My brother and I have lived close to the AT all our lives, and always planned to do a thru hike. Our current plan is to begin in late February or early March of next year, because I start graduate school in the third week of August. That gives us about 5 and a half months to complete it. We're both in fairly good shape and my brother does have some backpacking experience, so my question is: is this a reasonable enough goal? If we were to take a few less zero days and pick up the mileage, would we be able to finish by August without being thoroughly miserable? Also, if we're starting that early, I'm guessing we'd need two sets of some gear, for warm and cold weather. Is that correct?
Thanks!