easiest hiking questions

[OCDave]

I was! Don't drive hours and hours to hike some well know trail as a first 3-5 day adventure. There are too many awesome places close by and failure is a pretty high risk and a lot easier to deal with closer to home...

Perhaps the AT is closer to the friends with which the OP intends to hike? I am pretty confident the OP can find those who will discourage without logging on to the internet.

[nsherry61]

Perhaps the AT is closer to the friends with which the OP intends to hike? I am pretty confident the OP can find those who will discourage without logging on to the internet.

If the AT is close to the friends, then great! Go for it. The point is to maximize the likelihood of having a rewarding first experience, and I would not suggest that encouraging someone to explore arguably even more scenic and logistically much less complicated trails as discouraging. I suggest it is ENCOURAGING a potentially more rewarding experience. But hey, what makes sense to me and floats my boat surely isn't the best choice for everyone else. But still, considering alternative options is often worthwhile.