And a Map!
What is this trail that we will be hiking? The Appalachian Trail, AKA the AT!
We will be hiking NOBO, or northbound. Our intent is to hike the whole way going north to Katahdin in Baxter State Park in Maine. Being “older” hikers (yes, we will be 60 and 59 while hiking), we will keep track of where we are and how likely we will be to finish our trek before snow sets in a Mount Katahdin gets closed for the thru-hiking season.
What?! You mean you could hike all that way and be turned back before finishing?
You betcha!
What does that mean? Initially, it means nothing. However, by the time we reach the “halfway point”, Harpers Ferry, we will need to evaluate how we are covering the distance, and decide if we will keep heading north, or flip up to Katahdin and hike south.
That would be known as a Flip-flop. A flip-flop just means that at some point in your hike, you change hiking direction. I think there is even something known as a Leap-frog where the hiker skips up to a point farther north (if NOBO), hikes some, then comes back to finished what was skipped.
SOBO would be if we were hiking southbound from Katahdin. Those folks typically start around the beginning of June, depending on when ice and snow are melted enough to be safe ascending Katahdin to start.
And you know what? Those 2198.4 miles that make up the Appalachian Trail do not count the additional 5 miles you must hike down Katahdin to finish. Or start. Nor do the miles you will hike into town, out of town, to the grocery, side trails for vistas, views and water, etc., count toward your total. But who’s counting. Not me…not really. I don’t really want to hike extra miles just for sh*ts-and-giggles, but I DO want to enjoy the experience while out there. Who knows if I will ever make it back to a spot to see a vista, so I’d better make choices and see what I want to see in the moment.
The Appalachian Trail covers 14 states in the east of our great country. They are, in the order we will hike, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee (you hop back and forth between the two for a bit), Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
I’m going to attempt to post a very cool interactive map below.
Well, it didn’t. I’ll see what needs doing…
Lemme try again! It’s not interactive, but that’s okie dokie. Click on the arrow in the upper right corner of the map to see the whole thing.
It’s a very neat map that shifts the state shapes in order to sorta straighten out the trail line. I have a poster of this hanging up at our house, and another AT poster with the states showing their proper shapes. I have a fantasy of being able to post “where” we are along this poster in future, but it may be too fancy for my limited web skills while hiking.
We’ll also be hiking with two Garmin InReach minis. We have the ability to post those locations online, so we’ll see how to make that interface with this blog page.
I’m hoping you’ll also visit our other blog page, www.LittleBitNosy.com. If I figure out how to embed web addresses, I will. (FWIW-I used to create and maintain web sites in a past life using Dreamweaver. I loved it. It was easy-peasy. Using this awesome SquareSpace site to host these blogs is requiring a learning curve for me. I “know” these blogs “should” be able to do “things”. It’s a matter of figuring out this particular system. It might be easier if I didn’t know what I know…)
So what’s the “big deal” about time for our hike and where we will be?
Typically, the park service will “close” Katahdin around the middle of October. People hike Katahdin in the snow, I know, but I do not plan to be one of them. And the park service does not want us up there as through hikers, I guess. We want to finish our ascent of Katahdin well before the closure date.
Our hike will commence March 23 and will continue till we finish, hopefully by the end of September.
What’ll we do if we decide we are “not gonna make it”? We’ll flip up or skip up, then cover what we lack to finish out our hike.
Do hikers HAVE to finish a thru-hike in a set period of time?
Yes! In order to be considered a “thru-hike”, you complete the trail in one calendar year. What that means is that starting March 23, 2023, we have until March 22, 2024, to complete a “thru-hike”. If we finish after March 22, 2024, it is no longer technically a “thru-hike”. The year deadline is a sort of challenge. I’d call that a technicality, too, but no need to worry about that at this point. We haven’t even started, yet. We’d still get “credit” for hiking the whole thing; it just might not be seen as a “thru-hike” by some people. Whatever.
We are going to hike and hike and hike some more. We are going to have an adventure! Epic!