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We were hoping to thru hike the Appalachian Trail (the AT) in 2004. Unfortunately, the floundering economy and lousy job market have forced us to reconsider the "wise-ness" of quitting our jobs right now. We are still considering a section-hike in the near future, but have become more interested in the PCT due to some unfortunate occurences on the AT during this year's thru-hiking season.
The Basics:
The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2,167 miles (this changes a little every year as the trail is routed away from roads and areas that have been overly used). The trail runs from Spinger Mountain, in Georgia, to Mt. Katahdin, in Maine. In 2002, 1,875 hikers signed the register at Springer, and 347 hikers completed the trail to sign the register at Mt. Katahdin. The average hiking rate is about 16 miles per day. The average thru-hiker burns about 4,000-6,000 calories a day. Normally this results in an approximately 20 pound weight loss, but since Vin and Gwen don't have that much extra weight on them, the calorie burn will instead result in carrying about 2 pounds of food for every day on the trail.
There are approximately 250 shelters on the trail (they average being 10 miles apart)--these generally are three walled structures that give the hikers a floor and roof. For most of the trail there is an opportunity to go into a town and resupply every 3-5 days. The longest stretch without a town stop is a section in Maine called the "hundred mile wilderness". For southbounders, this is the very beginning of their hike, and as they are probably not yet in great shape, it can take them a week or more to complete (and is thus made harder by the large amounts of food--more weight--that must be carried). For northbounders, this is the last part of the trail. They are usually in good enough shape to make in through in slightly less than a week, when they will enter Baxter State Park and climb Katahdin to finish their hike.
The Timeline:
Northbound hikers leave Springer anywhere from the beginning of March until the middle of May, with March 1 being a very popular start date. This date is important, because Hikers must reach Mt. Katahdin by October 15th. There is a commonly rumored myth that you cannot hike Katahdin after that date, but the real problem is that you are no longer allowed to camp in Baxter State Park after that day--this would result in a REALLY long hike. In addition, should Maine receive some early, heavy snow, the park rangers will close Mt. Katahdin to hiking. This may very well happen before October 15, but not necessarily. Southbound hikers leave Mt. Katahdin anywhere from June 1 to July 1. There is a smaller window here due to the winter. You want to start late enough for the snow to have melted so you can actually hike up Katahdin, but you have to remember that you will likely run into winter again at the end of your trip. It takes an average of about 6 months to finish the trail depending on how many "zero" (no hiking) days you take and how many miles you average in a day.
The Records:
The first person to ever thru hike the AT was Earl V. Shaffer. He accomplished this in 1948
The youngest person to thru hike was a 6-year old boy who hiked with his parents in 1980
"Grandma Gatewood" was the oldest female to thru hike the trail. She did this in 1955. She repeated her thru hike in 1957, and again in 1964 to become the first person to thru hike three times
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