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Re: [at-l] Basic questions
Hi Leah,
I'm a guy, so you might ask the same question of the women on this list.
But my feeling is that you can certainly hike alone on the AT, and a lot of
women do so. A novice can manage, if she prepares by reading a good how-to
book and isn't afraid to ask questions of other hikers. I'd suggest you
pick a time when the northbound thru-hikers are headed through the section
of trail you want to hike. They function as a pretty reliable "neighborhood
watch"--you can pretty much count on one being around if you get hurt,
they'll keept the creeps away, and you can learn a lot from them. I took my
first long AT hike in mid June, from Troutville to the James River in
central Virginia, at a time when thruhikers were coming through. They
helped a lot. That was a good section to learn on--hard enough to be
challenging, with some Wilderness areas to go through, but paralleling the
Blue Ridge Parkway most of the way so it was possible to get off the trail
in a hurry in an emergency. The bulk of northbound thruhikers go through
Northern Virginia and Maryland in early July.
When you're just starting, don't count on doing much better than one mile
per hour if you're carrying a full pack over a mountainous section. That
means you'll be able to go about ten miles a day. You could do better in
relatively smooth sections, like the Shenandoah National Park, or in
Maryland, but don't count on it.
Try a "mini-Maglite," available at most hiking stores. It takes two AA
batteries, and you should carry two extra batteries.
The main things to carry for a summer hike are a tent or tarp, in case you
can't make it to a shelter, a backpacking stove to cook on, fuel, a pot, a
lighter and/or matches, a map, a poncho or rain jacket, at least one warm
sweater, enough food (light stuff like noodles, tortillas, pop tarts, candy
bars--not heavy cans or liquid) to last you for the number of days you'll
be hiking, plus one. A light sleeping bag or fleece blanket for summer. TP
and a trowel. Carry plenty of water, and some way of purifying spring or
stream water.
Don't wear cotton! No jeans, no t-shirts, no socks, nuthin'. Go with nylon
and polyester and wool. Don't try to carry more than 1/4 of your body
weight. Weigh your pack.
A really good book for beginners is Karen Berger's BACKPACKING, which
covers all the basics and is up-to-date regarding gear.
--Rhymin' Worm
PS -- Here's what I carried on my thruhike (from something I posted last fall):
============= PASTE MESSAGE BELOW =================
I'm probably not your best gear info source, because I was pretty
stiff-necked about sticking with what I started with. Maybe you can learn
from my mistakes, though.
I had two sleeping bags, a 25-degree Mountain Hardware Two-Bit Bag, and a
50-degree (20-degree upgrade) Mountain Hardware Upgrade Bag, which could
also zip into the heavier bag and make it a 5-degree winter bag. Both were
synthetic, semi-rectangular, and extra long, so they were pretty heavy
individually, and VERY heavy when used together. I used the 25-degree bag
from Springer (April 1) to Troutville (mid-June). It was a very cold spring
until that time. I never had a problem being cold, even when the weather
dropped into the 20s in the Nantahalas, and it snowed. But I should say
that at the time I was overweight, and that gave me some additional
insulation. I found the same temperatures to "feel" much colder up in
Maine, when I'd lost weight and my bag had been washed several times. I
used the summer bag from Troutville to Glencliff (mid-September), and only
had one day when it was insufficient, in the first week of September when
the temperature dropped into the low 40s. From Monson to Katahdin I carried
both bags, zipped together. That said, I think the summer bag was overkill
for most of the summer. I usually found it too hot, and wished that, like
many of my fellow thruhikers, I'd gone with a fleece blanket or bag
instead. Those proved very satisfactory for July and August, when we were
grinding through Northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New
York, and Connecticut. They're light, and they're all most people need. If
I were to do it again, I'd get one and trade off between the three bags.
But I also found that the hikers who went with expensive down bags found
them to be more adaptable than the synthetic ones I was using. Most of them
went from down directly to fleece, without the intermediate step of a
summer bag.
My pack was consistently among the heaviest of the successful thru-hikers'
packs, so I'm not a good model. I'm also a big guy, so even after I'd lost
75 pounds of fat, I could still legitimately carry a 50-pound pack and say
that it wasn't more that 1/4 of my weight--a good excuse for carrying junk.
