How long is appalachian trail

While the trail crosses roads and even through the downtowns of cities and towns, prepare for eventualities like getting lost or stuck in a snowstorm. Get ready for the long walk by taking practice hikes of increasing length carrying a loaded backpack. Select clothing you can layer for cool mornings and warm afternoons, but leave the cotton at home. It gets wet and heavy in inclement weather. Follow leave-no-trace practices on the trail. Think of the creature comforts of home, and discard any notion of carrying them on your hike.

Thru-hikers need shelter, water, food and a change of clothes. But "popular" has led to "crowded" between March 1 and April During this time, the southern end of the A. The "nobo" hiker typically encounters wintry conditions in March and parts of April and hot, humid conditions in summer. Katahdin provides a dramatic finale; hikers should plan to arrive before October Increasingly, hikers are choosing to start somewhere in the middle of the Trail.

Generally, these itineraries offer a gradual progression from easier to more difficult terrain and more frequent resupplies. You can also avoid crowded conditions on the Trail and sold-out services in trailside villages. A mid-Trail start also enables you to follow more favorable weather conditions and at the same time help conserve the Trail.

Starting a thru-hike in Maine is by far the most challenging way to tackle the Trail. Katahdin, the Trail's northern terminus, is regarded as the most difficult mountain on the entire A.

The route through Maine involves extensive climbing and scrambling over steep, rocky, root-covered and muddy terrain. A heavy pack is required due to the distance between resupply points.

Bear canisters are the food storage method that provides the most flexibility and surety for camping anywhere along the A. Whether you're pitching a tent in a designated campsite or you're dispersed camping, minimize your impacts and know the camping regulations on the A.

There are more than backcountry shelters located along the Trail for backpackers on a first-served basis. No fees or permits are required for day-hiking the A. The most predictable mistake thru-hikers make when they start is carrying too much stuff.

Put as much effort into determining what you don't need as what you do. There's no need to carry more than 3 to 6 days of food on most parts of the A. Thru-hikers have techniques for resupplying in towns along the way. Trail magic has charmed A. Trail magic just happens! Sure enough, over time, she seemed to grow incrementally calmer, and he more audacious.

Studies have shown that going for a nature walk reliably increases creative thinking. And indeed, each day as my legs warmed up, I found my brain would begin fizzing with ideas for stories that I wanted to write and questions I wanted to research.

There is a long tradition of writers — Wordsworth, Kierkegaard, Rimbaud, Woolf, Solnit, to name only a few — who found and find inspiration afoot.

However, I quickly discovered that, because I was spending 10 hours each day walking, I was left with almost no time or energy to write. I took to carrying a small notebook in my hip pocket, so I could jot down ideas on the hoof. Only that.

You are nobody. You have no history. You have no identity. You have no past. You have no future. You are only a body walking. Within the first week, I was surprised to discover that my sleeping patterns had also changed drastically.

Shortly after sunset, I would retire to my hammock and then read myself to sleep. Around 2 a. I learned to keep a book and a headlamp within easy reach, so I could resume reading until my mind grew groggy again. It was a wonderful state of mind in which to read — pleasantly quiet, slightly unreal, golden-lit. By the end of the first month, I started to have vivid, almost pornographic dreams about food — an obsession that would only intensify as the months wore on.

Studies have shown that on an average day, thru-hikers burn roughly 2, more calories than they eat. And thru-hikers, I can assure you, eat a lot.

On an average day, I would begin by eating a Pop-Tart before I even emerged from my sleeping bag, followed, once I was upright, by something more substantive, like a Clif Bar. Then, as I walked, I would keep three or four granola bars handy, which I would nibble continuously. Around 10, I would stop for a snack hefty handfuls of gorp say , then again for lunch around one half a log of summer sausage, a large chunk of sharp cheddar, and bagel chips — always bagel chips, never bagels, I quickly learned, because bagel chips are still tasty when they are reduced to crumbs, as everything in a backpack inevitably is.

Then there would be another snack at 4 a second large helping of gorp , one more when I dropped my pack for the day usually a candy bar, to reward myself and give me the energy to unpack my stuff and set up my hammock.

This matters more than you might think, because one strange side effect of "hiker hunger" is that you begin to acutely feel the quality of the nutrition you are putting into your body. One day in Virginia, having hitchhiked into the town of Marion to resupply, I stopped off at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. I had been looking forward to the meal for days, and, indeed, it did not disappoint. But when I returned to the trail, I could feel , on an almost-molecular level, the lack of vitamins and the superabundance of sugar and salt and oil and whatever else passing through my gut.

Bad fuel. I felt depleted rather than energized by it. Another afternoon, farther north, I bought a culinary monstrosity called a "giant whoopie pie" — a kind of dessert-burger, in which a blob of white frosting is sandwiched between two chocolate-cake buns — which gave me a blissful sugar high, followed by a crash so precipitous it plunged me into depression for the rest of the afternoon.

Despite what felt like constant and unrestrained noshing, over the course of my hike I lost 12 pounds. However, the range of weight loss differs wildly from one person to another: The heaviest person in the study lost just under 70 pounds, while the lightest lost only 5. For a variety of reasons, women tend to lose about half as much weight as men.

Some former thru-hikers have told me they lost no weight at all; one guy said he even gained a few pounds. A lighter body means you can walk faster, longer. The same basic logic applies to your backpack, which leads hikers to jettison unnecessary items and invest in lighter gear.

As my load lightened up and my legs grew stronger, my pace gradually increased from 10 miles per day up to 15 and then By the time I crossed over into Vermont, I was covering as many as 30 miles in a day. In some sense, I have never been healthier than when I was hiking the AT.