However, the range of weight loss differs wildly from one person to another: The heaviest person in the study lost just under 70 pounds, while the lightest lost only 5. For a variety of reasons, women tend to lose about half as much weight as men. Some former thru-hikers have told me they lost no weight at all; one guy said he even gained a few pounds.
A lighter body means you can walk faster, longer. The same basic logic applies to your backpack, which leads hikers to jettison unnecessary items and invest in lighter gear. As my load lightened up and my legs grew stronger, my pace gradually increased from 10 miles per day up to 15 and then By the time I crossed over into Vermont, I was covering as many as 30 miles in a day.
In some sense, I have never been healthier than when I was hiking the AT. But it was a strange sort of fitness, because I was fit for only a single task: walking. One afternoon in Maine, a woman agreed to let my friend Hi-C and I stay at her lakeside hotel for a reduced rate, if we would agree to swim out into the lake and retrieve a floating trampoline that had come loose from its mooring. The task seemed easy enough — swim out, tow the trampoline over to the mooring a distance of about 10 yards , and reconnect it — but it just about killed us.
When we jumped into the lake, we both discovered that we could barely swim. Without any body fat, we had a hard time floating. Our arms felt weak. Almost an hour later, we emerged blue-lipped from the water, clutching ourselves and shivering electrically, the way year-olds do after a swim class. When I polled my hiker friends to ask about how the trail changed their bodies, nearly everyone reported some kind of injury or ailment: sore knees, rashes, abrasions, shin splints, broken bones, fractured joints.
Nimblewill Nomad, a legendary old thru-hiker who has been hiking more or less continuously since , has broken four ribs, his shinbone, and his ankle. He has even been struck by lightning. Naturally, most hiking injuries center around the feet , which bear the brunt of the impact. Blisters bubble up. Toenails blacken and fall off. Joints swell. During the course of my hike, my feet grew a half shoe size. In prolonged wet conditions, like the ones we experienced in — waterproof boots, as every thru-hiker learns, being a myth — the skin can also "macerate"; it grows pale and soft, then cracks or sloughs off, and can even become gangrenous.
Though it is rarely acknowledged as such, the experience of pain is one of the most memorable aspects of hiking the trail. Pain is horrible, there is no question; that is why we spend our whole lives avoiding it.
But the shadow of pain grows more menacing in its absence, and by shrinking away from it, we radically restrict the scope of our experience. A successful thru-hike demands you to get to know pain intimately, on a daily basis, and then to push through it.
The intricate machinery of my feet — the tarsals and phalanges, the cuboid and cuneiform bones, the ligaments and tendons and muscles and arteries and veins — ached for a month afterward. In the mornings, I would rise from my bed and hobble to the bathroom with cringing, nonagenarian steps. Overnight, I had gone from being a purebred walker to someone who could barely walk.
Dehydrated backpacking recipes are popular with thru-hikers, as they provide more calories while not being as expensive as shop-bought dehydrated meals. This includes gear, trail resupply, and town expenses. However, the amount of calories you burn hiking long-distance is huge, so make sure you buy and eat as much food as you need. There are 70 towns along the Appalachian Trail, but we recommend visiting only a handful. Town visits are very appealing after an extended period on the trail, offering luxurious comfortable beds, plumbing, and television.
However, the costs of visits can mount up, so save money by only visiting the best trail towns. Make sure you know some of the facts about hiking the A. One thing we would recommend you take on the Appalachian Trail is a paracord survival bracelet. Our favorite is the Savior Survival Gear Paracord Bracelet , which provides 12 feet of extra-hardy 7 strand lb paracord. Your equipment must be durable when hiking the Appalachian trail , so high-quality materials like stainless steel are a good choice.
This bracelet makes an excellent addition to any backpack, helping the trek across the backcountry to be just a little easier. For more information, read our whole review of the best paracord bracelets. If you want to learn more about the Appalachian Trail, check out the ATC website for some useful information.
We think that thru-hiking the A. It takes 5 million steps, an average of 16 miles per day on the Appalachian Trail, for 6 months, to complete the longest hiking-only trail in the world. Maybe you could challenge the current record holder- think you can do it in 45 days? You could choose to go the traditional northbound route, but risk crowding and damage to nature. Or, you could become a section hiker, and complete the trail in small chunks over a period of years.
Whatever you decide, just respect the trails that we are so lucky to have access to. Park rangers, along with thousands of volunteers, work tirelessly to keep the Appalachian Trail in top condition. Bonus tip: Check out this video on planning your first thru-hike! Wide-open views, crisp air and solitude make for a cool hike, but when winter hiking, being prepared is key. The adventure of a lifetime Thru-Hiking. Thru-hiking the A. A typical thru-hiker takes 5 to 7 months to hike the entire A.
After deciding when and where to begin and then registering your thru-hike, you will need to plan your resupply points and know the camping regulations along the A. Learn the camping regulations along the A. In addition to these logistics, physical and mental preparations become important factors in a successful thru-hike.
Learn more about all these subjects below. Voluntary thru-hiker registration The voluntary thru-hiker registration is a tool that helps prospective thru-hikers share their start dates with other thru-hikers and plan their itinerary in order to avoid the social and ecological impacts of overcrowding. Explore the Trail Interactive Map You can explore many locations along the trail including shelters, A.
Launch Map. Explore Maps and Guides Thru-hiking guide and planners, official A. Visit the Store. Where to Start Starting in Georgia Northbound Starting in Georgia has long been the most popular place to start a thru-hike. Starting somewhere in the middle of the Trail Flip Flop Increasingly, hikers are choosing to start somewhere in the middle of the Trail. Starting in Maine Southbound Starting a thru-hike in Maine is by far the most challenging way to tackle the Trail.
Are you planning a thru-hike of the AT? Beyond that, I recommend reading my article on how long it takes to hike the Appalachian Trail. This will then help you prepare for the next step: covering the costs. For more information on the financial aspect, check out my post on the costs of an AT thru-hike. How much does it cost to thru-hike the A. How long does it take to hike the AT? Distance in Miles. Distance in Kilometers. North Carolina.
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