Lets talk about the AT

“i dunno. I am just not that skillful.”

“Me, either, Creek Dancer. I have a talent for falling down awkwardly, usually right after I trip over my own two feet. That would probably be my first performance if I went hiking commando in a skirt. Freshette all the way for me.”

“some comments about money spent on long distance hiking: http://guthook.blogspot.com/2011/03/money-spent-on-long-distance-hikes.html”

“Yeah, ouch. That money spent thing is a big part of why I have to put this off to next year. I've seen several costing sheets on various thru-hiker blogs, and I will be happy if I manage this for $1.80 per mile. On top of that, I was really worried about buying gear. As it turns out, I've got all my main gear and haven't spent nearly as much as I feared. Really helped I got a good deal on a backpack and a friend is letting me use his Plasma bag for the winter portion.”

“some other thoughts on cheap hiking: http://sourcetosea.net/Articles/articles/thru-hiking-cheap.html”

“Well...I don't smoke (unless I am on fire, in which case someone please put me out) and I don't drink sodas. Coffee, though. I'm like a crack addict jonesing for the next hit first thing in the morning until I get that luscious first cup. There was one thing I am not sure I agree with. I'm going to have to research weather in March along the AT. I like cold weather hiking and camping and would choose it any day over summer hiking, but then I am in the deep south sauna here in summer.”

“well if you are that addicted you may want to consider taking caffeine pills (ex NoDoz) for use on the trail - lighter weight and faster to take in the morning - no need to fire up to stove

personally I got off of caffeine before hitting the trail and only had minor problems with drinking it in towns - first day out of town I sometimes needed an Excedrin for the caffeine withdraw headaches - Excedrin contains some caffeine so it was like tapering off to use it the first day out of town”

“Starbucks Via, the best trail coffee, when nothing but a hot cup of Joe will do.”

“Less people have hiked the whole Appalachian trail than have been executed in the United States.

/ I just read this somewhere.
// May or may not be true.”

“I'm too lazy to do the math precisely - but from these two tables I estimate 15,000 executions in the States (and colonies before that) since 1608. How many people have completed the AT?

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-united-states-1608-1976-state

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/number-executions-state-and-region-1976”

“There is no true official record of how many have completed the AT, so we will never know. Who cares, anyway? I don't get the comparison.”

“Hiking the AT is less deadly than living in the US?”

“well that's true enough - one is safer hiking the AT than driving to the trailhead”

“If someone isn't interested enough to post why not try to think about the answer. Estimates can tell us if the numbers are in the same basic ball park, or if one is likely to be orders of magnitude higher.

To me it seems like a plausible claim that fewer hiked the AT - but not if we compare the would mean counting at lest two centuries of executions to decades of thru hiking.”

“Ped - you are asking people to think - coming back to you - think about where you are”

“Maybe it just means you're more likely to be executed than thru-hike the AT, which is much more plausible.”

“I like what Hoi said.”

“I can't see giving up coffee to hike the AT.

This is what was meant by thru hiking ruining backpacking, imo. I enjoy the cup of coffee for psychological benefits beyond the caffeine. Backpacking is the art of making yourself comfortable in the woods. I'd take the coffee and spend less time in town. Theoretically, I've never hiked the AT. However, many successful thru-hikers weren't backpackers.”

“I agree that long distance hiking and backpacking have different goals and as a result have different needs for gear. LDH is mostly about making the maximum distance per day (with the minimum gear and minimum time spent in camp) where backpacking is more generally about enjoying your time outdoors with enough gear to make time spent in camp to be something to look forward to.”

“another way of putting it is in LDH you enjoy the endorphins and in backpacking you enjoy relaxation”

“When I thru'd I surely didn't do it for the endorphins. Frankly, there were a good number of days that I could'a used a big batch of endorphins, lol. And I (usually) didn't go for any maximum distance per day. On the 2 occasions where thru'ers blow out mileage, I passed up on the opportunity. The most obvious is the "doing a whole state in one day" bit, Maryland. I think it's like 39.5 miles or something like that, perhaps 29.5, it leaves me for the moment. But it's kinda a big thing, but there's some pretty sections of Maryland if you just blow thru like a whirlwind. (Perhaps at the time, I just didn't take to the idea.) Another time was being several days back from Trial Days, and I didn't haul asssteroids to get there, nor did I hitch a ride, but I did come in finally on that Tuesday night fer sum pizza and beeeer!!

For some reason some ppl made a goal of the Hundred Mile Wilderness in 3 days. I thought that insane, hell I'da rather taken 3 weeks than 3 days, but then I didn't have a wife and kids waiting on me either.

""""However, many successful thru-hikers weren't backpackers.”"""" <--- 1camper
In '92 I was literally flabbergasted by the number of ppl who had recently just read about thru-hiking the AT and just decided to DO IT! Some of them had money and nice gear, but most of this category were Army surplus kinda guys with cans of spam (no offense to you Spam!) or "thick" middle-aged gals looking for a thinner version of themselves heading toward a serious life change.

Hey 1camper, didn't you have a daughter thinking about thru'ing? What's her plan these days?”

“She just got into Va Tech tonite. we are still hold out some hope for William & Mary, but Tech has a better research facility for the science stuff that interest her. We hike together quite a bit...backpacking. I'm not sure I want to ruin that with a thru. To much like work, lol.”

“I think I have found my coffee solution if I can just find one somewhere to buy. I was watching some youtubes on thru hiking and the guy had what he referred to as a coffee filter spoon. Boiled down to an object much like a rectangular measuring spoon made so that you filled the spoon with coffee and snapped it closed. When closed, the top and bottom were some form of coffee filter material. You'd just heat your water and stir it with the ground coffee-filled spoon to get your fix. Said he got it at REI but didn't think they carried them any longer. If I can't find one, my next best idea was to make a cotton muslin bag for it.”

“have you considered chocolate covered expresso beans?”

“HOI: I think extensive taste testing will be required on that idea.”