{"id":1,"date":"2023-02-18T02:10:38","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T02:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heathertreks.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2023-02-21T13:34:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T13:34:38","slug":"post-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/?p=1","title":{"rendered":"Appalachian Trail Facts and FAQs"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"1\" class=\"elementor elementor-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-222f627e elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"222f627e\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-3a67e0f3\" data-id=\"3a67e0f3\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b291364 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"b291364\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.11.1 - 15-02-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Welcome to my Appalachian Trail blog! For the first post I figured I would start by laying out some of the most common questions that I&#8217;ve been receiving ever since revealing to my friends and family that I&#8217;m going to be Thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2023. I don&#8217;t mind answering questions, so keep firing away! You never know when you&#8217;re going to hit me with something I haven&#8217;t thought of yet, and I&#8217;ll take all the help I can get.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Anyway, let&#8217;s start with an AT By-The-Numbers Summary:<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:list -->\n<ul><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li><strong>2,198.4 miles<\/strong> in length in 2023. The total length changes year to year due to minor reroutes.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>This distance takes approximately <strong>5 million steps <\/strong>to complete. Depending on how long your legs are.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li><strong>14 states<\/strong> traversed. Here they are in order from South to North: Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Thru-Hikers will climb over <strong>464,000 feet of elevation<\/strong> from Georgia to Maine, which is like <strong>climbing Mount Everest over 15 times<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li><strong>Over 165,000 2&#8243;-by-6&#8243; white blazes<\/strong> guide hikers along the precipitous route, and are painted on trees and rocks with a non-toxic white paint.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Thru-Hikers will go through an average of <strong>4 or 5 pairs of shoes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>More than <strong>10,000 people <\/strong>attempt to Thru-Hike the AT every year, and <strong>only about 25% of aspiring &#8220;2,000-Milers&#8221; actually make it<\/strong>. The top two reasons for leaving the trail are (1) schedule conflicts (travel visa expires, work requirements) and (2) financial issues.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>The Appalachian Trail stretches <strong>500 miles in Virginia<\/strong> alone, traverses <strong>101 miles in Shenandoah National Park<\/strong> (2019 photo below), and <strong>crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway 26 times<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\n<!-- \/wp:list --><!-- wp:image {\"id\":117,\"sizeSlug\":\"large\",\"linkDestination\":\"none\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" class=\"wp-image-117\" src=\"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_9682-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_9682-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_9682-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_9682-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_9682-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_9682-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMG_9682-850x567.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:image --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Here are some of the most common questions I get about Thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail:<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>How long will it take?<\/strong><br \/>The average time taken to Thru-Hike the AT is just shy of 6 months. I&#8217;m hoping to complete it in 5 or 6 months.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>How many miles will you hike a day?<\/strong><br \/>Daily mileage will vary widely depending on how quickly &#8220;trail legs&#8221; are developed, terrain, weather, or other environmental conditions. Most people take a &#8220;zero&#8221; (a day with no miles covered) or a &#8220;nero&#8221; (a day with near-zero miles covered) about once a week to rest, resupply and clean up in town, etc. In the beginning we&#8217;ll plan to cover roughly <strong>8 to 10 miles a day<\/strong> for the first week or two, and then eventually build up to <strong>20 or more miles <\/strong>per day. Hoping for an average of 15 miles per day!<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Where will you sleep?<\/strong><br \/>There are over 200 shelters along the Trail. Staying in shelters is free for Thru-Hikers and certainly preferable during driving rain or a thunderstorm. If a shelter is unavailable or full, there are tent campsites available as well. Aside from the overnights slept in town for a &#8220;nero&#8221; or &#8220;zero&#8221; day, there will be plenty of roughing it!<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>What will you eat?<\/strong><br \/>The short answer is, whatever I can get my hands on! Thru-Hikers will need between 4,000 and 5,000 calories a day to fuel the continuous climbs and descents each day. The Thru-Hiker is an omnivore, and consideration is given to salty snacks, fats, sugar\/carbs, protein, carry weight, availability, and other factors. It&#8217;s impossible to fully replace all of the nutrients that are burned for fuel, so Thru-Hikers tend to get both lean (read: insanely muscular) and creative when it comes to dietary choices. (I read a Thru-Hiking &#8220;recipe&#8221; that involved wrapping TWO Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies and some peanut butter in a whole grain tortilla wrap&#8230;.sounds like a dream come true!). Other staples include instant rice meals, macaroni and cheese, instant mashed potatoes, and other fare that can be either boiled over a hiking stove or eaten uncooked. While I&#8217;m certainly not above a &#8220;Little Debbie Wrap&#8221; and other instant delights, I&#8217;m also hoping to get a little bit of variety in my diet! I&#8217;ve already packed about some dehydrated meals for breakfast and dinner with plenty of dehydrated fruits and veggies to keep some semblance of a balanced diet. And yes, we&#8217;ll need to hang a bear bag every night. More on my AT food in a later post!<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>How heavy is your backpack?<\/strong><br \/>A Thru-Hiker&#8217;s &#8220;base weight&#8221; is the weight of their backpack and gear without food or water. My base weight will be about 15 pounds, which is a little heavier than the 10-pound threshold for &#8220;ultralight&#8221; backpacking. Most Thru-Hikers have a base weight of 10 to 25 pounds.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>How many changes of clothes do you bring?<\/strong><br \/>Technically, none! Most people who bring extra clothes end up chucking them shortly into the hike because they add burdensome weight and take up precious space in a pack. I&#8217;ll be carrying all the clothes I might need while hiking&#8211;wool base layers, pants and shirt, fleece jacket, puffy coat, and rain layers&#8211;and clean clothes to sleep in. That&#8217;s it!<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to believe that in a few short weeks the journey will begin. I&#8217;m sure there will be many more questions that pop up along the way. I&#8217;m looking forward to asking and answering them all!<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Thanks for stopping by!<br \/>Heather<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to my Appalachian Trail blog! For the first post I figured I would start by laying out some of the most common questions that I&#8217;ve been receiving ever since&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heathertreks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}