[at-l] daughter hiking south on AT

[bennettk at wfu.edu (ken bennett)]

On 5/16/05 11:28 PM, "rjorgen141@aol.com" <rjorgen141@aol.com> wrote:

>  Is this folly or am I
> a over zealous Dad< or both. Any advice is welcome. Rich J


Mid-June is a fairly common start date for a SOBO hike. If she has, as you
say, a fair amount of hiking experience, she should be fine. While it is
true that a southbound hike is much less crowded than a northbound hike, she
won't really be alone on the trail much of the time.

There are several 'alternative' itineraries that might appeal to her. You
can view them on the ATC web site, but one that comes to mind is to start in
Harper's Ferry on June 1, and go north with the thru-hikers, then after
reaching Katahdin, get a shuttle back to HF and hike south to Springer. This
has the advantage of easing into the hike, with easier terrain, a lighter
pack (she can resupply much more frequently in Maryland and PA than in the
100-mile wilderness), and more hikers heading in the same direction.

But a SOBO hike starting in June is not folly, really.

Ken 

PS - remember that you asked this question in a forum full of hikers. So you
can expect a certain bias in our replies <grin>.