Mid February-Early March thru hike

[Bryson]

My overall plan is to leave earlier to beat out the mass amount of people who will be arriving in March. As this is my first major hike outside of the military I figured I would give this website a try. I am looking for someone who would like to leave around that same time frame and just experience the first week or so together while we get used to the AT. I plan on leaving with or without someone but would feel more comfortable obviously starting with a familiar face.
I have read multiple books and articles about the AT experience but the information seems to be repeating its self at this point. If you were considering this time frame too please let me know and we can touch base. If not any extra infromation/tips would be greatly appreciated. I have been thinking of doing this trip forever and after saving a comfortable amount of money over the last year I finally told my job I will be leaving in february. Family and friends support me even though they think it is a bit crazy.
Thoughts/questions I might not have thought about would be awesome. Thanks

[swjohnsey]

You will save money and grief by leaving closer to the 1st of April. If you don't like crowds avoid shelters. Most of them will be gone after a month.

[Slo-go'en]

You'll not miss much of a crowd starting mid Feb to early March. March 1st is one of the most popular days to start. I don't know why, as what you will get is a lot of cold, wet, crappy and depressing weather for the next 6 to 8 weeks by starting that early.

[The Cleaner]

Seems to be more and more posts about leaving "early" to beat the crowds. Well FYI March is still winter in the high country down south and days will still be short, sometimes cold, windy and snowy. Cold rain is worse. For those with limited winter camping experience starting closer to April will save some nasty weather and increase one's chances of completing a thru attempt. If the massive crowds from this spring are repeated again, I'd spend my money to find some solitude somewhere out west.

[4eyedbuzzard]

The traditional departure dates for a thru-hike used to be April 1 to 15 or so. People started leaving earlier and earlier to "beat the rush", which then became the rush. What early starters often get is having to get off the trail and wait out winter weather in towns. Leaving April 1 leaves 180+ days to reach Katahdin by Sept 30 at a 12 mpd average pace - plenty of time. A Feb/Mar start means hiking in snow, ice, cold rain, packing winter gear, etc. Leaving later avoids much of that.

[George]

I did springer to HF starting mid Feb 2014 with a 10F setup that worked well - about a dozen started that weekend but I got ahead of them in the smokies and was alone till pearisburg - I felt it was a good compromise of start times - others I hiked with finished July 4 that year

[dbright]

I am starting Feb 29th. Taking it slow and get into town if the weather is really bad. I will be testing the cold weather set up this winter in Chicago and then determine what deg bag to take. I have been out in low 20 deg weather with a 30 deg bag but know that this will not work to start that early. You are welsome to start with me if you would like.

[Boots and Backpacks]

We left 12/30/14 and finished 7/9/15. One of the best choices we made was leaving early. We went for 33 days without seeing another person on the trail, and it was GREAT!

[WazoAZ]

Funny that nobody actually answered this guy but found it better to give their opinion on when he wants to start. I see this a lot here. A person asks a very straight forward question and only gets negative opinions rather than an answer to his question. HYOH.

[George]

Funny that nobody actually answered this guy but found it better to give their opinion on when he wants to start. I see this a lot here. A person asks a very straight forward question and only gets negative opinions rather than an answer to his question. HYOH.

maybe work on your reading comprehension of the OP - he pretty much asked for general comments

[George]

We left 12/30/14 and finished 7/9/15. One of the best choices we made was leaving early. We went for 33 days without seeing another person on the trail, and it was GREAT!

how many days did you spend off the trail, and how many of those would you attribute to the time of year/ start date?

[Redrowen]

Funny that nobody actually answered this guy but found it better to give their opinion on when he wants to start. I see this a lot here. A person asks a very straight forward question and only gets negative opinions rather than an answer to his question. HYOH.

Funny, I have yet to see a negative opinion. It's all about how you view world, some people we see negativity in everything.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Funny that nobody actually answered this guy but found it better to give their opinion on when he wants to start. I see this a lot here. A person asks a very straight forward question and only gets negative opinions rather than an answer to his question. HYOH.

maybe work on your reading comprehension of the OP - he pretty much asked for general comments

Yeah, the OP asked for thoughts/comments.