I didn't weigh the pack very exactly, though. My guess is that it was in
the low 60s at Springer, though I didn't weigh it till Hot Springs, after
I'd dumped a lot of gear. It was 55 pounds walking out of Hot Springs with
six days of food. In mid- summer, when a lot of my friends were hiking with
30 pound packs, I was still carrying about 45. With two days' supply of
food in Pinkham Notch, NH (White Mountains), I was at 54 pounds. My guess
is that it went back up to 60 or above at the beginning of the Wilderness,
when I had seven days' worth of food and the two bags.
Unfortunately, I've lost my starting gear list to a computer crash. Here's
what was in my pack when I got to Monson (not counting food). I never
weighed the items individually:
BED AND SHELTER
The 25-degree bag, a full-length Ridgerest, a 3/4 length ultralite
Thermarest (I carried both!), an emergency blanket that doubled as a ground
cloth, a Quest Starlight tent (about 5 pounds, with stakes).
KITCHEN
a Pur Hiker water filter, bottle Potable Aqua pills, MSR Dromedary bag,
two Nalgenes, MSR Whisperlite with windscreen and 22-oz bottle, aluminum
backpacking pot/pan set, insulated plastic cup, lexan spoon, two butane
lighters, pot scrubber.
CLOTHING
Hiking clothes: Silkweight Capeline shirt, Polartec 200 Fleece, REI
Switchback hooded Gore-Tex shell, polypro balaclava hat, fleece mittens,
nylon Patagonia brimmed hat, drawstring running shorts, capeline briefs,
coated nylon rainpants, gaiters, 3 pairs Smartwool socks, one pair sock
liners, one bandanna, Vasque Superhiker II boots.
Town/camp clothes: supplex nylon shirt and zip-leg pants, Tevas.
Sleeping clothes: polypro undershirt and Capeline longjohns.
BATHROOM
Pooper scooper (plastic), roll of toilet paper, toothbrush, tooth powder
(mint flavored baking soda), baggie of vitamin pills, baggie of Aleve,
half-dozen or so Bandaids, tube of Neosporin, alcohol pads, moist
towlettes, roll of gauze, decongestant pills, asthma inhaler, nasal
inhaler, bottle of Dr Bronners soap.
MISC
Mountainsmith Frostfire II Internal-frame backpack with Dana Dry Rib
accessory pouch, Gregory pack cover,food sack, medicine sack, miscellany
sack, mesh laundry bag/pillow, REI aluminum hiking poles, pack towel, Swiss
Army knife, two plastic trash bags, notebook, miniature New Testament,
Wingfoot's guide, Petzl Micro headlamp, spare set of batteries, Olympus XA
camera and flash, dental floss and needle for repairs, patches for tent,
two mechanical pencils, maps for Gorham > Monson, 60-foot parachute cord
and mini-stuff sack for bear-bagging, extra shoelaces, small roll duct
tape, small roll of tent tape, strip of velcro tape, nylon wallet with
credit cards and travelers checks.
Typical food for five days (near the end of the hike, when my weight was
way down and my appetite raging) would be:
Breakfast: one (four-pack) box Pop Tarts, 15 (3 per day) oatmeal packets,
bag of raisins to sweeten oatmeal, 10 coffee bags, 20 sugar packets, 10
Coffee Mate packets.
Lunch: bag of 10 flour tortillas, jar of peanut butter, 2-4 Ramen packs, 10
boullion cubes, bar of cheese.
Dinner: 10 macaroni and cheese dinners (2 @ night, re-bagged), instant
milk, pourable margerine, 5 cans tuna or chicken, cajun spice or cayenne
pepper, 10 bouillon cubes.
Sweets: 3 candy bars (or two bars and two granola bars) per day to eat
while hiking, one per day for lunch or dinner.
>L. Covel
>Silver Spring, MD
>email: lcovel10@juno.com
>Hi. I am brand new to the list, have never hiked the AT, but camp a lot
>and hike a lot. I would like to start hiking on the AT in sections this
>summer, mostly in MD and VA. A few questions: 1) anything I should
>carry I might not think of? 2) how many miles can I expect to make in
>6-8 hours, in good shape, etc.? 3)is it really a no-no to hike alone? I
>would prefer it ( i am a girl) 4)what kind of small flashlight would
>last the longest, for reading at night? 5)any other good advice? I am
>kind of intimidated by the level of expertise I hear on this list--can a
>novice, normal kind of day hiker do this? Thanks.
>
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