Appalachian Trail

Bada0Bing

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Anyone have some cool experiences or advice to share?

Looks like my plans to hike the trail for a week in July with a group of guys just came to fruition.

I've always planned to do a thru hike someday after retirement. Looking forward to checking out a chunk of the trail.
 

Dback Jon

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Where will you be hiking?

I have hiked portions (day hikes only) in the Smokies (TN/NC), Shenandoahs (VA), and GA
 
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Where will you be hiking?

I have hiked portions (day hikes only) in the Smokies (TN/NC), Shenandoahs (VA), and GA

That is a great question! I'm at the mercy of the group, but i believe they mentioned Dahlonega. They previously hiked about 80 miles from the southern start, so this trip will be to continue their journey.

I've heard the GA portion has nice climbs. I hope!
 

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Anyone have some cool experiences or advice to share?

Looks like my plans to hike the trail for a week in July with a group of guys just came to fruition.

I've always planned to do a thru hike someday after retirement. Looking forward to checking out a chunk of the trail.
Man, that is so awesome. I don't have any advice but look forward to hearing the stories.
 

Dback Jon

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Bump - how was the hiking? Where all did you hike?
 
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Bump - how was the hiking? Where all did you hike?

Oh man...thanks for bumping! I totally forgot I started this thread!

The hike was even more amazing than I was expecting.


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My buddy and I flew into Atlanta and were picked up by 4 guys driving up from Florida. This was our starting point.

The first night we were setting up camp and a huge storm hit. 3 guys fled to the shelter for the night and 3 of us toughed it out in the rain. It was a nice welcome to the trail!


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This was the root system of a tree that fell over. Hard to tell from the photo, but it was enormous.


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I had no idea how beautiful the trail was. There were so many sections like this that were like tunnels through the green trees.


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Lots of fog in the mornings.



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Hard to see, but there was a big copperhead snake. Venomous.

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The shoes of people that gave up on their goal of hiking the entire trail :) We stayed at a hostel on the final night.



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The 3 of us that survived coming off the hike. 3 guys had to bail early. Various injuries or just being a wuss :) It was only 40 or so miles, but I think they were just out of shape. There was a lot of climbing in this section of the trail.

We saw a bear on day 3 up in a tree. When it saw us it shot down the tree and dashed into the woods. It was a cub, so we were very careful looking out for the mama after that.

We were supposed to fly to Maine and hike the 100 Mile Wilderness section this summer, but covid ruined that. Hopefully next year.
 
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I'm from Oregon, so it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to forest and greenness. I was pretty damn impressed. We hiked about 1/3 of the Georgia section and it was some of the greenest trails I've ever seen.

I can't wait to retire and hike the entire trail. That's gonna be one of the first things I do.
 

Hollywood

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I'm from Oregon, so it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to forest and greenness. I was pretty damn impressed. We hiked about 1/3 of the Georgia section and it was some of the greenest trails I've ever seen.

I can't wait to retire and hike the entire trail. That's gonna be one of the first things I do.
Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

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Had to cancel the 2020 hike, but we're back this year! Buying the plane tickets today. Gonna tackle some trail in North Carolina this year!

I can't wait to thru hike this bad boy when I retire.
 

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I live about 3 miles from the trail here in central PA. Nice pics!
 
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For the 2023 hike we jumped up to Maine and hiked the 100 mile wilderness.
 

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Bada0Bing

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This hike was insane! Day 2 almost killed us lol. We actually lost one from our group. He had to pause a day and hike back out. So much vert.

We did it in 7 days. The water crossings were so cool! Most of them had ropes for balance.

One night we stayed on the beach of a lake. I thought the tide might come in, but I was so tired I didn't care at the time lol.

I loved Maine and would love to come back to spend more time. Reminded me so much of where I grew up in Oregon, just much older.
 

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This hike was insane! Day 2 almost killed us lol. We actually lost one from our group. He had to pause a day and hike back out. So much vert.

We did it in 7 days. The water crossings were so cool! Most of them had ropes for balance.

One night we stayed on the beach of a lake. I thought the tide might come in, but I was so tired I didn't care at the time lol.

I loved Maine and would love to come back to spend more time. Reminded me so much of where I grew up in Oregon, just much older.


Amazing, great job!

100 miles in 7 days, that's about 14 miles a day or so. Would love to get up to that rate. My 2-3 day PCT hikes have only been about 11 miles a day and I am really dragging at the end.
 

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great job! that is no small feat and looks like some amazing wilderness. I have not been able to do any multi day hikes as of yet. I hope to do one soon out here in the Vegas area before it gets too cold. everything I have done is same day stuff. I haven't done much in the Appalachia, but I have hiked Grandfather mountain near Boone NC in the blue ridge. one of the most uniquely beautiful hikes I've ever done. absolutely beautiful green wilderness and you really understand why they call it blue ridge when you get those views.
 
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Bada0Bing

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Amazing, great job!

100 miles in 7 days, that's about 14 miles a day or so. Would love to get up to that rate. My 2-3 day PCT hikes have only been about 11 miles a day and I am really dragging at the end.

Thanks! Day 2 was a monster, 4000+ ft of vert and more than 9 hours moving. Below are my stats from Strava.

I want to hike the PCT trail one of these days after I retire.


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Bada0Bing

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great job! that is no small feat and looks like some amazing wilderness. I have not been able to do any multi day hikes as of yet. I hope to do one soon out here in the Vegas area before it gets too cold. everything I have done is same day stuff. I haven't done much in the Appalachia, but I have hiked Grandfather mountain near Boone NC in the blue ridge. one of the most uniquely beautiful hikes I've ever done. absolutely beautiful green wilderness and you really understand why they call it blue ridge when you get those views.
We made it into NC last time, but I can't remember the names of the mountains. Very beautiful area.

We're talking about hiking the smokey mountain section next summer. I think there's an ~80 mile section that's pretty challenging.
 

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