Planning a Thru-Hike

I promised someone I would write a little bit about planning my hike. There are lots and lots of resources for someone planning an AT thru-hike. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has kind of a thru-hiker outline page on their website. They also sell a host of books about the trail, including the "Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike Planner". I also have the complete set of AT maps purchased from the ATC.

There are also a number of websites devoted to the Appalachian Trail and other long distance trails. Among these are WhiteBlaze, which hosts a number of forums about the AT, and TrailJournals, which hosts journals of hikers on the AT and other trails.

There are also three different "data books" to choose from for the AT. These books distill the most essential info from the guide books (which I own but will not be carrying) for the entire trail into a list of mileages between shelters, campsites, springs, and road crossings, and add info about the services available in the towns most often used for resupply by hikers. The one I am carrying is "Appalachian Pages".

Working from information I gleaned from these books and websites, I worked up a spreadsheet that has a tentative schedule that lists all of the town stops I expect to make in order to resupply with food and other consumables, with the number of days between stops based on a typically average thru-hike pace. Then I did my best to determine which of these stops provided adequate shopping to be able resupply locally, and which would require a mail drop from home. I have a total of 12 mail drops on my schedule, and at the appropriate time Jodi will send off a box with food, maps, and whatever else I might need.

This spreadsheet resides on a server that I can log into from any internet-connected computer, so I can access it and update the schedule as my real pace unfolds on the ground, and Jodi can access it to keep track of what and when she needs to send things to me.

What people might not think of is that a large part of the planning for a long-distance hike isn't about the hiking at all; it's about keeping the rest of your life running back home while you are not there for an extended period. Things like mortgage and car payments, license renewals, tax bills, health insurance premiums, and whatever else. This is all a lot easier for me because I have Jodi who will be still be at home keeping that part of our lives humming along. For single people or couples who hike together, this can be a huge part of their planning. I do all of my banking on-line already, and I've set up my credit card to be automatically paid every month from my checking account, so my plan is to have a set amount of money transferred to my checking account every month, then use my credit card and debit card to pay for things along the way.

As for keeping in touch with home and the rest of the outside world, I will be carrying my Treo smartphone and the same folding bluetooth keyboard I used last summer while Jodi and I were bicycle touring. I hope to keep up a more-or-less daily journal, although I do not expect to be able to actually upload entries daily.

So, I've created a plan. Planning is important, but only a fool would expect his or her plan for such a long undertaking to actually play out flawlessly, so I hope I am capable of being flexible enough to yield to reality as my hike unfolds.

Thirty days and counting!