Not psychic. Just have a great GPS satellite connection. Salty, you have something stuck in your teeth. Shrubs need a trimming too.
Not psychic. Just have a great GPS satellite connection. Salty, you have something stuck in your teeth. Shrubs need a trimming too.
You have to start a thread reviewing Dutch's Chameleon.
Interesting discussion here...
I'll be starting NOBO on Feb 20 willing to roll the dice a bit on the weather to avoid the bubble. I know that GA solitude is easy to find even in April but I'm not so keen about competing for hostel space and town services (although some won't be open early in season). I also know that local resident tolerance for the few "bad seeds" is finite and figure the seeds won't sprout 'till I'm up the trail. The past few years have also seen many new suppliers offering quality lightweight winter weather gear (though be it at high cost) extending the "comfort" season. I'm going into this after much thought and research and am equipped, financed, and prepared as well as I know how. I do most of my backpacking in winter and the challenge of of it appeals to me. I suspect many of my fellow Early Birds share these thoughts.
You’ll be good, man.
I started on the 12th last year and never really had an issue. A few of the early shelters were full but I found it led to interesting groups of people and good chats. Plus one of them always made a fire, which I’m always happy for
I actually liked camping near shelters; especially in the beginning when we were all new and nervous. I’d set my hammock up a short walk away then being my cooking stuff over to the shelter and chat while we took care of water and food and such.
Most of the partying took place in town, or from day hikers coming to a shelter for a night with booze.
Even then they usually offered me beer and asked questions about my thru.
The only real obnoxious times I had were at a hostel in Damascus, and Uncle Johnny’s in Erwin, where the party died down around 5am
reading the shelter logs on a section hike near the roller coaster complete with 40+ people in a campground in the bubble when the privy failed.
Convinced me that the bubble needed to be avoided if I ever through hike.
I met a number of people who started ftom Feb 15 to March 1 and they had it much better.
Neat to read about some of them on trail journals. ( Sweet Cherks and Piccolo for example).
if you go with the lone wolf "just walking" theory - then you need an early start for any kind of challenge
Umm, starting in Feb/early Feb at the AT southern terminus avoiding the bubble might be the least of your issues. That's what I believe the OP was getting at. One could avoid many aspects of the bubble and not have to start in Feb. That's been anal-yzed ad nauseam on WB. Starting in Feb entails a greater amount of very real winter LD backpacking.
You know, I used to think hiking the AT was a challenge. Then I had 2 kids, and now it's my vacation.
It's all good in the woods.
I completely agree. This puts added stress on hiker budgets and morale. By starting later in the season, the weather is significantly better and the days are longer because of more sunlight (which allows higher mileage days). I've been reading lots of horror stories at trailjournals.com in the past couple of weeks with the bad winter weather the southeast has been experiencing this year.
March has been relatively normal from what I’ve been watching. After all, The TN/NC border above 5,000’ more closely resembles New England than Knoxville or Charlotte. Unfortunately, about 99% of the population can’t grasp that reality.
Good luck to everyone out there. Be safe.
Wayne