Easy answer. Go SoBo. When you hit hot springs then decide if you want to be an AT completer or a thru hiker. I wouldn't stress either way.
Easy answer. Go SoBo. When you hit hot springs then decide if you want to be an AT completer or a thru hiker. I wouldn't stress either way.
enemy of unnecessary but innovative trail invention gadgetry
You clearly feel the need to be a thru-hiker -- as defined by the ATC -- and not "just" somebody who did the entire AT in two, completely separate journeys.
My simple question is, "Why? What difference does it make?"
Other than yourself, who's going to really CARE if you do the latter but not the former? Your friends? Your family? A bunch of strangers on the Internet?
My friends & family are almost in awe that I've completed 1450 miles of The Trail, despite my taking about twelve years to do so. NOBODY has said, "Doing it in small section hikes? You must be an inferior backpacker!"
I have no doubt but that SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE will communicate -- perhaps implicitly, perhaps explicitly -- the idea, "I'm a thru-hiker, and that makes my experience -- or even myself -- superior."
If you actually meet such a person, feel free to feel superior to her or him. After all, you're not a putz who cares about that fact.
People can say whatever they want but it doesn’t make it true. Amicalola is not the starting point of the AT, Max Epperson shelter is NOT the first shelter on the AT, and for all intents and purposes, Springer Mountain is the start of the southern terminus....because that’s where the southern terminus begins. One does not have to start at Amicalola to get on the AT.
Please don’t perpetuate this idea that one has to hike the approach trail in order to be a Thru hiker. That’s opinion, not fact.
Last edited by capehiker; 10-27-2017 at 11:01.
If it were me I'd probably start in Hot Springs...though it might be tempting to start at Fontana Dam and begin the hike with the Smokies and Max Patch. But I personally wouldn't worry about whether my hike was a thru hike or a section hike. The beginning and the end are really pretty arbitrary anyway. Its your journey, you decide where to begin and where to end.
Not to beat a dead horse, but Springer Mtn is the southern terminus and Baxter Peak is the northern terminus. Lots of things about the AT are subject to debate and opinion, but this one is not in question.
Do what you want. IF you are going hiking to try to impress other people by attaining some arbitrary "standard" or rule or title, you will be sadly disappointed because others really don't care.
Since we covered most of the options, were you attempting a thruhike previously? Care to share why you left the trail if you were?
"Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
Call for his whisky
He can call for his tea
Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan
Whiteblaze.net User Agreement.
My perspective:
we have walked springer mountain to harpers ferry in 2013 and Delewarewater gap to Monson in 2015. Both sections were fun and we enjoyed every minute. But for us we need the accomplishment of the springer to Kathadin in one year to be able to say we thru hiked the AT. We start on again on the 4 April 2018 for our thru hike. Perhaps then we can start dreaming of walking the other trials.
The At leaves you breathless and gives you stories to tell. Scatterlings of Africa on a long walk to freedom