... If you were considering this time frame too please let me know and we can touch base. If not any extra infromation/tips would be greatly appreciated...Thoughts/questions I might not have thought about would be awesome. Thanks

[George]

I am starting Feb 29th. Taking it slow and get into town if the weather is really bad. I will be testing the cold weather set up this winter in Chicago and then determine what deg bag to take. I have been out in low 20 deg weather with a 30 deg bag but know that this will not work to start that early. You are welsome to start with me if you would like.

for end of Feb, a 10F setup would still be about right - another 10 days later for a 20F set up

[Slo-go'en]

Funny, I have yet to see a negative opinion. It's all about how you view world, some people we see negativity in everything.

Well, he did finish with:

Thoughts/questions I might not have thought about would be awesome. Thanks

Which sort of opened up the debate as to if that was actually a good time to start. Lots of negatives for starting too early, not much in the way of positives.

[WazoAZ]

OK, he did ask for comments; I stand corrected.

[George]

not much in the way of positives.

positives:
experience the trail in 3 seasons
variety of having the trail to yourself/ interacting with others during a through
less very hot weather
less bugs
very few crowded shelters
finish before BSP staff ramp up their attitude for the season

[Boots and Backpacks]

how many days did you spend off the trail, and how many of those would you attribute to the time of year/ start date?

We spent a total of 28 days off the trail. During February, more specifically 2/14-2/28 we were off the trail due to weather. However the weather was not bad enough to keep us from hiking, but where we were staying was the difficult part. We were up a .6 gravel road that we could travel down for about 7 days, and the roads getting back to the trail kept icing over at night. I think maybe 7 of those nights were truly times that we should not have been on trail. Several nights were around -12 to -17 at night, and that was without windshield. The rest of the time we were busy helping the person were staying with, and got caught up in that for a few days. The other days we were off the trail was to visit family, travel to other areas, several zero's, and to slackpack.

We hiked from Hot Springs to just north of Grayson Highlands before we were out of snow. I think that's around 350 miles, maybe? If we had to it again we'd still leave at the same time. Having the trail completely to yourself, and the shelters was something most thru-hikers won't experience. Blazing a trail through fresh snow was great as well. Starting early takes a certain kind of person, and isn't for everyone. You're going to carry more weight to help deal with the cold, and that sucks. There's an upside to carrying more weight early on though. You'll get stronger, and then be able to drop a lot of that weight once the cold is gone. We carried our cold weather gear until Harper's Ferry, and still had a couple cold nights after that.

[4eyedbuzzard]

positives:
experience the trail in 3 seasons
variety of having the trail to yourself/ interacting with others during a through
less very hot weather
less bugs
very few crowded shelters
finish before BSP staff ramp up their attitude for the season

We spent a total of 28 days off the trail. During February, more specifically 2/14-2/28 we were off the trail due to weather. However the weather was not bad enough to keep us from hiking, but where we were staying was the difficult part. We were up a .6 gravel road that we could travel down for about 7 days, and the roads getting back to the trail kept icing over at night. I think maybe 7 of those nights were truly times that we should not have been on trail. Several nights were around -12 to -17 at night, and that was without windshield. The rest of the time we were busy helping the person were staying with, and got caught up in that for a few days. The other days we were off the trail was to visit family, travel to other areas, several zero's, and to slackpack.

We hiked from Hot Springs to just north of Grayson Highlands before we were out of snow. I think that's around 350 miles, maybe? If we had to it again we'd still leave at the same time. Having the trail completely to yourself, and the shelters was something most thru-hikers won't experience. Blazing a trail through fresh snow was great as well. Starting early takes a certain kind of person, and isn't for everyone. You're going to carry more weight to help deal with the cold, and that sucks. There's an upside to carrying more weight early on though. You'll get stronger, and then be able to drop a lot of that weight once the cold is gone. We carried our cold weather gear until Harper's Ferry, and still had a couple cold nights after that.

I am intrigued by a couple of points regarding starting early:

Boots, can you comment on the following?

1)The trail conditions in northern MA, VT, and southern NH, being that you finished early July? Typically that would mean you hiked through at least part of mud season, and the trail in VT is often a mess up until late May, enough so that the Green Mountain Club and State of VT typically request that hikers stay off the trail until after Memorial Day.

2) George noted that an early start has the advantage of less bugs. While that would certainly hold true for the southern mountains, hiking in New England in May and June is at the height of black fly season. What was your experience like regarding black flies and what measures did you take to help survive hiking through the hatch? Very curious, as I have hiked in VT and NH that time of year, and sometimes they are so thick it's all you can do not to breathe them in. Even with long sleeves and a head net they were sometimes barely tolerable.

[squeezebox]

Sounds like the best way to get away from the crowd is to flip flop.