 gps download for the appalachian trail following my thruhike, i started working at an awesome company called gaia gps. The normal start time is a mere five months away, and youve got a million questions about how to do it. You can download the appalachian trail gpx or kml file to your desktop, or get a free gaia gps account and add it to your personal tracks list. See more ideas about appalachian trail, camping trips, trip planning. An average hiker on the at walks 15 miles a day up and down steep mountains day after day. Forest service, national parks, national forests, the. From a few days to a few months, whatever length trip you need, the tail mate can create it for you, quickly and easily.
Planning food and meals for a thruhike with a 4,000 calorie a day intake, appalachian trail thruhikers still lose on average 1020 pounds when all is said and done. Given this deficiency in calories, hikers are known for their off trail feasts in towns crossing the trail. Appalachian long distance hikers association at mailing. Appalachian trail mate publishers description the appalachian trail mate is the premiere tool for planning your next hiking adventure. It takes five to seven months to thruhike the trail while a section hike can take two or more months. Appalachian trail cafe forum actual hiking trip planning. A typical thru hike requires 46 months of continuous walking and 30 or 40 stops for resupply.
Planning an appalachian trail thruhike devising a budget written by andy somers on dec. I read a lot of interesting articles on this subject. The plan was derived by using the awol at guide plus input from other experienced hikers. Appalachian trail hike planning workshopfree and open to the public. I provides a mile by mile account of all of the shelters, water sources, resupply points and roads crossings on the trail in a liner fashion that i. Last year i found an excel spreadsheet that listed the mileage for all trailheads, towns, road crossings, shelters, campsites, water points you get the picture on the at. The links above are by no means an exhaustive list of the resources available for planning a thru hike of the appalachian andor pacific crest trails. Gpx and kml file formats can be used with most gps software and apps. Im going into this completely flexible with a give and take attitude. Forest service, the appalachian trail conservancy atc, and the a. Using your devices gps the postholer trails gps app will place you along your favorite trail using manual or tracking location features. Appalachian trail section hike planner for 2020 hiking.
The appalachian trail is accessible from hundreds of roadtrail heads strung from georgia to maine. You, too, can shorten time spent planning for a thru hike with the following strategies. Though physical preparation is important, im going to start this article with the mental prep you should consider because frankly, it is the most crucial to your success. Ever since hiking a few miles on the appalachian trail in 1995, i have become obsessed to hike from ga to me. The appalachian trail at hike planner is designed to help you dynamically create a realistic hiking plan. Gear can be expensive and is needed to keep you safe and relatively comfortable. Also included are several links at the bottom of the page for planning, gear manufacturers, at journals and videos. If you decide to go ahead with your hike, id suggest getting the data book, and the thruhikers companion from the appalachian trail conference. Appalachian trail conservancy local management planning. Topographic maps are available from any of the visitor centers or online from the shenandoah national park association or the potomac appalachian trail club patc. Appalachian long distance hikers association planning.
The appalachian trail is predominately hiked northbound by those. I only uploaded the southern half of the at from springer to harpers ferry hope to get it updated with the 2015 mileages all the way to katahdin soon. Remember, in order to follow the appalachian trail, youll be meandering through the states, so even though your initial road trip planning might indicate a 1200mile route, youll actually be driving an additional 200 miles on this road trip. In the latest version, thanks to the feedback from one of our users, weve also added a feature to calculate pack weight. Have you cut all your monthly bills to their minimum. Appalachian trail this page will be used to aid those who are planning a thruhike or. Let the team at rei teach you some basic resources and tips to get you started. Plus, meet a man who has made it his job to help at hikers. According to the appalachian trail conservancy, the proposal for the hiking trail was first presented in 1921, but the trail was not technically completed until 2014 when a final major stretch was formally acquired and received permanent protection. These publications will aid you in planning an itinerary and your mail drops mail drops are post offices along the way where you will receive mail and care packages from family and friends. Rei hiking the appalachian trail trip planning biltmore. Appalachian trail itinerary 2016 ill start out with this itinerary with the understanding that there will likely be many changes as the trip progresses. I completed the marathon des sables in april 2016 and in 2017 i will be thru hiking the appalachian trail 2,190 miles in 100 days.
Planning an appalachian trail section hike section. Guide everyone planning or hiking the trail carries pages from this book. The itinerary doesnt take into account rest days as i wont know i need. The appalachian trail is managed cooperatively by the landowning agencies, principally the national park service nps and the u. Oboz everything you need to know to plan a thruhike. Planning for an extended trek on the appalachian trail can be easy. This class is designed to give the prospective appalachian trail hiker and backpacker a solid foundation for planning a trip on the trail. The appalachian trail database is hosted by sophiaknows. The following trips itineraries are available as downloadable pdfs. If you are planning on or just thinking about hiking the appalachian trail, this book is for you.
Planning is crucial to a successful multiday hike, so be sure to check out the. But before you even think about investing in a pair of hiking boots, there are many, many factors to be considered. Just about anything pertaining to the appalachian trail can be found from this site. Appalachian trail is the allinone app for the appalachian national scenic trail. The appalachian trail conservancy originally, appalachian trail conference and the national park service oversee the entire length of the appalachian national scenic trail via memoranda of understanding with other public agencies through whose land the trail runs, including the u.
Complete track and way point data for the appalachian trail, pacific crest trail, continental divide trail, john muir trail, colorado trail and long trail is available from within the app at no extra cost. Thruhikers, day hikers, volunteers, friends and family, future hikers. In its original concept, the appalachian trail was more than a hiking path. Appalachian trail thruhikers companion when planning an appalachian trail section hike, the first thing i do is to consult a ragged 2006 copy of the at. Return to at trailquest home page my ebooks the passion killers, a dark wind of vengeance, blood beyond the abyss and the second layer of hell apocalyptic fiction are now available for download. He was one of the first graduates of harvards forestry program, and later took a job with. Browse the entire folder, or select state by state.
Hiking the appalachian trail the complete guide for. So, youve decided you want to hike the appalachian trail all 2,200 miles of it. Planning food and meals for a thruhike appalachian trail. Planning an appalachian trail thruhike is overwhelming. In 2003, software engineer david miller left his job, family, and friends to hike 2,172 miles of the appalachian trail. As far as how many days in a row, wed be flexible depending on whatever the plan for that section called for, but for planning sake lets say 5 days with day 1 and day 7 being a travel day. There comes a time in a persons life where they need get a little more introspective, step back away from that life for a short period of time and have theirselves a little adventure spiritual journey. When planning an appalachian trail section hike, the first thing i do is to consult a ragged 2006 copy of the at thruhikers companion that i use to keep track of all of the miles ive hiked. Appalachian national scenic trail resource management plan. Hikers who begin their journey in the best physical shape often.
The planning effort for the appalachian trail resource management plan began in 2001, when letters were sent to more than 300 key trail club volunteers and staff, agency representatives, appalachian trail conservancy and appalachian trail park office staff, and other interested parties. Listeners are treated to rich descriptions of the appalachian mountains, the isolation and reverie, the inspiration that fueled his quest, and the rewards of taking a less. General maps and information concerning regional access can be found on the. Appalachian trail design, construction, and maintenance. It is addressed to those who work on the appalachian trail4,500 volunteers putting in a total of more than 185,000 hours a yearbut is used by veteran and novice trailbuilders around the world because of the success of the appalachian trail system. Every step you take along the 2,100 miles of an appalachian trail thruhike comes with a lot of advance prep work.