Hiking the AT

i wish i'd done it after id gotten out of the srvc, i was actually training and preparing for it when i blew out a knee, well twice, so thats pretty well sidelined the whole hiking thing
if i ever hit the whole mid life crisis thing i'll probabally be out there,
i still long to do it, but now thats about 20 yrs away
 
I will still hike Yosemite. But not like I used to. When I was younger I would pack days on a 50# pack. Point also. Loved to set the pace as did the guys I hiked with. Today I am older and climb enough and pack in enough to call it enough. Then I climb a tree and get the job done. So I guess the trees are my hike now a days after I hike to get to most of them. Yosemite is fun, but I only day hike there now-a-days.
 
I hiked a small part of the AT and had a blast. I have a whole bunch of pictures on my old computer that I need to get sometime. I was right on the Tennessee-NC border. That experience really made me understand how awesome that area is.
 
Back before I left the SE for good, I hiked all of the AT in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and some selected segments in Virginia. Not on a through hike basis, just collecting segments over the years I was in high school and college. Alot of Georgia and N. Carolina I have done more times than I can remember.

Lordy, that was a long time ago...wonder how it's changed in the last 35-40 years?
 
....earth bound misfits.

I sense a song there somewhere............

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I did 5 days with an ex girlfriend.

Bears are really out there, we stayed in this chainlink log cabin type lodge.

It was cool, we cooked bacon and beans to try and lure the bears in.

We also camped rogue a few nights, just sleeping in a puddle off the trail somewhere. It rained the entire time.

Still fun, I saw a red wolf maybe, pretty big for a fox.

And a black bear.
 
I have done sections here in GA - i am about 30 miles from SPringer Mountain the start of the trail. Also only 14 miles from two of the highest mountains in Georgia, Blood and Brasstown Bald. The trail goes up and over Blood. FUNNY at the Summit, some 3600 foot up there is a FLUSH toilet.

THe Spring starters are hitting the trail now and there are a greater number of though hikers here now. so they finish in Maine in October.

enjoy
 
The first pic is from around the North Carolina Tennessee boarder near Roan Mt.
Second is In Vogel St Park Georgia
Third is called Mcafee Knob

THE Vogel photo - that looks like it is on the Bear Hair Trial or the Herbert reese heading up the back side of Blood. HA HA my area
 
I didn't realize the trail was about 2175 miles long.
 

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I've hiked several sections but no way would it be worth the time to do days' worth. maybe when i retire....:laugh:
 
I've always thought it would be cool to hike it thru. I 've done some real beautiful sections in Maine.

This past summer, a guy tried to run it in record time in 47 days, but he didn't get the record due to injuries delaying him.
 
In many places the AT will combine with other trails ... way back I used to spend alot of time in Harriman State park where it goes through with either the Sloatsburg or Sufern Bear Mt. trails , more recently I have done the section in Vermont between Straton Arlington and Woodford Hollow where it runs with the Long Trail (locals call it the AT/LT) It's been years ....
 
In my younger days I'd fantasized about hiking the AT, but never got around to it.

Looking back, I view my lack of initiative as the "good sense" part of my brain. I get bored too easily, and though I spend a lot of time tramping around in the woods, after a few hours everything starts looking the same and the hike soon becomes monotonous and tiresome.

One of the funniest books I've ever read was Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, wherein the author regales the reader with his comically failed attempt to complete the hike from Georgia to Maine. I remember vividly his description of many of the ponderous hikers he encountered slogging down the trail, deadened eyes locked on the trail ahead, with the singular intent of merely getting the whole maddening ordeal over with as soon as possible.

Not for me. As much as I like to commune with nature, I have my limits.
 
Bill Bryson's 'Walk in the Woods' is an absolutely hilarious read - especially the bits with his friend Katz.

Pink floyds 'learning to fly' totally rocks - 'tounge tied and twisted, just an earth bound misfit...' :)
 
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