This August the Appalachian Trail Conference is being hosted in Waterville, Maine. Although I live many, many hours away here in KY, I am planning on attending. I have already set time off from work and saving money for this awesome trip.
This will be a first for me-hiking in New England. I have seen plenty of YouTube videos and trail descriptions. My hiking has been 90% southern Appalachians. So, should be brand new geography and terrain. What can I expect? I have seen plenty of YouTube vids and trail descriptions. The first thing that jumps out at me is the rockiness of the terrain. For instance, the trails going to Mt Katahdin look to be almost exclusively hand over hand boulder scrambling. But the views from Katahdin and the other 4,000 and up mountains looks to be almost something that one would see out west. They look just fantastic.
Also, this will be the first time I've attended an ATC conference. A friend of mine went to the 2015 in VA, and had a blast. Seven days of hiking, or seminars/classes. Has anyone ever attended a conference? One of the hikes I really hope they include is Baxter. This will be a very rare chance for me to hike Katahdin, and I'm hoping that the ATC includes this in their itinerary. I'm not sure this will happen, as Baxter looks to be a long trek from Waterville, ME.