[at-l] Thru Hike Planning

[jeanpaulmiller at gmail.com (Jean-Paul Miller)]

i did not complete my hike i only did ~700 miles. (south bound)

> A-When did you start seriously planning for your Thru Hike?
about 1 year before but my planning was minimal. more reading about
and testing my gear.
 
> B-Did you use a printed Thru Hiker Workbook?  If not, what book(s)/website planner did you use, if any?
i read wingfoots book and used aldha book and databook
 
> C-What item/person/book/website was most helpful in planning your Thru Hike?
at-l and wingfoots list were all that I really found in 1999. i read
beyond backpacking. but did not really use much of it until later in
my hiking "Career"
 
> D-How many maildrops and why?
i used no mail drops i dislike that amount of pre-planning and did not
have a support crew at home i wanted to task to do such things.

>     1- Did you have too few or too many mail drops?
i wish i had one or two mail drops at times some of the local food was
getting iffy. but i saw all the other people getting the same food all
the time and was mostly happy with my decision. i was able to eat what
i wanted when i wanted it and never had the aaaa yuck MAC AND CHEESE
AGAIN!!!  however i think it lead to my hike costing too much.

>     2- How many times would it have been easier to use local stores rather than the local post office?
i had a magic ability of rolling into town after hours or on Sunday so
the post office would have almost always a pain for me.

>     3- How often did you have special items, like medicines, contacts, etc, sent to your mail drops?
Never...i had some stuff mailed to me once from home. but i forgot
what it was actually. it was in gorham NH i asked for it  and i picked
it up in glencliff.


> E-Did you buy health insurance coverage for your Thru?
>    If so, what was the name of the company and about how much did you pay?
>    Was it worth the money?
i did not buy health coverage i was on another persons as a rider. and
it was a cost saving thing for both of us so the numbers i have are
irrelevant.

> 
> F-Did you purchase new items, such as shoes or pack or tarp/tent for your Thru or did you use what you currently owned?
>    1- What did you purchase?  Would you make that purchase again?
i did buy a bivy and tarp which i used instead of a tent and loved it.
i also bought a lighter cook pot set. the rest of my gear revamps
happened on trail.

> 
> G-If you had it to do over again from scratch for the first time, how would your planning be different?
i would do a better longer shake down hike to work out the kinks in my
gear. gear that works for weekends don't work long distance. The
cotton hat i had to keep the sun off my neck. about 10 days in it was
molding.

> H-What's the best advice you can give a Thru Hiker in the early planning stages?
don't worry about it it will happen if you want it.

Wisperlight
-- 
Jean-Paul Miller