so i'm moving to europe in about 6 months, and i'm tossing around the idea of going on a long hike as a way to spend the time before my move. would appreciate any stories or advice about long hikes (the app trail thread was too old to be brought back). I also wouldn't mind getting one or two companions, but i know this is unlikely since it's a 6 month hike, but if you are interested let me know.

5/14/2007 8:21:22 AM

what will you be doing in europe?

5/14/2007 8:39:24 AM

well that's about as off-topic as we can get but......i'll be playing omaha, following around the european poker tour, traveling in general, working on a book, and just living life.

5/14/2007 8:42:42 AM

mtns to sea trail is pretty long, and goes through some beautiful country

5/14/2007 8:57:41 AM

i was planning on doing AT southbound, but where is that?

5/14/2007 10:04:07 AM

lets go to philmont

i want to go back soo bad

5/14/2007 10:06:42 AM

planning on doing the whole trail? The northern most part is in Baxter State Park @ Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

5/14/2007 10:07:37 AM

yea i am, i know i would start in maine first week of july, i'd rather go northbound, but i missed the start date by like 2 months so i'll just start up there i guess. i'm planning on doing the whole trail, but i mean i'd be fine with just starting and seeing how far i get, i mean if i decide that i should stop after i get done with vermont or whatever then i think that would be fine, but i have a feeling that once i'm out there i'm gonna want to push on to the end.

5/14/2007 11:39:24 AM

starting in july? The southern appalachians might be rough in November/December. I've never done any sizeable section of the trail, but I hear it's pretty easy to meet/hike with random people along the way.

5/14/2007 11:51:39 AM

I second the philmont proposal.

5/14/2007 2:50:54 PM

i'm meeting a friend tomorrow evening and we're starting the Foothills Trail Wednesday morning. hiking from Oconee to Table Rock. ~76 miles. shooting to finish up Sunday. tried to get a good balance between weight and comfort. here's my poncho tarp and bug bivy setup in the yard.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FXLWT1yypjgD7ZSm8

3/25/2019 10:23:27 PM

theres some tough fuggin sections on that trail, Good Luck!!!

3/26/2019 6:53:35 AM

Hasn't been too bad. Camping at lighthouse rock tonight. In the lap of luxury with LTE service up here. Easy 5 miles back to table rock state park tomorrow morning. Been a fun hike.

3/30/2019 4:34:36 PM

Here's tonight's setup

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KwzH1DrpeSiKrEXT8

3/30/2019 5:01:03 PM

hope you find more wood

3/30/2019 6:21:14 PM

There's plenty more. This spot is a tinderbox.

3/30/2019 7:24:53 PM

I finished in about 96 hours. Awesome trail. Saw cool stuff. Met cool folks.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ngpRpt4rknatCRx18

[Edited on March 31, 2019 at 10:08 AM. Reason : Bf]

3/31/2019 10:06:00 AM

Pics part 1: http://imgur.com/a/3FfnFF8
Pics part 2: http://imgur.com/a/8tjS4OA

4/1/2019 3:21:26 PM

Very cool! How'd you manage car pick up/drop off?

I'm hoping to do another section hike on the AT this fall and that's always the most frustrating part.

4/2/2019 1:22:00 PM

There's a local guy who shuttles hikers as a volunteer. We tipped him. He was super helpful.

4/2/2019 4:11:11 PM

Hiked about 13 hours around Pisgah yesterday. Started at Sunburst, took Green Mountain south and got on the MST. Followed that east and then up the BRP and Graveyard Fields area. Cut back west on Bridges Camp Gap trail and forded the Big East Fork Pigeon River to Greasy Cove trail. Crossed Greasy Cove Prong and climbed up and found a nice site on that trail. Rode out a nasty storm there last night. Gonna head over to Ivestor Gap trail and take that to Fork Mountain trail and back to Sunburst.

6/22/2019 4:06:57 AM

Watch yo self tomorrow on Ivestor Gap. There’s like an 80% chance of Scattered T-storms tomorrow morning. Getting caught on one of those balds would be a nightmare.


That entire area that drains that ridge to the Pigeon River is easily one of my top favorite places in NC.

6/22/2019 3:53:05 PM

Can anyone recommend some decently supportive hiking shoes that have loads of ventilation.

By decently supportive I mean more than some of these ultra lightweight trail runners that let you feel every rock and pebble

6/22/2019 5:28:40 PM

^^the storm hit when i had a few hundred yards of trail and one final river crossing left down at Sunburst.

Fork Mountain trail is awesome. Had some great views and ridge walks that would be even better without all the foliage. Didn't see a single other person on that trail, either.

6/22/2019 9:53:29 PM

^^ That's a broad request. There are a ton of lightweight low- and mid-cut hiking boots out there, and pretty much any of the major brands should fit the bill.

Your best bet may be browsing at REI or play the order-a-lot-try-and-return game online somewhere.

6/24/2019 8:31:57 PM

Did the Art Loeb Trail this weekend. It was fun.

7/28/2019 2:55:17 PM

Did the Grand Loop around Linville Gorge this weekend. 2 nights. It was gnarly.

10/19/2019 5:43:55 PM

Did the Bartram Trail and then a section of the Appalachian Trail to get me back to my truck over 7 days. Total was about 145 miles. Camped 2 nights, then 1 night in a cheap motel, then 3 nights camping. Dealt with rain, sleet, and snow one morning and then temps down around 15 deg F the next night. It was fun of some sort.

Pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/STsHEkxTM3GbgUhu9

11/17/2019 11:54:24 AM

any bears?

