[at-l] More suggestions for Year 2002 thru-hikers

[datto_atl@yahoo.com (Datto)]

*) Carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer with you and
use it frequently (like...after you read the shelter
register). Replenish the small hand sanitizer bottles
from the larger sanitizer bottle that you have in your
bounce box. Use the name brand stuff like Purell --
the off-brand hand sanitizers tend to have some kind
of perfumy smell to them.

*) Lighten up on the quantity of food you're eating
(and carrying) during the first few weeks of your
thru-hike. This is probably the biggest mistake
thru-hikers make in the beginning. Hauling all that
food up and down the mountain and not being able to
actually eat it. That raging appetite you hear about
thru-hikers having on the Trail doesn't usually occur
until the thru-hiker is at least past Hot Springs, NC
(for northbounders). Eating like a thru-hiker in the
beginning is more likely to make you sick and sluggish
than it is to satisfy an appetite.

*) Carry a no-see-um bug headnet in your backpack.
That is one item at a weight of about 2 ounces that
saved my sanity going through North Carolina, New
Jersey and Connecticut.

*) If you're one to flavor your water with powdered
drink mix, consider using sugar-free drink mix so the
bugs don't attack your water bottles. I drank
sugar-free Tang all the way up the AT. I'd rather
waste the opportunity for a few calories and not have
bugs all over my water bottle. 

*) If you decide to use maildrops, make sure you send
a maildrop to the top of Mt. Greylock rather than just
before you climb Mt. Greylock. That way, the mailman
hauls the maildrop up the mountain for you.

*) Plan to camp out in your tent at night -- say at
strategic locations -- one of the most enjoyable parts
of a thru-hike. Baring terrible weather...the top of
Standing Indian Mountain, the top of the bald just
north of NOC (Cheoah Bald? as I remember), the first
Silar Bald for northbounders, the field in front of
Old Orchard Shelter in Virginia at sunset to name a
few...

*) Do you wanna try a Bed & Breakfast type
accommodation once on your thru-hike (say...when
someone comes to visit you while you're thru-hiking)?
Try the Fox Hill Inn about 45-50 trail miles north of
Damascus, Virginia. Nice place, sits way up on a
mountaintop, Innkeepers are past thru-hikers. 

*) Oh God, don't go bringing someone from your home
town out to the Trail to hike with you. Geez, there is
no way they are going to be able to keep up when you
go up the steep side of a mountain with ease and they
have to stop every 30 feet to catch their breath or
keel over. Better to just plan to meet them in a town
someplace and do town time with them for a
couple/three days max rather than torturing them on
the AT. Pick a nice trailtown too...like Hot Springs,
NC, Damascus, VA, Harper's Ferry, WV or Bennington,
VT.

*) When you're on the Trail, don't get yourself all
worked up over the way some other thru-hiker is doing
their thru-hike. They are not your mirror. Worrying
about someone else's thru-hike is just more weight to
add to your own backpack that you don't need added.
Believe me, with the lack of water, the heat, the
bugs, the knee pains, the mental games, you'll have
plenty of challenges without having to concern
yourself with someone else's thru-hike.

*) Romance on the AT -- there is more of it than you
would imagine. Don't go fooling around inside the
shelter -- Geez, you're likely to give somebody
walking up an eyeful (and ah...you're not likely to
hear them walking up either). If you're going to have
romance on the AT, think about carrying a two person
tent or stay in motels a little more often. Of course,
there is that element of being discovered together in
the shelter that ads a little zing...

Datto


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
http://greetings.yahoo.com