The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply The AT, is a marked hiking trail in the eastern United States, extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Katahdin in Maine. Along the way, the trail passes through the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. It is approximately 2,175 miles (3,500 km, for those Canadians who need a conversion) long. Throughout its length, the AT is marked by 2-by-6-inch (5-by-15-cm) white paint blazes. Side trails to shelters, viewpoints and parking areas use similarly-shaped blue blazes. The trail has more than 200 shelters and camp sites available for hikers. The shelters, sometimes called lean-tos, huts or adirondack shelters, are generally open, three-walled structures with a wooden floor, although some shelters are much more complex in structure. Shelters are usually spaced a day's hike or less apart, most often near a water source. They generally have spaces for tent sites in the vicinity. Its terrain ranges from flat woodland paths to near-vertical rock scrambles that challenge the fittest wilderness trekker; it can lead hikers from busy small-town streets to high mountain ridges where they won’t cross a road for days. The number of miles that can be traveled daily varies greatly depending on the terrain and the condition of the hiker. I anticipate starting slowly doing roughly 10 miles a day and then work my mileage up from there. However there are some places where regardless of the fitness of the backpacker, progress will be slow. There is a place in Maine where two glaciers used to come together and now leave a crevice a mile long that is filled with boulders that have to be maneuvered around to pass; this mile alone takes several hours. One of the mountains that have to be climbed has the highest wind speed ever recorded 231mph (372 km/h). Although it is generally not that fast, it does have hurricane strength winds the majority of the days of the year. The overall elevation gain is equivalent to hiking Mount Everest 13 times.
Each year, many prospective thru-hikers, those planning to hike the entire trail, start only to quit at the first town twenty miles up the trail. Up to 10 percent quit in the first week, but approximately 25 percent make it the whole way. The trail is much more frequently hiked South to North. There is about a one month window when most northbounders (those going from Georgia to Maine) start their thru-hike typically March or April and finish between 5 and 7 months later. The reasoning behind this is that starting too early will be too cold in the South and starting too late will make it too cold at the finish in the North. I will be doing a Northbound trip and will leave near the end of March or beginning of April.
Part of hiker subculture includes making entries in logbooks at trail shelters, signed using trail names. Trail names are another name used on the trail that is typically a result of something in a persons personality that comes out on the trail. I do not yet have a trail name, but will be sure to post it on my blog once I do.