11/18/2019 11:00:47 AM

20 miles a day? Well done!

What size tarp do you use?

I also like to find survey marks when I hike:
https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/datasheets/

11/18/2019 11:45:56 AM

No bears. Saw some bear hunters.

Tarp is 7'x9' DCF flat tarp.

11/18/2019 2:02:08 PM

Started planning for a thru hike of the Benton MacKaye Trail in October. About 285 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Davenport Gap at the north end of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Got 16 days to get it done. Should be interesting.

5/14/2020 9:33:37 PM

Did 6 days of hiking last week. Two back-to-back 3 day/2 night trips separated by a night in a hotel.

First 3 days were the Georgia Death Loop. Start at Vogel State Park, take Coosa Backcountry Trail to Duncan Ridge Trail to Benton Mackaye to the AT, back to Duncan Ridge Trail, back to Coosa Backcountry trail, back to Vogel. Pretty good loop with a good bit of elevation gain. I didn't see very many folks except on the AT, and even that wasn't bad since I was on it on a Monday and Tuesday. Saw a bear cub coming up Blood Mountain just before the DRT junction. It was only about 20 ft away when I saw it and it ran up a tree and started crying for mama. I backed down the trail and gave it some space while I made some noise to make sure the mama knew where I was. I never did see its mama. The cub went up the mountain and I heard some more guys making noise. They said they hadn't seen the mama either. I jumped on the DRT and noped on out of there.

Pics: [https://photos.app.goo.gl/5G1bJALRwzmjyYuq8](https://photos.app.goo.gl/5G1bJALRwzmjyYuq8)

After spending a night in Murphy, NC, I did 3 days just wandering around with no real agenda in Joyce Kilmer - Slickrock Wilderness and Citico Creek Wilderness. I parked at Beech Gap on the TN/NC state line on the Cherohala Skyway. Went to the Hangover, down Deep Creek, and back up the Haoe Lead Trail and camped at Naked Ground. Came within one step of a huge timber rattlesnake that was laying right on the edge of the trail kinda hid behind a cut log and a clump of grass. Slipped, fell, and broke a GG LT5 on my way down from Naked Ground. Went down Slickrock Creek, took a dip at Wildcat Falls, and then followed what used to be a trail up Little Slickrock Creek to Farr Gap and then went up and camped at Big Fodderstack. On the third day, I went down Pine Ridge and back up South Fork Citico Creek, ending with a very steep climb back up to the ridge and up to Beech Gap. Over the 3 days, I saw 3 trail maintainers on trail headed out for a week and hauling some massive loads, one dude in a Jeep coming down the FS road when I was at Farr Gap, a bunch of RV campers with horses and a couple fishermen at another trailhead/campground, and then a family of 3 headed in for an overnighter when I was about a mile from being back to the car. Pretty excellent place to go if you want some solitude and don't mind some overgrown trails.

Pics: [https://photos.app.goo.gl/PXcx5MTDepReufPc6](https://photos.app.goo.gl/PXcx5MTDepReufPc6)

7/6/2020 1:27:00 PM

walking up on those snakes would have made me crap myself. Did you have to go around them or just pass them by?

7/6/2020 4:56:40 PM

The small ones, you could just step over or around. But that huge timber rattler that was sitting right on the trail? I gently coaxed him off the trail with a 6 ft long stick. He rattled as he slithered off.

7/6/2020 8:09:34 PM

Great pics thanks for sharing them

7/6/2020 10:28:12 PM

Nice!

I did a hike this past weekend with a 3200 ft elevation gain over 1.5 miles. I can still feel my quads.

7/7/2020 8:31:12 PM

that's really steep. i think my average over the 6 days was about 5k ft of climbing per day.

7/7/2020 9:28:05 PM

Definitely steep, but it was also the entirety of the hike (1.5 mi, 3200 ft up, 1.5 3200 ft down). The views were fantastic though






[Edited on July 9, 2020 at 8:24 PM. Reason : so big (twss)]

7/9/2020 8:22:20 PM

Where is that magical place?

7/10/2020 9:22:43 AM

Snoqualmie Mountain, WA

The first picture faces south. The highway is I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass; The Summit ski area and Keechelus Lake are toward the east. You can also see the top of Rainier about 1/3 from the right near where the blue sky runs out.

The other pictures look north across a valley with the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River.

7/10/2020 12:15:00 PM

I hiked the AT Approach Trail from Amicalola Falls State Park up to Springer Mountain and then followed the Benton Mackaye Trail to its northern terminus at the north end of Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a total of about 300 miles over 15.5 days. It was a lot of ground to cover in that amount of time and I had a few minor challenges with logistics and weather, but overall it was an awesome experience.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/m5P4aCQz5hVPBASR7

[Edited on November 9, 2020 at 11:34 AM. Reason : Dj]

11/9/2020 11:33:59 AM

^^ snoqualmie is an awesome day trip from seattle.

^ real talk, what'd you smell like by the end of that?

11/9/2020 1:44:30 PM

I washed up on day 6 at a bath house at one of my resupply points. I spent night 10 in a cabin at Tapoco Lodge, so I had a shower and was able to do laundry. Then there was 5 nights in the Smokies. I smelled pretty rough for most of the trip, but it was mainly in my hiking shirt. That's just part of backpacking.

That's one of the top 5 cliche questions. Aren't you afraid of bears? Do you carry a gun? What do you eat? Omg you went more than 24 hours without a shower? What about cold/rain/a slight breeze?

[Edited on November 10, 2020 at 10:16 AM. Reason : Dj]

11/10/2020 10:14:20 AM