how many miles?!

[peakbagger]

I sectioned the trail but did do a 5 week stretch. My approach is to set a reasonable minimum daily mileage goal to a specific point and then would look at "stretch goals" in case the going was good and in the mood. Inevitably early in the hike, I would hit the minimum goals and as I got in shape I would hit the stretch goals. By having the minimum goal in mind, if I wanted to stop along the way to take a break I knew where I needed to be that night. Once you get the long daylight days up north, you reasonably can hike from 5am to 8PM if you pace yourself. The one thing I learned is stop once an hour for 5 minutes, it feels coutnerporductive in the morning but it makes a big difference later in the day

[BrianLe]

While I think that you do need to keep mileage progress in mind in any long distance backpacking, IMO it depends a lot on which trail you're hiking, in which direction, and when you start. If you start NOBO on the AT leaving towards the earlier side then I don't think you need to be really mileage driven. This is less true on the other trails if you hope to finish in the same year.

I agree with whoever it was that talked about "thousand mile sections", i.e., consider chunk-hiking rather than thru-hiking if you're concerned.
Another thing you can consider is flipping to knock out the part(s) that you fear might not be hikeable later in the year.

[Pony]

I did the trail in two sections. Springer to Damascus, and Damscus to Katahdin. On the GA-VA section I obsessed about mileage. The end result was I wasn't having fun and got off trail in Damascus. On the VA-ME section the only time I really obsessed about mileage was trying to get to a PO or other deadlines, meeting family mostly. Other than that I winged it. Some days I would get up intending to hike 20 miles and stopped at four or five. Other days I planned on eight and cranked out twenty. If you just keep moving you'll eventually get there. I enjoy hiking but hiking the AT isn't all about hiking for me. Lots of other things to do on and off the trail. A lot of people treat the AT like a job and I think many of them were annoyed that I did it differently. I must have been doing it all wrong. I woke up whenever I felt like it. Hiked til I felt like stopping. Took zeros whenever I felt like it. I went to town whenever I wanted even if I had just been there the day before. There is absolutely no right way to hike the trail and every hiker has a different experience. And if you have enough time, you absolutely do NOT have to obsess over miles.

Yeah, I know, I never thru hiked, but a 1,700 mile section is about as close as you can get. Not much difference.

[Skid.]

I wouldn't recommend it, but not carrying a map or guide would make it difficult to check mileage daily.

[mrmoose97]

I thru-hiked in 1997. I spent a lot of time in the months before starting planning my days. id plan 4 days between towns here and there etc.. but it wasn't meant to lay out each and everyday when i got to the trail, it was more of a mental exercise to hike the entire thing in my imagination. Once i hit the trail, the schedule i made out went out the door. I did looesely follow it but if i hit town early or a day or so late, it didnt matter. For example, when i got to Shenandoah National Park, due to injuries, i was 10 days behind my "schedule" but upon leaving the park, i was a few days ahead because i was feeling better got sick of the "green tunnel" real fast. I hiked into damascus the monday before traildays and left town the tuesday afterwards, taking 7 zero days.

I then went on to finish in 186 total days. I guess my point is the miles will come when they do (my longest day was 33 miles and my shortest hiking day was under 1 mile). I never felt rushed and just knew i would finish the whole thing in one shot.

Do your homework. plan it out but dont obsess over it. be ready for changes. And hike your own hike..

[hikerboy57]

I did the trail in two sections. Springer to Damascus, and Damscus to Katahdin. On the GA-VA section I obsessed about mileage. The end result was I wasn't having fun and got off trail in Damascus. On the VA-ME section the only time I really obsessed about mileage was trying to get to a PO or other deadlines, meeting family mostly. Other than that I winged it. Some days I would get up intending to hike 20 miles and stopped at four or five. Other days I planned on eight and cranked out twenty. If I like your attitudeyou just keep moving you'll eventually get there. I enjoy hiking but hiking the AT isn't all about hiking for me. Lots of other things to do on and off the trail. A lot of people treat the AT like a job and I think many of them were annoyed that I did it differently. I must have been doing it all wrong. I woke up whenever I felt like it. Hiked til I felt like stopping. Took zeros whenever I felt like it. I went to town whenever I wanted even if I had just been there the day before. There is absolutely no right way to hike the trail and every hiker has a different experience. And if you have enough time, you absolutely do NOT have to obsess over miles.

Yeah, I know, I never thru hiked, but a 1,700 mile section is about as close as you can get. Not much difference.

i like your attitude.id probably take the same approach.its the journey not the destination.

[Miner]

What I heard from a guy who quit a thru-hike and his reason why. "You can't thru-hike without carring about how many miles you hike each day; at least if your goal is to hike the entire trail. My problem is I'm too lazy. I only want to hike a couple of miles a day until I reach a nice place and then I want to just stay there awhile."