The Appalachian Trail is a ~2,200 mile trail that goes from Georgia to Maine. I plan on hiking the entire thing in one go, which is called a thru-hike. I'll start on March 29, 2022 and (hopefully) finish sometime before October 2022.

I'll be posting blog posts on this site as I go, for the following reasons:

• To keep my friends, family, and whoever else is reading this updated on my status and all the interesting/not-interesting things I'll be doing.
• A lot of previous thru-hikers said they regret not keeping a record of their thru-hike that they can look back on after they finish.

I won't have cell service all the time, so there will probably be a delay between me writing my posts and them being published.

Map

I made a map that charts out all of my updates with markers (the little green dots). You can zoom in and click on any of them to go to their corresponding blog post.

I made this map using React Simple Maps. Information on how I implemented it can be seen here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why though?

I don't really have a good answer besides that I read about it and thought it would be a fun and exciting challenge. I've always felt much more at peace when I'm in nature.

Additionally, the gap I have between graduating college and starting work is probably one of the best times in my life for me to attempt this. I would have to otherwise quit my job or beg for a six month leave of absence.

How long will this take you?

It's kinda hard to know exactly how many days it will take, as so many things could happen that would affect how many miles I do in a day. The typical range is 4-7 months. I have exactly 188 days (6 months and 4 days) from my start date to the first day of my job.

2,200 miles in 188 days puts me at roughly 12 miles a day without including rest days, which I'm fairly confident I can accomplish with my current level of physical conditioning, barring any significant incidents.

Are you going alone?

Technically, yeah, but there's about 3,000 other people that attempt to thru-hike the AT every year. My start date is in the "bubble" of hikers, so I'll rarely spend a day not seeing at least one person. If anything, it'll be too crowded at the beginning.

Where are you sleeping at night?

Most nights, in the tent I'm carrying (don't ask about how much it cost... DCF is an expensive material). The AT also has a bunch of shelters along the way, but they can get really crowded and I don't want rats running over my face when I sleep. I'll also be sleeping in hotels and hostels when I stop in town.

What about bears, snakes, and [insert dangerous creature here]?

The AT only has black bears, which are basically large racoons. They don't really approach humans, unless they're in a place where humans carelessly leave food around and the bears have associated us with delicious human food. I'll be fine as long as I have good situational awareness, store my food properly, and don't end up between a mama bear and her cub.

Most snakes are non-venomous and venomous snake bite hospitalizations are disproportionately young, drunk men (I wonder why!). I don't really drink all that much or often and I think my sense of self-preservation is good enough to where I won't do dumb shenanigans with snakes.

Realistically, what I'm most afraid of is getting Lyme disease from a tick. This risk can be largely mitigated by treating my clothes with permethrin and giving myself daily tick checks. You're only really at risk for getting Lyme disease if a tick is burrowed in you for more than 24 hours.

Other risks that I need to watch out for are overuse injuries, rolling my ankles, and contracting giardia or norovirus. I've been physically training to reduce the risk of the first two, and I'll be carrying a water filter for the last one.

How are you going to carry all your food with you?

While I do wish I have the leg strength to carry 2,200 miles worth of calories, I'll be stopping in towns every couple of days to resupply. Hikers resupply with a combination of buying food from grocery stores in town and shipping packages to these towns (thanks mom!).

Thru-hiker diets are notoriously full of processed and sugary foods (e.g. ramen and candy bars) due to the fact that we need to carry lightweight, shelf-stable foods on our backs. I'll try to eat lots of fruits and veggies when I stop in towns.

Have you thought about bringing ______?

Yes, very extensively.

What are the odds you'll actually finish this?

The rough stats are that only 25% of thru-hikers actually finish the AT. However, I think I've put in a lot of preparation towards my attempt so far.