Time to start my blog and journal for my Appalachian Trail hike. I will start my hike in February or March of 2016. About a year from now. I am starting to prepare now. I am excited.
I received my book "Thru Hiker Companion - 2015". It is written by The Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association, ALDHA, and The Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Cambria actually ordered it for me from Amazon and it was shipped to her home. To get all of you questions answered about the trail The Appalachian Trail Conservancy seems to be the place to go. Their web page is appalachiantrail.org.
"Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion - 2015" has a strip chart of ever mile, all 2,185, showing elevation, post offices, towns, hotels. Here is the beginning and the end. You will have to zoom in to see.
Getting this companion is a good start. I still need to do a lot more research. I am studying back packs right now and hope to get it ordered next week. Starting this blog is start of the beginning.
While talking with Susan Horne it came up how far the trail was from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake City for the pioneers, and how did it compare to my hike. From Winter Quarters to Salt Lake City it is 1,032 miles. The Appalachian trail is 2,185 miles. I will walk twice the distance that the pioneers did.
More than 3 million people use the trail every year. Doesn't sound like I will get any of my desired alone time. Thousands of people start out to hike the entire trail in one year. Only 1 in 4 make it.
It takes most thru-hikers five to seven months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. The average is a week or two shy of six months. My goal is to hike 15 miles a day. If I meet that it will take me 145.7 days which is 8 days shy of 5 months. I will be happy to finish it in 6 months. If I start March 1st, I would finish the end of July, or August.
01-15-2015.
I down loaded the Blogsy app for my iPad. With this app I will be posting my blogs. Haven't started using it yet, but it looks pretty easy. Josh recommended it to me.
01-16-2015.
Here is a map of my hike. For an interactive map that shows location of shelters, vistas, shelters, pictures, etc. go to appalachiantrail.org and choose interactive map.
01-22-2015.
I joined the Appalachian Trail Long Distance Hikers Association, ALDHA, today. By doing so I got a digital copy of "Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion. Now I do not have to carry the hard copy. It is the source for resources along the trail like post offices, shelters, towns, hotels, etc.
01-23-2015.
Very excited! It is 4 in the morning and I just down loaded the demo section of the trail for my map app I am going to use, anyway pretty sure I am going to use. It is Guthook's AT Hiking Guide. It is great. They have it for apple and android. You can take a look at it, see below. It has GPS. I even asked it to give me directions from home. A Google map came up and gave the directions. It also has pictures you can pull up. I looked at a waterfall which is the largest in George the info. button said. The waterfall name is Amicalola Falls. It has a trail register where you can write and read what other hikers have said. You can load different types of maps from road to satellite, to USGS National Map, ect. With a touch of a button it shows the elevation you are climbing. The entire program references at what mile you are on the trail, from 0 to 2185 at the end.
Maybe the best thing is the app has an option to email my GPS coordinates to you. You will be able to find me on google map if you want.
So much for my excitement. Check it out at by down loading the free app on your iPhone or android. It is really neat. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/at-hiker-guthooks-guide/id605447532. This is for apple. Go to http://www.sierraattitude.com/appalachian-trail-at-hiker/ to get the android app. In the apple app there is only on app choice that comes up. I was a fraud I would have to pay for it. Don't worry. Go ahead and put in your ID. Then once in it gives you the option to get the free demo, or buy sections of the trail. Let me know what you think if you look at it.
I am checking out if the have a family sharing of the app. If so, you will be able to follow my trek and see what I am looking at. It could be like a post card from Papa:-).
Speaking of Papa, I probably need to get a trail name from my grand kids. From what I am reading it sounds like all of the thru hikers have a trail name. Won't be as good as Wolf, but could be fun. Papa comes to mind, but my kids will come up with something better. For example Guthook is the trail name of the author of the Guthook's AT hiking Guide. His real name is Ryan Linn.
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