[at-l] doing AT without a partner

[Arthur Gaudet]

I was hiking in '07 from late May to June 20, going South from Hot Springs, NC.
Hardly anyone was going south at that time, but I met hikers every day who were
going north. No one thought they were going to get to Maine, some just wanted to
see how far they could go, do a section, etc. --RockDancer

  _____  

From: at-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:at-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On
Behalf Of Ken Bennett
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:57 PM
To: tanya petrova
Cc: at-l at backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [at-l] doing AT without a partner




 Here's my predicament: my friend will not be able to hike with me. So i'll be
doing it alone. I am familiar and fine with lack of comfort, physical
exhaustion, dehydration, and other attractions of the trail, but the one thing I
am seriously afraid of is being alone during the night. So, what should I do?
How does one find a partner? 
 I plan on going South to North. The earliest I can start would be in the second
half of May, and by that time all thruhikers will have left Georgia far behind.
Any advice (other than start in Maine)? Does anybody ever start this late from
Georgia?


Tanya,

There are plenty of people on the Trail in the south during May and June. Sure,
the through-hikers are mostly gone, but you'll find plenty of college students
and others. While you still might have a shelter to yourself occasionally, for
the most part you won't be alone. 

Your other option is to start in Damascus and hike North. Then you'll be in the
middle of the thru-hiker group. May is a fine time to hike in Virginia.

Or, as you point out, start in Maine in early June.

Happy trails.

--Ken

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://patsy.hack.net/pipermail/at-l/attachments/20080207/900f0a38/attachment.html