Tips

2. Some times there may be a long run of bad weather and stuff won't get dry. In that case, when you get to the shelter, get into dry clothes.  Wring out the wet clothes and put them on after, over the dry ones. Bake them dry with your body heat. Wear them to sleep in your bag if needed.

3. For a guide book my recommendation is The Thru-hikers Handbook. www.trailplace.com Tear the pages out one at a time. Keep todays page in a small zip lock bag someplace handy.  That way you will not have to take your pack off and leaf through a book every time you want to see how far it is to the next water/shelter/view etc. Each night you can mark the page as to where you stayed or make some other notes on it. Mail the used pages home to lighten you pack. The zip lock allows the page to be looked at even in the rain.

4.  Keep water handy.  If you want to make high mileage it is good to limit stops.  You want to drink all the time so either use a hydration system or hang a bottle from you pack where you can get it without stopping.

5. Keep snacks handy. I generally had a snack an hour (about).  I liked to have snacks I could let dissolve slowly in my mouth.  That way it is like eating for a longer time.  A little sack on your hip belt can work great or a pocket (beware of melting chocolate).  Each morning fill it with the snacks you plan to eat for the day.  This way you don't run into the danger of running out of snacks before your next resupply. Typical daily snacks for me are fun-size Milkyway bars, fun-size 100 Grand bars, Special Dark Hershey Nuggets, Nature Valley Granola Bars (2 per package, eat one, save the other.)

6. Keep your camera handy too.  If it is in your pack out of reach you won't want to stop and take off your pack.  If it rains put the camera in a zip lock. Bits are cheep, take lots of digital photos. Only print those you like or just leave them in digital format and view on your computer.

7. Resupply. Many folks pre pack all food at home and have it mailed ahead general delivery or to an outfitter or to a hostel.  The post office has limited hours so folks were pushing to get there in time or getting stuck in town for the weekend waiting for it to open.  My preferred method is to hitch into a town with a big supermarket and buy food with a credit card.  Then find a bench inside or outside the store and repackage everything.  Re-use zip locks. (I bought new zip lock bags once.) Frequently someone walking by would offer a ride back to the trail.  That was cool.  The pitfall here is that you wind up buying bigger quantities of some things like 10 hot chocolate packets when you only want 5 or enough Tang for a month.  You could carry the extra and save money but add weight.  I preferred to leave it in a hiker box or to give or trade it with other thruhikers while in town or give it to who ever gave me a ride back. The extra cost is probably no more than the cost of postage in the other mode. The other nice thing is that it is easy to alter menu and quantities.

8. Town stop frequency:  Initially I figured the fewer town stops the better.  The thought of endless hours trying to hitch in and out of town was daunting.  Therefore I started by carrying 8 days of food.  That's enough to slow you down.  I discovered hitching into town wasn't so hard or time consuming.  Most of the trip I went into town every 3 to 5 days.  Keep an eye out for towns right on the AT or really close.  Also look for big stores.

9.  Town nights:  It is not a bad idea to stay in town when you need to resupply but it does suck up time.  I could never get a good start after spending a night in town. I would stay up too late and get a late start.  I didn't sleep as well in town either.  I wound up avoiding staying in town as much as possible. The cost adds up too. For others it was all about the towns, not me.

10. Photos: Rite-Aid Pharmacies and WalMarts among other places have machines that will copy photos from a camera card to a CD-R.    The WalMart system changed the time/date stamp on each .JPG file to the time/date the CD was created.  The Rite-Aid system renamed all the files so that I lost the number sequence the camera creates.  It also created multiple folders for each 100 files.  Each folder used the same set of file names starting over with 1 each time. I was pretty unhappy with these things but I did get the pictures on CD.

11. Food Cost: I find food costs about $50 to $60 per week.  This of course depends on what you buy.  Freeze dried backpacking meals will cost more than off the shelf stuff from the supermarket (my preferred method.)

12. Town Cost: Lots of folks fall down here and go broke early.  I avoided staying in town as much as possible.  There are hostels in most trail towns and they are pretty cheap, usually $10 or $15.  Motels will be more but you can share a room with another thru hiker if you meet someone planning to stay in the same town you are.  Every time I stopped in town to resupply I would surely get a sub or pizza and some ice cream.  Ok, I craved ice cream.  If I couldn't find a pint of Ben & Jerry's I'd get a Klondike bar.  I also couldn't get past a DQ without a Blizzard.  So there's $10 or $15.  Use self control. All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) is a great idea just be sure not to eat more than you should or you may pay for it for the next few days on the trail in a messed up gut.

13. Trail Names: If you spend a number of days / nights with the same group of people, a trail name will probably pop up. Of course until you start signing registers with it and introducing yourself with it, it really isn't you. Some folks give them selves a trail name to avoid a name they might not like. I got through a whole month without a trail name because I seldom saw anyone more than once due to my pace. It took a while for me to figure this out. Then one night it just came to me.  I had been called the Voyageur guy at camp for the last 6 years.  Sure that was perfect. That was on my one month anniversary of starting the hike. I talked it over with Buick who had just gotten his name a week earlier. It fest right and that was that.

14. Safety on the Trail: Folks on the trail tend to look out for one and other.  There is a real sense of community out there. It is hard to explain. Frequently folks meet up on the trail and wind up hiking together for a long time or at least heading to the same shelters each night and the same town stops. That said, remember who you are and what makes you who you are.  There all sorts of folks out their with all sorts of values.  Most everyone will respect you for who you are but that doesn't mean there won't be won't be temptations to stray from your chosen path in life. I don't think anyone will try to talk you into anything if you say no. Like I said, There is a lot of respect out there.

15. How To Hike: Walk softly. Don't slam your feet down or stomp. That uses too much energy. Some one once told me, the earth is incredibly intelligent. It knows just how much to push back up on your feet to keep you from falling through the ground. trust it. I envision my body moving smoothly, just gliding over the trail rather than bobbing up and down with each step. After all lifting the weight of your body takes energy. what good is spending that energy if it is just going to come back down in the next step. This means when the trail is rocky, I look for rocks that help me move on at a constant grade rather than stepping up on and then down off each rock. Sometimes I consciously do not straighting a knee out as I step on a rock if that would lift me higher than needed for the next rock. I just sort of roll up onto the next rock. This is especially helpful when climbing steeply and a rock requires a high step. Taking 2 steps of less height is better that powering up one tall step.

Well, that's a start.  Hope it's helpful.  
Scott

Tips